In the winter of 1894 nine men and one women met and formed the Colorado Cooperative Company. The colony constructed an irrigation canal from the San Miguel River to Nucla on Tabeguache Park. Mostly hand dug, it took the company 9 years. January 1903 the last nail was driven into Cottonwood trestle. It was built on a curve and was 110 feet high and 800 feet long. This was the highest trestle of its kind to be built in the United States. In 1904 the company created the Town Improvement Company with the charge of planning for the Town of Nucla.