This Colorado Town Legally Owns an Entire Alpine Glacier – And It Might Melt Away by 2045

Time is Ticking for Boulder’s Last Alphine Glacier

The Arapaho Glacier lies next to North Arapaho Peak in Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest.

Back in the early 1900s, the city of Boulder bought the glacier. It’s actually the only glacier owned by a city anywhere in the world.

A Pharmacist First "Found" It in 1900

Back in August 1897, botanists Herbert N. Wheeler and Darwin M. Andrews went looking for dogtooth violet bulbs in the valley below the glacier.

After getting their samples, they pushed on up the steep rocks and ice toward a ridge between two peaks, just wanting to see what lay ahead, as Wheeler wrote later. What they found is what we know as the Arapaho Glacier today.

However, a Boulder pharmacist named Eben G. Fine got credit for “finding” Arapaho Glacier in 1900, since Wheeler hadn’t shared his 1897 writings yet by the time Fine shared his discovery.

The City Needed More Water Resources by the 1900s

Boulder saw in the 1870s that they needed a reservoir for steady water all year. They built their first one with a sand filter in 1875.

Water ran down an 8-inch cast iron pipe to Pearl Street’s public square (now Boulder County Courthouse), which sat 160 feet lower than the reservoir.

Many people got their water at the square, turning water runs into social time like chatting, maybe catching a Boulder City vs. Sunshine baseball game before lugging full buckets home.

By the early 1900s, Boulder knew it needed more water sources to grow.

Boulder Paid $1.25/acre for the Arapaho Watershed

Congress passed a bill in 1919 that let Boulder buy 3,695 acres from Roosevelt National Forest, including both Arapaho Glacier and its whole watershed, to supply the city’s water.

The deal included 13 reservoirs and natural lakes in the Silver Lake Watershed, which were closed to public access by 1920 to prevent contamination. President Herbert Hoover finalized the glacier’s transfer to Boulder in 1929.

The Glacier Gives Boulder 40% of Its Water Through Snow Melt

Boulder gets its water three ways: 40% comes from the Silver Lake Watershed, another 40% from Barker Reservoir on Middle Boulder Creek, and 20% from the Boulder Feeder Canal or Boulder Reservoir.

The annual snowmelt from the Arapaho Glacier flows to the Silver Lake Watershed, making it one of the biggest sources of drinking water for the city.

A 1920s pipeline from the glacier could deliver 20 cubic feet/second, enough for 10,000 households.

"Pure Cold Water from the Boulder-Owned Arapaho Glacier" Became a Marketing Slogan

Inside the historic Hotel Boulderado in Boulder sits an ornate marble drinking fountain. It’s the last of the many glacier-fed fountains that used to dot the city. It was fed by a dedicated pipeline built in 1909, originally delivering unfiltered glacial water labeled “99.996% pure.”

Today, the fountain’s water only has 2% glacial melt. Similar fountains once existed at Boulder’s First National Bank and Carnegie Library, but were removed during mid-20th-century plumbing upgrades

Was Officially Classified as a Glacier in the Mid-1980s

In the mid-1980s, the USGS identified Arapaho as one of seven glaciers in Colorado that met the criteria for glacier status.

One is that it had to be “slow-flowing,” aka have consistent movement. At that time, the Arapaho Glacier moved by 12 meters a year.

It Has Ash from a Volcanic Eruption

The glacier formed during the Little Ice Age (1300-1850 AD). Ice cores from the Arapaho Glacier revealed ash layers from the catastrophic 1883 Krakatoa eruption.

The Arapaho Glacier is Shrinking

Between 1964-2016, the Arapaho Glacier got thinner by 23.4 meters, which is equivalent to a 7-story building.

Satellite imagery also shows that the glacier had lost 89% volume since the 1900s, and it’s disappearing twice as fast as Montana’s Grasshopper Glacier.

It’s Not Considered a True Glacier Anymore

In 1998, the Arapaho Glacier was downgraded to “perennial snowfield” (ice field) status. Unlike glaciers, snowfields are stagnant.

By 2021, the Arapaho Glacier did not have enough mass to flow under its own weight. It also doesn’t meet the 25 acre minimum size for glaciers anymore.

The Arapaho Glacier Might Melt Away As Early as 2045

The glacier is shrinking quickly, and it’s now about half the size it was in 1900. It’s getting thinner too. From 1964 to 2016, it lost about 76 feet of ice thickness.

Some parts of the glacier, especially those facing south and getting more sun, are melting even faster. Scientists first thought Arapaho Glacier might last until 2075 (University of Colorado study, 2007).

But a 2022 study by Daniel McGrath using better 3D maps showed it’s melting so fast now (60 feet thinner since 2005) that it could disappear by 2045 if this speed continues.

Entering the Arapaho Watershed Can Land You in Jail

The Arapaho Watershed is closed to the public. The closest legal viewpoint is 1.2 miles from the glacier’s edge via an 11.1-mile roundtrip hike.

If you’re caught trespassing, you’re on the hook for a $5,000 fine and even jail time.