As a farmer in the early 1900s in Fort Collins, Colorado, Harvey G. Johnson learned the value of water. Born on his family's homestead near St. Francis, Kansas, in 1895, Johnson moved to Fort Collins with his family in 1903. His formal schooling ended at grade six when he left school to run his father's farm. Growing up on a farm northwest of Fort Collins, Johnson became well aware of the growing water problems in the town. After running various farms in Fort Collins and owning his own, Johnson retired from farming in 1944.
Beginning in 1936, Johnson became a board member of the Water Supply and Storage Company. He would eventually work simultaneously for various water companies, including serving as president of the Tunnel Water Company, which operated the Laramie Poudre Tunnel; president of the Sherwood Ditch Company, which distributed water from Arthur's Ditch; and a member of the Board of Directors at the Jackson Ditch Company. Also during this time, Johnson served as state secretary for the Farm Bureau and as an agriculture appraiser for the Federal Land Bank. During World War II, he managed immigrant and prisoner-of-war labor on beet farms throughout northern Colorado. In 1944, Johnson entered the farm equipment business with his son, Gordon, selling Allis Chalmers farm equipment.
Johnson was asked to serve on the Fort Collins City Council and was elected mayor of Fort Collins in 1964. During his two terms as mayor, Johnson changed the way the city annexed land and managed water. Since, previously, the city only acquired the land and not the respective water rights with the land, Johnson thought Fort Collins would be ill-prepared for the future. He oversaw the purchase of water shares from Horsetooth Reservoir and the Colorado-Big Thompson project to ensure the city would have adequate access to water supplies. The city water department was started, a water board was appointed, and a new filter plant with storage capabilities was built.
He married Margaret Capps in 1917, and they had four children. Johnson died in 1991.
From the guide to the Papers of Harvey Johnson, 1907-1989, 1970-1989, (Colorado State University Water Resources Archive)
