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An understanding of the major land use of irrigated agriculture is benefited by an insight <br /> into the background of the present community and land use in the Nucla area. Peterson <br /> (1949) and Mercer (1967), respectively, authored articles on the history of the town of <br /> Nucla and the Colorado Cooperative Company, the latter being the driving force behind the <br /> present situation at Nucla. The following summary discussion is taken from the above two <br /> references. <br /> In 1894, the Colorado Cooperative Company was incorporated in Denver in order to establish <br /> a utopian or socialist community somewhere in Colorado with agriculture as the basis for <br /> the economy of the community. Based on evaluations of many sites, it was decided to <br /> settle in an area known as Tabeguache Park located a few miles north of the San Miguel <br /> River and Naturita, Colorado - then a post office and stage stop. The site was selected <br /> because of the availability of cheap federal lands under several Acts, including the <br /> Desert Land and Homestead Acts, and the positive results of a survey that indicated water <br /> could be brought from the San Miguel River to the Park. The first group of people arrived <br /> at Naturita in 1895 and began farming in that area while surveying the ditch, building <br /> roads, and establishing a sawmill. in 1896, the colony established the site of Pinon <br /> where Cottonwood Creek enters the San Miguel, while also beginning work on the ditch five <br /> miles upstream. All lumber for the town, trestles, and flumes, as well as lath for fruit <br /> boxes in Montrose, was supplied by the Company's sawmill 13 miles up Cottonwood Creek. <br /> Work went slow because of the amount of cut and fill, rock blasting, and trestle/flume <br /> construction needed to complete the canal. Worker dissatisfaction caused many delays for <br /> a project that was dependent on community cooperation and effort. This was overcome by <br /> contracting the ditch work to shareholders for credits (redeemed at the Company store) or <br /> shares with the requirement that a given amount of ditch in a certain timeframe be <br /> completed. By 1904, the first water reached the east side of First Park (used in <br /> preference to Tabeguache Park by the local population) and lands which had been filed on <br /> by private individuals were cleared, tilled, and irrigated. By 1910, the ditch had been <br /> extended to Second Park north of Tuttle Draw. In 1905, the town of Pinon was moved <br /> essentially lock, stock, and barrel to the present site of the town of Nucla - a name <br /> derived from the Latin word Nucleus. The ditch, an accomplishment for late 19th century <br /> technology, has a fall of 4 feet per mile and is approximately 20 miles long. At one <br /> time, the Cottonwood Creek trestle and flume was the highest and longest in the world, but <br /> has since been replaced with a siphon. Though a store, dairy, sawmill , and laundry, along <br /> with the ditch were Company businesses and cooperatively owned and operated, only the <br /> ditch remains a cooperatively owned and run venture. <br /> 4-7 Revised 04/11/88 <br />