Opinion ID: 2589958
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the morse decree adjudication of big cottonwood creek

Text: ¶ 2 Big Cottonwood Canyon lies southeast of Salt Lake City. Big Cottonwood Creek flows in a westerly direction down the center of the canyon. Much of the water from rain and snow falling in the Big Cottonwood Drainage Area flows down the mountain slopes, above and below ground, until it discharges into the creek. By 1894, Salt Lake and its predecessors in interest had fully appropriated the water flowing in the creek near the mouth of the canyon by diversion and beneficial use. Nevertheless, in 1907, longstanding disputes over water rights in the creek came to a head. District Judge C.W. Morse resolved these disputes in The Progress Co. v. Salt Lake City , Civil No. 8921 (the Morse Decree), aff'd, 53 Utah 556, 173 P. 705 (1918), an adjudication lasting between 1907 and 1914, in which he allocated rights to most of the waters in the Big Cottonwood Drainage Area. Progress was not a general adjudication, and neither SFPC nor any of its predecessors in interest participated therein. ¶ 3 The Morse Decree awarded rights of use to all water flowing in Big Cottonwood Creek [1] in sixtieths under three categories depending on the time of year and volume of water. [2] For our purposes, we need note only that between 1920 and 1984, Salt Lake acquired most of the shares of the creek through purchase and exchange agreements. At the time of this trial, Salt Lake's water rights to the creek ranged between 90.42% and 99.23%. [3]