The Kline Homestead, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
(Photographed in the 1980's)
Text and photos by Dave Parsons
 

Once standing along side the old dusty and washboarded Daniel's Park Road where small herds of pronghorn would wander by, the decaying farm with its stone and wooden buildings was a monument and reminder of the past hardships of those early settlers. Heavy snows broke the back of the old barn as the middle of the roof slowly collapsed throughout the years. The landmark survived over a 100 years from 1892 through countless Colorado's storms and heavy snows, but eventually, could not survive the demolition of developers. The farm house was built by Frank J. Kline, a dairy farmer and machinist who homesteaded the land in 1888 with his wife Annie. They traveled to Colorado from Pennsylvania and constructed a two-story house of native rock and clapboard. The home had four upstairs bedrooms where the Kline's raised four children. The farm also had a barn, a hand dug well, spring house, large root cellar, stable with a corral, chicken house and more. The farm was demolished in 1996 and the only remains are a 1892 keystone and a few building stones from the house constructed into a monument at a community park one block east of the original home site. (2004 Historic Calendar of Douglas County) A 1937 aerial photo shows the ranch on the lower left along a narrow Daniels Park Road. Today, a thirsty golf course follows the drainage of Big Dry Creek and California style home sprawl, highway C-470, and stores cover the same area that was once agricultural fields with ranch land - and before that, Native lands with open prairie and grazing herds of bison and pronghorn. "Progress" marches on. (photos from Douglas County Digital Archives and Apple maps)