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• HISTORIC CONTEST <br />The history of the lands that comprise the Dowe Flats Study <br />Area, for the proposed reservoir project, is dominated by the <br />evolution of a high plains, rural agricultural lifestyle. Other <br />factors, particularly mining and quarrying, influenced the area's <br />history, but in one way or another the majority of those factors <br />were associated with the area's general rural development. Mining <br />is often viewed as historic Colorado's basic industry. However, <br />agriculture constantly has been the state's most profitable and <br />steady source of income. Within Boulder county, agriculture has <br />been a predominant enterprise despite the variations of altitude <br />and terrain. "No county has so wide a range in altitude <br />within so small an area." (Anon. 1918:78) The eastern part of the <br />county is within the Platte River Valley, is basically level and is <br />excellent agricultural land. The western sections of the county <br />have a rapid rise in elevation to mountain peaks and provides good <br />pasture land. <br />S Recent studies identified a total of four historic themes for <br />lands near the Study Area (Burney, 1989; Meier, 1987a; Meier 1987b; <br />Riqqs, 1987; Weiss, 1980, 1981). The approach of such a narrowly <br />defined historic framework may lead to oversimplification if <br />extended to too large an area. Equally, the site-specific approach <br />taken in those reports tends to lose any uniqueness the Study <br />Area's history may possess when it is evaluated within a regional <br />(Front Range or Colorado Plains) context. Review of presently <br />available sources indicates that an enlarged thematic framework is <br />needed to accommodate both the regional context and the uniqueness <br />of the Study Area. For the Study Area the pertinent historic <br />themes include: 1) Exploration and the Fur Trade, 1700-1845; 2) The <br />Colorado Gold Rush and Early Settlement, 1858-1870; 3) Early <br />Agricultural and Ranching Development, 1870-1895; 4) Ranching and <br />Farming After 1900; 5) Quarrying and IIrban Growth and Development, <br />1870-1900; and 6) The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945. <br />All of these themes except Exploration and the Fur Trade can be <br />• 10 <br />