Colorado’s Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway has won the 2020 Byway Organization Public-Private Partnership Award for its work with the McElmo Creek Flume project.
Susan Thomas and others have been invited to represent the byway for the award, bestowed by the National Scenic Byway Foundation at its conference Oct. 27-29 in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Colorado’s Scenic Highway of Legends also was honored as with an honorable mention in marketing and communications. Its project featured “best use of technology” with their TravelStorys, GPS self-guided, audio tour application.
In 2011, the McElmo Creek Flume was the only surviving of the original 104 flumes on the Montezuma Valley Irrigation system that was constructed in the 1890s. Delivering water to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s reservoir north of Towaoc, it sustained damage in the mid-2000s. As preservation of the flume began in 2011-12, Trail of the Ancients was awarded a National Scenic Byways Program grant to construct a parking area and overlook.
A diverse group of partners contributed to the restoration of the flume and construction of an overlook. Montezuma County, the Southwest Basin Roundtable, Southwest Water Conservation District, Colorado Department of Transportation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado State Historic Fund, Ballantine Family Fund and a private consultant all worked to preserve and protect it.
For information, visit www.trailoftheancients.com or www.nsbfoundation.com/2020-nsbf-awards.