Seven Lakes, Colorado Explained

Seven Lakes is an abandoned, historically populated place in Teller County, Colorado, on the Pikes Peak mountain.[1] It was once the site of the Seven Lakes Hotel along a carriage road to the summit of Pikes Peak. Its waters flow from Beaver Creek to the Lake Moraine reservoir, a supplier of water to Colorado Springs.

History

Seven Lakes Park was a horseshoe basin nearly enclosed by Bald Mountain's (generally now called Almagre Mountain[2]) walls. In the late 1870s, a wagon road from Colorado City (now Old Colorado City) to Jones Park was extended to Seven Lakes. From there, it was about a five-mile hike to the top of Pikes Peak. In 1889, the carriage road was completed from Seven Lakes to the Pikes Peak summit.[3] Another route could be taken in 1904 on the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway (Short Line) to the Clyde station. It was about 3.5miles via trails and the carriage road to Seven Lakes.[4]

A one-story log cabin built about 1877 in a ravine at 11000feet in elevation served as hotel. In 1880, Mayo G. Smith bought the Seven Lakes Park property and ran the hotel from 1882 to 1883. It was visited in 1887 by the Boyden Expedition of Harvard College, who took atmospheric measurements of Seven Lakes and Pikes Peak.[5] The hotel was expanded to several stories and fitted with a billiard room and bowling alley, and burned down in the 1880s.[6] Visitors came to the area to camp and fish. The Pike's Peak and Seven Lakes Toll Road Company was established by 1890.[7]

Railway lines

In 1896, the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek Short Line Company planned to build a railway branch through Seven Lakes to Pikes Peak.[8] In 1909, the mode of transportation into Seven Lakes was via horses.[9]

The Seven Lakes-Pike's Peak Railway Company was formed in the fall of 1901 to build an 11miles electric trolley line from Clyde to Pikes Peak through Seven Lakes.[10] It was expected to be completed within a year at a cost of $250,000 . Henry C. Hall was one of the company's railroad directors. Hall made a proposal during a citizens meeting in the Colorado Springs council chambers in August 1901 regarding water at Seven Lakes. He asked for a review of the use of Seven Falls as a source of water for the city. He claimed it would be an expensive investment but might not provide as much water as anticipated.[11]

Seven Lakes water supply

Background

The Seven Lakes water supply of one hundred or more acres consists of small bodies of water at 10500feet in altitude which flow south into Beaver Creek and then Lake Moraine, a source of water for the city of Colorado Springs by 1899.[12] The seven natural lakes formed by glaciers were: Isoetes Lake, Lake of the Rocks, Marsh Lake, Michigan Lake, Mirror Lake, Ramona Lake, and Ribbon Lake.[13]

The city of Colorado Springs purchased Seven Lakes land for $70,000 in 1891. That year they built the Lake Moraine Dam. An injunction to prevent the City of Colorado Springs from paying for and receiving title to the Seven Lakes property was refused in January 1902.[14]

Reservoirs built

In 1905, the Mason and McReynolds reservoirs were built in the Seven Lakes area. Marsh, Ribbon, and Mirror Lakes were used to make one of the reservoirs, and another reservoir was formed in the Seven Lakes area.[13] Water from the two reservoirs flows through the St. John tunnel to Lake Moraine.[15] [16] In 1909, the City of Colorado Springs restricted access to McReynolds and Mason Reservoirs (Seven Lakes), a source of the municipality's water, which closed off transportation opportunities through that area.[17]

Closed since the 1900s, the two South Slope Recreation Area reservoirs were opened for fishing in 2014, subject to a reservation with the City of Colorado Springs and a Colorado fishing license.[18]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Seven Lakes (historical) . Geographic Names Information System, US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior . October 13, 1978 . January 15, 2015 .
  2. News: Philipps . David . January 10, 2008 . Happy trails: Almagre Mountain cross country ski trail . Colorado Springs Gazette . Colorado Springs, CO . May 25, 2018.
  3. Book: William Wyckoff. Creating Colorado: The Making of a Western American Landscape, 1860-1940. 1999. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-07118-4. 139.
  4. Book: 1904 . Under the Turquoise Sky . John Sebastian, Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway Company . The Rock Island System . 39, 42 . January 15, 2015 .
  5. 1908 . LXI - Part I . William H. Pickering . Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College . Cambridge, Massachusetts. Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. 3 . January 15, 2015.
  6. Book: Marshall Sprague. Marshall Sprague. Newport in the Rockies: the life and good times of Colorado Springs. 1987. Swallow Press/Ohio University Press. 978-0-8040-0899-0. 94, 319.
  7. 1890 . Francis Directory for CO Springs . January 15, 2015 . (President John Campbell; Secretary, J. E. McIntyre; Treasurer, Ainsworth Brown).
  8. February 29, 1896 . The Railway Age and Northwestern Railroad . New Incorporations . XXI. 9 . 121 . Monadnock Block, Chicago . 2014-05-05 .
  9. Book: James Fullarton Muirhead. The United States, with Excursions to Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, and Alaska: Handbook for Travellers. 1909. K. Baedeker. 490.
  10. Book: The Street Railway Review. 1902. Wilson Company. 266.
  11. News: The water system in Colorado Springs important to every citizen . August 14, 1901 . The Gazette . 4:1,2 . February 6, 2015 .
  12. Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899 . US Department of the Interior . 1899 . January 15, 2015.
  13. Book: American Microscopical Society. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society. 1907. American Microscopical Society. 98.
  14. News: Injunction was Refused . January 16, 1902 . The Gazette . 1:1 . February 6, 2015 .
  15. Book: 2012 Water . History of Colorado Springs’ Water Collection System. 9, 13 . January 15, 2015 .
  16. Book: Thomas Benton Pyles. The Ditch Book District No. 10: Containing an Exact Copy of All Decrees and Complete Alphabetical List of Statement Ditches, Pipes and Reservoirs in El Paso County, Colorado. 1906. T.B. & N.E. Pyles. 133, 166.
  17. Ring the Peak lingers in concept, not reality. John Hazelhurst . Colorado Springs Business Journal . August 28, 2014. February 5, 2015 .
  18. Web site: Be the first to fish Colorado Springs' new fishing hole at the South Slope Recreation Area . Colorado Parks & Wildlife . News about Colorado's Natural Resources . October 2, 2014 .