| OCR Text |
Show 686 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS and did more clearing. No work was done on it in 1905 or 1906. Fur- ther work was done in 1907 and some washouts were repaired in 1908. That was the last work on the Rawah. Much more than one-half of the ditch was left unconstructed. No water was delivered through it to the Skyline, nor was any sold or used. Nothing appears to have been done with the lakes or natural reservoirs. In 1903 Link and Akin gave to each of three others a one-fifth share of their project, in return for which the new partners were to carry on solicitations to get capitalists interested and to raise money. The results of the solicitations were disappointing, but some investors were brought in and became concerned about the preliminary plans. Differences of opinion arose and had to be dealt with. The plans were examined and reexamined, alternative modes and places of diversion were considered and investigated, particular features were eliminated and others added, and in 1909, but not before, the project was defi- nitely brought into its present form. A short reference to some of the details will serve to make this plain. In the Upper Rawah filing of October, 1902, nothing was said about the proposed tunnel diversion, but a claim was made to the use of certain lakes or natural reservoirs described as having an aggregate capacity of 325,000,000 cubic feet. The tunnel diversion was merely a mental conception until 1904. In March of that year a survey was made of a tunnel site, a ditch from the west fork of the Laramie to the east fork, and a channel reservoir on the east fork above the tunnel site; and in May following a statement of claim under them was filed, in which the estimated cost of the tunnel and ditch was given as $189,200 and that of the reservoir as $20,000. Later in 1904 a survey was made of a tunnel site, three collecting ditches and two pipe lines, and in October of that year a statement of claim under them was filed, in which the estimated cost of the tunnel, ditches and pip© lines was given as $375,000. The location and dimensions of the tunnel in the second survey differed from those in the first. The difference was not pronounced, and yet was a real change. In September, 1906, another statement of claim was filed covering the Upper Rawah Ditch, the lakes connected therewith and the tunnel. This statement declared that the lakes were to be so enlarged that they would have an aggregate capacity of 1,250,000,000 cubic feet, instead of 325,000,000 as stated in the filing of 1902; and it again changed the location and dimensions of the tunnel-this time more than before. In 1905 and 1906 surveys were made to find a route for an open canal from the Laramie around the mountains, through a portion of Wyoming and back to Colorado, which would avoid the construc- tion of a tunnel and the maintenance of ditches in the higher mountain levels; and in 1908 a statement of claim covering such a canal was filed, as was also a claim covering a large channel reservoir nine miles down the stream from the tunnel site. The estimated cost of the canal was given as $1,000,000 and that of the reservoir as $200,000. The plan evidenced by these filings was that of impounding the water in the reservoir and liberating it in an equalized flow into the canal, which was to carry it into the Poudre watershed without the aid of a tunnel. Late in 1908 and in the fore part of 1909 another sur- vey along the same general line and with the same purpose was made |
