Small Town USA
Era Menu Precolumbian Era: 1 Billion BC - 1500 AD Exploration: 1500 - 1854 Kansas Territory: 1858 - 1861 Douglas County Infancy: 1862 - 1874 Closing the Frontier: 1875 - 1881 Building Douglas County: 1882 - 1899 Agriculture and Ranching: 1900 - 1918 Boom and Bust: 1920 - 1939 Small Town USA: 1940 - 1959 Destruction and Recovery: 1960 - 1979 Growth and Prosperity: 1980 - 2000   Location Menu All Castle Rock Franktown Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree Larkspur Louviers Mountains Parker Roxborough Sedalia Spring Valley, Cherry Valley & Greenland	1942 AD     Mountains: Colorado and Southern Railroad pulls rail lines in the Platte Canyon. 1945 AD     All: Major flood hits Parker and Franktown. (Miller: Parker Colorado: A Historical Narrative.: p.84)     Mountains: July: Woodbine Lodge, restaurant, gambling establishment, burns down. (: Record Journal of Douglas County.: Rocky Mountain News.) 1946 AD     Mountains: Three-day snowstorm cripples Jarre Canyon for 16 days.     Mountains: Shamballa Ashrama is founded by the Brotherhood of the White Temple. (Appleby: Fading Past: The Story of Douglas County, Colorado.: p.167)     Castle Rock: Castle Rock Town Marshall Ray Lewis shot in the B&B Cafe by escaped prisoner Manuel Perez. (: Douglas County News-Press.) 1948 AD     Mountains: Pike's Peak National Forest in Douglas County is closed to cattle grazing. (Roudebush: History of Sedalia and Jarre Canyon.: p.25) 1949 - 1956 AD     All: Douglas County's small schools begin to close and consolidate. Eventually, Douglas County RE-1 School District is founded in 1956. 1951 AD     Parker: Wooden framed Quonset hut is constructed by the citizens of Parker as a community center. (Whelchel: p.68) 1952 AD     Spring Valley, Cherry Valley & Greenland: Cherry Valley School created from Spring Valley (District 3) Upper Lake Gulch (District 13) Goldale (District 14) Cherry or Pratt (District 20) East Cherry (District 22) Irving/Case/Rock Ridge (District 24) Cedar Grove (District 33) and Pine Grove (District 27). (Everest. Christie: "Douglas County Schools.": p.5) 1954 AD     Sedalia: Tweet Kimball purchases the Cherokee Ranch from Charles A. Johnson and Ray Blume. (Chamblin: Historical Encyclopedia of Colorado.: p.552) 1959 AD     Spring Valley, Cherry Valley & Greenland: March 31: Greenland Post Office closes. (Bauer: Colorado Post Offices, 1859-1989. Supplement.: p.2)	Lieutenant Bernard Curtis was one of 14 young men from around Castle Rock killed during World War II. Lt. Curtis was killed at the Battle of the Solomon Islands November 13, 1942. Douglas County History Research Center #1998.039.006.004 The Brotherhood of the White Temple purchased property in Douglas County in 1946. Preparing for nuclear war, the church retreated to the mountains, where they established a settlement at Shamballa. Photo courtesy the Denver Public Library Western History Collection The Woodbine Lodge, a restaurant, dance hall and gambling parlor in the 1930's, burned down in 1945. It reopened in 1952. The Cherokee Ranch was purchased by Mrs. Genevieve Montague "Tweet" Kimball in 1952. After Mrs. Kimball's death, the castle and surrounding land was established as the Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation Photo courtesy Jesse Stainbrook, Douglas County Television The 1950's were a time of relative calm in Douglas County, as the newspaper headlines indicate. All the headlines on this page were found on page 1 of the Douglas County Record Journal.