Water is life: a simple concept; but in the arid west, settlers could not rely on rain to supply water to nourish their fields. The community at East Portal brought together people of various skills and backgrounds to construct a tunnel that would transfer a portion of the Gunnison River water to the fields of the Uncompahgre Valley to the west. Their labors from 1905 to 1909 drove a tunnel 11 feet x 12 feet six miles through the cliffs of the Black Canyon and helped ensure the survival of communities in the valley.
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