Page 14 - OCT 2018 The Castle Pines Connection proof 1

14 CastlePinesConnection.com
Career options in early
Douglas County
By Joe Gschwendtner; photos courtesy of Our Heritage and People of Douglas County
FARMING: Early pioneers had limited options for a livelihood. Most were in agriculture of some kind, as subsistence was the rst order of business. Through trial and error, settlers found the workable methods, soil and water sources that could support their needs. Many found Plum Creek bottomlands ideal for vegetables, some fruit and potatoes. The spud remained supreme until battered by several devastating early frosts in the 90s followed by a potato blight. Other settlers became dairy farmers and by 1870, dairying was the county’s leading industry and gave rise to a string of creameries from Larkspur to today’s Highlands Ranch.
Scene in the Santa Fe Quarry near turn of century.
CATTLE RANCHING: In the beginning, it was about raising Texas long and shorthorns. Natural prairie grasses that thrived in the county favored the industry. As more settlers poured into the area staking out their land, barbed wire appeared, limiting free-range grazing. Individual herds proceeded to get smaller and scrawnier. Late 1880 blizzards buried most range grasses making winter forage grim. Even as ranchers reacted by adding to landholdings to grow their own feeds, conditions took their toll. By 1890, the county had a mere 40,000 head of cattle.
RAILROADING: Through the determination of 33 year-old General William Jackson Palmer, railroads came early to the county. Palmer became convinced of a need for a southern route from Denver to Mexico. Others long dissuaded, cited the steep grades, tight turns and narrow rock-ledged canyons.
Lumber wagon with a six horse hitch near Sedalia.
Frustrated, Palmer terminated his construction manager position with the Kansas Paci c Railway and founded
the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. Singlehandedly, he raised money to buy land grants and rights-of-way from the U.S. government. Conferring with business partner William Bell in London about strategies, together they visited senior engineers and inspected rail networks throughout England. In Wales, they found the solution to their Rocky Mountain dilemma: narrow gauge and lighter, iron rails. Standard rails were 4’ 8 1⁄2 inches; narrow gauge, only 3’. Less money and space. Brilliant!
By August of 1871, Palmer had laid track
to Fountain Colony (later to be called Colorado Springs). With the line’s opening, Castle Rock became a major lumber, rhyolite and dairy transshipment point, ensuring permanent jobs for the locals for the foreseeable future.
QUARRYING: Blessed by nature 37 million years ago, Castle Rock had several commercially exploitable rhyolite deposits. A massive eruption near Mt. Princeton hurled airborne liquid rock that settled
out in the Castle Rock area. Known
then as “Wall Mountain Tu ” and Castle Rock Rhyolite today, these twenty foot thick deposits on buttes gave us a cottage industry. Three quarries and Palmer’s railroad shipped it far and wide, an estimated 30,000 carloads by 1900.
LOGGING: In 1859, the Wildcats were
a treasure trove of wood, conveniently straddling the D&RG route. Since vast quantities of wood were needed by builders, quarries and the railroad, sawmills became immensely pro table in Douglas County. Steam-driven, portable sawmills speckled many of our hillsides. The rst and busiest was operated by DC Oakes, across from
the Pretty Woman Ranch in Riley’s Gulch on Daniels Park Road. At one time, he employed as many as 35 men.
Thus there arose a need for heroes and heroines to man’s carnage against nature.
Wildcat Lore
As it turns out, The Connection serves residents of the Wildcat Mountains, a name pioneers and historians gave to the high country paralleling I-25fromHighlandsRanchandLoneTreesouthtoCastleRock. Since the first territorial road (Daniels Park Road) bisected our mountains, there was no shortage of colorful characters parading through what are nowprivatepropertiesontheridgesofDouglasCounty. Webringthese grizzled and gutsy settlers alive again, vividly sharing their stories of grit and achievement in these Castle Pines.
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