Cheyenne Creek
Colorado
Two men dammed this creek in the 1880s to make a lake that would help sell a hotel and casino, and then had to sue the city for stealing the water.
In the 1880s two men named Willie Wilcox and James Purtales ran a dairy in Broadmoor, and Cheyenne Creek ran through their land. They dammed part of it and made a lake that had never existed before. The lake was not for the cows. They were building a hotel and a casino, and they wanted a more enticing setting for it. Colorado Springs needed water for its growing town. By the account of the record, the city simply kept taking it. In the words of the source, it continued to steal water. The matter went to court, and the court sided with the dairymen. Wilcox and Purtales were declared the holders of the water rights. The city got its way in the end, but it took decades. Water rights on the north and south forks of the creek stayed in private hands until 1966. That year Colorado Springs finally acquired them.
This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
In the 1880s, Willie Wilcox and James Purtales dammed part of Cheyenne Creek in Broadmoor that ran through their Broadmoor Dairy property to create a man-made lake to make a more enticing environment for a hotel and casino that they were building.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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