Western Water Data

Fremont County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 1,283 water rights on record in Fremont County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1860-05-01 to 2023-12-28.

At a glance

1,283water rights on record
6,365acre-feet absolute (perfected)
16,527acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
4.1%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 1,532.3 absolute · 42.5 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: Fremont County has about 2.6x more acre-feet decreed as conditional than as absolute. Conditional water is decreed on paper but not yet put to beneficial use. A buyer or lender who does not separate the two is valuing a different asset than the one on the ground.

Seniority by era

In a dry year the oldest rights are served first. This is how Fremont County's rights are distributed.

EraRightsShare
pre-190050339.2%
1900-194928422.1%
1950-196916112.5%
1970-199920616.1%
2000+12910.1%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation637
Domestic423
Stock357
Wildlife154
Municipal132
Fishery93

The ten most senior rights on record

Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.

PriorityStructureSourceAmount UsesVerify
1860-05-01HARDSCRABBLE DITCHHARDSCRABBLE CREEK0.9375 CFSIrrigationstate record
1861-04-01CANON HEIGHTS DITCHFOURMILE CREEK1.6 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Augmentationstate record
1861-04-15BEAVER PARK DITCHBEAVER CREEK0.294 CFSIrrigationstate record
1861-05-01IDEAL CEMENT PUMP PLANTARKANSAS RIVER1.052 CFSMunicipal, Industrial, Domesticstate record
1861-05-20BEAVER PARK DITCHBEAVER CREEK0.028 CFSIrrigationstate record
1861-05-20PEGGY DITCHBEAVER CREEK0.0004 CFSIrrigationstate record
1861-05-31CANON HEIGHTS DITCHFOURMILE CREEK0.813 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Augmentationstate record
1861-05-31TITSWORTH DITCHFOURMILE CREEK0.187 CFSIrrigationstate record
1861-05-31BATES DITCHBEAVER CREEK1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1861-07-22MINNEQUA CANALARKANSAS RIVER2.0 CFSIndustrialstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Fremont County covers every one of the 1,283 rights, with its priority date, seniority number, absolute and conditional amounts, decreed uses and a link to each official record, as a spreadsheet.

Buying, lending on, or listing irrigated ground here? Ask for the county file, or for a single property's water summary. The first one is on me.

erik@westernwaterdata.com

Other counties

Browse all Colorado counties →

Records last updated 10 September 2026.