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Company's sawmill 13 miles up Cottonwood Creek. Work went slow because ofthe amountof cut and <br />fill, rock blasting, and trestle/flume construction needed to complete the canal. Worker dissatisfaction <br />caused many delays for a project that was dependent on community cooperation and effort. This was <br />overcome by contracting the ditch work to shareholders for credits (redeemed at the Company store) <br />or shares with the requirement that a given amount of ditch in a certain time frame be completed. By <br />1904, the first water reached the east side of First Park (used in preference to Tabeguache Park by <br />the local population) and lands which had been filed on by private individuals were cleared, tilled, and <br />irrigated. By 1910, the ditch had been extended to Second Park north of Tuttle Draw. In 1905, the <br />town of Pinon was moved essentially lock, stock, and barrel to the present site of the town of Nucla - <br />a name derived from the Latin word Nucleus. The ditch, an accomplishment for late 19th century <br />technology, has a fall of 4 feet per mile and is approximately 20 miles long. At one time, the <br />Cottonwood Creek trestle and flume was the highest and longest in the world, but has since been <br />replaced with a siphon. Though a store, dairy, sawmill, and laundry, along with the ditch were <br />Company businesses and cooperatively owned and operated, only the ditch remains a cooperatively <br />owned and run venture. <br />The land use and ownership patterns today are probably a reflection on the early days of the Colorado <br />Cooperative Company. Mercer (1967) states that individuals were permitted water rights on up tc 40 <br />acres for each share of stock, though it required several shares of water to adequately irrigate 40 <br />acres. Land ownership today is usually in 40-acre parcels or multiples thereof. Years of operations <br />• and management have resulted in most of the arable land that can be reached by irrigation to be put <br />into one form of agricultural production or another. This includes the majority of First Park and a large <br />portion of Second Park. Irrigation of potential farm lands on Third Park, located across Coal Canyon <br />north of Second Park has not been carried out because of a lack of a water delivery system. The <br />extension of the Colorado Cooperative Ditch across Coal Canyon and onto Third Park would be <br />prohibitive at this time in terms of engineering, construction requirements, and cost (Mrs. Tom Garvey, <br />personal communication, June 1987). <br />The areas of deeper, more productive soils within the permit areas are used for hay production, crops <br />such as annual grains and corn silage, and irrigated pasture. Some of the irrigated hayland and much <br />of the irrigated pasture contain areas of shallow soils or rock ledges and outcrops at or near the <br />surface (see Tab 6, Geology and Tab 7, Soils). This places restrictions on management and <br />production. Lands within the permit area are used for pasture rental, hay sales, as a pasture or hay <br />base, and support facilities for livestock run on adjacent private and Federal ground during the spring, <br />summer, and fall, or as hobby or retirement properties. The latter are used to produce some hay or <br />pasture for the few livestock owned by these operators. Farm ground on the western portion of the <br />permit area is used for production of grain or corn silage, some of which may be sold as cash crops. <br />Generally, these crops are fed back to livestock run by the operator. Cropland also occurs within the <br />western portion of the permit area. One abandoned orchard occurs within the permit area. Orchards <br />• (REVISED26 Aug 2002) 2.04.3-6 <br />