The Farwell Ditch in North Routt County has been added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as of Sept. 1 after Historic Routt County applied for its distinction, according to a news release from the nonprofit organization.

“When you’re looking at historic places, you’re looking not only at buildings, but also landscapes,” said Kristen Rockford, executive director of Historic Routt County. “There are 100-year-old crabapple trees and lilac bushes and cottonwood trees … All of that together creates the character.”

The application process to add the Farwell Ditch to the National Register of Historic Places began in December 2024 after two brothers, Rod and Nolan Farwell, were visiting North Routt County and wondered if the name was a family connection.

The brothers, hailing from the Midwest, noticed a map of the area included Farwell Mountain near Hahns Peak — spelled the same way as their last name.

After researching the ditch, the brothers found that one of the contractors, John V. Farwell of Chicago, was a distant relative.

“That sparked a passion for them,” said Rockford. “They’ve been researching Farwell Mountain and Hahns Peak and their relatives’ involvement in establishing the area and the mining, then learned about the Farwell Ditch.”

A North Routt local who had been researching the ditch connected with the Farwell brothers. Together, they mapped the entire length of the ditch and continued to research its significance, said Rockford.

Construction of the ditch, which spans 18 miles in North Routt County, began before Colorado became a state in 1876 and was completed about two years later.

Around 100-200 people worked on the project, providing some of the first wage-paying jobs in the county. Men used picks, shovels and dynamite to complete construction. No fatalities occurred during the dangerous project, according to Historic Routt County.

“The construction of the Farwell Ditch represented a shift from simple, low-cost placer mining by individuals on their own claims to the more consolidated, capital-intensive and industrialized hydraulic mining of wage laborers paid by small corporations,” states a news release from Historic Routt County.

Contractors Farwell and Robert McIntosh oversaw the project through its completion in 1878, spending summers supervising the camp and mining operations.

Ultimately, tensions with the neighboring Ute Indian Tribe led to Farwell selling the mining project after only one full season of mining for $60,000 — or nearly $2 million today.

Later in 1897, a young Herbert Hoover came to the area and saw the hardships of mining firsthand. In an article for The Mining and Engineering Journal, Hoover wrote, “The pioneers in the undertaking may lose money; those who come after will profit by their experience.”

“This was done by hand. They didn’t have dozers, or any of the type of equipment we would now have to move earth,” said Rockford. “They were doing this by hand and with horses … They were incredibly driven and tenacious people, all in the name of mining gold.”

Previously added to the Routt County Register of Historic Places in 2022, the Farwell Ditch is one of 27 landmarks in Routt County on the National Register of Historic Places. Other notable locations include the Maxwell-Squire Building in Steamboat Springs, the Antlers Cafe & Bar in Yampa and the Bell Mercantile in Oak Creek.

The process of nominating a landmark for the U.S. National Register is rigorous and includes submitting numerous forms filled with research, photos and verifying that the landmark meets the Register’s requirements for age and integrity.

While going through the process of nominating a historic landmark, Historic Routt County often nominates the site for state- and national-level recognition at the same time due to the extensive work that goes into each application.

“All of this was done in less than a year,” said Rockford. “I think it would have taken longer if the Farwell brothers had not already done so much extensive research.”

To learn more about the Farwell Ditch, visit the Farwell brothers’ Facebook page at TinyUrl.com/3n9zdhy8.