The town of Iola, featured in the novel Go As A River, has captured readers’ imaginations with tales of small-town life, and the challenges of life on the Western Slope. While the story is fiction, it draws on a very real and transformative chapter in Colorado history — the creation of Blue Mesa Reservoir and the towns of Iola and Sapinero, whose fates were forever changed by water, engineering, and shifting landscapes.
Sapinero and Iola were small, vibrant communities nestled along the Gunnison River in what is now the upper Gunnison Basin. For decades, these towns served as homes, trading posts, and agricultural hubs, supporting ranching and mining in the surrounding valleys. Residents lived closely tied to the river, relying on its flows for irrigation, transport, and daily life. The communities thrived quietly, shaped by the rhythms of the high-country landscape and the rugged terrain of Western Colorado.
That quiet existence came to an abrupt turn in the 1960s when the Bureau of Reclamation constructed Blue Mesa Reservoir, part of the larger Colorado River Storage Project. Intended to provide water storage, flood control, and hydroelectric power for the Upper Colorado River Basin, the reservoir required the inundation of Sapinero and Iola. Homes, businesses, and local infrastructure were relocated or abandoned as the valley was transformed into a sprawling body of water. While the reservoir brought new opportunities — recreation, fishing, and broader water management — it also marked the end of these historic communities in their original form.
Go As A River succeeds in capturing the spirit of these towns, blending narrative invention with echoes of real history. For readers and residents alike, the story evokes the resilience, adaptability, and enduring connection to place that characterized Iola and Sapinero. The truth behind the fiction — the creation of Blue Mesa Reservoir and the reshaping of the Gunnison River landscape — provides context for the novel’s drama and underscores the ways in which human ambition and natural resources have long been intertwined in Western Colorado.
At Eagle Land Brokerage, operating in these watersheds and surrounding valleys reminds us that the stories of the land are layered. From historic towns to transformed reservoirs, from ranches that thrive on irrigation to rivers that power communities, the interplay of history, water, and land stewardship continues to shape opportunity in the Gunnison Basin. Fiction may capture hearts, but the real history of Iola, Sapinero, and Blue Mesa Reservoir enriches our understanding of both the land and the communities it supports today.
