Special to the HT
One of the first things the Meeker Founding Fathers did was survey and dig a water ditch from the White River to Meeker. The Smith irrigation ditch still exists today as it meanders through town. Smaller ditches connected to it along the numbered streets. It served well for thirsty gardens and livestock.
I don’t believe it ran water year-round. For drinking and cooking—and in winter—residents who didn’t have their own well would fashion a sled, attach a recycled wood liquor barrel, and drag it down to the river. Of course, if your barrel froze overnight, you had a problem.
A gentleman nicknamed “Waterman Jones” made money by delivering water house to house. He is reported to have provided this valuable service until 1906.
In 1905, Meeker taxpayers authorized the erection of the waterworks. Water pipe was ordered and delivered to the Rifle train station in April 1906. The eight- and ten-inch main pipes were transported the rest of the way to Meeker by four-horse teams. The pipe was supplied by the Washington Pipe and Foundry Company of Tacoma, Washington.
The pipe was nothing like what we have today. Lengths of kiln-dried or seasoned wood were beveled on the edges to form a hollow tubular shape. Imagine barrel staves fitted in a circle. Heavy-duty wire was then wrapped around the wood. The effect was a wood bundle surrounded by a spring coil every few inches. The Little Snake River Museum in Savery, Wyoming, has an example of this early pipe on exhibit.
Once water was fed into the pipe, the wood would swell and tighten up any gaps. Pipes were joined with a hub-and-spigot joint. One pipe was carved into a bell shape and the other end given a taper. The two pipes were often sealed with tar and bound with a metal band.
W. H. Trumbor of Glenwood Springs was the consulting engineer. P. P. Ford of Denver won the bid for construction.
The July 21, 1906, issue of the *Meeker Herald* had an interesting item:
“Work on the water works was suspended this week pending the arrival of a new force of laborers. On Thursday, contractor came in with a force of Japs and it now hoped that the work will proceed without further interruption.”
Water was turned on May 24, 1907, for soaking the wood and testing. The system worked well until it leaked.
The Meeker system had many leaks, and pressures were not as promised. Leaks were being found daily. The first thirty days of operation were not satisfactory.
Mr. Ford, the contractor, was later accused of purposely restricting water at a cutoff valve three miles upriver. The effect was to lower pressure in the system so as not to expose weak points prone to leaks.
The system also had a design flaw: no filter at the headgate at Veatch Gulch. Dirty spring runoff in; dirty water out.
There was considerable reluctance to give Mr. Ford his final payment in 1907.
There were other problems. To save money, the town traded perpetual water supplies to ranchers for rights-of-way for the pipe. When a rancher required water, he just bored a hole in the pipe.
The pipe was also laid across a stretch of land that was very alkaline. The soil quickly rotted the wood pipe.
Citizens who wanted to use the water were charged a $12.50 water tap fee. That equates to about $445 in today’s dollars.
The leaks were so bad in the 1920s that the streets were described as “looking more like a cemetery with piles of dirt than a street.”
About 1930, the town council voted to bond for new cast-iron pipes. A half-million-gallon storage tank was constructed. Later, a second tank was added, along with a pumping plant and filtration plant on Third Street.
Today, Meeker’s water is supplied by wells, filtered and treated.
Sources: Rio Blanco Historical Society; *This Is What I Remember* books; ColoradoHistoricNewspapers.org; Richard Lyttle; Fred Riley.