Editing Red Feather Lakes, Colorado

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Red Feather Lakes
|settlement_type          = [[Census-designated place|Census Designated Place]]
|nickname                 = 
|motto                    = 
|image_skyline            = Red Feather Lakes, Colorado.JPG
|imagesize                = 
|image_caption            = Ramona Lake, with the community park on the right.
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               = 
|image_map                = Larimer County Colorado Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Red Feather Lakes Highlighted.svg
|mapsize                  = 
|map_caption              = Location of the Red Feather Lakes CDP in {{nowrap|[[Larimer County, Colorado]].}}
|pushpin_map              = USA
|pushpin_label            = {{nowrap|Red Feather Lakes}}
|pushpin_label_position   = right
|pushpin_map_caption      = Location of the Red Feather Lakes CDP in the {{nowrap|[[United States]].}}
|subdivision_type         = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
|subdivision_name         = {{flag|United States}}
|subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
|subdivision_name1        = {{flag|Colorado}}
|subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in Colorado|County]]
|subdivision_name2        = [[Larimer County, Colorado|Larimer County]]
|government_footnotes     = <ref name=GR3/>
|government_type          = [[Unincorporated area|unincorporated town]]
|leader_title             = 
|leader_name              = 
|leader_title1            = 
|leader_name1             = 
|established_title        = 
|established_date         = 
|established_title2       = 
|established_date2        = 
|area_magnitude           = 
|unit_pref                = US
|area_footnotes           = <ref name=CO_CDP_2020>{{cite web|url=https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerwebmain/Files/bvp20/tigerweb_bvp20_cdp_2020_co.html|title=State of Colorado Census Designated Places - BAS20 - Data as of January 1, 2020|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=December 23, 2020}}</ref>
|area_total_km2           = 24.988
|area_land_km2            = 23.610
|area_water_km2           =  1.378
|area_total_sq_mi         =
|area_land_sq_mi          =
|area_water_sq_mi         =
|population_as_of         = [[2020 United States census|2020]]
|population_footnotes     = <ref name="Census 2020">{{cite web |url=https://data.census.gov/profile/Red_Feather_Lakes_CDP,_Colorado?g=160XX00US0863320 |title=Red Feather Lakes CDP, Colorado |author=United States Census Bureau|date= |website= |publisher= |access-date=April 14, 2023 |quote=}}</ref>
|population_note          = 
|population_total         = 426
|population_density_km2   = auto
|population_density_sq_mi = auto
|population_metro         = 
|population_density_metro_km2     = 
|population_density_metro_sq_mi   = 
|population_urban                 = 
|timezone                 = [[Mountain Standard Time|MST]]
|utc_offset               = -7
|timezone_DST             = [[Mountain Daylight Time|MDT]]
|utc_offset_DST           = -6
|coordinates_footnotes    = <ref name=CO_CDP_2020/>
|coordinates              = {{coord|40.8071340|-105.5864279|region:US-CO_type:city|name=Red Feather Lakes CDP, Colorado|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
|elevation_footnotes      = <ref name=GR3/>
|elevation_m              = 2513
|elevation_ft             = 8245
<!-- Area, postal, and other codes -------->
|postal_code_type          = [[ZIP Code]]<ref name=ZIPcode>{{cite web|url=https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookup|title=Look Up a ZIP Code|publisher=[[United States Postal Service]]|access-date=December 23, 2020}}</ref>
|postal_code              = 80545
|area_code                = [[Area code 970|970]]
|blank_name               = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS feature]]<ref name=GR3>{{cite web|url=https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/ngp/board-on-geographic-names/domestic-names|title=U.S. Board on Geographic Names: Domestic Names|publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]]|access-date=December 23, 2020}}</ref>
|blank_info               = [https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=138:3:::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:2409149,Red%20Feather%20Lakes%20Census%20Designated%20Place Red Feather Lakes CDP]
|blank1_name              = 
|blank1_info              = 
|footnotes                = 
}}

'''Red Feather Lakes''' is an [[Unincorporated area|unincorporated town]], a [[post office]], and a [[Census-designated place|census-designated place (CDP)]] located in and governed by [[Larimer County, Colorado|Larimer County]], [[Colorado]], [[United States]]. The CDP is a part of the [[Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area]]. The Red Feather Lakes post office has the [[ZIP Code]] 80545.<ref name=ZIPcode/> At the [[United States Census 2020]], the population of the Red Feather Lakes CDP was 426.<ref name="Census 2020" />

Located in the [[Rocky Mountains]] northwest of [[Fort Collins, Colorado|Fort Collins]], Red Feather Lakes is a rustic mountain village surrounded by the [[Roosevelt National Forest]]. The village has three small general stores with gas pump, groceries, ATM and gift shop, a hardware store, an outdoor sports shop, a coffee shop, a community library, small antique store, and post office. Several rustic mountain restaurants are located in the community.<ref name=Gazette/>

Gnome Road (aka "Elf Lane") is a mountain dirt road in the village. Hikers strolling and cars cruising the scenic road will find ceramic elves and gnomes as well as fairy doors and faces among the trees, boulders and bushes.<ref name="AtlasObscura">{{cite web |title=Gnome Road |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gnome-road |website=Atlas Obscura |accessdate=August 4, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Gazette">{{cite news| last=Boster| first=Seth| title=Colorful Colorado: At a remote village, magic in the mountains| newspaper=[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|The Gazette]]| location=Colorado Springs, CO| date= June 24, 2017|  url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/1653DA00F2993F40?p=AWNB|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref>

==History==
Other than [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], only occasional hunters and trappers passed through the Red Feather Lakes area until the middle of the 19th century. The first known settler was John Hardin, who built a cabin about {{convert|2|mi|0}} from the current Red Feather Lakes village in 1871. Other settlers, many of them families of Hardin's eleven surviving children, homesteaded and built nearby. In these early years, the settlers were primarily [[ranch]]ers, but another important activity was lumbering. The trails in the area, some of which eventually became roads, were built by [[railroad tie|tie]] hacks, who hauled their railroad ties down to what is now [[Tie Siding, Wyoming]], where they were used in building the transcontinental railroad.<ref name="Swanson">{{cite book |last1=Swanson |first1=Evadene Burris |title=Red Feather Lakes: The First Hundred Years |date=1971 |publisher=Red Feather Historical Society |location=Red Feather Lakes, Colorado |isbn=0-9679817-4-3 |edition=1986, reprinted 2001}}</ref>

The first government survey, in 1879, showed only one lake in the region: what is now Creedmore Lake, several miles to the north of the present community. As the area developed, networks of toll roads, lakes and water ditches appeared. By the beginning of the twentieth century, water rights had become a major issue in the region, and who had ownership of the water in the various streams, man-made lakes, and diversions continued to spark legal battles until a [[U.S. Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] decision in 1921 awarded a major portion of water being diverted from the [[Laramie River]] tributaries to competing claims in [[Wyoming]].<ref name="Swanson"/>{{rp|14}}

In September 1886, gold was discovered a few miles south, and the town of [[Manhattan, Colorado|Manhattan]] was platted at the site in 1887.<ref name=CoMag1971>{{cite book |title=The Colorado Magazine |year=1971 |publisher=State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado, State Museum |page=147}}</ref> Manhattan grew to a peak of 300 inhabitants in 1898, but substantial gold was never obtained, and it became a [[ghost town]] a few years later.

By 1895, the population was sufficient that a school district was established and a schoolhouse constructed. Timbering and sawmills grew in importance in the area, and in 1902, a National Forest Reserve (later to become part of [[Roosevelt National Forest]]) was established, principally to exercise some control over the helter-skelter timbering.<ref name="Swanson"/>

Recreation was not of much importance in the early years and first appeared when the Fort Collins YMCA built a camp in 1919. Interest in the area as a summer retreat for urban dwellers in Fort Collins and other [[Front Range]] communities grew rapidly, and in 1923, the name "Red Feather" made its first appearance when the Red Feather Mountain Lakes Association was formed with the objective of developing recreational homes (cabins) on {{convert|4320|acre|sqmi km2|}}. The name was stimulated by Princess [[Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone]], a Native American girl who was touring in concert with the composer [[Charles Wakefield Cadman]]. Purportedly, the namesake was Princess Redfeather's grandfather, Chief Redfeather, whose grave was supposed to be in the area.<ref name="Swanson"/>{{rp|29}}<ref name="RFHistorical">{{cite web |url=http://www.redfeatherhistoricalsociety.org |website=Red Feather Historical Society website |title=Local History |publisher=Red Feather Historical Society |accessdate=2 Aug 2017}}</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 |year=1954 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051116740;view=1up;seq=49 |publisher=The J. Frank Dawson Publishing Co. |location=Denver, CO |page=43}}</ref>
[[File:Red Feather Lakes village sign.JPG|thumb|right|A sign pointing to Red Feather Lakes Village]]

The Red Feather Mountain Lakes Association (whose assets were acquired by the Red Feather Investment Co. five years later) had grand plans. The planning map included a golf course, tennis courts, rodeo grounds, a ranch school, a rifle range, and many other recreational facilities. Of these, only a nine-hole golf course materialized. Several hotels were planned; one was built in 1924. A [[silver fox (animal)|silver fox]] farm was also part of the plan, and this was begun early in the development with twenty pairs of foxes bought in New York. Though it did not succeed at the scale the developers envisioned, this development was responsible for the growth of Red Feather Lakes as a fishing and summer recreational area. In 1925, the investors claimed the sale of 1,900 lots and orders for 100 cabins. Most of these lots were one-eighth acre in size, which sufficed for a cabin and the requisite [[outhouse]]. Growth was slow and was impeded by the Great Depression and by World War II. Many of the original lots survive today, and original cabins can be found if one looks carefully behind and beneath various modern additions.<ref name="Swanson"/><ref name="RFHistorical"/>

In 1933, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]] established the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC). Several CCC camps operated in the region, including one on the site of the Manhattan ghost town and, starting in 1935, one not far from the village. Young men working in the camps improved roads, cleared forests, engaged in firefighting, and constructed the original [[fire tower]] at the top of Deadman Mountain. During World War II, as the CCC was phased out, the camp near the village was sold as salvage, and another became a [[prisoner of war|POW]] camp.<ref name="Swanson"/>

The silver fox farm continued into the 1950s, by which time furs were in little demand. The property was sold around 1960 and is now a part of the Fox Acres Community (Golf Club and residences). The original fox farm caretaker's house, with its second-story [[cupola]] that overlooked the fox pens, is still in use on the property.

The [[Rural Utilities Service|Rural Electrification Administration]] (REA) brought electricity to the Red Feather Lakes area in 1952. In the ensuing years, new buildings gradually changed the face of the village, including a fire station and library.<ref name="Swanson"/>  

Detailed historical information is gathered and maintained by the Red Feather Historical Society. The group maintains a website<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://redfeatherhistoricalsociety.org/|title=Red Feather Historical Society &#124; Preserve and protect the history of the Red Feather Lakes region}}</ref> and operates a museum in a historical cabin in the village.

==Geography==
Red Feather Lakes is located in north-central Larimer County. Via Red Feather Lakes Road, it is {{convert|24|mi}} west of [[U.S. Route 287]] at [[Livermore, Colorado|Livermore]] and {{convert|45|mi}} northwest of [[Fort Collins, Colorado|Fort Collins]], the [[county seat]].

Red Feather Lakes situated almost entirely within Roosevelt National Forest, and connects via CR 68c to the Poudre Canyon Scenic Byway, Colorado Hwy 14 and Arapahoe National Forest. 

There are at least 12 named lakes in the community, including Parvin Lake, Dowdy Lake, West Lake, Snake Lake, Letitia Lake, Red Feather Lake, Lake Ramona, Hiawatha Lake, Apache Lake, Shagwa Lake, Lake Nokomis, and Lake Erie. All of the lakes in the CDP eventually drain to Lone Pine Creek, an east-flowing tributary of the [[Cache la Poudre River]], part of the [[South Platte River]] watershed.

The Red Feather Lakes CDP has an area of {{convert|24.988|km2|acres|order=flip}}, including {{convert|1.378|km2|acres|order=flip}} of water.<ref name=CO_CDP_2020/>

==Demographics==
<!-- As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|accessdate=2008-01-31|title=U.S. Census website}}</ref> of 2000, there were 525 people, 262 households, and 175 families residing in the CDP. The [[population density]] was {{convert|14.3|/mi2|/km2|disp=preunit|people&nbsp;|people}}. There were 1,106 housing units at an average density of {{convert|30.2|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.95% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.95% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 0.19% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.19% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 1.71% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 2.29% of the population.

There were 262 households, out of which 14.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.5% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 2.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.2% were non-families. 27.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.40.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 13.0% under the age of 18, 3.0% from 18 to 24, 18.7% from 25 to 44, 40.4% from 45 to 64, and 25.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.0 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $33,527, and the median income for a family was $40,714. Males had a median income of $36,250 versus $43,333 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the CDP was $19,231. About 3.2% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 26.7% of those under age 18 and 9.5% of those age 65 or over.
 -->
The [[United States Census Bureau]] initially defined the {{nowrap|Red Feather Lakes CDP}} for the {{nowrap|[[United States Census 2000]].}}
{{Historical populations
|title  = Red Feather Lakes CDP, Colorado
|type   = US
|align  = left
|source = [[United States Census Bureau]]
|2000|525
|2010|343
|2020|426
}}
{{clear}}

==See also==
{{portal|Geography|North America|United States|Colorado}}
*[[Outline of Colorado]]
**[[Index of Colorado-related articles]]
*[[State of Colorado]]
**[[Colorado cities and towns]]
***[[Colorado census designated places]]
**[[Colorado counties]]
***[[Larimer County, Colorado]]
**[[List of statistical areas in Colorado]]
***[[Front Range Urban Corridor]]
***[[North Central Colorado Urban Area]]
***[[Fort Collins-Loveland, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area]]
*[[Red Feather Lakes Community Library]]
*[[Roosevelt National Forest]]
*[[Drala Mountain Center]]
**[[Great Stupa of Dharmakaya]]

{{clear}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{sister project links}}
*[https://redfeatherlakes.us Red Feather Lake Information & Travel Guide]
*[https://redfeatherlakes.net/ Red Feather Lakes Community Association]
*[https://www.colorado.com/cities-and-towns/red-feather-lakes Red Feather Lakes @ Colorado.com]
*[https://www.uncovercolorado.com/towns/red-feather-lakes/ Red Feather Lakes @ UncoverColorado.com]
*[http://www.redfeatherhistoricalsociety.org/ Red Feather Historical Society]
*[https://www.larimer.org/ Larimer County website]
{{Larimer County, Colorado}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Census-designated places in Larimer County, Colorado]]
[[Category:Census-designated places in Colorado]]