Page 22 - AreaNewsletters "Apr2023"

COMMUNITY INFORMATION
Castle Rock’s
History Corner
Painting by: Victoria Davis Berg
Article provided by
Castle Rock Museum
Upton Treat Smith
If you ever walk around the Craig & Gould neighborhood in Castle Rock you’ll see many old rhyolite homes. Rhyolite is the special stone that was quarried around Castle Rock and helped put Castle Rock on the map. The stone is made from volcanic ash and is a great building stone. Many homes and buildings around town, especially in the Craig & Gould neighborhood, just east of downtown Castle Rock are built out of rhyolite. The homes were also mainly built at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. All the homes have stories about their owners, but one we’ll talk about now is the home of Upton Treat Smith.
Upton Treat Smith
was a Civil War veteran
and an unsuccessful gold hunter from Maine. He homesteaded along West Plum Creek in 1869 and eventually built a home
in the Craig & Gould neighborhood in 1902.
He was elected County Treasurer in 1897 and served seven years in office. He also ventured into banking becoming Vice- President of First National Bank and President of the Peoples Bank of Castle Rock.
Smith’s G.A.R. card
Even 100 years ago people were interested in the history of the area. So Treat was asked to write some articles for the Record Journal of Douglas County about his early days in Douglas County. The following are some excerpts from his writings in 1923.
“The Civil War had a wonderful effect on the young men of that epoch. Their horizon was broadened and their environment was shattered by contact for three or four years with men from many states ... It was early in 1869 that I decided to take Horace Greeley’s advice, “ Go West young man: go West
April 2023 • Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters” 22
Upton Treat and Lizzie Grout Smith, 1900.
and grow up with the Country”. At that time the Union Pacific railroad was finished only to Cheyenne, WY. From there it was stage coach to Denver; then up to Central City, a live min- ing camp at that time ... After 8 months in the mining camp, I decided it was a homestead in the valley for me, where I could build up a home for myself and for that girl back in the Pine Tree State. It was the 26th of November 1869 that I anchored myself in Township 8, Range 68 in the beautiful Plum Creek valley. Colorado was a
territory and remained so until 1876, before there