THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Water Rights in the San Luis Valley 



73 



W. A. Anderson 



The greater part of the cultivated area of the San 

 Luis valley constitutes what is known as Water Dis- 

 trict No. 20 of the state of Colorado. On May 13, 

 1889, a petition for the adjudication of the water rights 

 in the district was filed by Oscar Wilkins, H. C. Dorris, 

 E. B. Hayt and James T. Maddox. Judge A. W. Mc- 

 Intire was appointed as referee and for two years testi- 

 mony was taken to prove appropriators' rights to water. 

 The decree in the matter was handed down on Novem- 

 ber 17, 1891, by the district court of Costilla county. 

 Considerable dissatisfaction was found with the appor- 

 tionment, and petitions by the Farmers' Union Ditch 

 Company and the Prairie Ditch Company, filed on Octo- 

 ber 10 and 23, respectively, served to reopen the case. 

 Judge Mclntire, former referee, was again appointed to 

 serve, and upon the findings of fact in the testimony 

 upon which the previous decree was based, a new decree, 

 dated May 1, 1896, was entered setting aside the former 

 judgment and making new appropriations. From the 

 findings of this second decree the Eio Grande Land & 

 Canal Company and the Empire Land & Canal Com- 

 pany took appeal to the state supreme court, and on 

 April 4, 1900, the remittitur from the supreme court 



valley. According to the priority numbers there are 

 nearly 6,500 cubic feet of water being taken from the 

 river every second. Of course these figures are the- 

 oretical, and there may be more and there may be less 

 flowing into the canals. There are several private 

 ditches also which have appropriation numbers which 

 have never diverted water. Up to 1900 there had been 

 filed one hundred and forty-six water rights to take 

 water from the Eio Grande river in Water District 

 No. 20. Of the total the following named amounts are 

 entitled to a flow of more than ten cubic feet per 

 second : 



Sylva 



Eio Grande Ditch No. 1 



McDonald Ditch 



Homer & Ydren 



Centennial 



Fish 



Anderson 



Empire 666.5 



San Luis Valley 14.6 



Independent No. 2 30.4 



Eio Grande & Piedra Valley 75.7 



26.2 

 12.8 

 16.4 

 11.6 

 82.4 

 18.6 

 17.2 



The Rio Grande River, San Luis Valley, Colorado. 



was filed and the district court of Costilla county en- 

 tered a decree setting aside and modifying the decree 

 of May 1, 1896, in so far as the Eio Grande and Empire 

 canals were concerned and allowing it to stand as it re- 

 lated to other ditches. 



The law governing water rights in the state of 

 Colorado is that as a ditch on a certain 'date diverted a 

 certain amount of water it was given a priority right 

 to that amount. As each ditch of later construction 

 took water it was also given an appropriation priority 

 number, and the date and amount were recorded. Or 

 when a company enlarged the capacity of its ditch the 

 amount was registered and given a priority number. In 

 practice when water is plentiful there is no restriction 

 as to the amount of water a ditch may take from the 

 streams, but when the rivers are low it is the duty of 

 the water commissioner to restrain the owners of ditches 

 from taking more than the ditch is entitled to and shut- 

 ting off the water when ditches of later construction are 

 taking water to which the earlier built canals are en- 

 titled. 



The Eio Grande river supplies the larger part of 

 the water used for irrigation purposes in the San Luis 



Eio Grande & Lariat 54.4 



Excelsior 75.1 



Independent Ditch 11.2 



Eio Grande Ditch 26.4 



Eio Grande Canal * 905.6 



Eio Grande & San Luis Ditch 14.6 



Monte Vista Canal 257.8 



Hickory Jackson 20.6 



San Lnis Valley Canal 92.9 



Eio Grande Ditch No. 4 12. 



Costilla Ditch 103.3 



Prairie Ditch 105.1 



Star Ditch Enlargement Co.'s 10. 



Billings Ditch 25.6 



Farmers' Union : 138.8 



From these figures it will be seen that the Eio 

 Grande canal is the largest in the valley. A word 

 about the history of irrigation in the valley would not 

 be out of place here. In 1883 T. C. Henry conceived 

 the idea of building a large canal north of the Eio 

 Grande river and one or two south. Accordingly he re- 

 ceived a loan from the Travellers' Insurance Company 

 of Hartford, Conn., of about $700,000. Work was be- 



