Irrigation began in the Boulder Valley as early as 1859

Many of the earliest ditches were dug with a team of animals and walking plow. According to a list of ditch decrees for District #6, which encompassed the southern half of Boulder County, the Lower Boulder Ditch was filed on October 1, 1859, for a fee of $25.00. Six streams drain onto the plains of Boulder County; North and South Boulder Creeks, Left Hand and St. Vrain creeks in the northern section, and Coal and Rock creeks in the southern part of the county.

The first irrigation water diverted from South Boulder Creek ran through Abner Goodhue's ditch in the late 1860s. He neglected to register it at that time and subsequent ditches took seniority for water rights. In this case, seniority was claimed by the South Boulder Canon and Davidson ditches dug in 1871 and 1872. In 1880, prior to the establishment of the State Water Commission, Governor Pitkin appointed Hiram Prince of Boulder County to oversee the division of the waters of Boulder Creek. He became water commissioner for District #6 when the state commission was formed in 1879. He remained at that post until 1885 when he resigned to run for the state legislature. 

The Left Hand Ditch Company, established in the 1860s, dug the first diversion channel in Colorado Territory, an event that had extensive legal ramifications. "At an early day one summer, the Left Hand Creek went dry, so the settlers discovered by building a short ditch from the south fork of the St. Vrain, they could divert water from the St. Vrain into Left Hand". This action was contested and went to the Supreme Court (where it was upheld). So much of our water diversion law now is based on that court decree." Also unmatched is its system allowing share holders equal priority for water use. Each shareholder is guaranteed equal access to the water flowing in the ditch. Disputes over water rights have accompanied ownership since the first irrigation ditches were dug, and such disagreements continue today.

A popular latter-day motto stated, "You can fool around with my wife, but not my water rights," and for this reason early water commissioners were obliged to wear badges and carry guns. Bitter court battles were waged and some of those early decisions remain on the books today as precedents in water law disputes. Along Dry Creek-Little Davidson Ditch pitchforks became weapons, hatchets destroyed some headgates, weeds plugged others, and one imaginative farmer put a beehive on his headgate so no one would turn it off.

Water in Colorado is still administered according to the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation. The basis of this doctrine is the concept of first-in-time, first-in- right. Water rights are established when water is put to beneficial use. The person or organization that is beneficially using the water may request the water court to officially recognize the right by decree. This judicial process is called adjudication. In Colorado, water courts have jurisdiction over all applications for decree of absolute water rights, conditional water rights, changes of use, exchanges, and augmentation plans.