John McNabb: A Man to Match the Mountains
Black and white photograph of a “social evening” at the Zimmerman Hotel. Reading from the left, Archie McNabb,
an unknown guest, Miss Eda Zimmerman, John McNabb, and Miss Agnes Zimmerman. (FCMoD, H01611)
By Sue Abbott Schneider
John McNabb arrived in the Poudre Canyon in 1880 at the age of twenty-one along with his friend John Zimmerman and Zimmerman’s family. McNabb was a Scotch-Canadian born on November 30,1859, at Woodville, Eldon Township, Canada (now Kawartha Lakes, Ontario) along with an identical twin brother Archie. The Zimmermans resided in Minnesota and it is unknown (to the author at least) how the two Johns became friends. Zimmerman had had some success “seeking his fortune” in California and in Austin, Nevada where he ran a stamp mill and sold his mining interests for $14,000 in the early 1860s when he was in his 20s. McNabb would show interest in mining, but whether they grew to be friends over their desire to “strike it rich” or they met in some other capacity, they were good enough friends that they headed west together, with Zimmerman’s family in tow. Upon their arrival in the Poudre Canyon McNabb helped the Zimmermans homestead near the top of Cameron Pass and worked cutting ties in the Chambers Lake area. He also carried mail from the Chambers Lake Post Office (opened in September of 1880) to the mining towns of Lulu City and Teller City (PO opened in July 1880 and closed in December 1885), having to snowshoe above 10,000 feet during the winter months. Norman Fry reported that McNabb carried packs weighing as much as 100 pounds and would travel the 25 miles a day three times a week.
McNabb eventually settled in North Park where he met his future wife, Anna Sinclair, who was a “school marm” in Point of Rocks (now known as Walden). McNabb was known for his skill building log structures and was responsible for building many of the early cabins in the Walden area. In 1889, after four years in North Park, McNabb and his wife and one-year old daughter Stella moved back to the Poudre Canyon and built a log cabin in Poudre City while he prospected his own “Nugget Lode” mine, helped John Zimmerman work the Elkhorn Mine and build the stamp mill to process the ore. His daughter Stella, in a later interview, recalled McNabb also ran the saloon in town and did a very brisk business. Around the same time (1890) he, Paul Mansfield and young Norman Fry (just 20 years of age) built the two-story addition to the Kinikinik Ranch house. The next year McNabb’s cabin was the only structure to survive the flood when the Chambers Lake Dam broke June 8, 1891. The break destroyed every bridge between the lake and Fort Collins and led to the demise of the Larimer County Ditch Company which reorganized as the Water Supply and Storage Company. It was after the flood that McNabb became heavily involved in numerous projects.
In July 1891 he started as foreman for the Water Supply and Storage Company construction of the Skyline Ditch project. The Skyline Ditch was one of the first successful trans basin diversions in the Cache la Poudre River Basin, distributing water from the Laramie River and its tributaries to the north end of Chambers Lake. The Skyline Ditch work was all done by hand and took four years for the initial work to be completed. William Rist was the original engineer for the project. He designed the ditch at a 45 degree angle so that it would be self cleaning, but instead it washed out the banks. In 1892 the ditch was redesigned by another engineer (Nelson) with a lesser degree of slope, a 100-foot tunnel and flume pipe and was completed by 1895.
McNabb was busy on more then one front, for in 1892 McNabb supervised the rebuilding of the Stewart Toll Road that had been washed out after the Chambers Lake Dam flood. In addition to his supervisory work the January 1898 Fort Collins Courier reported that “M.M. Clinton has sold out his dairy, thirty-five cows, fixtures and good will to John McNabb for a $1,500 consideration.” It was around this time that McNabb moved his family to Fort Collins although he spent a good deal of time traveling back and forth to the Poudre Canyon. The May 18,1899 Fort Collins Courier reported “John McNabb left last Monday for Chambers Lake with a load of camp supplies. Mr. McNabb is the efficient superintendent of the Skyline Ditch and has gone up to establish his camp and get ready for the season’s work.”
In 1902, McNabb and William Rist filed on a site to construct Joe Wright Reservoir (originally known as Cameron Pass Reservoir) but sold the rights to the Mountain Supply Ditch Company and then built the reservoir between 1905 and 1908. They also collaborated in 1903 to file a water rights claim for a snow ditch at the top of Cameron Pass, which became the Michigan Ditch (which would supply Joe Wright Reservoir). The two had been busy filing water rights throughout the area and sold the Peterson Lake rights in 1904, which eventually ended up being owned by Mountain and Plains Irrigation Company. They worked on the Michigan Ditch from 1904-1906 and then transferred the rights to Mountain Supply Ditch Company for $25,000. Both Joe Wright Reservoir and the Michigan Ditch changed hands again on September 23, 1908, when ownership was passed on to North Poudre Irrigation Company.
In February 1906 he was working beyond the Poudre Canyon, building ditches with a “force of about twenty-five teams” for the newly platted 1,400 acre Bristol Ranch on Boxelder Creek (north of Fort Collins) which was being being developed into farms. He was also employed by the Denver Reservoir Irrigation Company to build a tunnel near Eldorado Springs in December 1908. He returned to Larimer County and by May 26,1909 the Courier stated “John McNabb, superintendent of the Laramie and Grand River ditches for the Water Supply & Storage Company, got in Wednesday night from Chambers Lake. He is looking for men to begin repair work and to shovel snow out of the ditches so that water can be run through them. Mr. McNabb reports the snow is disappearing near the lake, but is still very deep in the timber and higher altitudes. The road between Zimmerman’s and Chambers Lake is now practically clear of snow so that they will have no difficulty getting in.”
The November 22, 1912, Courier reported “John McNabb, foreman for the Water Supply and Storage Company and new proprietor of the old Hertel Ranch north of Grand Lake was a caller” at the Middle Park Times office, evidence that his holdings had expanded yet again.
Yearly there was mention in the Courier of McNabb and his crews working to clear the snow from the ditches in the spring so that the water could flow. He was responsible for all aspects of maintenance of the various ditches, further evidenced by the September 1913 Courier notation “John McNabb came down to the Ball ranch this week, with his train of burros and is engaged in his annual task of freighting hay from the ranch to Chambers Lake and the camp of the Water Supply & Storage Company on the Grand River ditch. Each burro carries three bales of hay.”
McNabb also took responsibility for more gruesome tasks. The January 31, 1913, Fort Collins Courier reported under the headline: “Victims of Snow Slide Found On Tuesday: The bodies of Andy Kushner and Tom Dunn were recovered on Tuesday afternoon. These two men lost their lives in a snow slide near the Grand River Ditch camp. The report of the finding of the bodies was received Tuesday afternoon at dusk by John McNabb, who has been here for several days waiting for reports from the camp.” The two gentlemen had been interested in a mining prospect that McNabb had proposed and were staying in a nearby cabin. The winter of 1913 must have been a rough one, because Mrs. Alice McMillan perished in a snowstorm January 1, 1913, near Chambers Lake. She had been left alone in a cabin by her uncle and when he returned there was no sign of her. McNabb made several trips looking for her body, but didn’t find her until May 1st.
In 1919 he was commissioned by the county to build three bridges on the Indian Meadows Ranch in anticipation of the convict road crew completing work to Rustic. He managed to convince his friend Norman Fry to leave Denver and come help him and they completed the three bridges in March 1920, building them by felling trees, Fry peeling them with a draw-knife and McNabb doing the ax work.
In 1922 McNabb was enlisted as foreman to construct the Barnes Meadow Reservoir which was completed in 1924 and he then moved to expand the dam at Peterson Lake which was completed in 1930. He served as foreman on his final project, the construction of Comanche Reservoir in 1931. McNabb started his work in the mid 1880s using hand labor and horse power and ended with steam shovels and dump trucks. He died on November 5, 1935, just shy of his 77th birthday. McNabb’s wife Anna had passed away on May 25, 1917, and he is buried next to her in Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins.
John McNabb’s name has remained in history books because of his and Rist’s involvement in the Skyline Ditch, the first successful trans basin diversion project. When the Laramie Poudre Tunnel was built it resulted in a federal law suit. That suit, Wyoming vs Colorado, took 11 years to make its way through the federal court system (you might recall Aggie Zimmerman testified for Wyoming) and was eventually decided by the US Supreme Court in 1922. Colorado water law and the principal of prior appropriation were in place long before McNabb and Rist started working together. Colorado water law is in fact part of the State Constitution. But the Supreme Court decision was the first time the federal government recognized the principal of prior appropriation (first in use first in rights), the basis of water law in Colorado and throughout the West, including the Colorado River Compact which is still in the news today. Whether John McNabb would be surprised at his notoriety will never be known. But he was, as his friend Norman Fry said, truly a man to match the mountains.
