EARLY HISTORY

(Compiled By Iris Higgins Johnson, 2003)

First Office Circa 1925

By 1877, Big Bend was becoming a small settlement on the Dolores River . Silver and gold mines were flourishing in the mountains, railroads were pushing further west, and more settlers were arriving in the southwest corner of the new state of Colorado. Some of these early settlers may have looked at the expanse of arid land in the Montezuma Valley and envisioned the crops that could be grown if only they could devise a way to channel water from the Dolores River to that land.

Engineers of the U. S. Geological Survey had explored the Dolores River Valley in 1875, and George B. Chittenden, a topographer, noted: “At the bend of the Dolores River a cut of less than two hundred feet in depth would be required to turn its waters into the San Juan, in what, from the configuration of the country would seem decidedly to be the natural course of the drainage.” Thus the idea of a tunnel to bring water from the Dolores River was conceived. The January 24, 1878 , issue of The Rocky Mountain News reported that the Dolores, Lost Canyon, & Montezuma Ditch Company had just been formed; and, in 1879 about a hundred men with their teams of horses and equipment began work on a mile-long tunnel to pass under the Dolores Divide and flow into the head of Hartman Gulch. But, the company soon ran out of money and had to stop.

James W. Hanna, a homesteader in the Montezuma Valley, was interested in continuing the plans to divert water from the Dolores River and organized the Montezuma Valley Water Supply Company. This company filed on September 16, 1880, with a capital stock of $200,000, much of which had been raised in Boston. B. L. Arbecam of Boston was listed as president, J. W. Hanna was vice president and general manager, E. S. Turner of New York was secretary, and A. B. Chamberlain of Denver was treasurer.  M. J. Mack was hired to serve as engineer and chief designer for the irrigation system, and in 1885 Mr. Mack began surveying for the irrigation canals and ditches.

The Montezuma Valley Water Supply Company planned to provide water to an expected population of 50,000 in Cortez and to irrigate 200,000 acres in the area south and west of the San Juan-Dolores Divide. The company contemplated the construction and operation of a main canal and tunnel to divert water from the Dolores River into the Montezuma Valley at the head of Hartman Gulch and to use eleven laterals for distribution. This system was intended to supply all the irrigable area south of the San Juan-Dolores Divide, east of Alkali Gulch and south to McElmo Canyon, together with those lands in McElmo Canyon west of Alkali Gulch. The company based their plans on the average discharge of the river during the months of May, June, and July.  E. S. Nettleton, engineer in charge of the U. S. Irrigating Survey in the Rocky Mountains, prepared an 1890 report estimating the average river discharge during these three months to be at least 3,000 cubic feet per second and the maximum discharge at 8,000 cubic feet per second.

Work on the Main No. 1 Canal was started at the Big Bend of the Dolores River on November 25, 1885, and was considered “one of the greatest irrigation enterprises, not only in the state, but in the West” ( The Montezuma Journal , April 28, 1888 ). The tunnel work started in February, 1886, with construction crews working 12-hour tunnel shifts and receiving $1 a day. On May 17, 1888 , water was successfully diverted from the Dolores River through the main canal; however, the tunnel was not completed until November, 1889.

First Water to Cortez:

The first water through the big flume reached Cortez on July 4, 1890 . The flume continued to be used for 18 years before it was upgraded to a pipeline and new ditch. The route for that ditch was surveyed by William Blake, who worked for the irrigation company until 1910. According to Mary M. Blake, in an interview in 1934, the ditch was not dug deep enough the first time and the water would not run in it. When they dug it as deep as her husband had first told them, it worked.

A NEW ERA

In 1920 when the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company (MVIC) was formed, there existed 104 wooden flumes, 151 miles of canals, and one reservoir, Narraguinnep, with 9,300 acre feet of storage.

By 1938 funds from the Public Works Administration became available to rebuild Groundhog Reservoir. Eight miles of feeder ditches from Little Fish and Beaver Creeks were constructed to augment the Groundhog supply. Natural streams were used from the outlet to the head works of the MVIC system located 1¼ miles below the town of Dolores. The project to rebuild Groundhog was completed for approximately $300,000 and the reservoir now had the capacity to provide 21,709 acre feet of water to the irrigation system each year.

                 OFFICE 2006

    PLANNING FOR TOMORROW

Today, the MVIC distribution system consists of two main diversion canals and 17 distribution laterals, which totals 124 miles of constructed ditches.  MVIC controls 33,284 Class A shares and 1,500 Class B shares of water and irrigates 37,500 acres of land in the Montezuma Valley.

Water has enabled Montezuma Valley to grow diverse crops and increase production.  The construction of reservoirs, most notably the McPhee Reservoir, has provided stabilization to the availability of water through drought periods as well as the ability to put additional land into production and expand recreational opportunities.  Technological innovations have provided better management of available water for greater utilization within the Valley.

Looking across the Montezuma Valley today, almost 120 years later, the scene has been transformed from the dry, rolling, sagebrush hills that greeted the early settlers of the 1800’s.  Much of the vision held in the eyes of those hardy pioneers has been realized.  However, the challenge of managing the water efficiently will continue on into the future.