Red Feather Lakes, Colorado

Red Feather Lakes is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by 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.

History

Other than 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 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 ranchers, but another important activity was lumbering. The trails in the area, some of which eventually became roads, were built by tie hacks, who hauled their railroad ties down to what is now Tie Siding, Wyoming, where they were used in building the transcontinental railroad.

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 Supreme Court decision in 1921 awarded a major portion of water being diverted from the Laramie River tributaries to competing claims in Wyoming. 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.

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 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. 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 west of U.S. Route 287 at Livermore and northwest of 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 , including of water. of 2000, there were 525 people, 262 households, and 175 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 1,106 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.95% White, 0.95% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.19% from other races, and 1.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or 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 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.

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The United States Census Bureau initially defined the for the

References

External links

Red Feather Lake Information & Travel Guide
Red Feather Lakes Community Association
Red Feather Lakes @ Colorado.com
Red Feather Lakes @ UncoverColorado.com
Red Feather Historical Society
Larimer County website

History

Geography

See also

References

External links