Laserfiche WebLink
to provide irrigation to lands further east, such as those around <br />• Longmont. <br />Other projects have provided water for agricultural and <br />domestic use. In 1905-1906 a planned reservoir near Lyons met with <br />disdain. The project called for flooding the town and moving the <br />inhabitants to the area known as Dow Flats. Needless to say, <br />nothing came of the plan at the time and the lands remains <br />pastoral. A later water diversion was much more successful. The <br />Colorado-Big Thompson, a trans-montaine water project affected the <br />entire northern section of the state and provided a constant source <br />of water supply. Ideas for the project date to the late nineteenth <br />century, but the project was undertaken in the 193os and 1940x. <br />Pasture lands were also available in and around the Study <br />Area. The lands allowed for cattle and some sheep. Dairy farming <br />to provide milk supplies for the growing Boulder and Denver markets <br />became popular in and around the Study Area and east toward <br />Longmont. <br />Much to the chagrin of the farmers, their boom went bust by <br />• 1900. Not only did the rains fail to come, but irrigation ditches <br />such as the Biqhline Canal ran dry and a national depression that <br />proved to be particularly devastating to Colorado's silver mines <br />all but wiped out the farm markets. Those who could afford to <br />abandoned their farms, did so, while others hung on by scratching ~ <br />out a living from the parched soil(Mehls 1984a:123-134). The Panic <br />of 1893 and ensuing depression marked the end of Colorado's first <br />boom period and local residents spent the closing years of the <br />nineteenth century trying to adjust to the changed conditions and <br />looking for the next boom. <br />• 22 <br />