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establishment of fenced, more closely managed ranches(Peake <br />• 1937:8-27, 271). The stockmen, once the range had been depleted, <br />moved elsewhere and in their wake came the farmers. Spurred on by <br />railroad, land company, and even government literature that told of <br />the changes being wrought in the climate, the retreat of the Great <br />American Desert under the plowshare, and easy 10-year credit terms <br />from railroads, hundreds of Midwestern farmers moved to the high <br />plains of Colorado, Nebraska and Ransas. IIpon arrival in or near <br />the Study Area would-be settlers found booming markets for their <br />produce, open land to be had for minimal prices and enough moisture <br />to grow crops of corn, wheat and other grains much as they had in <br />Iowa or Illinois. What went unrealized until a few years later was <br />that the Great Plains in general had entered a periodic wet cycle, <br />with above average precipitation which was followed by a dry cycle <br />during the mid 1890s(Mehls 1984b:S:1-2). <br />One rather unique settlement was Longmont, in the northern <br />section of Boulder county. The Colorado-Chicago Colony, known as <br />the Chicago Colony, was founded in Illinois in 1870. The purpose <br />• of the colony was to purchase land and establish a communal living <br />arrangement in the west. The group settled in the St. Vrain Valley <br />near Old Burlington. Longmont was founded by those colonists <br />wanting a temperance society. Longmont and the surrounding area <br />grew quickly. The large number of initial settlers made <br />development of a large irrigation system necessary, (Athearn, <br />1976:116-228; "Old Burlington iaterview:253). <br />The initial success of farmers is also partially attributable <br />to irrigation. Farming using irrigation began almost as soon as <br />the first farmers in southeastern Colorado. It was not until the <br />years after the Civil Aar that large community irrigation systems <br />began. Until that time short ditches that carried water from <br />streams to low lands were most prevalent. irrigation on the larger <br />scale was first undertaken near Greeley. boon, the pattern was <br />successfully duplicated again and again. By 1889 Colorado ranked <br />second, behind California, among states in irrigation development. <br />For the Study Area this meant a aeries of canals crossing the lands <br />• 21 <br />