Where the Water Comes From

Where we live in the Beaton Creek Valley, at the south end of Montrose County, there is no water.

That’s an exaggeration, obviously, but there is truly very little water in our high desert ecosystem. I am told the well water is hard to find and not much good. Beaton Creek itself might supply enough for a small community, but it is mostly spoken for by the one large ranch at the valley’s upper end. Most of us are on the high side of the Piñon Ditch, the first diversion off the Uncompahgre River where it emerges from its canyon at Colona.

So, how do we live? We live on Gunnison River water from out of the Black Canyon by way of the Gunnison Tunnel, which celebrates its 100th anniversary September 26.