History Colorado

You are a manager of a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains today and you need water to make snow for ski jumps. Add up how much water you need in a day.

7. How Much Water Did You Use In the Rocky Mountains?

You are a homestead farmer in the 1930’s and you need water for your family and cows. Add up how much water you need in a day.

5. How Much Water Did You Use During the Dust Bowl?

Homestead farmers needed water for their families and cows. In Baca County, farmers got water from wells and from irrigation projects that used small canals and ditches to move water to fields from reservoirs. 

4. The Dust Bowl in the 1930s

This timeline explores major droughts throughout Colorado's past. 

10. Droughts in Colorado's History

Which place and time used the most water?

8. Who Used The Most Water?

How much water do you think you’ve used today? Add up all the things you did this morning that need water!


9. Your Water Footprint Today

The top 10 largest wildfires in Colorado's history burned in the last 20 years. Explore the hotspot map to find out more about what caused these fires and what needs to change to prevent them. 

11. Wildfires in Colorado's History

In this resource kit, we’ll explore water in Colorado history, and how important water has been to people in the past and today. People need water for all kinds of purposes including drinking, cleaning, growing food, energy, recreation, and making things. Think about all of the ways that you used water today. Where does water in Colorado come from? Explore this map to discover common water sources in our state like snow, rain, and major rivers.

1. Where’s the Water? 

This is a live test page for the Apples to Oranges game for the Water Quest resource kit. 

12. Water Quest - Apples to Oranges

Ancestral Pueblo people thrived for thousands of years in a dry environment by respecting water. In the Mesa Verde region, water filters through the sandstone and emerges from seep springs. Ancestral Pueblo people often settled near these natural seep springs across the plateau and in canyon alcoves. They farmed in places that got the most rain and built check dams and terraces to keep water from running off. As the population grew, they built reservoirs to collect spring snowmelt and summer rain. At the end of the 1200s, a twenty-four year-long drought is one factor that may have led the ancestral Pueblo people to migrate out of the Mesa Verde region. 


2. The Mesa Verde Region in the 1200s

Imagine that you are an Ancestral Pueblo person living over 800 years ago and you need water for your village. Add up how much water you need in a day for yourself, the people, and turkeys that live in your village. 

3. How Much Water Did You Use in Mesa Verde?

Mountain towns like Breckenridge were once camps for Ute people who hunted here. Then miners and ranchers settled in and changed the landscape. Now, a growing ski industry and the flood of people visiting and living in our high country have transformed the mountains again. More people and a changing climate have led to a crucial moment in Colorado history: it’s up to us to determine our future.

6. The Rocky Mountains Today

From Mesa Verde to the Dust Bowl, and to the changing contemporary landscape of the Rocky Mountains, discover the important role water has played in Colorado history — and the environmental challenges people faced in the past and present.

Students explore the relationships three different communities had with this precious resource through STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and geography activities, and consider implications for water usage in times of drought today. This resource kit is designed for upper elementary and middle school earth science and geography classes and can be adapted for lower elementary and high school students.

Guiding Questions for the Water Quest resource kit:

Where does water in Colorado come from? 

How have people in Colorado used water in the past and today? 

How much water have people used for themselves and different activities over time? 

Visit the Living West Exhibit at History Colorado Center in Denver

https://www.historycolorado.org/exhibit/living-west 

Drought and newcomers threaten Southern Colorado's traditional water systems

Ancestral Pueblo Indians of Southwestern Colorado

New Deal Resources on Colorado’s Eastern Plains

Burning Truth: The Beginning of the End for Colorado’s Forests

Colorado River Water Conservation District

Water Quest

Earth and Space Science

Science

Geography

Social Studies

U.S. History

The Rocky Mountains run north-to-south through the middle of Colorado. The state is home to 58 "fourteeners": mountain peaks that are more than 14,000 feet in elevation. 

In Colorado, 32 ski resort towns cover the Rocky Mountains. Although mountains are where most of Colorado’s snow falls, ski resorts also use snowmakers to get their slopes ready for skiers. It takes about 75,000 gallons of water to make enough snow to cover a 200 foot by 200 foot area (about eight and a half basketball courts) with 6 inches of snow! 


35 mm color slide depicting the Berthoud Pass ski area, taken on April 19, 1953, by Ray V. Frost (1907-2003) . The photograph shows two skiers riding the chair lift. Part of an unidentified wooden structure appears on the right. Berthoud Pass is located on the border between Clear Creek and Grand Counties in Colorado.

Ray Vermillion Frost was a resident of Golden, Colorado and worked as a master brewer at Coors Brewing Company. He was also an avid photographer, traveler, skier, and mountaineer who photographed his road-trips, skiing, and hiking and climbing adventures throughout Colorado between circa 1930-1982.

Photograph, Skiing Chair Lift at B.P.

Constructed reservoirs are key to bringing water from the mountains to the Front Range. Located on the Blue River, the mining town of Dillon was an ideal spot for a dam and reservoir.  Denver started buying land there in the 1930s for just that reason.  Twenty years later, the Denver Water Board gave Dillon residents five years to move before it flooded the town.  Historic buildings moved to a new town site - and bodies in the town cemetery were relocated to make way for Dillon Reservoir.  The dam and reservoir were completed in 1963. 

Photograph, Dillon Reservoir

Today, watering the lawn is often the biggest consumer of water in a household. When Colorado is in a drought, cities establish important guidelines around when and how often to water to help reduce waste and prevent water shortages. One common rule is that lawns should only be watered during cooler times of day. 


One of the Beautiful Homes at Bear Creek Near Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Foreground large span of lawn, two small fir trees bottom right. Middleground very large three story house, several sections all connected. Dark red roof, dormer windows. Wainscoat in green, windows all show white curtains. Porch wraps around side that is seen from this angle. Bushes and trees surround house, some have spots of orange and yellow, as if changing for the fall. Back has brown line from top to bottom of card. Messages on left, address on right.

*Printed on front across top, red ink: "ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL HOMES AT BEAR CREEK, NEAR WILKES-BARRE, PA.
*Back left side vertically, brown ink: "1/13 F. M. Kirby & Co. Printed in Germany"
*Printed back left side of line, brown ink: "This Space for Writing Messages"
*Printed back right side of line, brown ink: "POST CARD STAMP"
*Printed back bottom right side, brown ink: "This Side for the address only."
*Hand written back right, pencil: "from Sarah to Mable."

Postcard, Beautiful Home at Bear Creek

In Activity #9, Your Water Footprint Today, find out how much water we use every morning!

Made of porcelain and is pedistal[sic] style. Has hot and cold handles w/ center knob. There are cracks near the handles.


FIC.763.jpg

Sink at Grant-Humphreys Mansion

There’s more to the relationship between water and wildfires than using water to put out fires around Colorado. When forests burn, the soil is no longer held in place by trees and plants, and it can run off into local rivers, streams, and wind up in our reservoirs. Ash falling on water can also create problems for water filtration systems. In Activity #11, Wildfires in Colorado’s History, learn more about the top 10 largest wildfires in Colorado’s history. 


The Cameron Peak, East Troublesome, and Pine Gulch fires proved to be the largest wildfires in Colorado history, burning a total of 625,356 acres throughout the northwest portion of the state in 2020. The Cameron Peak fire, which raged between August 13 and December 13 in Larimer and Jackson Counties, was the largest of the three. These photographs document the attempts of firefighters to contain the fire early on, an effort that would continue for four more months. Mark T. Spring, the photographer, is a Larimer County firefighter who was one of the first to respond to the fire. Between August 13-17, he and his fellow firefighters utilized several different kinds of equipment and vehicles, including planes and helicopters, to stave off and contain the flames. He and his colleagues traveled to several areas in and around Rustic, Chambers Lake, Masonville, Bellvue, and Redstone Canyon. The photographs depict the various pieces of equipment used, many of the different locations that Mark travelled to, damage from the fire, and the actual fire and smoke.

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Water Quest

6. The Rocky Mountains Today

Guiding Question

Our Mountains