Hoosier Pass lies on the Continental Divide, the high mountain spine separating the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds. Nineteenth-century pioneers especially feared its high, difficult Colorado stretches, so many westbound emigrants and early railroad builders avoided the region and chose lower crossings in Wyoming or New Mexico. Although railroads and highways later made passage easier, the Divide kept its mystique even after water began flowing under and through it. During the twentieth century, almost forty pipeline, tunnel, and ditch projects breached the Divide, moving hundreds of billions of gallons of water each year from the Western Slope to the more heavily populated Front Range, turning the Divide from a physical boundary into a political one in the West's water wars. Father John Dyer crossed Hoosier Pass repeatedly, usually on foot and often in winter, as his Methodist ministry, begun in 1861, took him from Breckenridge to Fairplay, Leadville, and the mining camps between. To speed his travel, he used skis, becoming known as the "Snowshoe itinerant," and he also carried winter mail; by persisting through harsh mountains and frontier conditions, he helped build lasting communities and remained in Colorado until his death in 1901.