Irrigation and Farming

Clear Creek irrigation ditches provided water to farmers east of Golden, and many ditches dug in the 1800s helped make the Clear Creek valley the breadbasket of early Colorado. Golden’s first resident, David King Wall, introduced irrigation after arriving from South Bend, Indiana on April 30, 1859, bringing a wagonload of seed while others pursued gold. Noting the richness of the land along Clear Creek, he claimed a small acreage where Tucker Gulch enters Clear Creek and plowed a furrow from the gulch so that water "oozed along the hillside," establishing the first irrigation ditch. That year, Wall earned the then amazing sum of $2,000 from garden produce sold to miners seeking fresh food, helping prove that agriculture could thrive in what had long been called the "Great American Desert." Known as the "Father of Agriculture in Colorado," Wall and his brother, John C. Wall, sold produce at their store on the northwest bank near this bridge. Many farmers followed his example, and by the late 1800s irrigation farming had become well established and profitable.

Golden, Colorado · United States