|
|
|
|
"A 25-foot wall of water was coming toward the house" Uprooted trees tumbled in the muddy, debris filled liquid quagmire that was once a placid Plum Creek. Roots and branches rolled in the fast flowing wall of water filled with roof tops, cars, refrigerators, bridges, mobile homes and even entire houses. Likewise, for thousands of years, Colorado's Front Range rivers and dry creek beds have been flooding during summer downpours and during those moments the Native Americans took note. It was over a hundred years ago, Denver's indigenous Arapahoe nation repeatedly warned immigrants not to build so close to the riverbeds. And once again, ignored and long forgotten advice went unheeded as a massive flood swept away any vehicle or structure near the Plum Creek as the unleashed flow headed towards the South Platte River in 1965.
Dangerous weather hit Castle Rock with moisture heavy cloudbursts after pummeling El Paso with "mountains" of hail and Colorado Springs with 4-1/2 hours of continuous heavy rain which came down in "sheets" according to one witness. The Denver Post reported "Incredibly, some basements literally had filled with hailstones that were washed inside by cascading water tumbling out of a broken culvert uphill." At 1:11 p.m. "tearing roofs from houses, knocking down telephone and power lines, and tossing huge trees in all directions," a tornado cut through 30 homes in the small town of Palmer Lake. Afterwards, the warm Gulf air filled with moisture let loose like a faucet and poured six inches of water on the damaged homes to add insult to injury. The deluge also opened up over Dawson Butte with so much water falling, boulders boiled down the sides, wiping away trees and cutting deep ravines into the western side of mountain. Six miles to the south near Larkspur, heavy rains buffeted Raspberry Mountain. In three hours, more than 14 inches of rain fell at nearby Castle Rock. According to witnesses, the sky turned dark black and frightening and the rain came down harder than any of them had seen before. According to a 1969 flood report, in a matter of minutes "The flow from glutted ravines and from fields and hillsides soon reached East and West Plum Creeks. The combined flows in these creeks have been described as awesome, fantastic, and unbelievable; yet none of these superlatives seem adequate to describe what actually occurred. Large waves, high velocities, crosscurrents, and eddies swept away trees, houses, bridges, automobiles, heavy construction equipment, and livestock."
The muddy torrent with tree stump battering rams sluiced into Plum Creek and towards Sedalia at about 5 p.m., ripping out roads and bridges along the way. According to Sedalia resident George Allis, "We just had time to run out of the house." "As we ran up the driveway, a 25-foot wall of water was coming toward the house" he reported to the Littleton Independent on June 16, 1965. The swirling waters caused vast destruction and washed away the nearby Manhart home, Sedalia grange and old church and even the bridge crossing Highway 67. The 87 year old Sedalia resident who lived alone in a house that had "the nicest yard in town," Albert Manhart, lost everything, except the clothes on his back. Another resident, according to the Rocky Mountain News, was Frank Nelson, a man "who might not have escaped the flood had not three Sedalia youths waded to his house and led him out a hole in the second-story wall - the bottom had washed away, the (three Heir family) boys said." The once-in-a-century storm dumped its rage across the state. In Loveland, 51 miles north of Denver, more tornadoes "came from every direction" as hailstones two and three inches in diameter smashed into a trailer park and nearby luxury homes.
The flood started about 1:30 p.m. when Palmer Lake divide and Castle Rock were hit by massive rains. At 4:15 p.m., Littleton residents received a warning from State patrol officers a 20 foot wall of water was coming down the river with a second crest behind. Taking aerial photos from a helicopter, a photographer described the river of muck as "a knife of mud slicing across the green countryside." The flood struck Littleton with a vengeance at 7:30 p.m. The Rocky Mountain News reported "It surged through Holmes Trailer Park, 5702 Old Mill Road, and slowly at first - the house trailers began gliding into the stream." The description continued: "The impressive thing here wasn't the roar of the flood, but the quiet ease with which it tossed the trailers into each other and down the river." Residents west of the Santa Fe railroad tracks and east of Platte Canyon Road were told to evacuate at 6:30 p.m. "But for every person that left the river bottom, 25 spectators moved in." Additionally, the Independent reported "Citizens huddled together in clusters. Everyone stood awe struck. They talked in low tones." Standing in disbelief, the Grant family watched from the 15th tee at the Columbine County Club their two-story home swept off it's foundation and carried away by the muddy waters. "We saw the river just rise and take it" Jo Grant said. "We were just stunned." The normally ankle and knee deep, placid waters of the South Platte River with it dry-stream tributaries turned into a half-mile-wide torrent of destruction which flushed out nearby structures, overflowed sewer treatment facilities, broke gas lines and caused electrical shorts which touched off multiple fires. Butane tanks ruptured and exploded as waters swamped power stations and swallowed telephone poles and power lines. Closer to Denver, cars and trucks swept up in the raging flow quickly became unrecognizable twisted masses of metal as they wrapped around submerged trees. Just south of downtown in Sheridan, 154 homes were destroyed according to the June 24th Herald Dispatch leaving only "20 odd foundations remaining." The article also reported "Homes dislodged from their foundations were tossed about as if the hand of some giant child had ripped the buildings from the ground, played with them for a time and then discarded them." The article continued, "Many homes collapsed under the force of the flood waters and others remained standing only to be lined with a slimy interior." At a small business where the family would purchase flowers and garden plants, Dardano's greenhouse at S. Lipan and West Evans, the newly built structure "suffered heavy damage to building and equipment alike." In addition, "the building front and signs were a total loss" and where "Tons of debris littered the premises."
When the clogged waters hit the Valley Highway in Denver, tons of lumber, RVs and trailers were stacked up like matchsticks along and over the bridge crossing. The 6th Avenue river bridge was surrounded by massive stacks of "lumber from demolished homes, garages, out buildings and lumber yards" which dammed the flow and left behind utter devastation. Some of piled wood was from Kaibab Lumber in Littleton, which was under 10 feet of water just west of Santa Fe Drive. According to the Littleton Independent, they had "huge quantities of sawed lumber" which washed towards Denver. In Denver's train yards, swirling waters tossed boxcars like giant toys and relocated many others at odd angles and tipped others onto their sides. The Denver Post reported on June 20th that businesses suffered millions of dollars of damage. "Losses to railroads, manufacturing plants, utilities, wholesale firms, retail businesses and recreation center will top $25 million" and that doesn't even cover damages to roads, highways and private home owners.
Littleton residents were told to boil their water, as they no longer had safe drinking water as the flood overran their sewage treatment facility and flood waters contaminated 90 percent of the wells. The Centennial Horse Track and thousands of phone lines were also washed out. The late Colorado state senator and Platte River expert, Joe Shoemaker who co-founded the Platte River Development Committee wrote "Instead of the normal 300 cubic feet of water per second, or the 3,000 that we called exceptionally high," Shoemaker wrote, "the raging South Platte hit us with the astonishing flow of 150,000 cubic feet per second."
"The flood peak passed through Denver during the night, and the immediate crisis was over by morning; but those in the inundated areas were faced with a Herculean task. The light of day revealed the nature of the destruction mud in every nook and cranny, soggy merchandise, warped bowling alleys, drowned animals, the loss of irreplaceable personal possessions, to name a few types. The colossal cleanup job, which would take months, began." Four days after storms raged across Colorado and after the monster flood hit Denver, President Lyndon Johnson declared 27 Colorado counties a disaster area. Sadly, statewide, 24 people died as a result of the floodwaters, a number that could have been much worse had it not been for the warnings that traveled quickly downstream as the flood progressed. Many livestock were swept away and drown including differing reports from 29 to 100 horses at Centennial Horse Track being killed. In the end, nearly 14 inches of rain fell in the South Platte watershed south of Denver resulting in the largest natural disaster in the city’s history costing the city cost an estimated $508.2 million in 1965 dollars (about $5.2 billion in 2025 dollars) with 75 percent of the damage occurring in Denver.
The 1965 Flood was a wake-up call for Colorado residents who paid little attention to the South Platte River. Since the 1870s, the river was a open pit for the city's trash which included animal carcasses, old tires, used oil, paint and wood shavings, runoff from dozens of plants and worse. Into the 1960s, tons of concrete slab waste and chunks of asphalt lined much of the river along with raw sewage and the output from numerous landfills. It was a toxic place to avoid as citizens even dumped their old cars and yard waste. After the flood, which added significantly to the trash and toxicity of the neglected river, people were suddenly alarmed by the open sewer running through the heart of Denver. It was the city dump and no one gave it a second thought, and that came back to haunt them as the flood waters receeded. Thankfully, after the flood, people began to think about the river and over time, slowly, over decades began to clean up the river and the areas surrounding it. But first, the flooding issue had to be solved, and that meant constructing a dam. In 1950, U.S. Congress approved water control plans for three dams at Cherry Creek, Bear Creek, and the South Platte River at Chatfield. Cherry Creek Dam was built, but not the others. Landowners in the area had disapproved and protested. The result, no funding was given to the Army Corps of Engineers to complete Chatfield or Bear Creek Dams. So the plan was shelved for a rainy day, a decision many residents would come to regret. Ironically, the Colorado Water Conservation Board had decided two decades earlier in 1945 to plug up the valley and install a flood-control reservoir at the junction of Plum Creek and the South Platte River. Its location would be constructed on the property of a longtime and industrious Littleton farming family, the Chatfield's. Likewise, the future dam site was named after a prominent landowner, Issac Willard Chatfield.
The Industrious Chatfield Family After serving in the Civil War 1861 to 1863 as a Second Lieutenant in Company "E" of the 27th Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the surviving Isaac Willard Chatfield and his wife Eliza Harrington, who also served as a Union Army nurse while caring for three young children, would all become early Colorado homesteaders, again. During their initial 1859 trip to Denver, they were disheartened by the overcrowding and primitive conditions of rough and tumble, gold fever city and moved to Kansas and then back to Illinois during the war. Yet, after they both served in the conflict, the diehard couple would again drive an ox team with horses across the plains a second time, enduring rough travel for eight weeks, from Bath, Illinois to Florence, Colorado in 1869. There, the family on 160 acres would establish a successful cattle business and expand by 1870 and then sell the entire ranch. Flush with cash after selling his 100 head of cattle and 320 acres in Florence, in 1871, the family picked up and moved again, this time to Littleton where Issac purchased 160 acres at the confluence of the South Platte and Plum Creek from J. B. Hendy. Again, he quickly expanded and by 1874, he had grown his ranch to 720 acres and owned much of the land in South Platte River valley, reaching from Plum Creek to Bear Creek.
It was also in August of 1874, Isaac sold a portion of his property to his cousin Edward Chatfield who was also a Civil War veteran and would document his experience in detailed journals. His newly acquired plot was a 2,700 by 675 foot rectangle which would encompass a section of the South Platte River and an area that would eventually serve as the Chatfield Dam spillway. Later, Isaac would sell most of his land to Edward after he moved westwards, drawn in by the potential business opportunities of the silver strikes and mining industries in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. But while living along the South Platte River, both men and their families would farm and ranch, purchase stock in water, raise a variety of crops, dairy cattle and even a variety of trees. In one early report, the Rocky Mountain News mentioned on June 7, 1874, "Isaac W. Chatfield, of Littleton, planted this spring, about a bush of soft maple seeds, which are doing nicely. He expects the seeds to yield him six thousand trees." Issac, perhaps tiring of raising trees, cattle and potatoes, would show interest in other business opportunities, including the construction of the nearby railroad that would roll across a section of his property. After donating a portion of land the rail line would cut across, he would try his hand at railroad contracting. Likewise, Isaac and his crew would construct a portion of track grading for the Denver South Park and Pacific rail bed as it followed the South Platte River into the mountains.
According to an August 22, 1877 Rocky Mountain News report, The South Park Road Railroad had unfinished parts of the line in the Platte Canyon and had received "quite a number of bids" to complete grading in the canyon on August 11, 1877. The article stated "unfinished portions of sections 8 to 20 inclusive have been let to I. W. Chatfield, to do the grading of the same, only about three miles of which remains unfinished, the work on which is very light." "...The grading yet to be done between the mouth of Bear Creek and Bailey's will cost near $100,000; bridging $12,000; ties $20,000..."
With experience in the railroad game, in 1879, Isaac was eyeing the mining boom and moved his family to Leadville. Initially, he worked in the railroad contract business and even acquired shares of two silver mines, the "Late Acquisition" and the "Smuggler #2." He, along with two partners were soon on to opening a successful grocery business, the Brinker & Chatfield, which was good for mining provisions. While managing the grocery and shuffling business partners, he dove into local politics and was elected as a city alderman in 1880. Later he would run for the Republican ticket as State Representative in Colorado's thirteenth district in 1888 and serve in the 1889 term. He would become involved in several important committees, including appropriations, railroad, mining, and apportionment. He was recognized for his practical knowledge of mining and the needs of his district, and contributed to legislation that supported those local interests.
As Issac explored politics, his cousin Edward stuck to farming and in November 1, 1890, a Field and Farm article reported "From four acres of ground E. L. Chatfield has harvested this year 480 tons of sugar beets of as fine quality as one needs look for. ...Samples of these beets were sent to a sugar refinery and the official test showed them to contain eighteen per cent of pure sugar. This is a very high "mill run."" As sugar beets became a cash crop for Edward, a rail siding for a beet dump or load out was placed just north of his house where Isaac and his crew had just recently graded the rail bed. The siding was parallel to the railroad which ran along his property, and later became the Colorado and Southern Railway and also ran adjacent to Platte Canyon Road. Just a couple of years later, a 1892 article in "Colorado Farmer" described Edward's expanded property in the South Platte Valley (in which he had absorbed most of Isaac's property): "One of the most beautiful pieces of land that the sun ever shone on, is the farm of E. L. Chatfield, four miles southwest of Littleton. Mr. Chatfield has 308 acres of land divided into fifty-acre fields. These broad fields are all perfectly level, yet with just sufficient slope to permit of successful irrigation. He has 140 acres of alfalfa, fifty acres of clover, timothy and orchard grass and estimates his hay crop for this season at near 1,000 tons. He will get three full crops of alfalfa and two of the other grasses. He has also twenty-five acres of barley, twelve acres of wheat and oats and forty acres of corn, all of which are in the very finest condition imaginable. In addition to this he has 2,200 acres of upland leased for pasturage."
The article also described Edward's dairy operation in detail: "He is keeping 200 cattle, ninety head of which are dairy cows, from which he obtains about 100 gallons of milk per day. We were shown through the creamery and saw the interesting process by which he converts this ocean of lacteal fluid into as fine butter as was ever spread on a pancake. Here we saw an eight-horse power engine at work running a De Laval centrifugal separator, and actually skimming milk fresh from the cows. This machine runs with the enormous velocity of 7,500 revolutions per minute, which forces the cream to the top of the receptacle, where it runs out rich and yellow through one pipe, and the skim milk runs out of another, thin and white, and is at once carried to about thirty-live head of young calves which Mr. C., facetiously calls his "nursery." While the cream is placed in a vat of pure artesian water, made perfectly cold with ice from an ice house which stands alongside the creamery. In this one building and run by one engine is the separator, the steam churn, a grist mill, and a mammoth grindstone. Everything is scrupulously neat and clean, all the milk is strained through a wire cloth strainer that has eighty meshes to the inch, and the butter is worked by an improved worker, which leaves all the rich cream flavor in it." In addition to keeping cattle, Edward kept "Among thirty head of good horses" and "a fine imported Norman stallion, that stands 16-1/2 hands high, and weighs 1800 pounds." Also standard with any Littleton farm, "Mr. C. has a chicken house almost as large as on ordinary barn, where we saw such a flock of yellow-legged poultry as would make a circuit rider’s mouth water for a month. We also paw some nice pens of stock hogs." To keep the whole farm running,"Mr. Chatfield employs ten men during the summer, and four during the winter. His fine ranch is watered front the Last Chance ditch, and has superb water privileges." As the Chatfield ranch passed through the years, pieces of land were leased and sold until the final 200 acres was sold in 1920 to Charlie Newby from Arvada. And in 1940, the adjacent, narrow gauge Colorado and Southern rail line, made obsolete by the automobile, was torn up from Waterton to Fairplay. However, the line from Denver to Chatfield's beet dump would continue to run and was even converted to 3-rail for standard gauge in 1939, with the inner (narrow gauge) rail then being removed in 1942. The September 10, 1942 Jefferson County Republican reported, "The Colorado and Southern railway is soon to start taking up the last of the narrow guage tracks out of Denver in the near future. It is some 29 miles of tracks from Chatfield to South Platte and in doing so some $116,000 worth of steel will be made available to the war effort." The rail line remained in place as standard-gauge until it was finally removed in 1950 from Sheridan Junction (near Hampton Avenue) south to Chatfield's farm.
The Slow Process Begins After the flooding disaster, Colorado Governor Love made a formal request for early action on the proposed Chatfield Dam to prevent further flooding on the South Platte River. The Colorado Water Conservation Board's 1945 project design was resurrected after the '65 flood and initially called for a flood control dam without the provision for water storage and for the dam to be built and maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers. However, dam construction would begin slowly after hearings, public meetings, investigations, feasibility studies, site visits, surveys, bids for for work, setting contracts, setting right of ways, relocating water lines and roads, condemning, appraising and purchasing land and finally earth moving, blowing up rock, pouring concrete and lifting tons and tons of stone rip rap onto the dam. Over two years after the South Platte flood, on October of 1967, "With a loud boom and a puff of black smoke from a dynamite explosion, construction on the $82 million Chatfield Dam officially began Sunday," reported the October 29, 1967 Rocky Mountain News. Yet, as dirt was being moved, there were calls from Colorado resident’s to hurry up the process, as they feared of more flooding during recent rain and even flooding storms in May of 1969.
As dam excavation progressed, which involved "some 15.5 million cubic yards of earth and the embankment, 13.8 million cubic yards," an interesting discovery was made. In October 1971, the skull of a huge 100,000 year old Columbian mammoth was found while earth-movers rumbled and scraped the area "70 to 80 feet below the normal surface of the ground in the area where earth is being removed for building the spillway of the dam." According to scientists and technicians from the U.S. Geological Survey, "the specimen as "a very good find" because the skull, giant molar teeth and part of one tusk are all in one piece." "The scientists said the mammal possibly was caught in the bog or quicksand of the old drainage of the South Platte River, where it was probably eaten or even torn apart by other animals. The skull and bones were then washed into the drainage where if was located, with the bones being scattered along the way."
Almost another two years of construction progressed until 1973, when a "closing ceremony" with Vice President Spiro Agnew announcing the diversion of the river which officially prevented any further flooding of the South Platte. According to a August 16, 1973 Rocky Mountain News article, "Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was enthusiastically received by a crowd of about 2,000 at ceremonies dedicating the closure of Chatfield Dam, Wednesday." The Vice President called "the earthen structure, located four miles south of Littleton on the South Platte River, "a monument to American vision and diligence. "At the conclusion of his talk he pushed a plunger which triggered a loud explosion, accompanied by a flash of flame and a cloud of smoke, at the bottom of the dam." The ceremony marked "the choking off of the river itself and the diversion of the stream flow through twin conduit pipes. The compacted earth to fill the 13,136 foot gap will eventually rise 147 feet above the river's bed." The dam was finally completed in 1975 and rose 147 feet over the riverbed. The curved dam embankment had a length almost two and half miles long at 13,136 feet with a tower intake structure and access bridge that stood 157 feet tall. The storage capacity or gross storage was 351,366 acre feet, an acre-foot is measured as the amount of water a family of four would need for one year. It’s current capacity is only 27,000 acre-feet of water, the equivalent of 8.8 billion gallons.
Initially, the earthfilled dam was constructed as a flood control device, but it also became water storage for the State of Colorado and Denver Water. Recently, according to Denver Water, the Army Corps of Engineers approved the Chatfield Storage Reallocation Project which increased the water levels at the reservoir by about 12 feet, which is about 20,000 additional acre-feet, or about 6.5 billion gallons. The overall length of the reservoir in nearly three miles long now, as the raised water level has flooded many of the poplars and cottonwood trees that once stood at the old waters edge. The resulting dead trees have been cut down as a safety hazard. As the water rises, the nesting birds and wildlife have to occupy lands further upstream towards Waterton Canyon. Condemned Property A National Historic Landmark While the dam was under construction, on June 17, 1971 the Secretary of the Army condemned 333.73 acres of land to the west, along Deer Creek, a small tributary trickling into South Platte River. The area was part of the original, historic 1860s Hildebrand Ranch. The newly condemned land provided additional flood control and is now part of the Chatfield Reservoir. However, the condemned portion was only a small section of the total ranch land the Hildebrand family had acquired over the years. In 1973, the Denver City Council authorized the long term lease of 750 acres from the Army Corp of Engineers for the development by the Denver Botanic Gardens. The site is part of the land used by the Army Corps to contain the flood control pool expected to occur less than once in 500 years. 350 acres of this have been designated as the Chatfield Arboretum housing the Hildebrand Ranch, Green Farm and Deer Creek School.
In 1975 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers successfully nominated the original Hildebrand Ranch to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976, the nearby Deer Creek School was moved about 1/2 mile to its current location and added to the group of historic structures. A few years later in 1980, the school house was renovated back to its original structure. Earlier, the tiny school closed in 1950 when the school district consolidated. For a while in the 1980s it served as the Chatfield Arboretum visitors center developed by the Denver Botanic Gardens.
The history of the Hildebrand Ranch began with Frank Hildebrand, seeking a fresh start from German crop failures, the Prussian war and a 1848 revolution. Arriving in America, first in Kansas and then Colorado Territory during the Pikes Peak gold rush, he drove an ox team westwards across the plains in 1859. Initially, he settled north of Denver in the Platte River valley near the mouth of Clear Creek. Ironically during 1864, his crops were ruined in flooding, so he sold out and started again at the Deer Creek location. It would be flooding a century later that would condemn his property and the family would have to move on once more. In 1866 Frank purchased his 160 acres of land at Dear Creek. He and George Seiter purchased the land, which also had a log house, from Pete Peterson and his wife on November 10, 1866 for $500. A couple of years later, in January of 1868, Frank and George divided the property and Frank and his family lived in it until about 1880 when it they expanded and remodeled the cabin into the Ranch House it is today with two additional wings, lathed and plastered. On February 28, 1873, Frank Hildebrand married Elizabeth Tritch, who already had a young son from a previous marriage, Francis, both from Germany. Later, Albert, was born in 1875 on the ranch, where they would both eventually grow up and attend classes at the nearby Deer Creek School along with kids from other neighboring ranches, including the Hugins, Moes, Massey, Payne, Short, and Couch families. The Hildebrands were a typical farming family of the area raising Hereford cattle (with their own cattle brand), hogs, geese, and chickens on their ranch. In the surrounding fields irrigated by several hand-dug ditches, they grew corn, wheat, oats, alfalfa, native hay, and a variety of vegetables and berries. Their stored their vegetables in the cooler temperatures of a root cellar in the basement with canned tomatoes, peas, and pickles along with jars of berries, jams and jellies. They also had a smokehouse which they put to good use smoking a variety of meats. Eventually, the family covered the log cabin with wood shingles which was later replaced by wood siding. They would build a variety of additional farming related structures, including a stable, carriage house, wood shed, bunk house, granary, blacksmith shop, icehouse, chicken house, milking barn, and other outbuildings they would eventually need as they expanded.
Helping out on the ranch, there would always be hired hands and work crews to assist with the cattle, threshing and harvesting the acres of crops. In 1880, census data shows two single "laborors," George Roe and Terry Frank living with the family. Large threshing crews would roll by the house with their steam engine tractor pouring out smoke like an old train locomotive. Ranch hands would drive the cattle near the the house and from pasture to pasture. The family and hired hands would also work in every sort of weather conditions, rain, snow or scorching sun while bringing in the harvest, taking care of the livestock, haying the fields, branding the cows or enjoying the day riding their horses. Starting a young age, Francis helped his father around the ranch. However, he was soon striking out on his own, running his own ranch. On December 27, 1887 his parents deeded him, at age 18, part of their property just west of their home. With a business partner named Mike Mose he built a house on the property, also next to Deer Creek along with numerous outbuildings. According to the 1900 Census, he owned the property mortgage free and was the head of the household living with a hired hand and numerous farms animals. His brother, Albert and his wife had inherited another ranch near Gunnison and moved there in 1902. On July 19, 1909 Francis married Josephine (Josey) Shekey. Marriage records state that Francis was 36 years old and Josephine was 28 and she was from Humboldt, lowa. Soon a daughter was born on November 13, 1910 named Dorothy Catherine Hildebrand. Unfortunately, Josephine soon died in 1912 at the age of 31 leaving Dorothy to raised by her father. However, seven years after Josephine died, Francis, at the age of 49 years, remarried an 18 year-old Margaret E. Nolan on April 10, 1919. Another daughter, Florence, was born on October 19, 1919.
When Frank was in his late 70s, he turned over the ranch to Francis to run. In 1910 when Frank was 80 years old, Francis as listed as head of the household according to the Census. Francis accumulated over 2,000 acres along Deer Creek and even a 740 acre dairy farm in Franktown that he obtained from Franziska Drick Haase, his mother's sister. Franziska was a widow with no living children and when she died in 1929 she left the farm to Francis. Francis worked the Deer Creek ranch his entire life and he died on September 26, 1943 at the age of 74 and was buried in the Littleton Cemetery. Dorothy, whose husband died at a young age continued to live at the ranch house after her father Francis died in 1943. She lived in the ranch house off and on until the early 1970s and she also helped run the ranch. After generations of Hildebrands had lived there, in 1971, Dorothy and Margaret were forced to move from the old 1860s ranch house to the nearby, smaller, "upper place" Francis had built. Unfortunately, the Army Corps of Engineers had evicted them from their property which they had deemed to be in the flood zone after the Chatfield Dam was constructed.
In an interview with Margaret's grandson, John Stockwell Jr., "Margaret was led to believe that she could stay in the Ranch House for an extended period of time. But almost immediately after the sale, she was given a 3-day eviction notice the day before Thanksgiving (1971). John said that before they moved, his grandmother cooked a Thanksgiving dinner on the coal stove in the summer kitchen." He also mentioned that "he and his father (John Stockwell Sr.), John Helmer and a French-Canadian hired-man named Tony, helped move Margaret and Dorothy to the "upper place", which was about a half mile west of the Ranch House." Stockwell also explained "The stove in the Ranch House was moved to the "upper place" and the stove in the summer kitchen was moved into the Ranch House." He also took note of some of the other home furnishings that were shuffled around in the last minute. "Some of the furniture was moved to the upper place" and "that house is smaller, so the items that were left in the old house were items we did not have room to take. I have a number of pieces of the furniture including a dining room set, a bedroom set and an upright player piano from the old house at the house where I live."
Margaret continued to live most of her remaining life at the upper place and she passed on July 15, 1995 at the age of 94 years and is also buried in the Littleton cemetery. "Margaret E. 1901 - 1995" is inscribed in her tombstone. The Hildebrand family would operate the ranch for over a century. Finally in 2001, Jefferson County Open Space purchased the last remaining property that was once gifted to Francis Hildebrand from his parents in 1887 and was known as the "upper place" and also included 1,450 acres. The land still contained the house, numerous sheds, outbuildings and ditches, a stone lined well with a water pumping windmill, a conical water cistern built with hand made stonework, as well as one of the oldest two story, Dutch style, wooden barns remaining in the area. Leased by the Denver Botanic Gardens from the Army Corp., the original 1860s Hildebrand Ranch buildings were renovated, restored and renamed to Chatfield Farms. Numerous gardens were planted and annual events like the Corn Maze and Pumpkin Festival became wildly popular as regular educational programs were offered by staff and volunteers. Meanwhile, the upper place fell into disrepair and was boarded up. Eventually, Jefferson County paved a brick parking lot over where most of the buildings once stood, including the house. Now a dirt storage area, the old log barn still remains today barely hanging on, with large gaps in the logs, windows boarded up with peeling white paint. The stone cistern still remains, standing above the parking lot along with improved water ditches on Deer Creek. The "upper place" land, opened to the public as the Hildebrand Ranch Park in 2009 is now part of Jefferson County Open Space. It's variety of trails are cut into the Piedmont hillsides, an area where the High Plains end and the Rocky Mountains begin to uplift. Its home to a wide array of plants and animals and trails are open to mountain bikers, trail runners and hikers. Passing the prairie dog town and power lines, the Black Bear Trail connects Hildebrand Ranch’s trails to Deer Creek Canyon Park to the west. Its route leads to the top of the hogback and its eastwards view over Chatfield Reservoir and the plains with its numerous sprawling developments and leads visitors to realize what a rare gift the park is along the Front Range.
Take a hike! Lands once ideal for grazing and hunting Ice Age animals, today, Chatfield State Park preserves thousands of acres of prairie grasses, trees, shrubs and waterways that support wildlife and over 340 species of birds in addition to providing many recreational opportunities. Chatfield State Park and the surrounding lands have become a recreational hot spot for Colorado and it is one of the most visited parks in the state. According to data from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Chatfield State Park was the second most popular state park and saw 2.4 million recreation enthusiasts in 2025.
Downstream from the dam, through federal, state and non governmental organization partnerships, millions of dollars have been spent and decades of green improvements and ecosystem restoration have been implemented. Wetland and aquatic habitat quality have been restored, as well as improvements in public recreation opportunities, connectivity and accessibility. The improved wetlands, cottonwood and willow tree communities as well as a diversity of water pools, fast and slow moving water have created a healthy ecosystem and critical habitat for wildlife.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
