1913 Map of Castle Rock

About this map

Castle Rock stands as the central hub of this pre-war survey, anchoring a region defined by its prominent buttes and the emerging rail corridors of the Santa Fe RR and the Denver and Rio Grande RR. The landscape transitions from the dense timber of the Pike National Forest in the west to a sprawling network of cattle ranching and dry-land farming across the eastern plateaus. Settlements like Franktown, Elizabeth, and Elbert are connected by a dense concentration of one-room schoolhouses, including the Fonder School and Hadsell School, which served the scattered homesteading families of Douglas and Elbert Counties. The inclusion of the Castlewood Reservoir along Cherry Creek highlights early 20th-century water management efforts, while prominent landmarks like Dawson Butte and Rattlesnake Butte provided vital navigation points for travelers long before modern highways carved through the front range.