Through our support, the Town of Windsor Art & Heritage Department is currently generating a Master Plan for historic structure renovation and preservation of the Eaton House at the Town of Windsor Museum. The Eaton House was built in 1902 by early irrigation developer and fourth Colorado Territorial Governor, Benjamin Harrison Eaton, for his ditch workers. Eaton served as a founding officer of the Union Colony, a joint-stock colonization company made up of farmers and led by New York Tribune Agricultural editor Nathan Cook Meeker. Rich with irrigation knowledge he acquired from Hispanic farmers in the San Luis Valley, Eaton brought those skills to northeastern Colorado and began building numerous irrigation ditches and canals. As a landowner, Eaton built canals and reservoirs to supply 90 land parcels of 160 acres he owned in Weld and Larimer counties. Eaton was instrumental in building numerous irrigation canals, including the Larimer County Canal No. 2 in 1873, Larimer and Weld Canal, also known as the Eaton Ditch, in 1878 and in 1879 the High Line Canal in Denver. It was Eaton’s understanding of the importance of the rivers’ water that led to the passing of some of Colorado’s first water right laws, enabling farmers to harness the river’s resources to feed their crops.