Community Presentations

The country's fastest growing county during the 1990s, Douglas County boasts a prime location between Denver and Colorado Springs, excellent schools, and outstanding recreational and cultural opportunities. A study by the American City Business Journals completed in 2004 ranked Douglas County fourth in the nation for its superior quality of life.

Growth has brought economic vitality without sacrificing the area's rural ambiance. A wealth of parks, recreation areas, and open space includes Chatfield State Recreation Area, Daniels Park, Roxborough and Castlewood Canyon State Parks, and Pike National Forest.

Douglas County's enviable location astride the Denver-Colorado Springs Development Corridor all but assures continued prosperity and a healthful lifestyle for area residents. Despite the vigorous pace of growth, wise growth-management policies stipulate that 70-percent of the corridor be retained for agriculture, ranching, parks, and open space.

In the high rolling hills near Larkspur, the 11,000-acre Greenland Ranch is the largest tract of undeveloped private land in the nation. The ranch house, barn, and silo still stand beside the remains of a hotel, livery, and depot that served the old stagecoach route and later the railroad.

The 1859 Pikes Peak Gold Rush attracted thousands to the region, many of whom stayed on for the relatively mild climate and scenic wooded hills and valleys arrayed against the towering peaks of the Front Range. As the greatest migration in American history continued, the county supplied stone and timber for the regional building boom that followed.