High Line Canal

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President Ulysses S. Grant, in 1873, began promoting irrigation projects in the West, encouraging further expansion westward and economic prosperity. Perhaps Grant went too far in his vision after visiting the Colorado Territory with a canal plan "for the purpose of irrigating from the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Missouri River…Between the Missouri River and Rocky Mountains there is an arid belt of public land from 300 to 500 miles in width, perfectly valueless for occupancy of man for want of sufficient rain to secure the growth of any agricultural products." The feasibility of a canal from the South Platte to the Missouri River was quickly dismissed.

 

In Colorado, the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company wanted to develop its large tracts of land granted through the Pacific Railroads Act. In 1876, a group of local Denver businessmen formed the Colorado Irrigation Company to build canals on land leased from the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Unfortunately, the venture could not raise the capital needed for the project. 

 

In 1879, Jay Gould, a railroad magnate who controlled the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Denver and Rio Grande Railway (nearly one-ninth of the nation's railways), became interested in developing canals on the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company and Union Pacific Railroad Company land in Colorado. Gould attracted financial backing from two Englishmen, James Barclay and James Duff, Vice Presidents of the Colorado Mortgage and Investment Company. 

 

The Colorado Mortgage and Investment Company was well known in the region for building canals throughout the state and for real estate development in Denver. The Colorado Mortgage and Investment Company incorporated the Platte Valley Land Company to raise investment funding for the canal. The majority of investors were based in England. 

 

The ambitious canal project, the largest canal built in Colorado, commenced in January 1879 and completed in 1883 at a whopping cost of $652,000.  Regrettably, the problems for the "English Company" were just beginning. The poor design of the canal became apparent once the water started flowing. The canal was engineered following the "high line principle." The canal follows the contours of the land, allowing the water to be driven by gravity pull instead of using pumping stations. The design was too steep, creating a water flow that eroded the bottom of the ditch and wore away the side walls. 

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                                                                                      Groundbreaking

                                                                                                            ​gathering of the 

                                                                                                            High Line Canal.​

                                                                                                            Courtesy of History​

                                                                                                            Colorado.​

​                                                                                                                               A Help wanted ad on July 29, 1881 for High Line Canal workers.

​                                                                                                                               Courtesy of Rocky Mountain News.

 

Conversely, the lack of water in the canal was a more significant problem. The English Company did not fully grasp Colorado's appropriation of water rights, which differed from the riparian common law of England. Colorado's doctrine asserts that the first user who pulls water from a source has the right to that amount of water, with subsequent users being allowed to divert water from the same source but never diminishing the first user's amount of water. It is commonly called "first in time, first in right." The English Company's water rights were 74 in Water District 8 and 111 in Water District 1. The reality was during drought years, there was not enough water to irrigate farmers' acreage and without a reservoir for storage, there was not enough water. 

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                                                                                                                                                                   An excavating outfit working on​

                                                                                                                                                                                                           High Line Canal. Courtesy of The Denver Post.​

 

In addition to possessing weak water rights, there was a perennial problem of litigation from farmers. The Platte Valley Land Company sold plots of land adjacent to the canal and then sold "water right deeds" to irrigate tracts of land. A total of 31,000 acres of land with water rights were sold, and an additional 30,000 acres of land without water rights. During some years, the canal only had the capacity to irrigate 7,500 acres. 

 

The need for additional revenue led the English Company to charge irrigators a "royalty" fee of an additional $10 - $30 an acre, to be paid prior to receiving the water, in addition to the annual water deed rent. The new charge was swiftly met with opposition, and lawsuits ensued. In 1888, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of the litigants, ruling that a charge for the right to use the water was illegal. 

 

Frustrated with the lack of water and the resulting crop damage, farmers began taking legal action in the district courts. Others took more direct action. In 1901, a group called "Drye (sic) and Indigent(sic) Farmers," armed with guns and threatening to shoot opened the headgate of the High Line Canal. The State Engineer's office had ordered the headgate closed to provide water to the irrigators with senior water rights. The conflict was settled without violence.

 

The animosity between the English company and the community continued until 1910, when the Antero Company purchased the canal for $600,000. A chronicler wrote at the time, "Then, leaving behind the High Line and their failed responsibility for filling it, yet well watered with profits… Barclay's men skipped town for the green and pleasant land whence they'd come, where water wasn't a problem."

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                                       Young ladies enjoying the bridge over​

                                                 the High Line Canal at West Glow Farms​

                                                 on Clarkson Street.  From the ​

                                                 Collection of the Littleton Museum.

 

In 1915, the City of Denver Public Utilities Commission purchased the canal from the Antero Company for 1.05 million dollars, with Denver Water assuming control of the High Line Canal in 1938. 

 

145 years after an Englishman's folly, We can be thankful for the 71-mile jewel of the metropolitan area.

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