What if you were asked to dig a ditch that ran 26 miles without the aid of mechanized pumps? What if another team had already tried, but failed to get the water to run to Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood
where it was desperately needed? This was the task that John Wesley Smith agreed to for the Colorado Hydraulic Company in 1864.
Many believe that if this project hadn’t been successful, Denver as we know it would not have developed in the way the city did. The need for water in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, and later City Park was crucial. Completed in 1867, it was originally called the City Ditch or Big Ditch, as it was owned and operated by the City of Denver. It was a three-foot-wide unlined ditch that ran from Chatfield Reservoir to City
Park.
Called Smith’s Ditch today, Denver’s “oldest working thing” still carries water from Chatfield Reservoir to City Park, although the only section that is still open and visible is the stretch running through Washington Park. The rest of the ditch has been lined with concrete and is mostly carried underground through pipes.
Explore More
Read more about Denver’s “oldest working thing” from the Denver Public Library.
Read all about water in Denver in A Ditch in Time: The City, theWest, and Water by Patricia Nelson Limerick and Jason L. Hanson(Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2012).
Author Bio
Alison Salutz is the Director of Community Programs at Historic Denver.