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• <br />The Pitkin Mesa Domestic Pipeline (aqueduct) originates at an unnamed spring at the <br />head of Sink Creek, elevation 9645 feet, located in Gunnison National Forest. It crosses the <br />Overland Ditch about 0.5 mile after having dropped 200 feet in elevation, traveling south - <br />southwest. It then courses cross country another 3.2 miles to the concrete box (Feature 1) at <br />8084 feet elevation near the head of Stevens Gulch. Following Stevens Gulch, it terminates <br />on Pitkin Mesa at the Fire Mountain Canal, elevation 6220 feet, after having traveled a total <br />of nearly 9 miles. <br />The actual construction date of the aqueduct is not known at this time. It, however, <br />predates construction of the Fire Mountain Diversion Dam and Canal which occurred <br />primarily from 1949 -1953 (personal communication, Dan Crabtree) and is not related to the <br />Paonia Project or the Fire Mountain Canal (personal communication, Steve Puck, Colorado <br />State Water Commissioner). On March 16, 1948, the initial transfer of water rights to the <br />pipeline occurred, via court action (ibid.). The date of 1949 is inscribed on top of the <br />concrete box of F 1, which is over 3 1 /2 miles from the origin of the aqueduct. The aqueduct <br />continues beyond the box another 5.5 miles. It is assumed that the box was poured as the <br />pipeline was being laid, thus completion of the aqueduct probably postdates the installation <br />of the box. <br />The Pitkin Mesa Domestic Pipeline was, minimally, an ambitious endeavor. The <br />water source must have been realized as being perennially viable in order to expend the time <br />and resources necessary to make the effort worthwhile. The conception of, and the <br />engineering for a transport system, the labor and material costs to trench across 9.0 miles of <br />undeveloped country demonstrates the urgent need for water during the long -term planning of <br />the Paonia Project and Fire Mountain Ditch. <br />The main feature (F1) consists of a closed concrete box for the purpose of diverting <br />and conducting water farther down the aqueduct. The box sides measure 8'4" north /south by <br />5'3 1 /2" east /west. The top is "crowned" by having curved margins and is roughly T7 above <br />the present ground surface. The top east edge bears the inscription (carved in wet cement) "J. <br />F. Story 1949." An access -hole cover ring was set flush in the top surface with a 24" lid, <br />embossed with "MACLEAR MFG. CO DENVER" closing the hole. A short 2 1 /2 " steel pipe <br />emerges vertically from the top surface, with an assemblage of two 90° elbows and a nipple <br />functioning as a vent (one of the 90's is turned downward with a small section of 1/8" <br />hardware cloth wired over the hole). Also on top is a circular head gate wheel, 10" diameter <br />upon which the number "515" is embossed. It evidently opens a gate within the concrete box <br />allowing water to flow into a partially buried 8" corrugated pipe which extends horizontally <br />to the west roughly 9.5 feet from the bottom of the box. <br />The access hole cover and the head gate control wheel are secured with a taut light - <br />duty chain and Master #2 padlock. When the lock is removed and chain loosened, a flat steel <br />bar can be slid from within iron loops which are imbedded in the concrete surface on <br />opposite sides of the access hole cover. The diverted water would then flow through a small <br />weir set in a feeder ditch which serves to wet a small open meadow to the south. The weir is <br />