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1969 Map of Juniata Reservoir

Name: 1969 Topographic Map of Juniata Reservoir
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1972
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1972

About this map

The Grand Mesa National Forest dominates the eastern horizon of this high-desert landscape, where a sophisticated network of gravity-fed irrigation supports life on the plateaus. Settled ranching operations like the Cross Bar Cross Ranch rely on a complex system of water management, including the Smith and Campion Ditch and the Juniata Ditch, which redirect flow from mountain sources to the arid lowlands.

Surface water is carefully collected across Reeder Mesa and its neighbors in several high-altitude catchments. Significant infrastructure includes Juniata Res, Hallenbeck Reservoir (Purdy Mesa Res), and Reeder Reservoir. This 1969 field-checked survey reveals how the local economy was physically shaped by these water rights, with an intricate web of aqueducts and flow lines like the Purdy Mesa Flow Line cutting across the terrain to sustain agricultural parcels and livestock.