Rocky Mountain Region

U.S. Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Region
740 Simms St
Golden, CO 80401
303-275-5350

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Web Story

U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region

740 Simms Street
Golden, CO 80401

Partnerships Build, Rebuild Historic Sites

By Gwen Ernst–Ulrich, Rocky Mountain Region (303–275–5348)

(September 2008)–Partnerships were the cornerstone of the first U.S.Forest Service campground in the United States, and the Pike–San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron–Comanche National Grasslands San Carlos Ranger District is using partnerships to rebuild several historically important sites four miles from Beulah, Colorado.

In 1919 the Squirrel Creek Campground, the first campground in the Forest Service System, became the birthplace of the family auto camping trip, where the now common combination of a picnic table, fire grate, trash service, and parking spur were first provided to improve the camping experience while protecting the environment.

The Forest is collaborating with partners to stabilize and interpret some of the historic Squirrel Creek campsites, the community lodge, and picnic shelter as well as portions of the Cascade Trail in Squirrel Creek Canyon. These original sites were preserved intact when a flood washed out old Highway 78 in 1947. Squirrel Creek became accessible only to foot or horse traffic, so the original facilities were never replaced or upgraded.

Required to work a minimum of 1,700 hours from May through November´s term of service, the team is already on target to surpass the minimum obligation. Since April, they have dedicated more than 800 hours, including a six–week tour in Florida working in hurricane mitigation, and the wildfire season has not yet gotten into full swing.

The Squirrel Creek Historic District is being assessed for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. Stabilization of the original facilities began in 2004 in partnership with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and the Frontier Pathways Byway.

This year the Forest is rebuilding the 1960s–vintage Davenport Campground at the western end of Squirrel Creek Canyon to reflect its 1920s look. It will remain a functioning auto-accessible campground, but its layout and facilities will evoke the 1920s and will include interpretive signs.

“We´re attempting to recapture the recreational value that Arthur Carhart first envisioned. This ‘new’ campground will provide a special type of camping experience with a history lesson,” said San Carlos District Ranger Paul Crespin.

The Squirrel Creek campgrounds, picnic areas, and trails were the inspirational design of Carhart´s San Isabel Recreation Plan, developed in 1919–20 for the San Isabel National Forest and the first comprehensive recreation plan in the National Forest System. Carhart, then a young landscape architect for the U.S. Forest Service who later co–founded the Wilderness Society, has been called the father of the wilderness concept. His plans anticipated the idea of multi–use resources in the national forests.

In 1919 the John D. Rockefeller–owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation (CF&I), the major employer in the Pueblo area, began working through the non–profit San Isabel Public Recreation Association that CF&I helped to establish with Carhart and Forest Supervisor Albin Hamel and local business owners. Concern about the need to provide healthy outlets for a large, potentially restive, and newly mobile working class motivated the Forest Service, CF&I and other Pueblo business leaders, and politicians in Pueblo and Denver to work together to create the Squirrel Creek sites.

About 80 percent of the work in Davenport will be completed by the end of 2008, matching the historic design while ensuring that current safety and accessibility standards are met. For example, modern vault toilets will feature log–sided walls, and the stone veneer on the picnic shelter will conceal steel beams. Notable features include camping spots, picnic tables, fireplaces, and a footbridge over the creek.

New interpretive kiosks located at improved trailhead facilities on entrances to Squirrel Creek Canyon will invite the public to hike two to three miles down the trail to view the authentic stabilized sites, said District Recreation, Lands, and Minerals Program Manager Carl Bauer.

The site is bound to draw history buffs while restoring the early artifacts of a great American family tradition.

For more information on the Squirrel Creek Canyon recreation restoration project, contact Bauer at crbauer@fs.fed.us or 719–269–8702.