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• <br />Site SDT1277.1 is a 3000-foot-long segment of the historic Fire Mountain Canal. It <br />runs for 32 miles in [he North Fork Valley and serves farms and ranches throughout Wilson <br />Rockwell described the building of this canal in an unpublished manuscript entitled Delta <br />Countv: The Formative Years (n.d.), which was located at the Paonia Public Library. <br />"No development in the entve valley took more courage and stamina than the <br />digging of the Fire Mountain Canal, so named because it was cut across a mountain in <br />which vast quantities of hidden coal have been burning for thousands of years. <br />Notices were posted around Hotchkiss requesting all those who were <br />interested in obtaining more water for Rogers Mesa to meet at the Hurst schoolhouse, <br />where the present Community House now stands. This sparsely attended meeting was <br />the beginnirtg of the Fire Mountain Canal project. <br />It was constructed entirely by local people, who furnished both the capital and <br />labor. Contributions were made by businessmen in Hotchkiss in return for stock in <br />the ditch. The work was done by ranchmen who left their farms during the winter <br />days when work was slack to dig through the frozen ground. Wages were low, <br />payable primarily in ditch stock. At the company's annual meeting in 1897 the <br />secretary's report stated that of the 10,463 shares ofcapital stock that had been <br />issued, 9,620 shares were for labor. The workers averaged about twelve hours work <br />a day, even though at times the impoverished treasure was not always able to keep the <br />• canal diggers provided with full food rations. The contributions and assessments <br />were just sufficient to keep the plows sharpened, settle blacksmith bills for the teams, <br />and pay a minimum salary (Interview with Ed Duke, 1931). Not a stick of dynamite <br />was used in the entire length of the canal through formations of cement, shale, <br />boulders, and hillsides. Gigantic rocks had to be pried out by hand and rolled away <br />with teams. At one time the laborers numbered sixty men with teams, the line <br />reaching a mile in length. Ed Duke of Hotchkiss supervised the first four miles of <br />construction, riding back and forth among the workers on horseback. <br />Soil was first broken in September, 1896, and it took five strenuous years to <br />complete the Fire Mountain Canal. When Snished, it wound thirty-two miles along <br />the north side of the North Fork River, from which stream the canal's water supply <br />was taken about ten miles above Paonia. This big ditch carried water to Sunnyside, <br />Pitkin, and Rogers mesas, reclaiming nearly 10,000 acres of land a mile or so above <br />the level of the Farmers Ditch." <br />In 1939, under Presidential Approval, the F've Mountain Canal was enlarged to carry water <br />from the new Spring Creek Reservoir. During the reconstruction, the old wood flumes and <br />head gates were replaced, and the canal was widened and deepened to its present 18 feet <br />wide and 7 feet deep. The canal is still in use and is upgraded as necessary. <br />Evaluation and Manasement Recommendation <br />Despite its 1939 reconstruction, the site is field evaluated as eligible for nomination <br />to the NRHP under Criteria A in that it is associated with events that have made a significant <br />• contribution to the broad pattern of our history. The site will be avoided and no further work <br />is required. <br />