THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



47 



HAGUE'S PEAK GLACIER. 



A body of frozen snow and ice more than 30 feet 

 high, with a number of crevices jthat show it to be 

 more than thirty feet thick, and extending for nearly 

 3,000 feet around an amphitheatre, is one of the inex- 

 haustible sources of water supply for the farmers of 

 northern Colorado, who are under ditches that tap the 

 Poudre river. 



This immense glacier lies on the top of Hague's 

 peak, eight miles northwest of Estes park in Larimer 

 county, Colorado. It is at an altitude of 12,000 feet 

 above sea level and 2,500 feet above timber line. It 

 requires three days to travel after leaving the park, 

 and then three hours of steady climbing on foot before 

 the great deposit of everlasting snow and ice is reached. 



From this topmost summit of the continental divide 

 the vision rests upon a scene of utmost grandeur. 

 To the West is presented the entire great North park 

 basin, and beyond to the North, the grazing lands and 

 fertile fields of southern Wyoming. So clear is the 

 atmosphere that trains on the Union Pacific going 

 through Sherman, Wyoming, fifty miles away, can be 

 plainly seen. 



made at that time. It failed, for a cloud settled over 

 the scene, and not being prepared for such a condi- 

 tion, and not knowing how long it might last, he gave 

 up the work. The next year two storms of rain and 

 snow came up within a few days of each other, and 

 he was forced out. Last year he went up in the month 

 of July and secured the photographs herewith presented. 

 He will go out again this month, do some surveying 

 for a reservoir site, also to look into the feasibility 

 of turning the waters on the continental divide west of 

 Hague's peak from the western slope back into the 

 Greeley district. 



The energetic irrigationists interested in the North 

 Poudre Irrigation Compam', of which B. D. Sanborn 

 is president, are back of this enterprise, to add to their 

 already excellent plans for the reclamation of thousands 

 of acres of the soil of Weld county, changing them into 

 productive farms, and thereby increasing the stock 

 feeding industry of that section. The feature about 

 this company's enterprise is that, in the first place, 

 there is much local capital interested and they are 

 spending their money freely to get it into shape. 



The Fossil creek reservoir can be taken as an in- 



H AGUES PEAK 



The top of this glacier is composed of better than 

 200 feet of frozen snow, and the remainder is ice to 

 a lake of crystal purity and covering about six acres. 

 From the lake the water starts down into the North 

 Poudre river and to the arable lands along its course. 



The glacier was discovered in 1871 by Professor 

 Hayden and party of the United States Geological 

 Survey. With this party was F. E. Baker, a photogra- 

 pher, now a resident of Greeley. Very little exploita- 

 tion was given the matter, but Mr. Baker always bore 

 it in mind, satisfied that some day, when the soil pro- 

 ducing possibilities of northern Colorado were brought 

 under a system of development by irrigation this par- 

 ticular source of supply would be a good thing to file 

 on. At the time of the discovery no photographs of 

 the wonder were taken. Since irrigation has been given 

 more attention Mr. Baker, about three years ago, de- 

 cided to take some action relative to the glacier. 



The ' first attempt to photograph the glacier was 



GLACIER. 



stance of their push. This is a natural reservoir site 

 located in Larimer county, and one of the fourteen 

 owned by the company. It will cost about $250,000 

 to put in shape. It will have the largest earthen dam 

 of any reservoir in the State one-half mile long and 

 forty-eight feet high. The reservoir covers 750 acres. 

 When the fourteen reservoirs are filled they will have 

 water enough to cover 70,000 acres one foot deep. 



. The company found that its water supply was 

 unreliable because of the priority of Weld county ditches, 

 and therefore the headgates of the North Poudre canal 

 would be closed early in the season as soon as the 

 floods were feirly over. To overcome this grarve objec- 

 tion the company built the Fossil creek reservoir, thirty 

 miles lower down on the stream where the water was 

 abundant, and the unappropriated winter supply suffi- 

 cient to fill one of the largest reservoir basins in north- 

 ern Colorado. This reservoir is now completed. 



