Castlewood Canyon State Park


Castlewood Canyon State Park is a Colorado state park near Franktown, Colorado. The park retains a unique part of Colorado's history, the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam. Visitors can still see the remnants and damage from that dam which burst in 1933. The event sent a wave of water all the way to downtown Denver resulting in a flood. Also contained within the park is the historic Cherry Creek Bridge.

Recreation

This park hosts a multitude of hiking/running trails, handicapped access trails and rock climbing opportunities, as well as a nature preservation area on the eastern side that is home to wildlife and interesting geological features. Located within the northernmost extension of the Black Forest, Castle Wood Canyon encompasses with elevations ranging from 6,200 to. Many urban dwellers come for the picnic opportunity away from the city, others visit the park because of the unusual geology, particularly the caprock features.

Wildlife, ecology, and geography

Among the many species living in the park are coyote, cottontail rabbit, red fox, black bear, prairie rattlesnake, mountain lion, meadow jumping mouse, turkey vulture, golden eagle, prairie falcon, virile crayfish, Woodhouse's toad and the northern leopard frog.
Ecosystem Zones in the park are grasslands, shrublands, riparian, foothills-conifer, and caprock.
Castlewood Canyon is on the edge of the Palmer Divide, a geologically upraised area that results in more moisture falling than is normal in eastern Colorado, watering the Black Forest.

History

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.
Castlewood State Park was formed in 1964, following an 87 acre land purchase in 1961 and an additional 792 acre purchase in the late 1970s.