From the Colorado River Compact to Lake Mead, how CSU’s water archivist curates Colorado’s complicated history

CSU's The Audit

On the second floor of Colorado State University’s Morgan Library, there are hundreds of boxes and stacks of books all dedicated to just one topic — water.

There’s a copy of the Colorado River Compact, the landmark document that governs how the seven states that make up the Colorado River basin allocate its water. There are letters regarding Elwood Mead — Lake Mead’s namesake — who developed the country’s first irrigation engineering class while a faculty member at CSU before going on to oversee the construction of the Hoover Dam.

There are also documents that point to the destructive power of water, such as photographs of the damage from the 1997 Spring Creek flood, which put much of CSU’s campus under several feet of water and caused more than $140 million in damage to the campus.

Each marks a moment in Colorado’s long and complicated water history. And it's all just a part of CSU’s Water Resources Archive.

Created in 2001 as a joint effort of the University Libraries and the Colorado Water Center, the archive features historic documents related to Colorado's water resources. Patty Rettig has been the head archivist for the program since it began, building the collections that, at last count, totaled an estimated 3 million items — from maps and photos to meeting minutes and contracts.

Rettig recently spoke on CSU’s The Audit podcast about her role and the importance of preserving the state’s water heritage.