Western Archivists Meeting 2020 (Cancelled due to COVID-19)

The Colorado River Compact, the landmark document governing the West’s most significant river, will reach its centennial in 2022. To prepare for the celebrations to come, archivists from four different states and varied repository types will discuss the compact’s development, impacts, oversights, and connections. The session will combine history with discussion of archival resources. The history will include examining the origination of the compact idea and the seven-state negotiations, as well as subsequent water policy decisions and projects that were made possible by the compact. Focus will include the labor force, often minority populations, used to build dams and aqueducts. There have been controversies ever since the compact came about, including in relation to each state’s share of water, the omission of Native American tribes and the country of Mexico from the compact, and needs of the ecosystem. Because the compact has impacted western development, and has a major role in determining the future of the West, the history and documentation of it and its effects deserve highlighting. Repositories include academic, state, and corporate archives.