BOULDER’S WATERWORKS

pieces, are we justified in denying sight of it to any of His children?”
The proposed commercialization alarmed area naturalists. The Colorado Mountain Club
and the Rocky Mountain Climbers’ Club discussed a possible expansion of the recently
created Rocky Mountain National Park southward to include Arapaho Glacier. The club
members believed this action would “keep the area free from spoliation by the greed of
commercial interests or irresponsible transient tourists.”
Finally, over the strenuous objection of the United States Park Service, clean water won
out. On March 4, 1927, the United States Congress passed enabling legislation for Boulder’s
third federal land grant. 115 Nearly two years later, a short Associated Press article on the
front page of the Daily Camera, on February 15, 1929, stated, “The City of Boulder deposited
at the federal land office today a check for $4,618.89 in payment for 3,695 acres of
federal land west of the City near the Arapahoe [sic] Glacier. Possession of the land was
procured by the City to protect the watershed and its water supply, and for the development
of the assets of the scenic grandeur of the region.” 116
The deed became official on July 23, 1929, three months prior to the country’s devastating
stock market crash. The purchase included four peaks along the Continental Divide and,
combined with an earlier acquisition of a half section of land in 1919, it guaranteed the
integrity of the western portion of the Silver Lake Watershed. The City continued to insist
that there be no public access to the area.
A group of people on one of the former annual Chamber of Commerce hikes are shown on Arapaho Saddle
(above Arapaho Glacier) in this undated photo. Courtesy Daily Camera
55