![]() ![]() However, the many reservoirs in South Park and the rivers and streams that feed them delight fishermen, bird watchers, and waterfowl hunters. This water is stored in large reservoirs in the South Park, drying out the formerly verdant Bayou Salado. Today, rights for 80 percent of the water that flows from the Park County’s mountains belong to Denver, Colorado Springs, and other area cities. But soon, water-hungry cities nearly 100 miles away at the foot of the Rockies became more crowded, and the abundant water of South Park became more valuable than what ranchers could make raising cattle, sheep, and crops. For a while, ranchers diverted much of this runoff into their pastures, growing hay so rich that it was said to be shipped to the Queen of England for her horses. The area reminded early mountain men of the wet lowlands of the Old South and they dubbed it Bayou Salado, or salt marshes. Spring runoff cascading from mountain snows once spread into the lower valley and settled into alkaline wetlands known as fens, fostering plentiful stands of plants and hosting a wide variety of insects, birds, and smaller wildlife. On ranches that retain their water rights, the meadows remain lush. ![]() Sharp-eyed hikers can often catch sight of these rare treasures as they hike the high mountain trails. As scientists studied these grasses and other native plants over the ensuing years they discovered over 150 species of rare or endangered plants, including some that grow nowhere else in the world. These intrepid families quickly discovered that the natural grasses in the area were excellent feed for cattle and built highly successful ranches. The news languished until gold was rediscovered in 1859, a decade after the California Gold Rush, triggering a stampede of hopeful prospectors and their families in one of the largest gold rushes in North American history.Ĭuriously, it wasn’t the miners and prospectors who first settled in the South Park year-round, but ranchers who arrived to feed the miners. In 1803, a trapper from Kentucky discovered gold in the streams of the South Park and shared the story with explorer Zebulon Pike, but the trapper was more interested in his furs and the explorer in his expedition report. Alma is the highest incorporated town in North America. Many of the historic buildings, mining camps, towns, ranches, and natural wonders are available for the visitor to enjoy.Some of the bristlecone pines on Windy Ridge above the tiny town of Alma, Colorado, are well over 1,500 years old. Residents of Park County still brave the elements for the privilege of living among the breathtaking scenery and abundant outdoor recreational opportunities that are a part of this area. The wide open ranchland still hosts cattle, bison, elk, deer, and antelope, and the forests are home to bears, mountain lions, foxes, and lynx. Unlike many of the surrounding counties, most of Park County has changed very little. ![]() When cars and highways replaced the trains, guest ranches and resorts continued to host visitors seeking to find the real Colorado. Hundreds of visitors came on the trains from Denver and Colorado Springs to hunt, fish, sightsee, and pick flowers. Many of the first homesteads in Platte Canyon became hotels and restaurants for the hungry travelers heading for the gold country. TourismĪs soon as the buffalo trails became wagon roads and then railroads, Park County became a mecca for tourists. Many of those early buildings can still be seen all across the South Park and many are still in use today. They built their houses, churches, and stores of logs and stones. The land that had only been a summer hunting ground for the native people, soon saw families braving the high winds and winter snows to make it their year-round home. Soon mining camps became towns and rough homesteads became ranches. The gold rush brought both the affluent and the poor, soldier and settler from the Midwest, the East and even Europe to the high, wild country. One-third of those settled in Park County where miners found millions of dollars of gold. Within a year and a half, the population of the area known as Colorado jumped from a few thousand Native Americans and a few hundred mountain men to more than 30,000 people. When, in 1859, a prospector found nuggets and flakes of gold near what would soon become the city of Denver, the discovery triggered a stampede of gold-seekers and families looking for a new life in the Rockies. Pursley was trapping beaver and Pike had a report to complete. In that 1806 meeting, neither man was interested in gold. ![]() Millions of years later in what was soon to become Park County, a trapper from Kentucky named Jim Pursley told Zebulon Pike, an explorer mapping the newly acquired western land for President Thomas Jefferson, that he'd found gold in the South Park, a big high-altitude basin in the middle of Park County. ![]()
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