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• Ranchers utilized higher elevation azeas that were more difficult to irrigate (O'Rourke 1980:79, 86-8, 121-3). Water, or lack thereof, convolled cattle grazing, as well as other activities in the Delta-Gunnison counties region. Cattle, crops and orchards all needed water to survive and prosper. As more and more settlers arrived, the pressures on the available water supply grew, leading to the appropriation and development of many springs. In addition, canal.systems such as the Fire Mountain Cana] were constructed during the ] 890s to serve farms and ranches throughout the North Fork of the Gunnison Valley. These canals aze still maintain a water supply within the agricultural community, The presence of high country springs further defined the seasonal rotations of herds of livestock. By the 1890s, the habit of range rotation from summer to winter ranges constituted a well developed cycle for all of Colorado's Western Slope. Also, rangers continued to appropriate the flow of springs into the 20s' century (Husband 1984: 10-20). The native grasses of the area, and much of Colorado, proved highly nutritious for cattle and other livestock. At first Anglo-Americans, prejudiced by their heritage of lush green grasses of the East and Midwest, felt that the brown dry appeazance of the western grasses, including blue gramma, meant that the grass would not be adequate for forage. Quite by accident settlers • discovered that cattle could not only survive, but could gain weight and thrive on a diet of the - native forage (Steinel 1926: 109-110). From before the Civil Waz discoveries into the eazly 1870s both private and federal explorers examined the Western Slope. They looked for Travel routs and economic uses for the region. _ One of the most detailed inventories of west-cenval Colorado came after the Civil Waz as Americans re-focused their attentions on the West. Dwing the 1870s, Ferdinand V. Hayden conducted a series of explorations of Colorado for the Federal Government. Hayden's 1876 reports noted excellent pasturage on much of the Western Slope (Hayden 1878: 67-8, 352-3). A handful of cattlemen already knew of the grazing potential of the region. They encroached on the edges of the Ute Reservation for pasturage by the time that Hayden published his reports in 1878 (Goff and McCafiree 1967: 46). Cattlemen, aware of the azea's potential waited impatiently for the opening of the Ute Reservation, which finally cam in 1881. Cattlemen were among the first permanent settlers into much of the area when the government opened the Reservation for settlement. The United States cattle industry expanded rapidly after the Civil Waz. The boom period continued for slightly more than 20 years. The success stories from that period encouraged hundreds of individuals to take advantage of the vast, open spaces of the American West as a route to easy wealth. The arguments used by supporters of the cattle boom relied heavily on the economics of the industry. For example, a cow, orth about four dollars in Texas could be taken to another ranch, fed on the grasses of the unclaimed public domain for no chazge and then sold • after about three years for $40 to $50 at market. As long as America's demand for beef went 11