Editing Franktown, Colorado (section)

==History==
Franktown is named for James Frank Gardner, a prospector who built a cabin {{convert|2.9|mi}} north of the present location of Franktown in 1859 that became known as [[Frankstown, Colorado Territory|Frankstown]] in the [[Kansas Territory]] (also in the extralegal [[Jefferson Territory]].)<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n130 131]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=John Frank|title=Place names in Colorado: why 700 communities were so named, 150 of Spanish or Indian origin|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051116740;view=1up;seq=28|publisher=The J. Frank Dawson Publishing Co.|location=Denver, CO|page=22}}</ref> The [[Territory of Colorado]] was created on February 28, 1861, and the new territory created [[Douglas County, Colorado|Douglas County]] on November 1, 1861, with Frankstown as the first [[List of county seats in Colorado|county seat]]. On September 8, 1862, the former Russellville post office moved to Frankstown. ([[Russellville, Colorado|Russellville]], {{convert|1.6|mi}} southeast of the present location of Franktown, had been settled by members of the [[William Greeneberry Russell]] Party in 1858.)

In 1864, the county seat was moved south to [[California Ranch, Colorado Territory|California Ranch]] (at the present location of Franktown), a popular rest stop on the busy [[Jimmy's Camp, Colorado|Jimmy Camp Trail]] (which followed [[Cherry Creek (Colorado)|Cherry Creek]] north to [[Denver]].) The residents and post office of Frankstown soon followed to California Ranch and the new post office took the name Franktown, Colorado, although the name Frankstown persisted. The [[Denver & Rio Grande Railroad]] reached the new town of [[Colorado Springs, Colorado|Colorado Springs]] on October 27, 1871, and traffic on the Jimmy Camp Trail rapidly subsided. In 1874, Douglas County moved its county seat to the new town of [[Castle Rock, Colorado|Castle Rock]] on the railroad. Despite losing the county seat, Frankstown remained a ranching and farming hub, held together by its church, school, grange, and handful of businesses. In 1885, the Town of Frankstown incorporated. During the twentieth century, no more than a hundred people called it home.

Even as suburban sprawl surrounded it at the turn of the millennium, Franktown resisted efforts to develop, maintaining a distinctly rural identity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Franktown/Granger Movement Timber, Douglas County, Co - Colorado Historical Markers on Waymarking.com|url=https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMP836_History_of_Franktown_Granger_Movement_Timber_Douglas_County_Co|access-date=2020-11-03|website=www.waymarking.com}}</ref> On November 14, 2007, the [[Colorado Department of State]] declared the government of the [[Frankstown, Colorado|Town of Frankstown]] officially abandoned and Franktown became an [[unincorporated community]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/info_center/files/town_abandonment_final_decision_signed.pdf|title=Colorado Department of State decision - November 14, 2007|publisher=Colorado Department of State|date=November 14, 2007|access-date=May 19, 2025}}</ref>

===Grange===
Franktown's strong agricultural roots made it a natural fit for [[National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry|The Grange]], a cooperative farmers' movement that swept rural America in the mid-1870s. Several dozen chapters formed in Colorado, including the Fonder Grange (founded in 1875) and its successor, [[Pike's Peak Grange No. 163|Pikes Peak Grange No. 163]] (established in Franktown in 1908). Both belonged to the statewide grange organization, which set up credit unions, insurance programs, and other services, and to the national grange association, which pursued long-range political goals. Local chapters more directly affected farmers' lives, with activities such as dances, holiday picnics, and town meetings. These sponsored events helped sparsely populated communities forge a sense of identity. Still active today, Pike's Peak Grange No. 163 in Franktown is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Colorado SP Pike's Peak Grange No. 163 |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/84129939 |website=National Archives Catalog |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) |access-date=11 November 2024}}</ref>

===Castlewood Dam collapse===
The Castlewood Dam was built in 1890, about five miles south of Franktown on Cherry Creek. The barrier stored enough water to irrigate 30,000 acres of farmland. The dam began leaking the year it was completed, and was serious enough that a hundred-foot section crumbled in 1897. Although its builders vouched for the structure's integrity, the dam continued to leak sporadically for decades. Finally, on August 3, 1933, Castlewood Dam collapsed, sending a billion-gallon torrent toward Denver. Only two people drowned, thanks to a switchboard operator's life-saving calls, but the flood devastated farms in this area and tore out six bridges in Denver, thirty miles downstream. The dam's remains can still be visited in nearby [[Castlewood Canyon State Park]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rudolph |first1=Katie |title=August 3, 1933: Castlewood Dam Breaks, Floods Denver |url=https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/august-3-1933-castlewood-dam-breaks-floods-denver |website=Denver Public Library |access-date=11 November 2024}}</ref>

===Timber industry===
{{Unsourced|section|date=July 2024}}
Frontier travelers often rejoiced upon reaching the timbered ridge just south of Franktown; it was the first woodland they encountered after hundreds of miles on the prairies. Early settlers in Colorado appreciated the forest, too-as a source of building material. Known as "the Pinery," it provided fast-growing Denver and other towns with most of their lumber during the 1860s. Several sawmills buzzed nonstop in and around Franktown, barely able to keep up with the demand. In the early 1870s, the Pinery supplied railroad ties to the Kansas Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande, both of which were laying tracks within twenty-five miles of here. Those routes eventually opened larger forests to exploitation and helped bring down this region's timber industry. By 1880, Franktown's sawmills had gone silent, but they had already left their mark: Pinery lumber built much of early Colorado.