The daily sentinel., 1908-12-17
TO HONOR
HAMMOND

Grand junction and who was
one of the pioneers of this sec
ton, n suitable monument is to
be erected, so it is reported from
Montrose and Delta counties and
there is no question but what
the movement will be heartily
endorsed by the great host of
old friends of the deceased in
this city.
Following the announcement
of this movement The Pueblo
Chieftain has this to say:
Hammond will live in Colorado's S
history as THE father of the Gun
nison tunnel" Now that the tun-
mel is nearing completion and that
his friends who are living are going
to realize the benefits of what they
term was his utopian dreams they
intend to erect to his memory mon
ument on the high eminence on the
boundary line between Delta and
Montrose counties which eminence
overlooks the entire Uncompahgre
valley which will be watered by the
construction of the tunnel
Years ago when Mead Hammond
was a boy running the hills of the
western slope in his own mind he
figured out the proposition that a
hole driven through the mountains
from the Gunnison river to the Un-
compahgre valley would carry water
to irrigate the entire valley He
made up his mind to accomplish the
driving of that hole. He had no idea
what it would cost but he knew that
1t would be a good project. Years
later when he was a member of the
thirteenth general assembly he intro
duced a bill and secured its enact
ment providing $4,000 to drive the
Gunnison tunnel. The members of
the Legislature made fun of him but
he never gave up and on the last
night of the regular session the bill
went through. However he had enc
mics in the senate and the journal
of that house failed to show that the
bill had been properly enacted and
the state officials would not honor
the warrants for the money. few
months later Governor Orman found
it necessary to call an extra session
of the legislature to re-enact rev.
enue law. Mr.. Hammond made a
special trip to Denver and had the
governor incorporate a reference to
his tunnel bill in his call for an extra
session. During that extra session
Hammond had his new law re-enacted
and re-enacted right.
Inc next summer the WORK was
started. II was soon seen that II
would cost thousand times as much
as he had anticipated. This would
have discouraged most men, but not
so Hammond. His boyhood dreams
were still living pictures in his mind.
He could see a population of 200. 600
people quietly nesting under the
tunnel and Its proper tributaries il
he could but complete ii. He immed-
lately took the matter up with the
reclamation service of the United
states government. and finally sue
ceeded in having the government take
charge. About this time he was
taken seriously ill, and one day cross
ed the divide. However, his life's
work had been accomplished. He
had fathfred the great enterprise.
He had made it possible for 10000
acres in the state of his birth TO be
changed from dreary waste into a
vast empire of commercial resources.
Now that the work is nearing COM
pletion the residents of the two coun-
ties in which this empire is located
and the people who Will secure the
, land thus brought under cultivation
made it possible The monument to
be erected will be one fitting in every
way to the character, the worth and
integrity, and the usefulness of the
man to whose memory it will be
erected.