History

History of the Ditch

The Anderson Ditch was built in 1860 by Jonas Anderson and Marinus Smith, who had homesteaded 160 acres immediately south of the "Boulder City" townsite. The original water rights filing called for the irrigation of 80 acres. Marinus Smith soon created subdivisions of what is now the West Arapahoe and Highlands Lawn neighborhoods. From the very beginning the ditch supplied water to these neighborhoods through little laterals that followed the streets.

In 1873 Jay Sternberg built the "Boulder City Flouring Mill", also known as the Sternberg Mill, near the start of the ditch, using the water and the drop from the ditch back to the creek to power the mill.

In 1875 the ditch was expanded and extended another half mile to Bear Canyon Creek. This allowed excess water to return to Bear Canyon Creek, and eventually Boulder Creek. Bear Canyon Creek was also used as a carrier for irrigation water. The CU Research Park was among these lands brought under irrigation by this expansion, and to this day is still irrigated with water from Anderson Ditch.

One of the most valuable early donations to CU Boulder was 10 shares of the Anderson Ditch by Marinus Smith. This water allowed the planting of trees and watering of lawns on campus, and helped convince the territorial legislature to locate the university here. Up until the 1980s parts of the campus were flood irrigated using the laterals that still can be seen criss-crossing the grounds. Today Anderson Ditch water is still used to irrigate the grounds, but the water now flows into Varsity Pond and is pumped through a sophisticated system of sensors and sprinklers.