freight services. Water diversion Tennessee Pass is the location of the first transbasin diversion project to move water from the Colorado River Basin over the continental divide to the Arkansas River. The Ewing Placer Ditch (or just Ewing Ditch) was constructed in 1880 and remains in use. It transfers water from Piney Creek east of the pass, a tributary of the Eagle River over the pass to the head of Tennessee Creek. The ditch may have originally been used to provide water for placer mining, but the Otero Canal Company used the water for irrigation before selling the ditch to the Pueblo Board of Water Works in 1955. The ditch has a capacity of and in an average year diverts approximately . A second ditch was constructed at Tennessee pass in 1929, the Wurts Ditch. This was built by William Wurts to provide irrigation water, but Pueblo purchased this ditch in 1938, and in 1953, they extended the ditch another westward along the south flank of the Eagle River valley. After extension, the ditch has a capacity of and diverts an average of about of water. See also Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse References Rail mountain passes of the United States Mountain passes of Colorado Landforms of Lake County, Colorado Landforms of Eagle County, Colorado U.S. Route 24 Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Transportation buildings and structures in Lake County, Colorado Transportation buildings and structures in Eagle County, Colorado Railroad tunnels in Colorado