History of Franktown/Granger Movement Timber, Douglas County, Co - Colorado Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Franktown/Granger Movement Timber panel text reads as follows:

Panel 1 Title: HISTORY OF FRANKTOWN
Franktown takes its name from James Frank Gardner, a would-be gold miner who built a squatter's cabin four miles north of here in 1859. A popular rest stop on the busy Jimmy Camp Trail (which followed Cherry Creek into Denver), "Frank's Town" was designated the seat of Douglas County in 1861; the settlement moved to its current location two years later. Though railroads made the trail obsolete after 1870, and the county offices moved to Castle Rock in 1874, Franktown remained a ranching and farming hub, held together by its church, school, grange, and handful of businesses. It never incorporated, and during the twentieth century no more than a hundred people called it home, but that's how the locals liked it. Even as suburban sprawl surrounded it in the 1990s, Franktown resisted efforts to develop, maintaining a distinctly rural identity.

The Grange Franktown's strong agricultural roots made it a natural fit for the grange, a cooperative farmers' movement that swept rural America in the mid-1870s. Several dozen chapters formed in Colorado, including the Fonder Grange (founded near here in 1875) and its successor, Pikes Peak Grange No. 163 (established in Franktown in 1908). Both belonged to the statewide grange organization, which set up credit unions, insurance programs, and other services, and to the national grange association, which pursued long-range political goals. But it was the local chapters that really affected farmers' lives. The dances, holiday picnics, and town meetings they sponsored helped sparsely populated communities forge a sense of identity. Still active today, Pikes Peak Grange No. 163 occupies its original hall, which stands just north of here and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

4 Historic Photos Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society

Panel 2 Title: TIMBER INDUSTRY
Frontier travelers often rejoiced upon reaching the timbered ridge just south of Franktown; it was the first woodland they encountered after hundreds of miles on the prairies. Early settlers in Colorado appreciated the forest, too-as a source of building material. Known as "the Pinery," it provided fast-growing Denver and other towns with most of their lumber during the 1860s. Several sawmills buzzed nonstop in and around Franktown, barely able to keep up with the demand. In the early 1870s, the Pinery supplied railroad ties to the Kansas Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande, both of which were laying tracks within twenty-five miles of here. Those routes eventually opened larger forests to exploitation and helped bring down this region's timber industry. By 1880, Franktown's sawmills had gone silent, but they had already left their mark: Pinery lumber built much of early Colorado.

Castlewood Dam From the day it opened, Castlewood Dam was a catastrophe waiting to happen. Built in 1890, about five miles south of here on Cherry Creek, the barrier stored enough water to irrigate 30,000 acres of farmland-or would have, if it hadn't leaked so badly. The seeping began the year the dam was completed and was serious enough that a hundred-foot section crumbled in 1897. Although its builders vouched for the structure's integrity, the dam continued to leak sporadically for decades. Finally, on August 3, 1933, the inevitable happened: Castlewood collapsed, sending a billion-gallon torrent toward Denver. Only two people drowned, thanks to a switchboard operator's life-saving calls, but the flood devastated farms in this area and tore out six bridges in Denver, thirty miles downstream. The dam's remains can still be visited in nearby Castlewood Canyon State Park.

Images on this Panel:
Photo: Castlewood Canyon Dam leaking
(Caption) Almost from the time workers completed construction, Castlewood Dam leaked. In 1901 farmers in the irrigation district that ostensibly benefited from the presence of the dam complained that there was not enough water in the reservoir to properly irrigate their crops. Photo Courtesy of Denver Public Library

(Caption) The remains of Castlewood Dam just after the break, 1933. Castlewood Canyon State Park not only preserves portions of the Black Forest ecosystem and Cherry Creek flood plain, but also the remains of Castlewood Dam, providing visitors with the opportunity to witness a remnant of the sometimes futile struggle to control nature.
Photo Courtesy of Denver Public Library

Photo: Cleanup in Denver after the dam break
(Caption) Denver storekeepers cleaning up after the Castlewood Dam break. Altogether, the flood wreaked over $1 million in damages, cost two lives, and sent three fourths of the hundred families living in the irrigation valley on government relief. Photo Courtesy of Denver Public Library

Photo: Railroad Workers laying ties
(Caption) Railroad construction gang, about 1870. Railroads required more than steel; they also required a large amount of lumber, especially for ties. Much of the lumber used by the Kansas Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads came from the forests surrounding Franktown. Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society

Photo: Team of horses carting cut timber
(Caption) In the early years of the timber industry lumber suppliers primarily transported timber to mills via ox, mule, or-like this crew in the late nineteenth century-horse teams.
Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society

Photo: Lumber mill and workers
Lumber mills like this one (about 1880) sprang up across the Palmer Divide region to supply the insatiable demand for lumber from growing communities like Denver and ever-growing railroads. Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society

Panel 3 Title: RUSSELLVILLE
For a few exciting months, Russellville felt like Colorado's gold-rush capital. The town rose five miles southeast of here in late 1858, after William Green Russell discovered a few gleaming specks in his pan at Russellville Gulch. His find brought a horde of prospectors-an advance wave of the Pikes Peak gold rush. With its busy placer diggings and clusters of tents, Russellville brimmed over with promise; but its nuggets, although pure, were too scarce to make fortunes. In the spring of 1859 the real gold rush began in the Central Rockies, about seventy-five miles northwest of here, and Russellville's boom abruptly busted. Nearly deserted, the settlement survived for a time as a passenger way station, but by 1880 this hopeful gateway to the gold fields had become a ghost town.

Territorial Military Activities
Franktown and Russellville both had small stockades in the early 1860s to protect this region from Confederate raiders, who hoped to tip the balance of the Civil War by gaining control of Colorado's gold fields. Manned by area residents (John Frank Gardner "commanded" the Franktown garrison), these local defenses supported Colorado's federal volunteer troops, who frequently patrolled the Jimmy Camp Trail. A group of volunteer cavalry camped near Russellville in 1863 while searching for Southern guerrillas, and six Texans (the infamous "Reynolds gang") were executed there the following year. Territorial troops fought their most significant battle at Glorieta Pass in northern New Mexico, where the First Colorado Regiment helped turn back a sizable Confederate force in March 1862. Though far removed from the Civil War's main theaters, Colorado still had a hand in winning it.

Images on this panel:
Drawing: Execution of the Russell Gang
(Caption) In this late-nineteenth-century rendition of the final minutes of the Reynolds gang at Russellville, southeast of Franktown, all but one of the troops fired over the heads of the gang members. Popular accounts portray the soldiers as having wanted no part of the execution ordered by Colonel John M. Chivington.
Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society

Photo: Civil War-era Firearms
(Caption) The Franktown Historical Society and the Douglas County Historic Preservation Board unearthed artifacts from Civil War-era forearms like these at the site of Russellville, evidence that the stage stop was once used as a rally point for Union soldiers during the war.
Photo Courtesy of the Denver Public Library

Photo: Portrait of William Greene Russell
(Caption) William Green Russell, namesake of Russellville, among the many prospectors credited with starting the 1859 Pikes Peak gold rush.
Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society

Photo: Springhouse in Russellville

Photo Courtesy of Clyde W. Jones

Panel 4 Title: FRANKTOWN COUNTRY
Regional map with the following points of identification:
In 1933 Castlewood Dam collapsed, sending a wall of water through Denver. This disaster resulted in a comprehensive flood control program for Cherry Creek and saw the construction of the Cherry Creek Dam and Reservoir, part of Cherry Creek State Park. Ruins of the earlier dam can be seen at Castlewood Canyon State Park, located in Colorado's famous Black Forest, the source of much of the timber that built early Denver. The park offers visitors hiking, rock climbing and sightseeing.

In 1858, about five miles south of present-day Franktown, William Green Russell and his party discovered gold. Russellville soon grew up at the site of the find. A hoitbed of military activity during the Civil War, little evidence of this early mining camp remains today.

Long a landmark on the Trappers' Trail, Castle Rock was named by a gold seeker in 1858.

In 1820, Stephen H. Long led an expedition that traveled through present-day Douglas County. While in Palmer Lake, this expedition made the first recording of what would become Colorado's state flower, the Rocky Mountain Columbine.

Built in 1926 just outside of Sedalia, Cherokee Castle and Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by noted architect Burnham Hoyt the main house resembles a 15th century Scottish castle and was constructed by Cornish stonemasons using materials quarried on the site. In the late 1990s, the property was placed in trust to preserve and protect the land and wildlife. Tours are available by reservation only.
Lamb Spring, located near Littleton and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is an archaeological site that may pre-date 9,500 B.C. Today the Archaeological Conservancy owns this 35-acre preserve, and monthly tours are offered by Douglas County Open Space May through October.

Commanding a view of the Rampart Range and the South Platte River valley, Devil's Head, a 9,748' mountain, served as the United States Forest Service's first permanent fire lookout, established in 1912.

When completed in 1905, Cheesman Dam held the distinction of being the world's highest dam. And, Cheesman Reservoir could claim to be the first reservoir in Denver's mountain water system. Today, the Denver Water Board owns site and related facilities. In 1973, the American Society of Civil Engineers named the dam a National Civil Engineering Historic Landmark.

CHS ID # 288 Type 4-Panel

Colorado Historic Markers Database LINK
In Keyword Block type in "HISTORY OF FRANKTOWN" then select "Match All" and click on SUBMIT. Now scroll to the bottom of the page to get to this markers information block.

Group or Groups Responsible for Placement: Colorado Historical Society Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Federal Highway Administration County or City: Dougles County Date Dedicated: 2002 Check here for Web link(s) for additional information: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
In your log, please say if you learned something new or if you were able to take any extra time to explore the area once you stopped at the historic marker waymark. If possible, please post a photo of you at the marker OR your GPS at the marker location OR some other creative way to prove you visited. If you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Colorado history, go ahead and include that in your log!

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   07/17/2015 condor1 visited it