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Water Supply at Cisco, Part 1 [Column_Cisco Range]

plat_1940.jpg: 1940 Plat indicating the pump house at Cisco Landing

Both man and railroad need water to survive. Accordingly, the water supply was always a concern along the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad routes in eastern Utah.


Wells/Windmills are generally used to draw water in the wide plains. But they were/are rare along the Rio Grande in Utah; water veins were too deep or poor in quantity and/or quality[1].

For example, the well the Rio Grande drilled turned out to be a mineral geyser unsuitable for steam locomotives at Woodside, northwest of Green River[2]. The State Board of Health ordered the Rio Grande to stop supplying water to the town of Thompson due to its poor quality[3]. 1200 feet depth well shed sulfurous water at Cisco[4].

Fortunately, Green River had the namesake river, and Thompson had a spring. But Cisco lacked an adequate water source. Accordingly, when the Rio Grande completed the through the line in 1883, the railroad set up a steam-powered pump at Cisco Landing, on the bank of the by-then Grand (today, Colorado) River four miles east of Cisco, to feed their narrow gauge steam locomotives.

The water supply system the Water Service Department of the Rio Grande installed was finally developed to 4.3 miles of 6-inch pipe, two 400,000 gallon reservoirs, and two wooden water tanks by the depot[4, 5, 6]. In 1928, a 100,000-gallon steel tank replaced wooden water tanks by Stearns-Rogers Construction Company of Denver, Colorado[7].

The remnants of the pair of reservoirs can be seen on Google Maps: steel tank by the depot is gone today[8, 9].


The Colorado River water supplied by the Rio Grande treated not only steam locomotives but also Cisco residents for use as culinary water. Drinking water for the residents was also supplied by the railroad from a tank at Whitehouse, five miles west of Cisco, by special tank cars[10]. Residents used milk cans to haul water from the depot. Accordingly, the Rio Grande was a lifeline for the town of Cisco.

But the Rio Grande proposed the plan of quitting both culinary and drinking water supply in 1955; steam locomotives were retired[4]. Neighbors, like the city of Green River, bought the water supply system from the railroad[11]. But Cisco residents chose to carry their own drinking water from nearby Thompson by their own hand since the abolition of the facilities in 1958[12, 13, 14].


Thus, wells/windmills aren’t popular in this region. But, I think they are symbolic icons of rural America. Here are some of them I found, a little far from Cisco.

AERMOTOR written at the tail wing represents the mill manufacturer established by La Verne Noyes in 1888 in Chicago IL. Today, the company is still active and says that it is the only windmill manufacturer in the United States[15].

revised, Jul. 21, 2015
revised, Mar. 25, 2016
revised, Nov. 15, 2016
revised, Jan. 12, 2017
revised, Sep. 20, 2017
revised, Oct. 19, 2018
revised, Apr. 17, 2019
revised, Apr. 6, 2022

[1] Nov. 26, 1936 Times-Independent;
[2] Mar. 23, 1972 Park Record;
[3] Jan. 12, 1933 Times-Independent;
[4] Mar. 10, 1955 Times-Independent;
[5] Jul. 26, 1928 Times-Independent;
[6] Ozment, James (1958) Water Tank@Cisco, UT;
[7] Jul. 19, 1928 Times-Independent;
[8] Cisco water supply system map;
[9] Oct. 16, 1958 Times-Independent;
[10] Dalton, Vonna Foy, (2004) Some Remembrances of Picture Gallery and Cisco, Canyon Legacy, Vol. 51, Dan O'Laurie Canyon County Museum
[11] Sep. 22, 1955 Green River Journal;
[12] Farewell, R.C., (1999) Rio Grande Secret Places Vol. Two, Colorado Railroad Museum
[13] Ozment, James (1958) Water Tank@Cisco, UT;
[14] Jan. 22, 1970 Times Independent;
[15] Aermotor Windmill Company homepage;

windmill_01.jpg: US Hwy 191, Monticello, UT Sep. 12, 2014
windmill_02.jpg: Indian Route 6230, Tonalea, AZ Sep. 13, 2014
windmill_04.jpg: Indian Route 21, Cameron, AZ Sep. 14, 2014
 
 
水はかつて鉄道の生命線であった。Rio Grandeにとって乾燥地帯を貫くユタ州東部における水の確保は難題であった。沿線に住む住民にとっても水の確保は常に難題であった。

北米でよく見る、水をくみ上げる風車をユタ州東部におけるRio Grande沿線ではほとんど見ない。地下水脈が深いか、あるいはその水質・水量に問題があるようだ。例えば、Green Riverの西でRio Grandeが掘削しようとした井戸は自噴鉱泉になってしまった。当のCiscoでは、1200フィートまで掘削してみたものの、硫黄分が多く使えなかった。

そこでRio Grandeは、直線でも6キロほど離れたコロラド川から水を引くことにした。川岸にポンプを据え、鋼管で高台の貯水池まで水をくみ上げ、そこから駅に据えたタンクに給水した。この水は蒸気機関車に供されるのみならず、住民に生活用水としても配給された。飲料水はわざわざ貨車で運び込んだとある。つまり、Cisco住民の生命線はRio Grandeが握っていた訳だ。蒸気機関車の廃車に伴いこの給水設備も廃止されると、住民は隣り町のThompsonから自分たちで水を運ばざるを得なくなった。町が廃れていくのも当然である。

というわけで、Cisco近辺に水くみ風車は見られない。しかし、風車がからから回る風景は北米における田舎の代表的風景のひとつだと思うので、いくつか写真を挙げておく。なお、羽根にあるAERMOTORとはアメリカに唯一現存するという風車メーカーの名前である。

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