| Summary: | This thesis examines the agricultural-to-municipal water
transfer process and the transformation of South Park, a high
intermontane basin located west of the Denver metropolitan area
in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The formal appropriation
and exchange of water in this area began in 1859 with the
arrival of miners and the first diversions of water into sluice
boxes. In the 1860s, ranchers claimed water on a more permanent
and extensive basis, using it to irrigate bottomlands to produce
hay and other fodder crops. This study discusses the evolution
of ranching in South Park from the 1860s to the present, with
special attention to the delicately balanced system that had to
be worked out in such a harsh environment.
More centrally, the thesis outlines the legal and
administrative system that developed in the state of Colorado to
govern the use and the exchange of water; and it focuses upon
the South Park water transfers and the consequent retirement of
ranch lands, from the 1890s to the 1990s. Without the critical
components of water and productive haylands, year-round ranching
could not exist in this marginal land. Beginning in the 1890s,
the cities at the foot of the Colorado Front Range began to
assess the water resources of the high basin and contemplate
acquisitions of key water rights to supply the needs of the
growing urban core. In the century that followed, water rights
were sold voluntarily by South Park ranchers, by their heirs,
and by speculators, to Denver, Colorado Springs, and later the
suburban municipalities of Aurora and Thornton.
The transfer of water to urban hands tipped the balance economically,
ecologically, and politically. What was
relinquished was not simply control of water, but also control
the semi-arid region's most vital resource and control of the
area of origin's future. This thesis addresses these issues
through use of archival materials (largely government records)
and through the use of maps, photographic materials, newspapers,
diaries, and other historical sources. Interviews and field
work were also conducted, and information is presented in
visual, tabular, and written form.
As economic development and population expansion in arid
and semi-arid areas continue, pressure on water resources is
increasing. More and more, cities are turning to agricultural
water rights and rural communities to obtain their supplies. In
this context, it is important to better understand the
expropriation process, and that is precisely what this thesis
seeks to do.
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