In progress
How the Tri-Lakes got here
The Palmer Divide has a longer and stranger history than a place this quiet has any right to — a railroad town, a resort on a lake, a star on a mountain, and a county line that has shaped everything since.
This section is being written.
Rather than publish thin, recycled summaries of things you can already read on Wikipedia, we're building this out one properly researched piece at a time, with sources attached.
If you have photographs, documents or family records from the Tri-Lakes and would be willing to have them scanned, that is exactly what would make this section worth reading — get in touch.
Planned
- The railroad and the divide — why the Denver & Rio Grande put a town here, and what the 7,200-foot summit had to do with it.
- Palmer Lake as a resort — the lake, the hotel, the Chautauqua, and how a Front Range destination became a bedroom community.
- The Star on Sundance Mountain — lit since 1935, and the volunteers who have kept it lit.
- Monument's incorporation and its several near-deaths — flood, fire, and the 1935 washout.
- How the district lines were drawn — school, fire, water and metro districts, and why the map looks the way it does.