Greeley-Poudre Irrigation District

This subseries of Carpenter's legal papers is divided into three categories: criminal cases; water cases and clients; and legal materials. The criminal cases category contains documentation related to three cases, those of Charles Simonson (also spelled Simonsen; 1907), Walter Rising (1910), and Mrs. Olive Peters (1913). In each case, Carpenter served as the defense attorney for the accused murderer. The files are arranged alphabetically.

The largest of the categories is the second, water cases and clients. The materials are arranged alphabetically either by the client's name or by the case number/title (simplified version). The bulk of the materials relates to the Greeley-Poudre Irrigation District, which led to Carpenter's involvement in the Wyoming vs. Colorado case. Documentation of that is filed under the case name. The Greeley-Poudre case argued in the Larimer County District Court is numbered 2031, though some of the documents say 3031; one was corrected by hand, giving evidence of a typographical error. Besides court documentation such as proceedings, briefs, reports, testimony, and the like, there are also notes and other miscellaneous items related to the cases. The published Wyoming vs. Colorado briefs can be found in the publications series (7). Other cases in this subseries involve various water-related organizations which were Carpenter's clients, as well as individuals who had water-related legal needs.

The final category, legal materials, is comprised of materials Carpenter had acquired or created for his legal work but were not necessarily related to a particular client or case. Much of it relates to water matters, but some is on more general legal concepts, such as state sovereignty. Some of it may relate to compact issues, as his thinking for that grew out of his law experiences. The files are arranged alphabetically and include mostly Carpenter's notes but also some other court case documents.