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<br />Creek at Russelville Gulch, at a community called Russelville. <br />This mining camp didn't last long due to the scarcity of water. <br />Gold mining did not develop in the county but the area supported <br />' lumbering and stock-raising occupations. A community developed <br />around a saw mill at Franktown, named after J. Frank Garner. <br />Franktown was the first county seat in 1861. Ranches were <br />started in Happy Canyon in 1859 and near Franktown in 1860. <br />Early ranches became stage stops and hotels also. Early stage <br />stops were at Spring Valley, Plum Station (which became Sedalia) <br />and Twenty Mile House (which became Parker). <br />' The area was sparsely settled until the arrival of the railroads <br />in the 1870s. The Denver and Rio Grande built a line in 1871 with <br />stops at Acequia, Sedalia, Douglas, Larkspur, and Greenland. The <br />line carried out lumber and stone from the area. In the 1880s <br />the Denver and New Orleans and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe <br />built lines through Douglas County. Towns were established at <br />' Douglas, Acequia, Greenland (called Pine Land), and New Memphis. <br />Castle Rock was established as a townsite in 1879, and became the <br />new county seat. <br />' Rock quarrying became an important local industry with the advent <br />of the railroads. Silas W. Madge sold blocks of lava quarried at <br />his ranch near Castle Rock in 1880 and the town of Douglas grew <br />' up around it. The Colorado Stone Company, founded in 1882, was <br />directed by L. Hill from land owned by Pleasant O'Brien near <br />Castle Rock. The Santa Fe Quarry, west of Castle Rock was owned <br />by Jonathan House in 1889. A spur of the Santa Fe Railroad was <br />built to this quarry (Eddy et al. 1981). <br />Mineral resources in the area include building stone, limestone, <br />' gypsum, sand, clay, gravel, probably coal, some gold, and <br />underground water. In a geology description of the area in 1915, <br />Richardson reported that these minerals have such a wide <br />distribution along the Front Range that proximity to market is <br />the controlling factor in production and there was no demand at <br />that time for these resources. The rhyolite, being limited in <br />occurrence .to the Castle Rock area, was the exception, and it was <br />' in demand for building stone. He reports that the rhyolite was <br />first quarried in about 1876, and that by 1915 about 30,000 <br />carloads of stone had been marketed outside of the area. The <br />stone was used "extensively for building in Denver, Colorado <br />t Springs, and Pueblo where it has given general satifaction" <br />(Richardson 1915:12). Richardson indicated that the major <br />quarries were near the town of Castle Rock where railroad spurs <br />had been constructed, but that most of the outcrops in the Castle <br />Rock area had been prospected. He indicates (Ibid.) that the <br />stone was desirable because "the store is readily accessible, is <br />easily worked, is of a pleasing gray to pinkish color, stands the <br />1 weather well, and is sufficiently strong for ordinary purposes, <br />although the more porous varieties are not adapted for use where <br />great strength is desired." Richardson reported that the <br />' production of the stone had fallen cff by 1915 because of the <br />competition of other building materials, Specifically, the <br />' 12 <br />