Colorado water history: a bibliography

March 2008.Water is at the heart of Colorado's past and future. Ongoing debates - even lawsuits - regarding water show the importance this vital resource to the state and to the West. Combined with natural disasters such as floods and drought, or human concerns such as pollution and recreation, water issues have drawn an increasing degree of public attention. For water professionals, students, and interested citizens, knowing the history of our water resources can lead to a better understanding of current issues and events. The Colorado Water History Bibliography is a helpful resource for those wanting to learn more about this timely and significant topic. This bibliography is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, it is a selective listing of core books on the topic that are generally accessible to the public, both in terms of content and availability. In addition to illuminating books already written about Colorado's water, this list reveals areas ripe for research. There are clearly holes in the writings about our state's rich water history, waiting to be filled in by generations of scholars yet to come

Western waters: New Mexico's Big Ditch and groundwater in Colorado's South Platte Valley

Department Head: Doug Yarrington.2008 Spring.Includes bibliographical references (pages 80-87).Water is at the heart of history in the American West. This connection ought to be especially lucid to westerners, but in fact the opposite is often true. Water seems to pour out of our faucets by magic – its origins hidden, its journey obscure. Environmental history can help reclaim the lost relationships between people and this vital substance which shapes western landscapes, livelihoods, and lives. The main goal of the essays herein is to contribute to this understanding. This thesis consists of two distinct but related historical threads, both dealing with western water. The advantage of writing two separate, concise pieces of historical analysis for this volume is their added flexibility as publishable items. To achieve the shorter lengths necessary for this approach, extensive historiographical research was condensed in the final articles, though much of it is still evident in the footnotes and bibliography of each essay. An additional benefit derived from two short articles is an expanded temporal, topical, and geographical scope. Western water is a vast subject, and many important stories remain untold. In this pair of essays, I have attempted to recover some fragments of this forgotten past