46 



THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



A GREAT ENTERPRISE. 



The Pueblo (Colo.) Chief tan of a recent date con- 

 tains the following: 



"If the present plans of the Colorado Fuel and 

 Iron company materialize, over ten thousand acres of 

 the most fertile land adjacent to Pueblo that has for 

 years been considered range and grazing land and which 

 is supposed to have millions of gallons of petroleum 

 under it, will be made to bloom and blossom like the 

 rose and will be the homes of thousands of people. The 

 entire section of Pueblo county known as Boggs' flat, 

 together with miles of land southwest of Pueblo, will 

 be put under one of the largest ditches in the world 

 and by means of a system of reservoirs, which will hold 

 the flood waters of the Arkansas river, it will be sup- 

 plied with water. 



So quietly have the plans for this big undertaking 

 been consummated that even the most enthusiastic irri- 

 gationist and the closest student of the arid land ques- 

 tion hare known nothing about them. 



For carrying out this irrigation plan the Colorado 

 Fuel and Iron company desired the waters from the 

 Twin Lakes reservoir, and its officials have for some 

 time been in consultation with the attorneys of the com- 

 pany that owns them looking to a purchase, saying they 

 wanted the water for the Pueblo steel works. The com- 

 pany said it could not furnish water, as there was no 

 way to transfer it from the lakes near Leadville to Lake 

 Minnequa and the adjacent reservoirs of the company. 



One of the largest irrigation ditches in the state 

 was planned for this purpose, and surveyors are working 

 on the right of way. Three surveys have already been 

 made. They leave the river at Canon City and proceed 

 southwest along the bluffs to near Pueblo. The first one 

 made was too far south. The second was too crooked; 

 the third passed through school lands and the state 

 would not permit its construction. The fourth one will 

 probably be adopted. 



The men are now at work on it. Leaving the river 

 at a point west of Canon City, it proceeds along the 

 bluffs to the second mesa between Pueblo and the St. 

 Charles river, where it empties into Salt Creek and the 

 new reservoirs of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company 

 and ultimately into Lake Minnequa. Plans may also be 

 drawn for a ditch connecting the lake with the Bessemer 

 ditch so that when water is low in that ditch it may 

 be supplied by the Colorado Fuel and Iron company for 

 a nominal sum. 



Where the ditch will leave the Arkansas river will 

 be one of the finest dams and irrigation schemes ever 

 tried in the west. It will be much on the order of the 

 big dam which catches the flood water of the St. Charles 

 river and carries it to the new reservoirs of the com- 

 pany. The water in the river is more than appropriated. 

 For this reason the ditch can not be built out into the 

 stream to secure any of the constant flow. A large dam 

 will be built which will permit the normal flow to be 

 kept in the bed of the river, but when a flood comes 

 the extra water (to the capacity of the ditch) will be 

 diverted. 



Along the ditch for storage purposes will be con- 

 structed four magnificent reservoirs. This flood water 

 will be stored in them and a constant flow given the 

 ditch for irrigation purposes. Billions of gallons of 

 water will thus be stored west of Pueblo, and the Arkan- 

 sas valley will not suffer from a scarcity of the water 

 supply as has been the case in the past. 



Half of the supply of the Twin Lakes reservoir, 



it is stated by an official, has been arranged for, and when 

 the water in the river is low it will be turned in and 

 given to the company through the new ditch. 



A large new reservoir, almost the size of the Twin 

 Lakes, has been planned and is being constructed near 

 Leadville. The water stored there will also act as a 

 supply for the new ditch. 



Hundreds of wells will be sunk in the low lands and 

 the underflow, which is greater than the natural flow 

 of the river, will be tapped through artesian wells, and 

 the water used as a supply for irrigation purposes in the 

 lands below the ditch during the dry season. 



While the Colorado Fuel and Iron company will 

 directly benefit from the construction of the ditch, in 

 that it will make thousands of acres of its land now 

 non-productive capable of cultivation, and thus enhance 

 its value, it will also do the same for thousands of acres 

 of private land and government land. 



For Pueblo, however, the greatest advantage to be 

 seen in the construction of the new ditch and system of 

 reservoirs is the fact that it insures to the steel works 

 what it must have a water supply for all time to 

 come. In the past it has been threatened with a water 

 famine, but when the new system of reservoirs are in 

 operation there will be no further danger from this 

 source. ' 



Besides the lands of the Fuel and Iron company 

 southwest of Pueblo, which will be placed un3er irriga- 

 tion, what is known as Boggs' flat, a level piece of 

 ground containing nearly 10,000 acres, will be most 

 benefited. It will all be under the ditch and for a 

 nominal sum water can be secured for it. The new ditch 

 will do for it what it was thought the state canal, planned 

 years ago, would do. Some of this land is owned by 

 private parties, but most of it belongs to the government 

 and can be entered upon. When the state ditch was 

 planned it was taken up, but when it fell through the 

 pre-empters and homesteaders failed to prove Tip and 

 much of it reverted to the government. A year ago when 

 the oil fever struck Pueblo and so many companies were 

 formed it was again filed upon, but for the purpose of 

 boring for oil. The Pueblo Oil Wells company was the 

 only company to sink a well, and so far it has not struck 

 oil, though two wells have been sunk to a considerable 

 depth. Because no improvements were made and no 

 wells sunk it is thought the land will again revert to the 

 government and be open for entry. 



The result of constructing this ditch and large 

 system of reservoirs can hardly be comprehended. It 

 means that the entire country for miles southwest of 

 Pueblo, reaching almost to Canon City, will be farmed 

 and where buffalo grass now grows will be waving fields 

 of alfalfa and grain, where the long cactus rears its head 

 will be beautiful trees, and where the rabbits and gophers 

 have their holes herds of cattle will be fattened each 

 year and bring to Pueblo county thousands of dollars 

 in revenue. 



THE COW SLIPS AWAY. 



The tall pines pine, 



The pawpaws pause, 

 And the bumble-bee bumbles all day; 



The eavesdropper drops, 



And the grasshopper hops, 

 While gently the cow slips away. 

 From "Ben King's Verse." Copyrighted. 



