Colorado Springs is an arid city with average annual precipitation of about 15 inches, far less than wetter places such as Boston, and with little rainfall plus no rivers or large natural lakes nearby, it has long depended on water from the Colorado mountains. Winter and spring snows there provide a clean supply for Front Range cities, and in 1891 Colorado Springs began developing water collection and storage on Pike’s Peak to secure mountain water. As the population grew, the city bought water rights from sources deeper in the mountains, and in 1935 Crystal Dam was built to store 1.1 billion gallons of Blue River water from the Breckenridge area, which is pumped through more than 70 miles of pipe. The reservoirs on Pike’s Peak are open to the public for activities such as fishing and boating from early May to mid-October.