Restless native: Dolores River Valley had best local supply of water

Friday, September 15, 2023

Dolores River Valley had best local supply of water

1897-1900 ORIGINAL WOODEN HEADGATE - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photos from Survey HAER CO-4

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

It was sort of mean-spirited — and I don't recall exactly where I first heard it — but when I was a kid growing up in Dolores, we often fired off as a juvenile joke or insult, "Flush the toilet, Cortez needs the water." Like I said, mean-spirited, but not exactly untrue.

"The Dolores River Valley had the best local supply of water, but had only limited land available for cultivation. The Montezuma Valley had arable land, but lacked a reliable water supply. Settlers moving into the Cortez area during the late 1870s survived using the extremely limited natural Mitchell Springs as a domestic water source," according to the Dolores Watershed Plan: Appendix 2: History of Dolores River Water Use, the Dolores Project, the Rise of Environmental Consciousness Nationally and Locally, and Stakeholder Collaboration to Promote Conservation of Lower Dolores River Natural Resources.

Settlers in the area began to fix this situation with late 19th century technology. First, a one mile long tunnel, started in 1886 and completed by 1889, brought water into the Montezuma Valley for irrigation.

"Cortez was laid out by the same firm that constructed the tunnel to support land sales by providing the necessary domestic water supply. By July, 1890, a three-mile long flume was bringing Dolores River water to Cortez. By 1886, a second effort had begun to bring water to Montezuma Valley through a canal at the Great Cut, supplying water to the north and western parts of the Valley," says the Water Plan history.

"These undertakings experienced a series of changes in ownership, but finally were combined under Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company (MVIC) by 1920."

"There was tremendous outside investor interest in westward expansion of European settlement in the U.S. In southwest Colorado, as in other western areas, early water development was often funded by investors from the eastern United States and Europe looking for profit. The investors commonly sold bonds or shares in a venture to raise the money necessary to make large
capital improvements, such as the Great Cut and the original MVIC tunnel. Such financing was also common in mining and land development ventures. Water and land were often linked, as in the Montezuma Valley. Outside companies generally proved unsuccessful, however, demonstrating that local control of water and land was necessary for their profitable and beneficial use."

Four exploratory geological surveys were conducted shortly after the Civil War in this area by Hayden, King, Powell and Wheeler. The Hayden survey was conducted from 1873 through 1876, with maps published in 1877. It mapped all of Colorado’s drainages, an important first step to water development. Locally, survey maps showed the Dolores Plateau and the Ute
Indian Reservation across western Colorado, with an area carved out for the mineral rich San Juan Mountains. The closest settlement was Animas City, near present day Durango, Silverton and other mining settlements. The maps show Pegasus Springs, near Cortez, but not the upstream Mitchell Springs that supplied the first water to Cortez. The map also shows the Old Spanish trail heading northwesterly directly through ruins overlooking the Dolores River, possibly Escalante Ruins."

"Settlement of the Montezuma Valley was made possible in the 1880s with the construction of the irrigation system. Organized by Cames W. Kanna, the complex series of tunnel (5,400 foot long), "Great Cut," headgates, and diversion dams channeled water from the Dolores River through a steep divide. The system constitutes one of the earliest large scale, privately funded and continuously operating irrigation projects in the Southwest," says Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey.