Info and the start of the Homestead Self-Guided tour..Really cool little place!
10 bucks in 1894....
View from the top at the parking lot
View from the backyard
Concert home
Cool house interesting to see how the home was constructed
Seems small for a family of 10
it’s a tiny door
side view with the Lilac in the back ground
Lilac bushes out the back of the house
pretty step shoot
simple. I liked how they used the standing tree for the other post
I would be a happy cow here
Unfinished Project?
L in the wall...not finished though
little spring is still bubbling
she still running
Hog wire fench
Where did they get all this concrete
They love L shape things
down the top from the L
Down the L from the other wall
Got a little of the Path
can’t see the house from here. it’s behind but that’s what they see from the home
little peak of the home from the Fancy wall area
Last view coming from the shoot
Pretty much in the middle of the west side of the park. Hiked the 1/2 mile Falls Spur
Falls Spur Trail
More of the Falls Spur Trail
The Falls
Cherry Creek below
Falls and Cherry Creek
More of the falls
The Falls...Not running really fast
The Castlewood Dam has no real documentation or truly visible photographs to prove any actual history. Photographs that do exist show many arches, doorways, and actual castles that were built into the rocks right by the lake which were obviously removed to hide something now. The dam itself in Castlewood Canyon is said to have been built in 1890, but remains nameless along with the lake it used to hold giving it a very mysterious and questionable past. The Castlewood dam is a masonic-dam, and it should be noted from a factually derived and educated historical perspective that this exact style of dam construction is extremely ancient, and would not be utilized under any circumstances in the late 1800s or early 1900s, not to mention the fact that there is no known quarry for the Castlewood dam. Due to the Castlewood dam being much older than it is said to be, greatly compromised from time, finally suffered an utter collapse following heavy rains at 1 am on 3 August 1933, resulting in a 15-foot wall of water rushing down Cherry Creek to Denver, some 15 miles away. Warnings to the city by 4 am allowed most people to move out of the way of the flood waters.[2][3][4]
View From the other side of the Dam
Built in 1890 along Cherry Creek south of Franktown, Castlewood Dam was meant to help irrigate Douglas County farms. In 1933 the dam gave way, unleashing a fifteen-foot surge of water on Denver and ultimately spurring development of the Cherry Creek Dam to prevent future flooding. Today the ruins of the Castlewood Dam are a historic site protected as part of Castlewood Canyon State Park. Construction The Castlewood Dam was planned as part of the agricultural development of Douglas County, which remained an isolated, sparsely populated region until the arrival of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in 1871. Soon the country south of Franktown was settled by groups of Germans, a few French, and some Scandinavians. Potato farming and dairy ranching became principal industries in the county. With the growing importance of farming in the region came the need for irrigation. In the late 1880s, a plan was made to build a dam on Cherry Creek in Douglas County. The Colorado General Assembly first broached the idea of building a dam at the site in 1889. But when the state failed to follow through, a private entity, the Denver Water Storage Company, was organized to build a dam some forty miles south of Denver and create a 180-acre reservoir for farming and manufacturing purposes. The Denver Water Storage Company purchased 16,000 acres downstream from the dam site, which it hoped to sell to future settlers in forty-acre tracts. On March 6, 1890, the Rocky Mountain News reported that eighty-five men were working on the dam at Castlewood, with an additional 250 men and 180 teams employed on the ditch running down Cherry Creek Canyon. The dam was designed by engineer A. M. Wells and completed that summer. Problems No sooner had Castlewood Dam been built than it became a focus of controversy. Many Denver residents still remembered the Cherry Creek flood of 1864, one of the worst in the city’s history, and worried that the Castlewood Dam could give way. In May 1891, a committee of Denver citizens formed to protest what they believed to be unsafe conditions at the dam. In a petition to the Denver mayor, the citizens’ group charged that the excavation for the foundation of the dam was insufficient and that it was already leaking. In response, W. F. Alexander of the Denver Water Storage Company sent a note to the mayor that characterized the committee’s report as a “low-lived attack from prejudiced persons” who “deliberately falsified” their statements. According to Alexander, “the idea of a flood in Denver as a result of the breaking of the dam is ridiculous.” Denver’s concerned citizens evidently knew more about the dam than Alexander. In 1897 a 100-foot section washed out and did some downstream damage. Repairs were made, but Denverites remained nervous about the possibility of the entire dam giving way. Heavy rains in the spring of 1900 led to speculation that Castlewood Dam would break. In an attempt to quell these rumors, Wells wrote a letter to the Denver Times on May 2, 1900. “[The dam] has for ten years withstood every test and attempt to produce disaster,” he noted, “and in the past few days has undergone an ordeal which few dams on earth ever endured and survived. . . . The Castlewood Dam will never, in the life of any person now living, or in generations to come, break to an extent that will do any great damage either to itself or others from the volume of water impounded, and never in all time to the city of Denver.” However, it appears that those associated with the construction of Castlewood Dam were too invested in the project to be objective. Under the pressure of the rising reservoir behind the dam, large holes developed at the bottom of the structure. It leaked so badly that in March 1901 local farmers complained that there was no water in the reservoir for irrigation. On April 13, 1901, the state engineer told the Denver Times that “there is absolutely no danger from the dam this year, as the dam will not hold water.” That same year the Denver Water Storage Company went bankrupt, and Castlewood Dam became the property of the Knickerbocker Investment Company of New York, which had loaned $185,000 for the project. In May Knickerbocker sold the dam to Seth H. Butler of Middletown, Connecticut, for $8,000. Repairs In February 1902 the Denver Sugar, Land and Irrigation Company acquired Castlewood Dam. This company, backed by local investors, planned to repair the dam, build a sugar factory, sell off irrigated farmland below, and encourage Cherry Creek farmers to grow sugar beets. The company soon completed its repairs and acquired 18,000 acres of land downstream, which became known as “Clark’s Colony,” after Rufus “Potato” Clark, the venture’s founder. The company’s land sales got off to an auspicious beginning, with some 2,000 acres sold by April 1903. However, the project hinged on the construction of the sugar factory, which was never built, in part because local farmers did not want to grow beets and feared that a sugar factory would pollute their water. Eventually a new company, the Denver Suburban Homes and Water Company, took over the Castlewood Dam project. This company acquired land downstream from the dam, planted about 900 cherry trees, and attempted to sell off small tracts of irrigated land as orchards to easterners who wanted to retire to a western suburban setting. Around 1912 the orchard scheme encountered financial difficulties, with the issue of water rights going to court. While the property was in receivership, the cherry orchards were not properly tended and many of the trees died. The case was finally resolved in 1923, when the project was reorganized with the individual landowners sharing the rights to water from Castlewood Dam and reservoir. In the early 1930s about 150 landowners organized as stockholders in the Cherry Creek Mutual Irrigation Company. The company managed the dam and ensured that downstream users got their supply of water. Water from the reservoir irrigated about 2,500 of the 9,000 acres below the dam; the rest was left for dry farming or pasture. Most of the land tied to this project was planted in alfalfa, with some grain and miscellaneous crops cultivated. The Dam Breaks Finally—in 1933—the event that Denver residents had dreaded since 1890 came to pass. A series of summer thundershowers filled the reservoir to capacity. Then, at 1:20 am on August 3, Castlewood Dam gave way, sending a wall of water fifteen feet high down Cherry Creek Canyon. The caretaker at the dam, Hugh Paine, saw what was happening and hurried to Castle Rock to spread the news. Nettie Driscoll, Parker’s telephone operator, warned the Denver police of the flood. Time Magazine offered a gripping account of the disaster: Cherry Creek was a battering-ram of water, boiling over its embankments. At 7 o’clock it burst into Denver, ripped out six bridges in swift succession. Just ahead of it were police cars and fire engines, sirens a-scream, racing the residents to safety. A stampede of 5,000, many clad in night clothes, fled from the lowlands. In the yard of his house, Tom Casey, 80, fell into a hole, could not pull himself out. The torrent surged over him, stilling his screams. Power lines were destroyed, houses canted. The flood poured into store basements, soaking tons of merchandise. The Market Street produce centre was buried in three feet of water. The City Auditorium, fire and police headquarters, the city jail were flooded. The floor of Union Station was covered six inches deep, a log came bumping into the waiting room. On Champa Street, the floodwaters extended as far uptown as Thirteenth Street. Portions of the concrete walls along Cherry Creek were torn up, and waves spilled over onto Speer Boulevard. By 8 am the torrent was subsiding. Later that afternoon Denver slowly regrouped and appraised the impact. The Denver Post reported it as the city’s worst flood since 1864. Hundreds of acres of farmland were inundated, and many stock animals drowned. Besides poor Tom Casey, there was a fatality in Franktown. Property damage in Denver was estimated to be over $1 million. Flood Control The disaster of 1933 forced the city of Denver to seriously consider a comprehensive flood-control program for the Cherry Creek drainage, which ultimately led to the building of the Cherry Creek Dam. City officials proposed a plan that would include the walling of Cherry Creek from University Boulevard to Colorado Boulevard and the construction of a diversion dam across the creek channel several miles southeast of Denver. The site for the dam on Cherry Creek near Sullivan, later referred to as the Kenwood Dam, was acquired by the city of Denver late in 1934, and construction began the following year on the forty-five-foot earthen structure. Business owners who had suffered during the 1933 flood organized the Denver Flood Control Association and began to lobby the federal government for the construction of a better flood-control system on Cherry Creek. One of the options under consideration by the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Reclamation, and Army Corps of Engineers was the reconstruction of Castlewood Dam. In April 1940 a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers recommended that Castlewood Dam be rebuilt and that another dam be constructed on Cherry Creek closer to Denver. He stated that while the Kenwood Dam, already in place, was sufficient for ordinary situations, it could be destroyed by a strong basin-wide flood, which would inundate Denver. In August 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law a bill giving official authorization for the Cherry Creek project as part of a $275 million national flood-control program, and in April 1946 Congress approved a specific appropriation of almost $3 million for flood-control work on Cherry Creek. Land for the dam on Cherry Creek was then acquired and ground broken at the site in July 1946. The new dam was planned to be 140 feet high and almost 3 miles long. Under supervision by the Army Corps of Engineers, the dam was completed in January 1950 at a total estimated cost of $18 million. Proponents claimed that the Cherry Creek Dam proved its worth on June 16, 1965, when it stopped the largest flood in the area’s history. Today As late as the early 1970s, the Army Corps of Engineers still considered rebuilding Castlewood Dam as part of the Cherry Creek flood-control project. By that date, however, local residents were against the idea, believing that the Castlewood Dam was not really necessary with the Cherry Creek Dam already in place. In May 1972 political pressure forced the Corps to drop their plans for a new dam at Castlewood. Instead, concerned citizens recommended that Castlewood Canyon State Park be expanded. The park had its origins in 1961, when Lawrence P. Brown gave eighty-seven acres of land to the state park system for only ten dollars. In 1964 that land became Castlewood Canyon State Park. The park grew in 1979–80, when the state acquired an additional 800 acres, including the old Castlewood Dam site. Trails built since the 1980s allow visitors to tour the canyon and ruins of the dam. Today the park preserves more than 2,300 acres of the unique Black Forest ecosystem and part of the Cherry Creek floodplain.
Peak of the top of the Dam
more of the dam through the trees
Back Side of the Dam
Second time I have been here. First time with Chatty and we hiked the loop. this time just walked a bit of the loop
Originally established as a Du Pont company town in 1906–8, Louviers Village south of Denver is distinctive in Colorado because it was never associated with either agriculture or mining. Planned by Du Pont as a model community to attract long-term employees for the company’s nearby the Louviers Works dynamite plant, the town served as worker housing for decades until the company sold the town and closed the plant in the late twentieth century. One of the best-preserved company towns in Colorado, Louviers still retains its company town look and feel because most of the structures were built in the same period and given uniform modifications over the years. Louviers Works E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, better known simply as Du Pont, built a dynamite plant and company town at Louviers starting in 1906. Du Pont had been making dynamite since the late nineteenth century, and by the early 1900s it was the largest explosives manufacturer in the world. It made explosives for military munitions as well as explosives for mining and road building. The company built the Louviers plant largely to supply dynamite for mines and roads in Colorado and throughout the West. To build Louviers, Du Pont acquired land from Jones Ranch in April 1906. Originally called Toluca after a nearby telephone/telegraph station on the railroad line, the site was attractive because it had easy railroad access, was close to Colorado’s mines, and was not far from Denver’s large pool of labor. In 1907 Du Pont renamed the town Louviers after the town in Delaware where Du Pont had established a wool-cloth factory in the early 1800s, which was in turn named after Louviers, France, a town at the center of the French wool industry. (The Du Pont family was originally from France.) Construction at Louviers began in 1906 and focused initially on the dynamite plant, which started production in May 1908. The Louviers Works quickly became one of Du Pont’s most important dynamite facilities in the West. In its first year, the plant produced an average of 585,000 pounds of dynamite per month. At its height in the 1950s, it churned out more than two million pounds per month. It usually operated around the clock, three shifts per day, though it closed on weekends. Louviers Works supplied some dynamite to the military during the world wars, but most of its production was for commercial use. Dynamite from Louviers was used in Colorado’s Climax and Henderson mines, the Glen Canyon Dam, the Pikes Peak Highway, and the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel. Louviers Village When construction on the dynamite plant began in 1906, workers initially lived in tents and shacks on nearby hills. Soon Du Pont started to build Louviers Village northwest of the plant to house its workers. The first houses were ready by 1908. A total of eighty-five houses were built over the next seven years. Du Pont built Louviers Village in three sections: the Triangle (or the Flats), the Quadrangle, and Capital Hill. The Triangle was the first section finished, twenty-three small cottages (under 500 square feet) arranged around a green space called Triangle Park. Next Du Pont laid out the Quadrangle, sixty larger houses (up to 1,000 square feet) arranged in a grid pattern, which were built in two phases in 1911 and 1915. Finally the company planned a group of four large houses on a hill overlooking the town for upper management and the company doctor. These were completed in 1912. Because Louviers Village was a company town built and maintained by Du Pont, it had several distinctive features. None of the roads had formal names. Houses were known only by numbers that the company assigned. None of the houses had driveways; when garages were added in the 1920s, they were placed behind the houses, next to the alleys. The company supplied public buildings to provide services and entertainment. In 1912 the company built a thirty-three-room hotel that also contained a post office, store, billiards room, and dining room. The most important community building was the Louviers Village Club, built in 1917, which contained a barbershop, dance hall, movie theater, bowling alley, store, and meeting space. When the original hotel was torn down in the early 1930s and replaced with a boarding house, the post office moved to the Village Club. The company also maintained green spaces at Triangle Park, Du Pont Park, and the center median of Louviers Boulevard, as well as having company gardens between Capital Hill and the Village Club. The only Louviers building from this period not constructed by Du Pont was the Louviers Community Presbyterian Church. Built in 1927, it was the only church in Louviers during the Du Pont era (pre-1962). Du Pont provided land for the church, which was built by volunteers (mostly Du Pont employees). Life in a Company Town When it opened, Louviers Works was one of the largest employers in the area. Once they were hired, most workers stayed at the plant for the rest of their career. Often more than one person in a family worked at the plant, and the town contained many families in which multiple generations worked at the plant. As a result, the town was a tightly knit community with many extended families and longtime residents. There were certain disadvantages to living in a company town. Because Du Pont was simultaneously employer, landlord, social director, and service provider in Louviers, the town developed distinctive social dynamics. An employee’s housing reflected his position at the plant. Workers started out in the small cottages of the Triangle. Within a few months or years, they could apply to move to larger houses in the Quadrangle. The very largest houses in the Quadrangle were reserved for the plant’s foremen. Within each section, the plant manager determined where people lived based on seniority and family size. In addition, most changes to the houses were uniform. The company usually repainted and redecorated the houses every five years. In the late 1950s, Du Pont added asbestos shingle siding to almost every house in the village, with families given a choice of white, green, or salmon pink. In some cases families were able to enlarge or otherwise alter their houses in a cooperative arrangement with the company. Living in a company town also had its advantages. Rent was low, ranging from eighteen dollars a month in the Triangle to thirty dollars a month in the superintendent’s house in the early 1960s. Many services were cheap or free. The company took one dollar a month from each employee to pay the salary of a dedicated town doctor. A group of Du Pont employees collected garbage and did landscaping and repairs. For many years, the town’s electricity was provided free of charge from the dynamite plant’s powerhouse, and residents could order coal from the plant at cost, plus a fifty-cent delivery fee. End of the Company Town and the Dynamite Plant Louviers Village ceased to be a company town in 1962, as Du Pont’s dynamite production slowed. Du Pont sold all the houses, with employees given the first chance to buy. Some vacant land in town was also sold and later developed, most notably the open space between Capital Hill and the Village Club. Du Pont still owned much of the land around the town, however, and promised that there would be no sprawling subdivisions. In 2002 the company donated 855 acres of open space near the town to Douglas County. Du Pont gave the town’s parks to Douglas County, which continues to maintain them, and transferred the Village Club to the county in 1975. The county leases the club to the Village Club Board, a largely volunteer group that maintains the building. The Village Club, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995, continues to serve as a meeting space and contains a bowling alley as well as a branch of the Douglas County Library. Even after Du Pont sold off the town, the Louviers Works continued to operate. In 1967 the plant started making pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a new type of explosive in rope form. In 1971 dynamite production ended at the plant, but PETN production continued until the 1980s, when new emulsion explosives took over the industry. Louviers Works was the longest-operating Du Pont dynamite plant and produced more than one billion pounds of dynamite between 1908 and 1971.
Wow it’s a tiny little place. A village named for a summer home
took a chance but it was just a playground and ball fields
I think this is part of the old water system
not sure what it is? But cool old tower
Roxborough State Park is a state park of Colorado, United States, known for dramatic red sandstone formations. Located in Douglas County 20 miles (32 km) south of Denver, Colorado, the 3,339-acre (13.51 km2) park was established in 1975. In 1980 it was recognized as a National Natural Landmark. Roxborough State Park, a 3,339-acre (13.51 km2)[1] Colorado State Park, is known for dramatic red sandstone formations. Located in Douglas County 25 miles (40 km) south of Denver, Colorado. In 1980 it was recognized as a National Natural Landmark because of the number of ecological systems and geological formations. It is also a State Historic Site and National Cultural District because of the number of archaeological sites.[2] Geology Edit Roxborough State Park is a designated Colorado Natural Area and National Natural Landmark for its 300-million-year-old red sandstone Fountain Formations that tilt at a 60 degree angle. The park includes great examples of exposed Precambrian to Late Mesozoic hogback, monolithic and spire formations from the Permian, Pennsylvanian and Cretaceous age. Carpenter Peak's exposed monzonite is from the Precambrian era.[3] Flora and fauna Edit The park consists of forests of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, prairie land, and woodlands that support many forms of wildlife. There are 145 bird, over 50 butterfly and moth, and 11 amphibian and reptile species. Mammals commonly found in the park include black bear, coyote, deer, elk, fox, mountain lion, prairie dog, and rabbit.[4] Sources of water include Little Willow Creek, Willow Creek and Mill Gulch. Elevations range from 5,900 to 7,280 feet (1,800 to 2,220 m).[5]
The Drive into the park
interesting rock
Seeing more of the open face
The views you can just see the red rocks
Spine of rocks
Still just on the road into the park
Fin like formations
man it’s gets better and better
It’s Fin like similar on the other side
left view from road
Right View seeing some of the first red rock formations
just cool
multiple of these formations seen
Dribble like formations
fins
Yes...this picture does not do it justice
Views
Storm rolling in
from the visitor center
Not sure what kind of rock but very different from the red rocks
Storm picking up not hiking today
also a reason not to off path it
on the baby path to VC
Info
Not a hard rock at all.
Formations through the trees
Smaller Fins
So amazing
info
Yes could have spent all day here
little info
Welcome from the home team
More views from the top of the road
I love the swirls
Bad selfie but when do I ever take a good one
I must love this view I took a photo coming and going. I missed the visit center:(
deep pitting here
Man this was my Favorite place here
Change in rock type
Mule Deer 5 of them
View of Denver
Reminds me of Devils Post-pile
Old mine shaft
Not open..;( But explores around it
Closed..;( But went out to some of the viewing areas
Been here 4 or 5 times now. Chatfield Dam and Reservoir is a dam and artificial lake located on the South Platte River, south of Littleton, Colorado. The dam and reservoir were built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a response to the disastrous flood of 1965. In addition to its primary purpose of flood control, it serves as one of many water supply reservoirs for the city of Denver, Colorado. In 1966, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission projected a total federal cost of $74 million.[2] Construction of the project was begun in 1967 and the dam was completed in 1975
This guy just kicking it by himself
Far side of the park looking west
Good view of the Res