Fish story Coloradans are spending millions to save four obscure types of fish that once thrived in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Main gallery Gunnison River Navajo farm Yampa River Dams and other projects killed native fish. Photo gallery Main gallery Saving rare fish on the Western Slope looms large for farmers and Front Range cities, but nobody knows if, or when, we'll be successful. First specimens of native fish of the American Southwest begin to be collected during early surveys of political boundaries and railroad routes. Baird fosters a program of transplanting fish throughout the United States, often outside their native ranges.
Scientists later realize such transplants jeopardize native fish.
John Wesley Powell issues federal Report on the Lands of the Arid Region, warning about the need for careful development in the American West due to limited water supply. In a Front Range water dispute, Colorado Supreme Court issues first ruling legalizing the transfer of water out of one watershed and into another, although the practice is already common in the West. It opened the door for the construction of massive water projects. The Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border, the first major dam on the Colorado River, is completed. In the wake of heavy criticism from scientists upset about the Green River poisoning, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall orders studies on the impacts to native fish in the Green River.