THE INDEPENDENCE PASS TRANSMOUNTAIN
PROJECT

A Story of How Vision, Faith and Work Performed a
Miracle for Crowley County, Colorado

By FRANK N. BANCROFT, of the Denver Bar

OR A proper setting to this story about the Independ?
Fence Pass Transmountain Diversion Project of The
Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company, a few facts
relating to the early history of Crowley County and of The
Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company should be given.
Prior to 1890, what is now Crowley County, Colorado,
was the dry, unwatered portion of Otero County, lying north
of the Arkansas River, and was known as the ?Range,? and
would have been aptly described by the words of a popular
song:
"Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam.
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard a discouraging word.
And the skies are not cloudy all day."

About 1890, T. C. Henry, the promoter and builder of
many of the large irrigation canals in Colorado, seeking new
dry lands to conquer and convert into wheat and corn ?elds.
discovered that the soil of the tract of land now under the
Twin Lakes system, and then under the buffalo grass, was ex-
tremely fertile and would yield abundant and varied crops.
and could be sold for a pro?t, if water could be found and
brought to the land. With the ardor and energy of an enthu-
siast, Mr. Henry waved his magic wand and money ?owed to
him and he, until he .was halted by the panic of 1893, and his
creditors afterward, built the ?Bob Creek Canal,? now known
as the ?Colorado Canal."

The Colorado Canal takes Water from the Arkansas
River eighteen miles east of Pueblo and is about ?fty miles in
length, with a width of 45 feet and can carry the 756.28 cubic

feet of water per second of time, decreed to it from the Arkan?
sas River as of June 9, 1890. i

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INDEPENDENCE PASS

View. showing East Approach of Auto Road over pass. Twin Lakes Diversion Tunnel 
through Continental Divide is at the immediate left of the pass, 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

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For many years this decreed river water was suf?cient to
irrigate the crops then being grown under the Colorado Canal,
and a prosperous and populous agricultural community was
built up around the thriving towns of Olney Springs, Crow-
ley, Ordway and Sugar City on the main line of the Missouri
Paci?c Railroad; a sugar factory now owned and operated by
the National Sugar Manufacturing Company was built at
Sugar City to handle the beets grown on lands under the
Colorado Canal and in 1911 the State legislature recognized
the growth of this community by giving it a separate county
government and creating the County of Crowley, with the
county seat at Ordway. 

By 1913 the farmers under the Colorado Canal realized
that the water decreed to this canal from the Arkansas River
was not suf?cient in quantity nor in regularity of ?ow to
permit them to plant their acres to beets and highly specialized
crops. These farmers also wanted to own and operate their
own irrigation system, and consequently in 1913 they organ-
ized The Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company, and
this company purchased the Colorado Canal with its unsold
water rights and also purchased the famed Twin Lakes, lo-
cated on Lake Creek, one of the main tributaries of the Arkan?
sas River, just below Leadville, with a decreed storage capac?
ity of 54,452 acre-feet of water, to supplement the water
decreed to the Colorado Canal from the Arkansas River.

Now the farmers under the Twin Lakes system were
happy, for they owned their own irrigation system and their
decreed water rights from the river, supplemented by their
storage rights in Twin Lakes, supplied ample water for their
needs, and their crops were so abundant and marketable that
within a few years they paid off, with the eXception of a few
thousand dollars, the entire purchase price of their canal and
reservoir system in an amount of almost $1,000,000.

About 1926 it became apparent to the farmers under the
Twin Lakes system that the annual rain and snowfall and
resultant ?oods in the Arkansas River watershed were grow?

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ing less year by year, and by 1929 everyone despaired of a
return of a normal supply of water. Nature had failed them
and if?they wanted to survive the effects of the drouth that
was increasing from year to year they must act upon the pre-
cept that ?God helps those who help themselves.?

The members of the board of directors of the Twin
Lakes Company were all ?dirt farmers? and because of their
years of residence and experience in Crowley County and of
their unusual courage and ability, they were peculiarly ?tted
to ?ght the battle that was ahead of them for the preserVation
of their homes. They vigorously commenced their search for
additional water. 'They investigated every available water
supply and personally explored all of the streams tributary,
or that could be made tributary, to the Arkansas River, in
their search for water east of the Continental Divide, but
found nothing that would supply their needs.

One day in August, 1930, after another day of fruitless
search for water, several members of the board of directors of
the Twin Lakes Company, with their president, John H.
Cowden, and their engineer, 0. R. Smith, stood on top of
Independence Pass, where the auto road crosses the Continen-
tal Divide, at an altitude of more than 12,000 feet, and look-
ing back toward the east they decided that it was useless for
them to continue their search for water on the eastern slope of
the divide. They then turned their faces toward the West
and looked down upon the valley of the Roaring Fork, 2,000
feetbelow them, with its unused waters rushing madly to join
the unused waters of the Colorado River at Glenwood
Springs, and then, still unused, passing out of the State of
Colorado forever. As they raised their eyes from the valley
to the encircling magni?cent l4,000-foot peaks about them,
a vision came to them, and they said to Mr. Smith, pointing
to the Roaring Fork valley:

"You must go down there and ?nd water for our needs and you
must ?nd a way to bring it over or through this Continental Divide to
Twin Lakes and to the Arkansas River.?

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Mr. Smith immediately went down to the Roaring Fork
as directed, and spent the summer of 1930 and the summer
and fall of 1931 tramping and surveying lines over the ranges
and valleys of the ?fty square miles of mountainous area in
the watershed of the Roaring Fork and its tributaries lying
above an altitude of 10,500 feet. He measured the ?ow of
water in all- of the streams and searched for a tunnel site
through the narrowest part of the Continental Divide and
another tunnel site through Independence Mountain, a spur
range between Roaring Fork and its southern tributary,
known as Lincoln Gulch, and he came back to Ordway in the
winter of 1931 and exultantly reported to the board of direc?
tors of the company that he had found abundant water for
all of its needs; had found a tunnel site 20,340 feet in length,
from Lincoln Gulch through the Continental Divide, to Lake
Creek on the eastern ?slope of the divide, had found a second
tunnel site 9,300 feet in length through Independence Moun-
tain from Roaring Fork to Lincoln Gulch, and that in his
opinion the entire project could be constructed for approxi-
mately $2,000,000.

Rejoicing in drouth?stricken Crowley County over Mr.
Smith?s report was great, and the board of directors quickly
approved the plan with unshakable faith in their ability to
?nd a way of executing it. But ?faith without works is
dead,? and so the board of directors of this company went to
work to ?nd the $2,000,000 required to bring the water
through. the Continental Divide.

There was no private capital that could be borrowed for
an irrigated project in the year 1932. The Reconstruction
Finance Corporation had recently been created to aid worthy
projects, so Mr. Cowden and Mr. Francis King. Carey, a
prominent Baltimore attorney, and president of the National
Sugar Manufacturing Company at Sugar City, that owned a
large acreage under the Twin Lakes system, requested the
board to apply to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for

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a loan, and Mr. Carey was asked to go to Washington as
special counsel for the company to see if the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation would loan the Twin Lakes Company
$2,000,000 for its Independence Pass Transmountain Diver?
sion Project. Mr. Carey magnanimously consented to go.
without any assurance of compensation, and through his
acquaintances in Washington he was able to induce Dr. El-
wood Mead, Commissioner of the Reclamation Bureau, to
visit the Twin Lakes system, and he immediately reported
that a supplemental water supply was badly needed and that.
in his opinion, the Project was feasible, and he recommended
that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation investigate the
Project. Dr. Mead?s recommendation was strongly seconded
by Mr. M. J. Hinderlider, State Engineer of Colorado. and
"with these recommendations Mr. Carey ?led with the Recona
struction Finance Corporation a tentative application for a
loan of $2,000,000. and he was told that his application
would be considered if he would return to Colorado and have
a formal and detailed application prepared by the Twin Lakes
Company and its engineer. -

From June to October, 1932, Mr. Smith worked upon
the cost estimates and plans of the Project, and Mr. R. J. Tip?
ton. one of the most experienced civil and water engineers in
the State, was employed by the Twin Lakes Company to
make an analysis of the water shortages of the company and
to investigate the diversion project conceived and proposed by
Mr. O. R. Smith, the company?s engineer, as a possible means
of supplying supplemental water to relieve those shortages.
By October, 1932. a formal and detailed application with an
exhaustive engineering report was completed and was taken
to \Vashington by President Cowden, R. Ferguson, secre?
tary of the company, Mr. Smith, Mr. Tipton, Mr. Harry E.
Mast, general counsel for the company. and others, and ?led

with R. F. C.
After the application had been considered by the board

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of directors of R. F. C. and ?approved for examination,? it
was sent to the ?Clinic? of the Self-Liquidating Division.
This ?Clinic? was composed of an Engineering, Legal and
Financial Division. After a thorough examination, the appli?
cation was approved by the Engineering and Legal Divisions
without loss of its identity, and it was then plunged into the
cold bath of the Financial Division, where it remained for a
considerable time, subjected to the closest scrutiny, to deter?
mine whether the loan, if made, could be repaid during a
period of thirty years without suffering to the applicant. The
Financial Division ?nally gave its approval upon the condi-
tion that the application be submitted to a major operation?
the amputation of the shorter tunnel from the Project and
the reduction of the loan to $1,125,000.

The Project thus reduced in size was approved by R. F.
C. and steps were immediately taken to prepare plans and
speci?cations in order to secure competitive bids for the con-
struction of the ?rst unit of the Project. On July 12, 1933.
bids were opened and the contract for the construction of the
?rst unit of the Project, consisting of Tunnel No. 1, Lincoln
Gulch Diversion Dam and New York Collection Canal, was
awarded to Platt Rogers, Inc., a well known local contractor
of Pueblo. In November, 1933, work was started on Tunnel
No. l, and 408 working days later on it was holed through.
February, 1935, the creWs from the two headings met in mid?
tunnel and in the presence of?a distinguished company of visi-
tors celebrated ?Holing Through" day in true western style.

While work was in progress on Tunnel No. 1, Mr.
Couch, a member of the R. F. C. board, Mr. W. E. Swift, its
engineer, Mr. Morton Macartney, chief of the Self?Liquidat?
ing Division of R. F. C., and later Mr. Emil Schram, now a
member of the R. F. C. board, visited the Project and caught
the spirit of the vision and faith of the Twin Lakes people to
such a degree that upon their return to \Vashington they rec-
ommended to the R. F. C. board that the loan be increased to

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$2,000,000 so that the entire project could be constructed as
originally planned. The additional loan was approved and
its supervision was transferred from the Self?Liquidating
Division of R. F. C., where it started, to the Drainage, Levee
and Irrigation Division of R. F. C., Emil Schram, then chief,
present chief Frank J. Keenan.

Competitive bids for the second unit of the Project, con-
sisting of Tunnel No. 2, two diversion dams and two connec-
tion canals, were asked for and the contract was awarded to
S. S. Magof?n Company, Inc., a tunnel contractor of experi-
ence in the West, Frank R. Purvis, superintendent in charge.

Work was commenced on Tunnel No. 2 in October,
193 5, and it was ?holed through? on October 12, 1936, in
325 working days from one heading. All work on Unit No.
2 was ?nished on February 17, 193 7, which completed the
Project.

In order to secure additional carrying capacity in Tunnel
No. and protect the walls from the action of water, the
R. F. C. made an additional loan of $200,000 (which made
an aggregate loan of $2,200,000) to line 6,930 additional feet
of Tunnel No. 1, making in all 12,410 feet of lining in Tun~
nel No. 1 the remaining 7,930 feet of unlined tunnel needs no
lining. The contract for this lining was awarded to S. S.
Magof?n Company, Inc., and work proceeded along with the
work on the second unit and was ?nished on November 25.
1936.

The success of the Project has been demonstrated by the
fruits already gathered from the completion 'of the ?rst unit in
1935, for more than 20,000 acre-feet of western slope water
passed through Tunnel No. 1 in the irrigation season of 1935,
in time to overcome the long drouth and save the crops for
that year,? and more than 25,000 acre?feet of western slope
water passed through the tunnel up to September 1, 1936.
which made a-good crop for that year. With Tunnel No. 2
now completed, ready to carry the waters from Lost Man

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Creek and Roaring Fork proper from? the very ?rst runoff
from those streams in this year 193 7, it is con?dently ex-
pected that the diversion of western slope water for the season
of 1937 and subsequent years will be double that for the year
193 6, and that the water shortage under the Twin Lakes sys-
tem will be a thing of- the past.

This Project, like a diamond, has many faces or facets
of interest to many groups of people.

It has been especially interesting to the engineers, as it
was the ?rst large water diversion project from the Colorado
River Basin. It called for exact engineering skill and knowl-
edge in locating the two portals of the tunnels, and day by
day, almost hour by hour, directing the course and alignment
of the tunnels so that the two headings would meet, and meet
exactly, as they did, and not pass each other in the night, nor
stray from their true course in the dark, silent depths of the
mountain, in the 3.8 miles of Tunnel No. 1, and the 9,300
feet of Tunnel No. 2; in designing and supervising the erec?
tion of large rock-?lled, steel faced dams to withstand moun?
tain torrents, and in supervising and checking the work of
several hundred men, day and night, summer and winter, in
sunshine and in winter storms, on the surface and below the
surface of the earth, and all at an altitude of 10,500 feet, for
four successive years.

The Project was interesting to the contractors, for all the
factors entering into their problem, such as securing men,
housing them, breaking them in, keeping them contented,
replacing those who left; of safeguarding the comfort and
lives of those men, crowded and huddled together in the scant
space at the breast of the tunnel, operating four electriCal
drills with their deafening, ear-splitting roar; of securing sup?
plies and working materials at all seasons of the year in all
kinds of weather, over all kinds of roads, and of organizing
and controlling men, crews and shifts of men so that the work
could be done with a pro?t over the contract price that was

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made in advance for every unit or kind of work or material
entering into the job, were, in the main, new and unknown
factors, because of the unusual and untried conditions that
surrounded the work in a rough, remote, mountainous coun-
try, above 10,500 feet in altitude, blocked by deep snows for
the winter months.

The Project was interesting to the hard rock miners of
Leadville, Aspen and neighboring mining camps, who kept
close watch upon the work in the tunnels, as these tunnels
passed through mining claims that had been worked in early
days. No veins were found. The miner now knows where
he need not look for mineral values.

The Project was also of interest to the United States
Mining and Geological Departments. Before the tunnels
were commenced, Mr. J. W. Vanderbelt, of the U. S. Geologi-
cal Survey, carefully examined and made a favorable geo-
logical report upon the tunnel sites selected by Mr. Smith, and
foretold with remarkable accuracy the character of the various
rocks that would be encountered, and where changes would
occur. Mr. Chas. Henderson, chief of the U. S. Bureau of
Mines, located in Denver, was a frequent and interested visitor
at the Project.

The Project was of interest to the Reconstruction Fi?
nance Corporation and to the chiefs of the two divisions and
its engineers, for it was a new, novel and highly romantic
venture, coupled with immediate and permanent relief to
deserving drouth-stricken farmers who bad faith in them?
selves and in their ability to repay the loan.

The Project was of interest to the legal profession, as
many legal obstacles and hurdles were removed or jumped
during the progress of the work. The well known principle
that one who makes a ?ling in the o?ice of the State Engineer
for the appropriation of water acquires no rights under his
?ling unless he prosecutes and completes his work with due
diligence and applies the water to bene?cial use within a rea?
sonable time was invoked.

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The equally well known principle that the only proceed?
ing supplied by our statutes for determining the question of
what constitutes due diligence, reasonable time and bene?cial
use as between con?icting claimants, is the general adjudica-
tion proceeding authorizing decrees of court establishing rela?
tive priorities as between claimants, was invoked.

For the ?rst time the right to divert water from the
Colorado River Basin to the eastern of the Continental
Divide under the Colorado River Compact was made an issue
between western slope users and eastern slope users. The
issue was settled by a recognition of the legal right to so divert
under the compact and the practical side of the issue was
adjusted by an agreement permitting western slope users to
make ?lings for additional appropriations of water, and
securing decrees therefor, ahead of the ?lings of the Twin
Lakes Company. This agreement has been kept by all par?
ties to it, and it has been embodied in a recent decree of the
District Court at Glenwood Springs, in a general adjudication
proceeding that gives the Twin Lakes Company the right to
make its transmountain diversion from Roaring Fork and its
tributaries.

For the ?rst time the right to divert water from the
Colorado River Basin to the eastern slope of the Continental
Divide, under the Colorado River Compact, for use in Colo-
rado, before Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico
(the four states comprising the Upper Basin States) had en?
tered into a compact that established their relative rights and
obligations under the Colorado River Compact, was raised by
Wyoming and the Twin Lakes Project was blocked in Wash-
ington. After briefs were ?led by both states with the Secre?
tary of the Interior, Wyoming and its senators withdrew
their objection to the Twin Lakes diversion.

The Project was and is still of interest to the farming
communities on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide,
as it was the pioneer project to divert water in any consider?
able quantity through the Continental Divide from the 

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rado River Basin and the ?rst major test of the value of the
Colorado River Compact to eastern slope farmers. Many
communities on the eastern slope need and must have supple-
mental water supplies and there is no place to obtain these
supplies except from the Colorado River Basin. .

But above all, the Project is of interest to.' the farmers
and stockholders of the Twin Lakes Company in Crowley
County, Colorado, who have for more than ?ve years coura-
geously and unanimously Supported the Twin Lakes? board
and its o?icers in their battle to complete the diversion project
and secure western slope water that has not only saved their
crops for the years 1935 and 1936, but has assured them,
their children, and their children?s children after them, of an
ample water supply for all time to come.

The success of the Project was due entirely to the coop-
erative and helpful spirit that actuated every representative of
the Twin Lakes Company, and it was their teamwork alone
that accomplished the results. The board of directors
throughout the Project were: John H. Cowden, president;
James G. Close, vice-president; Ben A. Johnson, treasurer;
W. J. Trainer, and Clyde Ford. 0. R. Smith, chief engineer
of the Project, has served during the entire period of construc-
tion, unsel?shly and ef?ciently. Wm. R. Ferguson, through
whose hands the entire $2,200,000 of the loan has passed and
been accounted for With credit to himself and to the company,
is the secretary of the company. Harry E. Mast, of Ordway,
Colorado, is general attorney for the company. Mr. Francis
King Carey was the special counsel of the company in Wash?
ington and Mr. Wm. Bond and others were local counsel in
Denver. Words of special appreciation should be extended to
Mr. Herbert S. Crocker, eX?president of the American Engi-
neering Society, representing the R. F. C. as supervising engi?
neer of the Project until a short time ago, when Mr. R. J.
Tipton was appointed as his successor, and both have added
their skill and sympathetic encouragement at all times.

It has been a pleasure to the writer of this story to have
been associated with all of the above gentlemen.

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