Wild Water: Hydrosocial Dislocation, Dispossession, and the Symbolic Geographies of the American West

This dissertation investigates how the confluence of community change and water politics in the American West shapes a discussion about a Wild and Scenic designation for the Crystal River on Colorado’s Western Slope. Ideas about the “Wild West,” influence how many people think about wilderness and small mountain towns, driving growing populations, housing prices, and, as a result, social inequality in many of these areas. At the same time, many people on Colorado’s Western Slope feel that region’s water is taken away by both the state’s more populous Front Range or more politically and economically powerful states like California. Climate patterns have led to less supply of water at the same time that demand has increased, which has created additional strains on an already complicated relationship between society and hydrology. This research examines some of the cultural, economic, and political factors of that relationship in three ways: 1) by analyzing the stories and cultural meanings attached to the rivers that are “outstandingly remarkable” enough to receive a Wild and Scenic designation, 2) by providing a framework to explain how the values and social norms that were meant to fairly and equitably govern water in the West have become less important than making as much money as possible, and 3) by examining how the discussions about protections for the Crystal River reflect and, in some ways reinforce, existing inequality.