Hair was grown long and bellbottoms were all the rage as Castle
Rock left behind the innocence of the 1950s and danced into the
disco era. From 1956-81, Castle Rock lost a little of its
history.
Morris Flemming / Douglas County Local History
Collection
View of Wolfensberger Road bridge looking west toward
the Santa Fe Quarry. The bridge is missing a large span across East
Plum Creek and I-25. The Cedar Hill Cemetery and a Skelly gas
station are on the west side of the creek. The damage occurred as
the result of the June 1965 flood of East Plum Creek.
By Jess Buskirk
Hair was grown long and bellbottoms were all the rage as Castle
Rock left behind the innocence of the 1950s and danced into the
disco era. From 1956-81, Castle Rock lost a little of its
history.
In 1961, Douglas County High School abandoned its building on
Wilcox Street, leaving it to first house Castle Rock Junior High
and now the school district’s administration.
In 1970, the Denver and Rio Grande Depot, the depot Castle Rock
residents fought so hard for in 1875, was remodeled as a residence.
In 1978, Castle Rock’s historic courthouse, constructed in 1890,
burned to the ground.
Flood destroys interstate
The former high school building on Wilcox Street played an
important role during a torrent of tornadoes and floods in 1965,
which newspaper accounts dubbed “the worst natural disaster to hit
Colorado.”
Bill Peters, a 37-year-old Denver Post photographer, jumped in
his car a little after 2 p.m. June 16, 1965. A tornado was ravaging
Palmer Lake, and Peters was determined to grab some shots of the
storm in action. He made it as far as five miles south of Castle
Rock.
“Traffic was backed up because of water over the highway …”
Peters wrote in his account.
At 4 p.m. Peters cut across U.S. 85 and attempted to head north
in the southbound lanes. He drove 10 miles south until he hit
another traffic jam and then turned around to head back to Castle
Rock.
“Just south of Castle Rock both the northbound and southbound
bridges over Plum Creek were washed away – abutments and
everything,” Peters wrote. “There was nothing left.”
Traffic began to move south in the northbound lane and Peters
followed until traffic once again halted. He parked his car and
walked three miles to the Palmer Lake turnoff.
“I found both the Palmer Lake bridge and the bridges on U.S.
85-87 gone,” he wrote. “I started back to the car, photographing a
lot of trucks and cars that were in the wash as I walked back,” he
continued. “They were on the U.S. 85-87 bridge when it collapsed.
Some of them floated about five miles downstream. I walked up to
some that were close to shore. There wasn’t anybody in them. I
don’t know what happened to the drivers.”
Peters was eventually rescued by a helicopter from Fort Carson
and taken to the former Douglas County High School building, which
was being used as a shelter manned by Fitzsimons General Hospital
employees.
Roberta Moore, who moved to Castle Rock in 1959, vividly
remembers the tornadoes and the flooding.
She was picking up friends in Denver when the first tornado
hit.
“The rains came down so heavily that we couldn’t see,” Moore
said.
The group pulled over in Happy Canyon but made the decision to
continue toward Castle Rock.
“We just managed to get home,” Moore said.
Moore and her husband lived across the street from their
business, Moore’s Drive-In Restaurant, on Wilcox Street. The water
was so deep the couple had to wade across the street to get to the
drive-in. Amazingly, nothing in their home or business was
damaged.
Interstate 25 had just been extended through Castle Rock before
the flooding. The new road was washed away.
“[Interstate 25] was a complete disaster,” Moore said.
Castle Rock residents managed to keep their senses of humor,
even during the massive recovery effort following the
floods.
“One can usually find a chuckle even in a tragedy such as ours,”
the Douglas County Hometown News reported on June 24, 1965. “A
woman was observed sprinkling her lawn on Thursday morning after
all the water we had on Wednesday.”
Visitors from space
Castle Rock had another scare in January 1968. Extraterrestrial
beings flew their glowing egg-shaped saucer into town – or so some
residents believed.
Castle Rock resident Howard Ellis spotted the craft about 6 p.m.
Jan. 2, 1968, near the IREA building.
“He shone his flashlight up toward it and immediately lights
came on either in or on it,” the Douglas County Hometown News
reported on Jan. 4, 1968. “It then proceeded on across the way to a
little above the courthouse, then after a short time, it went on to
hover over Naylor’s Market, where, according to some witnesses, it
emitted a series of flames and shot straight out of
sight.”
The Denver Post called the incident “one of the best verified
sightings of an unidentified flying object in recent months
…”
Some residents were not amused when the Dietrich brothers of
Castle Rock, Tom, 14, and Jack, 16, admitted the flying saucer was
actually their homemade hot-air balloon. Jack had learned how to
make the balloon – constructed with a plastic bag and candles – at
his private school in St. Louis.
One young Castle Rock resident could not be fooled.
“A Castle Rock mother, hearing last Thursday about the UFO in
Castle Rock, remembered that her young son had been in the vicinity
of the tennis courts where the UFO had flown over,” the Douglas
County Hometown News reported on Jan. 11, 1968. “She asked her son
if he had seen the UFO, for he hadn’t mentioned it. His reply:
‘Sure Mom, I saw it, but I didn’t pay any attention to it because
it was just a plastic bag up in the air.'”
With technology racing forward at breakneck speeds, “UFO
sightings” were common in 1960s America, and Douglas County had its
fair share, with Daniels Park providing a hotspot for sightings,
according to the Douglas County Hometown News.
Assassinations and Asian war
The ’60s also proved to be a decade of political turmoil,
extreme loss and great achievements. Some Douglas County teenagers
grew out their hair and swore peace was a better option than
continuing to send troops to Vietnam. Other teens, like Moore’s
son, Walt, shipped out to Vietnam to serve their country.
John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
were all assassinated during the ’60s.
Moore recalled the stunned reaction of Castle Rock when a sniper
killed John F. Kennedy during a parade.
“It affected so many people,” she said. “We were all shocked.
Everybody was talking about it – it was a major topic of
conversation.”
During the same decade, the Civil Rights Act was passed, and
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Castle Rock residents were glued
to their televisions as Armstrong took his famous first step on the
moon, Moore said.
A cultural milestone
Douglas County celebrated its own modest achievements during the
’60s. The county commissioners allocated money to the library for
the first time in 1966, establishing Douglas County’s first public
library at 311 Third St.
On Dec. 10, 1968, the Douglas County Public Library moved to 303
Gilbert St., and on April 26, 1969, residents celebrated with a
dedication ceremony. The library transcended from a volunteer
project that was open only one day a week to a fully functioning
county library, largely due to a $25,000 donation by Philip S.
Miller, a local banker.
In 1967, Castle Rock’s junior high school students moved out of
the former high school building on Wilcox Street into a new
building next to Douglas County High School.
Historic blaze
As new buildings sprung up around Castle Rock, memories faded of
buildings lost to fires – local stores in the early 1900s, the
first Douglas County High School in 1909, the Castle Rock Livery
Barn in 1914. But in the late ’70s, fire claimed arguably the most
important building in Castle Rock’s history. The courthouse was the
symbol of Castle Rock’s efforts to secure the county seat in
1874.
On March 11, 1978, a 17-year-old Denver girl devised a plan to
break her boyfriend out of jail. Rose Ann Lucero set the courthouse
on fire.
The blaze started at about 12:25 a.m. on the second floor, the
Denver Post reported.
“Flames could be seen five miles away as Douglas County
volunteer firemen battled impossible odds early Saturday morning in
an attempt to control the blaze that reduced the Douglas County
Courthouse to smoldering rubble,” the Castle Rock Press reported on
March 15.
The courthouse had been listed on the National Register of
Historic Places two years before flames claimed the
building.
“It’s a disaster. The loss is beyond calculating,” County
Commissioner Carl Winkler told a Castle Rock Press reporter as he
watched blaze. “Oh, the records are on computer in Jefferson
County, that’s not what’s lost. It’s going to cost so much to
replace. And there are some things that just can’t be
replaced.”
The Parker, Franktown, Larkspur and Jackson 105 fire departments
responded to help fight the flames. Castle Rock residents provided
food and coffee for the firefighters as the departments battled the
blaze. Many residents watched the fire in shock and disbelief. A
Castle Rock Press reporter overheard several comments made by
members of the crowd standing outside the courthouse.
“I just can’t remember when it wasn’t there,” one woman
commented.
“I just can’t believe it’s happening,” said another.
“There’s no way they’re going to save it,” said a man as he gave
up his spot in the crowd.
Lucero was held on $2,500 bond and initially maintained her
innocence. Judge William Naugle opted to try Lucero as an adult.
The Rocky Mountain News identified Lucero, a juvenile, before
Naugle’s decision, launching lawsuits against the paper, two
editors and a reporter.
On Sept. 14, 1978, represented by public defender James Swanson,
Lucero pleaded guilty to arson in the first, second and fourth
degrees. She was sentenced to two years.
“This is a unique situation,” the Douglas County News reported
Naugle saying during Lucero’s sentencing. “Douglas County and the
state lost one of the finest historical buildings in Colorado. But
the defendant is a small, 18-year-old and it is difficult to equate
a punishment with what happened. The loss was tremendous.
Fortunately, there were no lives lost or injuries. There could have
been. There is nothing we or [Lucero] can do to bring that building
back. It is gone. I hope she has some conception of
this.”
Contact Jess Buskirk at jbuskirk@ccnewspapers.com.
Special thanks to Johanna Harden and the Douglas County History
Research Center for their help with the research for this
series.