Brief by Allen Best
Water – October 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Of recent U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton has had the strongest ties to ski towns. He vacationed first in Vail, then Aspen, and then several times in Jackson Hole. When he was president, Gerald Ford vacationed in Vail winter and summer.
But 50 years ago, when Dwight Eisenhower was president, the Western White House was in Denver, and “Ike,” as he was commonly called, several times fished the Fraser River and its tributaries, Vasquez and St. Louis creeks.
Playing off that history, locals in the Fraser Valley have sponsored the creation of an eight-foot bronze monument to be located along the banks of the Fraser River, showing Ike angling a trout.
The Winter Park Manifest also reports that something called the Fly-Fishing with Ike Festival is now being held annually. The event is sponsored by Trout Unlimited, which is using it to showcase improvements in the river.
That river is among Colorado’s most exploited. Denver Water began drawing from the Fraser and its tributaries in the late 1920s. The diversions provided for Denver’s growth until the 1960s, when Dillon Reservoir went on line.
But diversions have come at a cost. The Fraser is less of a trout stream, because the flows were smaller, and hence the water shallower and then warmer. In response, a $750,000 project was undertaken three years ago. The stream channel has been narrowed, so water is deeper and hence stays colder.
“The riffles and holes are going to make the fishery much better,” explained Scott Lin, president of the local chapter of Trout Unlimited.
