BLM LIBRARY 8801411 THE VALLEY OF OPPORTUNITY STEVEN F. MEHLS ©OJISE^lU ©IF A DDnST(D)IE¥ ©IF <D(DIL(Q)IBAin)<D CCDLOnS^®® CULTURAL RESOURCES SERIES TIMBER TWELVE ra\ Ce^ #s F THE VALLEY OF OPPORTUNITY A History of West-Central Colorado By Steven F. Mehls Bureau of Land Management Colorado State Office Denver, Colorado <c** r a# V- ^ M&* 1982 0^ BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT LIBRARY Denver , Colorado 88614162 COPIES OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE AVAILABLE FROM: BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT COLORADO STATE OFFICE 1037 20th STREET DENVER, COLORADO 80202 or BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT GRAND JUNCTION DISTRICT OFFICE 764 HORIZON DRIVE GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO 81501 This document is printed in conjunction with the Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement and serves as support for both the RMP and EIS. In addition, this document is integral to the Glenwood Springs Resource Area Cultural Resource Management Plan. This document is in the public domain and may be quoted. Please credit either the Bureau of Land Management and/or the author if direct quotations are made. DESIGNED BY Leigh Wellborn FOREWORD This document represents the latest Class I (History) to be written for the western slope of Colorado. Our three districts in this region of Colorado now have histories specifically for them. Such works provide a valuable and needed synthesis of history and literature for these areas and also gives our managers data that are used on a daily basis for land-use decisionmaking. Multiple land use is a Bureau mission that is being met. Oil and gas, coal, oil shale and other energy minerals, not to mention rights-of-ways, grazing programs, recreation projects and land-use planning, are all supported by histories such as this. Resource Management Plans and subsequent Environmental Impact Statements that are pro- duced for the Bureau's Area Offices are the foundations for long-term land-use management. The Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement is a Bureau pilot document and serves as a management tool for the Glenwood Springs Resource Area. This history, Valley of Opportunity supports the Resource Management Plan. In addition, a history provides back- ground and support for the upcoming Grand Junction Resource Area Managment Plan/Environmental Impact Statement. The Valley of Opportunity has already been used for Oil Shale Environmental Statements and for the Federal Coal Leasing Program in the Grand Junction, Colorado, District. Truly, such histories are not only multiple-use in scope but are also management tools that provide basic understanding for land use decisions. Additionally, this history represents an ongoing effort to provide the public reader with a work that is not only interesting but is also well researched. In this way, another sector is satisfied. These histories are used by schools, libraries, universities and, of course, the general public. Again, multiple-use is served. Finally, as the Valley of Opportunity was being prepared, it happened that the City of Grand Junction's Centennial would occur in 1982. Coincidentally, the Glenwood Springs Resource Manage- ment Plan will be published in November 1982. Since this history serves several purposes, it is appro- priate that it also is the Bureau's contribution to Grand Junction's Centennial celebration. With these thoughts in mind, it is my pleasure to present to both the general public and to interested readers this latest history of a BLM Colorado district. (P.% George C. Francis " State Director Bureau of Land Management, Colorado June 1982 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS * The history of west-central Colorado is the story of man using and adapting to his environment. As work on this study progressed, it became obvious that natural resources and their location led to two distinct patterns of development in different sections of the region. Men constantly made decisions about use of these resources and in a sense The Valley of Opportunity is a chronicle of those choices and their ramifications. An author accumulates many debts along the trail of history and I am no dif- ferent. I want to express my gratitude because without these people this document would have been impossible to write. Many thanks to the staffs of the Denver Public Library's Western History Department, the Documentary Resources Division of the Colorado Historical Society, the Western History Collections of Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Mesa County Public Library, the Museum of Western Colorado, Mesa College Library, Garfield County Public Library, Glenwood Springs Public Library, Eagle County Public Library and Pitkin County Public Library. Special thanks go to the staffs at Colorado State Office and Grand Junction District Office, BLM, and Colorado National Monument, NPS. To simply say thank you to John Crouch, BLM District Archaeologist, Grand Junction hardly covers the debt. But the biggest obligation, by far, is owed Dr. Frederic J. Athearn, BLM's Colorado State Historian. His professional guidance and editing did more than anything else to strengthen the document. A special thank you to Larraine Davis, Debbie Allyn, Vickie Noreen, Mary Seifert, Cindy Gurule, and Terri Kingery who made it all possible by spending what must have seemed like endless hours at a typewriter. Finally, I must say thanks to my wife Carol, for her help, encouragement and occassional use of her "nimble fingers". DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Thomas, a life-long civil servant and the person who got me interested in history. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. The Natural Backdrop and Spanish Exploration 1 Chapter II. The Fur Trade and Government Exploration 17 Chapter III. Inter-racial Contact and Ute Removal 37 Chapter IV. West-Central Colorado's Mining Frontier 51 Chapter V. The Transportation Frontier in West-Central Colorado 75 Chapter VI. The Stockmen's Frontier 1880-1920 107 Chapter VII. West-Central Colorado Farming 1880-1920 131 Chapter VIII. The Urban Frontier 161 Chapter IX. The Federal Government in West-Central Colorado 185 Chapter X. Depression Decades 215 Chapter XI. Mining Since 1920 237 Chapter XII. The New Prosperity 263 Bibliography 277 INTRODUCTION The Valley of Opportunity is a title that symbolizes development and settlement throughout west -central Colorado. From the days of native-American occupation, to the most modern period, mankind realized the value and importance of the Grand (Colorado) River valley and its tributaries like the Eagle. Early man saw that in the valley were sources of water, lush vegetation, and wildlife. They therefore used these resources to sustain themselves and they saw the Grand Valley as a major trailway between the Continental Divide and Utah. The Spanish explorers, Dominguez and Escalante, in 1776, traversed the Grand River valley on a northerly course while seeking a trail to California. This journal provided the first re- corded European description of the region. During the early to mid-1 800s, fur traders and trappers came into the area, some from the eastern plains, beyond the Continental Divide, and others from New Mexico, to the south. These men, some Spanish/ Mexican, others American, found little beaver along the Grand River and mainly used the valley as a passegeway into Utah where the Green, White, and other streams provided great quantities of the furry animals. Antoine Robidoux built a trading fort at the mouth of the Gunnison and Uncompaghre Rivers near present day Delta and it represented the first American settlement anywhere near the Grand Valley. The next entrance came with official government explorations. John C. Fre- mont arrived in the Eagle River valley while on his way to Oregon in 1845, and then he returned to Colorado in 1848 where his party nearly perished in the snowy San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. Disaster ended Fremont's efforts. However, in 1853 John Williams Gunnison was commissioned to survey a transcontinental railroad route over the legendary Cochetopa Pass. In his effort, Gunnison surveyed a line to the mouth of the Gunnison and Grand Rivers, later to become the townsite of Grand Junction. In 1860 a group of miners, led by Richard Sopris, explored the Aspen and Glenwood Springs regions in search of minerals. None were discovered, but a mountain near Carbondale was named in honor of Sopris. The final gasp of exploration came in the 1870s when numerous geologists, geographers, and botanists under the direction of Ferdinand V. Hayden surveyed the western slope of Colorado. These surveys provided a wealth of information and provided the final touches preparatory to settlement in west- central Colorado. In 1879, Ute Indians, residing on the White River Reservation near Meeker, rose in rebellion. They killed Agent Nathan Meeker and others. The U.S. Army was called in to restore order. By 1881, after outcries from the Anglo citizens of Colorado, the Utes were removed to reservations in Utah and far southwestern Colorado. The west slope was, at last, open to settlement. The rush for western Colorado was soon in coming. The San Juans had already been invaded by miners and now it was west-central Colorado's turn. In the mid-1 870s the upper Eagle River valley was settled. Redcliffe, Holy Cross City, and other towns were founded. By 1879, the Aspen region was under development and precious metal mining was established in the high country. Coal mining also developed in the early 1880s to fuel the smelters and towns that arose from silver extraction efforts. Possibly the most important event in the region was the advent of transportation systems, beginning with roads and trails and culminating with railroads. In 1882, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad reached the junction of the Gunnison and Grand Rivers on its way to Utah. The city of Grand Junction had been founded a year earlier.