Great Sand Dunes park born out of cooperation

December 18, 1999, marked the Summit in the Sand meeting at Great Sand Dunes National Park. From left to right: Rep. Scott McInnis, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Sen. Wayne Allard, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar.

Courtesy of Fred Bunch/National Park Service

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December 18, 1999, marked the Summit in the Sand meeting at Great Sand Dunes National Park. From left to right: Rep. Scott McInnis, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Sen. Wayne Allard, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar.

Courtesy of Fred Bunch/National Park Service

A picture of the Great Sand Dunes taken from space by the Expedition 16 crew aboard the International Space Station on Oct. 26, 2007.

Courtesy of National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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A picture of the Great Sand Dunes taken from space by the Expedition 16 crew aboard the International Space Station on Oct. 26, 2007.

Courtesy of National Aeronautics and Space Administration

In 1999, Republicans, Democrats, ranchers and environmental groups came together to back legislation to expand the Great Sand Dunes into a national park and protect water resources. This is the final year of a study to determine the park’s rights to conserve its underground water resource.

Durango Herald file

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In 1999, Republicans, Democrats, ranchers and environmental groups came together to back legislation to expand the Great Sand Dunes into a national park and protect water resources. This is the final year of a study to determine the park’s rights to conserve its underground water resource.

Durango Herald file

Eighty percent of Colorado is experiencing some form of drought or dryness. That means dry river basins, hungry wildfires and parched farmland across the state. Some have already started comparing conditions to the 2002 drought.

It’s also prompting a closer look by historians into how communities have survived and triumphed over water scarcity – instead of the old Western yarn that “water is for fighting.”

Back in 1999, some of Colorado’s most powerful politicians stood on top of the windswept sandy hills of what would soon become Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. It was an attempt to conserve not only the land but also an underground aquifer and streams.

“I think the feeling was, ‘if we’re going to save this resource, the time is now. We’ve got to act,’” said Michael Geary, a historian who wrote Sea of Sand: A History of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Read the rest of the story at Colorado Public Radio.