Sunday, October 5, 2008

Water Works

If you go Northwest of Fort Collins and follow the old Cherokee Branch of the Overland Trail, you will find this place:
It's the old water works building dating back to 1882-83, when it was built to deliver the first piped water to Fort Collins.

Water was transported to Fort Collins though wooden pipes. Iron replaced most of the pipes in later years, but there are still some wood pipes in use today!

They would dam up a branch of the Poudre River and use water power to pump the water out to stand pipes located in Fort Collins's central district.

If there was a fire in town, the local fire brigade could hook up their hoses to a standpipe and fight the fire.

The original reservoir is gone, but the building remains, along with an apple orchard with tree varieties common in the late 19th century including Irish Peach and the Esopus Spitzenburg.

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