This virtual exhibit highlights the work of water lawyer Delph Carpenter in negotiating Colorado's river compacts. It is based on documents and photos from the Papers of Delph E. Carpenter and Family, a collection in the Water Resources Archive in Morgan Library at Colorado State University.
For more information about Delph Carpenter, read the biography Silver Fox of the Rockies by Daniel Tyler.
Raised on an irrigated farm, Delph Carpenter recognized water as a precious resource in this arid land, something worth fighting for. Becoming a lawyer and establishing a practice in his hometown of Greeley, Colorado, Carpenter served many clients with water-related legal needs.
As the attorney for the Greeley-Poudre Irrigation District, Carpenter became lead counsel in the Wyoming vs. Colorado lawsuit after the District constructed a tunnel to divert water from the Laramie River. Carpenter argued the case twice before the U.S. Supreme Court (1916 and 1918). With other lawsuits on the way, including one filed by Nebraska concerning the South Platte River, he began thinking about out-of-court solutions to the West's water conflicts.
Carpenter conceived the compact idea, encouraged negotiations and then advocated for ratification by state and federal legislatures. During all this, he suffered from the onset of Parkinson's disease, becoming increasingly disabled and eventually bedridden from 1933 until his death.
Photo: Delph Carpenter at his desk in state senate, 1911.
Letter: Praise from President Herbert Hoover, 1929 (see p.33 of the PDF file).
Colorado is part of nine interstate river compacts, documents which govern the use of rivers crossing state lines. Key to equitable allocation of the West's most precious resource—water—the compact clause of the U.S. Constitution was first applied to rivers in the 1920s, an idea conceived and promoted by Greeley water lawyer Delph Carpenter.
The first and best example is the Colorado River Compact. A brief document—less than 2,000 words—the Colorado River Compact emerged after nearly a year of negotiations and gained ratification only after seven years of political debate. The Compact still proves contentious today as drought, growth and the environment affect western states and their water needs.
Of Colorado’s nine compacts, Delph Carpenter had involvement to a greater or lesser extent with the first seven completed. His epithet “Father of Interstate River Compacts” is most appropriate.
Document: Colorado River Compact, 1922. Photo: Signing the South Platte River Compact, 1925.
Colorado's Compacts
Facts about the Colorado River Compact
Defining Dates of the Colorado River Compact
Photo: Colorado River Commission, 1922.
Delph Carpenter's papers documenting his work on Colorado's compacts are available through the Water Resources Archive. Letters and telegrams between commissioners, politicians, state engineers, and others show the exchange of ideas. Original maps, data, and reports Carpenter used to gather information which shaped his thinking exist in the collection as well. Meeting minutes and compact drafts trace the commission's discussions and debates.
In addition to Carpenter's professional papers, the collection contains personal and family items. Materials of his relatives, including Union Colony pioneers, a Civil War veteran, and his son Weld County Judge Donald A. Carpenter, exist in the collection, too.
The Carpenter Papers can inform many research topics, including:
The collection contains 150 boxes--including over 1,200 photographs--as well as more than 130 oversized items. A detailed guide to the collection is available. Also, over 1,400 digitized objects from the collection are available for browsing and searching.
Photo: Carpenter Family, 1925.
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