Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
FREEMAN DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4100525 · 1 · MEXICAN GULCH · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:44 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (2deb1d7) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.
Where it sits
Location as DWR records it. Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.
Which of its rights are out of priority?
Not computable for this structure: this structure is not on the modelled flow network, so no reference gage can honestly stand in for it.
Where it sits in line
Priority 1886-04-15 — 66th most senior of the 1104 structures with decreed rights in this water districtDWR's administrative subdivision of a river basin; the unit calls are usually stated in..
Under prior appropriationColorado's rule for sharing water: first in time, first in right. Age decides, not proximity or need., everything ahead of it in this line is satisfied in full before it receives any water. Immediately ahead: COLOROW DITCH (1885-07-31). Immediately behind: LABARR WELL NO 2 (1887-05-01).
Decreed rights (2)
| Admin noDWR's numeric encoding of a water right's seniority. Smaller is more senior; the integer part counts days from 1849-12-31 to the date that ranks the right. | AppropriatedWhen water was first put to beneficial use. It sets seniority unless a prior adjudication date is later. | AdjudicatedWhen the water court confirmed the right. A use decreed in 1975 was not a decreed use in 1955, however old the appropriation is. | AbsoluteA right actually put to use, as opposed to conditional -- a placeholder for a use not yet made. | ConditionalA right reserving a place in line for a use not yet made; it must be diligently pursued or it lapses. | Units | UsesWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on. | Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13254.0 | 1886-04-15 | 1890-06-30 | 0.99 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 1, 74 |
| 40787.0 | 1961-09-02 | 1964-09-28 | 1.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 250 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA8528, CA4573, CA0149.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA8528 | 1 | 1964-09-28 | S |
CA4573 | 1 | 1890-06-30 | O |
CA0149 | 1 | 1890-06-30 | O |
DWR's own records for this structure: net amounts · transactions & adjudication history · scanned decrees (search a case number there for the imaged document). On this site: the district's full legal picture →
Recorded use (last 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 322 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 489 AF — 152% of that, and 13th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.
| Year | Diverted (AFA volume: one acre covered a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons -- roughly a suburban household's outdoor use for a year.) | Compared with its own record | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 178 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 55% of median | 76 | 1.5 |
| 1993 | 164 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 51% of median | 92 | 1.0 |
| 1994 | 152 | 1st lowest of 15 · 47% of median | 40 | 2.0 |
| 2014 | 958 | 15th lowest of 15 · 298% of median | 129 | 5.0 |
| 2015 | 859 | 14th lowest of 15 · 267% of median | 114 | 6.0 |
| 2016 | 460 | 12th lowest of 15 · 143% of median | 143 | 2.0 |
| 2017 | 269 | 6th lowest of 15 · 84% of median | 117 | 1.5 |
| 2018 | 343 | 9th lowest of 15 · 106% of median | 149 | 1.8 |
| 2019 | 358 | 10th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | 135 | 2.0 |
| 2020 | 320 | 7th lowest of 15 · 99% of median | 137 | 2.5 |
| 2021 | 322 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 128 | 2.5 |
| 2022 | 221 | 4th lowest of 15 · 69% of median | 120 | 2.2 |
| 2023 | 245 | 5th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 120 | 1.5 |
| 2024 | 377 | 11th lowest of 15 · 117% of median | 135 | 2.0 |
| 2025 | 489 | 13th lowest of 15 · 152% of median | 170 | 2.5 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 15 recorded years — which is itself worth knowing.
How good is our record of it?
Grade B (7/10 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not.
The rubric, component by component
| Check | State | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| identity | complete | name, type, and water source all on file |
| decreed rights | on file | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 6359 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 39% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-2025 carry measured days |
| published-record stability | stable | no upstream revisions recorded against this structure |
Advisory reading aid on public data — not an administrative or legal conclusion, not a title opinion, and not a substitute for DWR administration or an engineer's analysis. Methodology review status is disclosed at hydrohistorian's basin pages.