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The Gold Rush and Early Settlement, 1858-1870 <br />• <br />In 1857-1858 residents of the American middle-west found <br />themselves caught in the midst of an economic depression, with <br />hundreds of young men eager for the chance at a new start. <br />Coinciding with that, Ailliam Green Russell and a small party of <br />prospectors announced that they had discovered gold in the area <br />that became modern Denver. News of the finds spread conjuring up <br />pictures of a new California Rush of 1849. The discoveries in <br />Colorado led to the gold rush of 1859 and the resultant beginnings <br />of permanent settlement along the Front Range from Colorado City <br />(Colorado Springs) north to Ft. Collins. Many prospectors found <br />they arrived too late, and discouraged, they returned to the <br />Mississippi Valley. Others, who could not or did not go back, <br />turned their attentions to matters besides mining--providing food, <br />lodging, or other goods and services to those more fortunate <br />prospectors who actually found paying claims(Athearn 1976:7-31). <br />By 1860 the roots of permanent settlement north and east of the <br />• fledgling town of Boulder began to appear as farmers and stock <br />raisers turned prospectors returned to farming, establishing farms <br />and running cattle herds along the South Platte and St. Vrain. <br />From these early roots the area of modern northern Boulder County, <br />Colorado, began to evolve into one of Denver's agricultural <br />hinterlands, supplying the town and its merchants with food. <br />soon some of the farmers found that Lonq's description of the area <br />as a desert to be at least partially accurate. By the end of 1860 <br />farmers claimed and appropriated for agriculture south Boulder <br />Creek, Boulder Creek and others, each individual or group building <br />a ditch. These efforts proved to be only the beginning of <br />irrigation along creeks and rivers of Boulder County as future <br />generations built ever larger and more elaborate systems to bring <br />water to the fields, including the Highland Ditch, Palmerton Ditch, <br />Rough and Ready Ditch and the 8t. Vrain supply Canal (East Denver <br />Municipal Irrigation District map 1920; Burney 1989:3). <br />• 17 <br />