Windsor Gardens Life

Windsor Life Page 20 By Dennis Knight The High Line Canal, bordering nearly a mile on the southern edge of our community, shares a physical and historical link to Windsor Gardens that spans parts of three centuries, a connection based on water. The canal, conceived in 1870, was to be the first large canal ever built for the purposes of transporting and selling irrigation water to landowners along its path. It came about because water in our state is such a precious commodity. In other states, water rights belong primarily to property owners on a stream. But Colorado has unique water laws, based on the Colorado Doctrine, that allow water to be diverted from a stream and taken by ditches to its beneficial use (meaning someone willing to pay for it). So here, if a company could acquire sufficient water rights, a long canal fed by the South Platte River could be dug without hindrance. Finally completed in 1883, the High Line Canal begins at a diversion point on the South Platte River above the mouth of Waterton Canyon. It meanders 66 miles (30 as the crow flies), and the adjoining trail has been extended another five miles, in and out of five metropolitan counties before ending in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood under the shadows of jets coming and going at nearby Denver International Airport. Remarkably, by a feat of superb surveying, the canal drops only 132 feet from start to end, about 2 feet per mile, always occupying the highest point in the terrain, to allow customers and fields on either side to use the unfailing power of gravity to take irrigation water at its tightly-managed gates. Unfortunately, while it may have been one of the biggest irrigation projects in the area, the High Line Canal wasn’t the first and had difficulty getting sufficient water rights because earlier ditches held prior claims. In fact, the canal’s rights were junior to 74 other canals in the South Platte watershed, and so it was frequently dry. Denver Water took over operation and ownership of the entire canal in 1924 and soon set up agreements with city parks and recreation departments along its route to develop what is one of the largest urban trails anywhere. Hiking, biking, wildlife viewing, birdwatching, picnicking in adjoining parks, even horseback riding in some segments, make the High Line Canal Trail one of the most important recreational and fitness amenities in all of Colorado. In 2014 the High Line Canal Conservancy was formed, a coalition of private citizens who provide leadership and connect stakeholders in support of comprehensive planning to ensure that the Canal is protected and enhanced for future generations. Windsor Gardens and the High Line Canal may not have existed without each other. Among the first and most important original customers of the High Line Canal, and a prime reason it was built, was Windsor Farm. The history of Windsor Farm involves the Tabors and the Browns among others and invokes such names as Molly Brown and Baby Doe Tabor. The farm was started in 1879 by Horace Tabor to provide vegetables, dairy, eggs and meats to his grand Windsor Hotel in the heart of booming Denver and later served the Brown Palace Hotel, other big hotels and Denver as a whole. Windsor Farm operated for decades, in the latter years primarily as a dairy, until it was acquired in the early 1960s by the developers of Windsor Gardens. The 3,500 residents of Windsor Gardens prize the High Line Canal, under its rich canopy of tall cottonwoods that shares our long southern border. We claim it as our own and enjoy it as a recreational treasure. Because of the centuries of connection, friendship and mutual benefits we share, many folks who live here believe that the stretch that passes by our beautiful Windsor Gardens is the crowning glory of the historic High Line Canal. Residents interested in joining and supporting the High Line Conservancy are encouraged to contact them at their website, https:// highlinecanal.org. Let them know you live at Windsor Gardens. Windsor Gardens and the High Line Canal have a Long Connection