Seventeen Mile House
History
The first Colorado Gold Rush in 1858-1859 began an influx of horse and wagon traffic to Denver, and two of the routes were the historic Smoky Hill Trail from Kansas and Cherokee Trail from Oklahoma. Six way stations sprang up along Cherry Creek, serving travelers in the final stretch into Denver after the two trails merged.
Railroad service reached Denver in 1870, and the wagon trails gradually fell into disuse. Seventeen Mile House closed and became a working farm alongside the Cherry Creek River by the 1880s. It is one of two surviving Way Stations. The stations were named according to how many miles each site is from downtown Denver's intersection of Colfax and Broadway. Four Mile House is the other way station still standing.
Current Site and Future Plans
In 2001, local historic and preservation groups worked together to acquire the property for Arapahoe County. Arapahoe County has a 2007 Master Plan for Seventeen Mile House serving as vision and roadmap.
Today the site is an Open Space park administered by Arapahoe County, Colorado, with the Cherry Creek Valley Historical Society giving monthly open house tours, and involved in preservation and development. An annual Fall Festival has been held in recent years.
This Open Space borders two other Open Spaces, thus contributing to a regional corridor for wildlife areas and biking/hiking trails along the Cherry Creek Valley, which includes Denver's extensive Cherry Creek Reservoir State Park.
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Parker Area Historical Society - Parker Colorado".
- ^ "Home". fourmilepark.org.
- ^ "Arapahoe County, CO - Official Website". www.co.arapahoe.co.us. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014.
- ^ "Arapahoe County, CO - Official Website - 17-Mile House Farm Park Master Plan". www.arapahoegov.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2014.
- ^ "17 Mile House Farm Park".