Laserfiche WebLink
39 <br />Mississippi Valley. Others, who could not or did not go back, <br />turned their attentions to matters besides mining--providing <br />food, lodging, or other goods and services to those more <br />fortunate prospectors who actually found paying claims (Athearn <br />1976:7-31). By 1860 the roots of permanent settlement north and <br />east of the fledgling town of Boulder began to appear as farmers <br />and stock raisers turned prospectors returned to farming, <br />establishing farms and running cattle herds along the South <br />Platte and St. Vrain. From these early roots the area of modern <br />northern Boulder County, Colorado, began to evolve into one of <br />Denver's agricultural hinterlands, supplying the town and its <br />merchants with food. <br />Soon some of the farmers found that Long's description of the <br />area as a desert to be at least partially accurate. By the end <br />of 1860 farmers claimed and appropriated for agriculture South <br />Boulder Creek, Boulder Creek and others, each individual or group <br />building a ditch. These efforts proved only the beginning of <br />irrigation along creeks and rivers of Boulder County. Future <br />generations built ever larger and more elaborate systems to bring <br />water to the fields, including the Highland Ditch, Palmerton <br />Ditch, Rough and Ready Ditch, and the St. Vrain Supply Canal <br />(East Denver Municipal Irrigation District map 1920; Classon Map <br />1909; Burney 1989:3). <br />2.4.3 Early Agricultural and Ranching Development, 1860-1895 <br />The lands of the Front Range and South Platte Valley north of <br />Denver by 1870 had become one of the leading agricultural areas <br />of Colorado. After 1870 that development intensified for a <br />number of reasons including the rapid population growth of <br />Denver, Boulder, and the eastern two thirds of Colorado between <br />1870 and 1893. The availability of rail transportation after <br />1870, and the high food prices being paid by merchants in <br />Colorado's booming mining camps were significant factors in front <br />range population growth. Those conditions led more and more <br />farmers and ranchers to settle in the region. A final factor, <br />liberal federal land disposal laws, encouraged settlement in <br />