Chronicles of Douglas County, Colorado

Historic Douglas County Inc. created this commemorative coverlet to illustrate the historic structures of Douglas County. The purpose of the organization, according to its website is to expand and enrich public awareness of Douglas County history through education and communication, and through support and coordination among local historical organizations and other related groups. Historic Douglas County Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. 1992.001.0678.001. Historic Douglas County, Inc.

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright © 2014 by Castle Rock Writers

All rights reserved

First published 2014

e-book edition 2014

ISBN 978.1.62584.637.2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chronicles of Douglas County, Colorado / Castle Rock Writers.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-179-2

1. Douglas County (Colo.)--History. I. Castle Rock Writers.

F782.D8C49 2014

978.8’86--dc23

2014025437

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Derald Hoffman, teacher, mentor, and friend, for his many contributions to the Douglas County community.

The mission of Castle Rock Writers is to provide education and support to aspiring and published writers in our region and beyond, through ongoing critique groups, training events, workshops and writers conferences.

CONTENTS

Foreword, by Shaun Boyd

Acknowledgements

1. When Dinosaurs Ruled by Derald Hoffman

2. Paleo-Indian Heritage by John Longman

3. Nomadic Tribes and Early Explorers by Jean Jacobsen

4. Opening of the West by Jean Jacobsen

5. Birth of the Centennial State by Tania Urenda

6. Closing the Frontier by Jean Jacobsen

7. The Twentieth-Century Adventure by Alice Aldridge-Dennis

8. From World War I into the Roaring Twenties by Susan Rocco-McKeel

9. 1930s: Seeds for Tomorrow by Susan Rocco-McKeel

10. World War II: Douglas County Serves the Country by Mark A. Cohen

11. The Heroes Return by Kimberlee Gard

12. The Age of Aquarius and 4-H by Alice Aldridge-Dennis

13. The Me Generation by John Longman

14. Looking into the Twenty-first Century by Mark A. Cohen

Notes

Bibliography

About the Authors

FOREWORD

Douglas County has been many things to many people in its rather short history.

The earliest people in the county were transitory hunter-gatherers, moving from place to place in search of food and shelter. Those early people were mobile, not entirely unlike the population today. We build more permanent structures and live less closely with nature, perhaps, and though the opportunity to hunt woolly mammoths is limited, we still want to provide for our families.

Explorers came to Colorado to see what was out here on the other side of the Great American Desert, a phrase coined by Stephen Long, one of the earliest visitors to Douglas County. The term will be familiar to anyone who has driven through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma or Texas toward Colorado, waiting for the glimpse of mountain that says not far now. We are still explorers, looking around the next bend in the trail or over the next rise in the road for something new.

Mountain men and gold seekers came to Colorado to find their fortune, to escape the stifling cities of the east coast and to begin again. They would be amazed that this stretch of land has become one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, as our gold rushes are found in technology, entrepreneurship, financial services and real estate development.

Pioneer farmers, ranchers and homesteaders turned this land into a productive agricultural center. We try to hold on to that agricultural past, which still exists in the echoes of places not yet been planted with sprouting houses, fenced with highways and tamed into commercial centers.

A side-effect of being one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States is that new people may not feel as connected as old timers to what a local place is about. Projects like this one by the Castle Rock Writers connect new residents with the history of a place that may seem as if it is without a history. This project has been a labor of love for the writers. They have researched the prehistoric origins of the area, interviewed longtime residents, gathered published accounts and then pulled them all together. They have created a work of many voices but captured one story.

As one of the book’s first readers, I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did.

SHAUN BOYD, ARCHIVIST

Douglas County History Research Center

Douglas County Libraries

Douglas County, Colorado

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Jean Jacobsen and Alice Aldridge-Dennis, project managers

Cherie Abbott, Douglas County Emergency Management coordinator

Mike Acree, former Douglas County sheriff

G. Larry Adams, head of the Remember Our Veterans (ROV) project

Susan Consola Appleby, author

Edwin Bathke

Barbara Belt, interviewer for Douglas County Libraries

John Berry, docent at Castle Rock Museum

Shaun Boyd, archivist, Douglas County History Research Center

Janet Brunger and Bill Brunger, U.S. Army Veteran

Debbie Buboltz, author

David Casiano, former Parker mayor

Cherry Valley Elementary School staff

Joseph M. Clements

Cory Cummings

Curt Cummings

Peggy Cummings

Mike Dennis

Carol and Chris Doubek

John Evans, Parker attorney and former Douglas County state senator

Amy and Dave Flanagan

Jackie Friesen

Blake Graham, assistant archivist, Douglas County History Research Center

Danna Hamling, Larkspur Historical Society

Jim Hansmann, curator of Castle Rock Museum

Bruce Hier

Angel Horvath, president of Castle Rock Historical Society

Joseph Chip Howard Jr.

Mary Ellen Howard

Steve Howard

Tim Howard

Jake Jacobsen

Dorothy Kelly, board member of Castle Rock Historical Society

Evelyn Kriek

Leeds and Jan Lacy

Helen and Joseph Lenda

Angie De Leo, executive director, Castle Rock Museum

Sue Luxa

Keith Mathena, Douglas County Emergency Management deputy

Kaye Marsh

Rose Menocal, president of American Federation of Human Rights

Betty Meyer

Ann Milam

Kenneth A. Miller

Tim Moore, Douglas County Bureau chief

Jack Muse

Stevie Ramsour Nelson

Bev Higginson Noe

Bill Noe, Larkspur Historical Society

May Palmer, Parker Area Historical Society

Robbie Hier Person

Steve and Gay Ramsour

Dave Rhodus

Alice Salazar, wife of George Salazar

George Salazar, U.S. Army veteran

Pat Salazar

Larry Schlupp

Libby and Dennis Smith

Adam Speirs, archivist, Douglas County History Research Center

Tony Sperling, Douglas County deputy sheriff

Sheila R. Stephens

Bob Terwilleger

Lora Thomas, current Douglas County coroner

Gordon Tucker, PhD

Laurie Marr Wasmund

David Weaver, Douglas County sheriff

Sandra Whelchel, Parker Area Historical Society & author

Lou Zoghby, U.S. Army veteran

1

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED

by Derald Hoffman

Seascapes viewed from property in Douglas County, a tropical rainforest covering the plains, lava flows and Jurassic Park in your back yard? These scenarios are not just possible: they are probable. Many residents of Douglas County will be thrilled to know that, at one time in the prehistory of the county, the area was beachfront property.

Douglas County’s prehistoric story began much like the rest of the places on planet Earth. About 13.8 billion years ago, a tremendous explosion occurred somewhere in space. Whether matter was created at that time or whether matter blew apart, no one knows for sure.

During the next few billion years, the universe filled with billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each galaxy. According to Terence Dickinson in his book The Universe and Beyond, the vast Milky Way galaxy consists of over 200 billion stars. It would take 80,000 years just to travel across the Milky Way, and this galaxy is only one of 100 billion galaxies.¹

Planet Earth was once part of a huge mass of gas and other hot materials, which included stars, moons, planets, asteroids and many other objects. The mass hurtled through space. Earth took billions of years to cool down and finally become a place where life could survive. The right amount of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide was needed to sustain life.

Some of the oldest rock in Douglas County is called Pike’s Peak granite,² and the Rampart Range in western Douglas County consists of it. This is between 1.4 and 1.7 billion years old. Some of this granite is also in Roxborough State Park. The oldest ridges in the park are the granite foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Life began in the ocean with small creatures that evolved into larger ones. During the Cambrian period, 590 to 505 million years ago, small creatures as simple as earthworms, mollusks, corals and arthropods multiplied. Millions of years later during the Devonian period, jawless fish,³ cartilaginous fish and sharks entered the picture. Not until the late Permian did amphibians, mammal-like reptiles and primitive anapsids develop.

The dinosaurs entered the scene during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geological periods. The Triassic period, 248 to 213 million years ago, was named by the Germans because the rocks of that time were identified in three separate sequences. The Jurassic period, 213 to 144 million years ago, was named after the Jura Mountains, which separate France and Switzerland. Lastly, the Cretaceous period, 144 to 65 million years ago, was named after the Latin word for chalk, the most prominent rock type found in southern England. Dinosaurs first appeared 220 million years ago during the Triassic and died out about 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous.⁴

Before the Pike’s Peak granite was formed, large pockets of molten rock below the Earth’s crust pushed their way into older rocks and solidified. Little is known about the next one-half billion years, but scientists believe tropical seas surrounded islands made of granite.⁵ About 543 million years ago, the Precambrian period ended. Igneous and metamorphic rocks were dominant around the town now known as Castle Rock.

The Lyons Formation can be seen in Roxborough, with sandstone that dates back to about 280 million years ago, when Douglas County appeared to be a sand planet. This formation gets its name from the town of Lyons, Colorado.⁶

Around 150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic era, dinosaurs lived in Douglas County, with many racing along an area in Roxborough State Park called the Dinosaur Freeway. Later, the county was a seafront beach along an inland sea that stretched from Texas to the Yukon. Still later, the entire Front Range was a tropical rainforest. That all changed approximately 37 million years ago when Mt. Princeton, near present-day Buena Vista, erupted and showered Douglas County with twenty to thirty feet of superheated ash.⁷

About five hundred species of dinosaurs lived throughout the world,⁸ and more are being discovered yearly. When dinosaurs first appeared, all landforms were together in a huge continent called Pangaea. Through the movement of tectonic plates, the continents broke apart, and they continue to move today. The process occurs very slowly, so it is hardly noticed. The United States of America drifts away from Europe by about four inches per year.

Ceratosaurus, a theropod, was a meat eater that lived in the region where Colorado is located today during the Tithonian stage of the late Jurassic. Artist Danny Cicchetti on Wikimedia Commons.

Stegosaurus is the state dinosaur of Colorado. This plant eater had rows of plates and spines along its back and tail. Jean Jacobsen Collection.

Marshosaurus, a theropod, was another meat eater that lived in the region during the Tithonian stage of the late Jurassic. Wikimedia Commons.

The next few hundred million years found Douglas County sinking into mud and lime at the bottom of a sea. Later, the sinking stopped, and land rose up and became surface again. When the sedimentary rock eroded away, the ancestral Rocky Mountains emerged.⁹

Around this time, the Fountain Formation appeared, evident in several places along the Front Range, including many outcroppings in Roxborough State Park, The formation gets its name from Fountain, Colorado, where it was first noticed. Its red color is due to iron oxide.¹⁰

Millions of years later, the Triassic period ended and again, in Roxborough, the Lyons Formation could be seen. At this time, the shoreline was slimy.¹¹

Moving forward in time to 150 million years ago, the Morrison Formations occurred in Douglas County. They are often called the Long Neck Meadows as dinosaurs such as diplodocus, stegosaurus, triceratops, apatosaurus and many other theropods (meat eaters) and sauropods (plant eaters) were here at that time. As an aside, stegosaurus is Colorado’s state fossil.¹²

To visualize the time of the dinosaurs, students of history can travel back in time through the following creative story. The setting is near present-day Roxborough Park, which was then a flat landscape. Imagine a steamy mist on an early morning:

Ceratosaurus woke up, stretched and decided he was very hungry. This Morrison Formations meat eater looked like a horned lizard. He was eighteen feet tall when he stood on his powerful back legs. He had short strong arms and each hand had four fingers. His large teeth jutted out—too big for his mouth and scary to his prey. With the horns on his head, he looked like a medieval dragon.

Nearby he could see some marshosaurus theropods, similar to himself about sixteen feet high when on their back legs. He quickly left and headed for an area of lush vegetation, where he hoped some sauropods would be having their breakfast of ferns among the trees. He cruised down the Dinosaur Freeway approaching speeds of fifteen miles per hour. No speed limit slowed him down; the open trail was well traveled.

Ceratosaurus saw tall figures through the mist so he