Spurlin Mesa, Colorado

Spurlin Mesa is a named summit in Delta County, Colorado. GNIS records it as feature ID 186526 at about 38.773° N, 107.676° W, on the USGS Hotchkiss quadrangle. The name was entered in GNIS in October 1978.^[1][2] It is the only Spurlin-named landform in the western United States that turned up in the federal gazetteer.^[1]

Setting

The mesa lies in farm country between the Delta County towns of Hotchkiss and Crawford,^[3][4] in the area between the North Fork of the Gunnison River near Hotchkiss and the Smith Fork near Crawford.^[4] A 2019 federal cultural-resources report describes the area as gently rolling hills with views of the West Elk Mountains to the east. It notes that agriculture was, and still is, a leading industry there.^[4] Spurlin Mesa is one of the named localities covered by North Fork EMS, an emergency medical service that serves parts of Delta, Montrose and Gunnison counties.^[5]

Spurlin Mesa Lateral

Spurlin Mesa gives its name to the Spurlin Mesa Lateral, a branch of the Crawford Clipper Ditch irrigation system. Work on the Crawford Clipper Ditch, which originally drew its water from the Smith Fork, began on 4 April 1884, and the Crawford Clipper Ditch Company was incorporated on 16 November 1885.^[4] Amended articles recorded in 1961 list the Spurlin Mesa Lateral as one of the system's four laterals. According to water-rights records cited in the report, it has been part of the system since its beginning. Since Reclamation's Smith Fork Project was finished in 1962, the ditch has drawn its water from Crawford Reservoir.^[4]

In 2017–2018 Metcalf Archaeological Consultants documented a segment of nearly 4.5 miles of the lateral (site 5DT1811.6), on a mix of private and Bureau of Land Management land, ahead of the ditch company's plans to pipe and modify the system. Their Level II report, prepared for the ditch company, the BLM, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, states that in consultation with the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office the Crawford Clipper Ditch–Spurlin Mesa Lateral is considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It qualifies under Criterion A for its link to early irrigation farming around Crawford and Hotchkiss.^[4]

Name

No source found for this entry explains how the mesa got its name. It was presumably named for a Spurlin family of settlers, but that is unverified.

Wikidata

Spurlin Mesa has a Wikidata item, Q49076981, which describes it as a "mountain in Colorado, United States of America".^[6]