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The original owners of the Windsor Reservoir are constructing a system of ditches in the mountains, about 47 miles west of their reservoir, which will greatly increase the supply available for storage. In 1902 they had completed and used the Sand Creek or Divide Ditch, which is 1½ miles long and has a capacity of 250 cubic feet per second. It cost $1,500. The ditch diverts water from Sand Creek, a tributary of the Laramie River, and carries it over the divide into Sheep Creek, one of the small tributaries of the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre River. In 1901 the flow of Sand Creek at this point was measured and was found to vary between 6 and 240 cubic feet per second, and it is expected to furnish a good supply for storage in the Windsor Reservoir every year. In 1902, however, the Sand Creek Ditch did not at any time carry over 31 cubic feet per second and the total amount supplied by it was 60,700,000 cubic feet, or an amount equal to one-eighth
of the capacity of the Windsor Reservoir. Water was run through the ditch from May 9 to July 10, inclusive, and from July 16 to 23, inclusive.
This supply drawn from the Laramie River will he reinforced by two other ditches, one of which, the Deadman Ditch, has been completed and will be used in 1903. It crosses Deadman Creek, a tributary of the Laramie River, and several other small creeks or draws, catching the flow of all of them and carrying it over the divide to Sand Creek, the water finally being taken by the Sand Creek Ditch. In 1903 the other of these ditches, called the Columbine Ditch, is to be constructed. It is planned to divert the flow of Columbine Creek, a tributary of Sand Creek, and discharge it into the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre River. It is 2½ miles long and the Deadman Ditch is 5 miles long. It is estimated that these two will furnish about the same amount as the Sand Creek Ditch each year. There are no interests on the head waiters of these streams in Colorado, and therefore no objections to these diversions have been made in that State. But Laramie River and Sand Creek flow north into Wyoming, where both arc used for irrigation. This plan of increasing the available amount of water for storage in the reservoirs of the Cache la Poudre Valley at the expense of the irrigation interests in Wyoming has been complained of and a suit is now pending in the United States court.
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Eastern Mojave Vegetation
