Water is Our Story

Water is Our Story. . The McElmo Creek Flume No. 6 is the last remaining example of 104 Wooden Flumes used to convey water diverted from the Dolores River to irrigate croplands and provide domestic water to the greater Montezuma Valley., Cortez, Montezuma County and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation average a mere 11” of annual precipitation, much of it in the form of snow., Although soils are rich and productive, local agriculture could not have developed without the benefit of irrigation water. Early settlers quickly saw the importance of diverting water from the Dolores River into a network of ditches crisscrossing Montezuma Valley., Early Ute ranchers used water from seasonal creeks and the Mancos River for their livestock before a central delivery system was extended to the reservation as a part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Dolores Project., Irrigation: The watering of land by artificial means to foster plant growth., Ancestral Puebloans living at Mesa Verde also understood the value of storing water. Archaeologists have uncovered remnants of water impoundments at Morefield and Far View, and where topography allowed it, small check dams were used to collect run-off for watering crops and controlling soil erosion., These early residents struggled with siltation of their catchmeat basins, and resorted to periodic dredging to keep them functioning until the sediment load filled them entirely.