E-Newsletter

Preserving the Source
An e-newsletter from the Water Resources Archive
at Colorado State University

June 2007
Issue VIII

Water--and Whooping Crane--Information Flowing Upstream

This spring, the Water Resources Archive acquired the records of the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust, a Nebraska-based non-profit organization. The mission of the Water Resources Archive, in a nutshell, is to document Colorado's water. So at first glance, one may wonder about the connection between the Archive and these majestic birds.

whooping crane

Whooping cranes, one of the rarest birds in North America, rely on the central part of the Platte River in Nebraska for crucial habitat during spring migration. The water in the river, formed by the North and South Platte rivers which flow out of Colorado, is one of the key ingredients for keeping the delicate ecosystem of this area in balance.

For the benefit of the ecosystem, the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust works "to protect and maintain the physical, hydrological and biological integrity of the Platte as a life support system for whooping cranes and other migratory birds." The Trust therefore relies on working with upstream entities to keep the Platte healthy. This work has resulted in various court cases, negotiations, and agreements with the states of Colorado and Wyoming, as well as other agencies, over the past thirty years.

As of April of this year, the Trust has donated its records to the Water Resources Archive. Approximately sixty boxes of correspondence, reports, legal documents, slides, and more will make their way from Nebraska to Colorado this summer.

Once the collection is available to researchers later in the year, it will provide the chance to investigate many aspects of water (and whooping cranes!) previously undocumented at the Archive. These include the Nebraska vs. Wyoming case, in-stream flow studies, the Trust's land acquisitions, and Nebraska's perspective on Two Forks, among other topics. This certainly makes for a great addition in documenting Colorado's water.

Photo above: Whooping crane. Back to Top

Archive Update: New Finding Aids and Materials

The newest finding aid online for the Water Resources Archive describes the Water Supply and Storage Company Collection, a small set of oral history interviews and related documents. Recently received donations to the Archive include a small addition to the Records of DARCA (Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance) as well as the first batch of records from the Poudre River Trust. Six boxes were received in early June and more are to come.

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Looking Forward: New CSU Student Assistants Working in the Archive

Good fortune graces the Water Resources Archive in the form of successful fundraising which enables the hiring of capable student assistants. This summer, the Archive will employ three students--the most it has ever had at once. One, Angeline Allen, a graduate student in CSU's history program, had a spring internship with the Archive and has been hired to work on the addition received last summer to the Ival Goslin collection. Two other students are long-timers: history graduate student Nick Kryloff has been with the Archive for a year, and undergraduate zoology major Ruth Williamson is returning for her third summer. With archivist Patty Rettig, Nick and Ruth will be working on the Papers of Maury Albertson, a collection of approximately 140 boxes. All this work could not be accomplished in a timely manner if not for the diligence of these great students!

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Support the Archive: Ditch Company Records WANTED!

This summer, the Archive along with the Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance (DARCA) launched a renewed effort to encourage ditch companies to donate records not in current use for the benefit of researchers, scholars, students, and other industry professionals. The records of ditch companies provide an invaluable perspective in the development and management of Colorado's water resources. The Water Resources Archive will provide donated materials with secure, environmentally monitored storage. The Archive also will organize the materials and create a finding aid--a standard archival tool describing a collection of materials, which includes information on the collection creator as well as a folder-level inventory of each box. The finding aid will be available to interested researchers over the Internet, along with digitized items as deemed appropriate. To find out more, please download a brochure or contact the Archive.

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Virtual Visit: Seeking Input for Phase II of the Western Waters Digital Library

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded $338,444 in grant funds to Colorado State University Libraries and its project partners (University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Washington State University, and the University of California at Berkeley) to fund further development of the Western Waters Digital Library.

The upcoming phase of this project will engage a sixteen-member team of archivists, librarians, technical experts, and faculty advisors to provide integrated online access to archival holdings related to water policy and environmental history for the Colorado and Columbia River basins. Twenty thousand images from water related collections and finding aids for 558 linear feet of archival materials will be digitized during the course of the project. The Archive will begin digitization of materials soon and is currently seeking input in the digitization selection process. Please visit the current Colorado's Waters Digital Archive and let us know which items you would like to see added to this collection.

This quarterly electronic newsletter is designed to keep you informed on the developments with the Water Resources Archive. If you would prefer not to receive further updates, or if you know someone else who would like to receive this, just drop a line to us at development@library.colostate.edu.

This e-newsletter is created by Patty Rettig with the assistance of Judea Franck.