The Rampart Range is the dominant geologic structure within the watershed. It runs roughly north-south, extending from west of Castle Rock to Colorado Springs (at the southern edge of Cheyenne Mountain) and is separated from the main Front Range by a series of faults, the most striking of which forms the Ute Pass, a fault at least 60 miles in length (where present day US Highway 24 is located).

The Rampart Range is a faulted anticline comprised of late Paleozoic sedimentary rocks composed of sediment washed from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains (formed 300 million years ago before the present day Rocky Mountains existed). Precambrian Pikes Peak granite forms the core of the range (and is regarded as the parent material for the range’s predominantly granitic soils). The summit of the range is a Tertiary era pediment, regarded as “well preserved”. Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks comprised of sediment washed from the Ancestral Rockies, line the fault, visible in places through the forest canopy on the dramatic eastern slope of the Rampart Range. These same rocks are present at the Garden of the Gods, just south of the watershed. (source: Monument Creek Watershed Landscape Assessment)

In 1900 the USGS reported that most of the marketable timber in the PCFR had already been harvested. The USGS found "... six portable steam sawmills were in operation ... altogether capable of turning out between 60,000 and 70,000 feet of lumber a day when running full time." Most of these sawmills were located in the western part of the PCFR outside the RERA, however, one of them was in operation south of Perry Park. Technically it was illegal to cut timber on public lands. However, many lumbermen claimed "... to be under the provisions of existing laws. ... Whenever possible it is the custom to locate the sawmill on patented or homestead land, the timber thereon, and perhaps also the timber upon a school section, being purchased. But the tree cutter knows no boundaries, and the best timber is taken wherever found so long as there is no interference by Federal authorities.

The excuse is made by lumbermen and inhabitants that the cutting and shipping of lumber is necessary to give employment to people settled in the reserve, who may be prospecting part of their time and who practically depend upon what they may earn at lumbering for subsistence. But at the present rate of cutting the ready lumber will soon be exhausted, although such considerations give little trouble to the men who think only of themselves and their immediate welfare -- a class too common in the region of mining camps.
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Among other schemes for illegally getting timber from Government land, both in and outside the reserve, is the practice of staking out a mining claim on some heavily timbered spot, cutting and selling the timber, and then abandoning the claim without attempting to get final deed or patent for it. As a mining claim includes about 10 acres, it is apparent that by frequent repetition of this scheme upon the very localized areas of good timber much of the best would very speedily be removed."

"Great quantities of railroad ties have in the past been cut in the reserve and sold to the various railroads having stations within hauling distance. ... Most of the cutting ... has been done under cover of concessions claimed to have been granted to the railroads, but about the legality of which there appeared locally to be doubt and dispute."

While fire did not cause as much damage in the PCFR as in the Pikes Peak Reserve, there is evidence of ground fires that destroyed the humus making regrowth more difficult. Some small fires were caused by sparks from the portable sawmills.

About one third of the PCFR was privately owned under patent and homestead laws. About 20 square miles of what is now Perry Park was completely contained within the PCFR. "The largest and best ranches are located in ... and about Perry Park on the eastern side of the reserve, where there are five of six considerable ranches chiefly devoted to the raising of cattle. Perry Park itself was originally designed as a summer resort by its owners, but at present contains only two or three occupied dwellings, and the hotel is not in use. As the situation is a very picturesque, interesting, and attractive one, it is probable that at some future time a considerable population will be centered here. ... The only expensive buildings on the reserve, or those costing more than a few hundred dollars, are located outside of the hills, about Perry Park."

The ranches located within the PCFR were small. During the summer the cattle are driven into the mountains to graze. These limited numbers were joined by the cattle from ranches outside the reserve. Since the best grazing was along the streams the cattle caused damage to the grasses leading to the deterioration of the vegetation and causing erosion.

Gold was found in the PCFR which resulted much prospecting but very little production. "... in Spring Creek Canyon near Perry Park, a tunnel 170 feet in length was found, from which it was stated that pay ore had been taken which assayed about $35 in gold and 300 ounces in silver to the ton. The statements of prospectors are not always to be implicitly relied upon, however, as they are likely to be biased by their hopes.

In the Perry Park ... a small mill has been started for the manufacture of plaster and similar products from gypsum and other rock suitable for such purposes, which is plentiful in the locality. The product is shipped by railroad to Denver, Colorado Springs, or wherever a market can be found. The work is yet largely experimental, but may develop into a considerable business."

The USGS made the following recommendations in their report: 1. No timber harvesting north of Devil's Head, harvesting in the south only under strict supervision and only for local use. 2. Supervise and tax the grazing of cattle on the reserve. 3. Make the boundaries of the reserve known through maps and signs. 4. Remove the most densely populated land from the reserve. This last recommendation was implemented in the case of Perry Park.

The ties for these railroads and their subsequent upgrades and maintenance came from the forests of the Rampart Range. As a consequence, the most obvious evidence of human industry in the area is logging. Most of the roads you will find in the area today are left over from this activity. Sawmills dotted the valleys east of the Rampart Range.

The Rampart Range Road, passes near Devil's Head, a massive rock outcropping, on which is located the last remain manned fire lookout tower in Colorado. Although Devil's Head is located outside the boundaries of the Rampart Range Roadless Area, it's sphere of protection certainly included the entire area.

Due to the unique structure of the rocks, Devil's Head was a natural promontory for sighting fires, and was used often by local residents for spotting smoke. In 1907, the 2-year-old U.S. Forest Service, recently shifted from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture, planned a series of seven fire lookout stations spanning the front range of the Rockies from New Mexico to Wyoming, of which Devil's Head was one. In 1912, the first lookout station was established on Devil's Head and consisted of a table with a fire-finder bolted to a rock 30 feet east of the present tower. A small log shelter was constructed near the fire-finder where a telephone was located and the lookout could go in case of a storm. A large tree at the base of the rocks was felled and served as steps for the first lookouts. The earliest lookouts ascended the peak from a trail originating south of the mountain near Watson Park. The present-day trail originates on the north side in the Devil's Head Campground.

A one-room shelter cabin was built 200 feet below the tower in 1914, but gave way to a new bunkhouse in 1919. A glass-enclosed lookout measuring 10 by 10 feet, housing the fire-finder and telephone was built that same year and Helen Dowe became the first woman fire lookout ranger in the U.S. Forest Service. A series of 30-foot poles with lateral slates nailed every 10 inches replaced the large tree as steps to the tower and a section of these steps remains today at the base of the rocks near the cabin. A new wooden stairway and railing were built in 1921. The original tower was used extensively (often 6 months a year) for 32 years until 1951.

On June 1,1951,100 men and 72 mules of Company A, 973rd Engineer Construction Battalion from Fort Carson began to dismantle the old tower and construct a new one. Several tons of brick, steel, lumber, water and cement were hauled up the then 2 1/2-mile trail by means of a small Forest Service tractor and the mules (who could carry up to 200 pounds on their backs). Captain William D. Warner was the commanding officer of the 4-week project with Captain Orville Martin in charge of the pack company. Plans included reconstruction of the trail, stairway and cabin as well as the tower. The lookouts at that time, Al and Mae Flynn, continued their work during the construction from the set of rocks directly west of the tower, unprotected except by a small tarp. The tower was completed on September 11,1951. The trail and cabin were finished later that fall and the old shelter was cut up into firewood.

The tower and cabin are the ones still in use today, fully equipped with modern fire-finding apparatus, and connected to Forest Service lines of communication by radio and telephone. Devil's Head is the last of the original seven front-range lookout towers still in use, the rest having given way to more modern means of forest-fire detection.

When, the Korean conflict heated up. Harrison found himself recalled to active service with the Colorado National Guard in late 1950, and was stationed at Buckley naval air station in Denver.

He was a month away from discharge when the high-wing liaison plane he was ferrying from Wichita to Buckley disappeared. The last leg of the flight, on April 3,1952, was from Colorado Springs to Denver. But Harrison never arrived. At 10:20 p.m. he ran into heavy snow and radioed that he was turning back. In spite of an intensive search involving nearly 100 planes the wreck was not found until September.

The tattered shell of his single-engine L-19 (Cessna) is one of two aging plane wrecks that rest quietly in the RERA, vestiges of an era when military aviators plummeted from the sky with appalling regularity. Many date from the early '40s, when planes and pilots alike were being cranked out at a breakneck pace, and training flights often went fatally wrong. These were new planes, new pilots, new mechanics. They were being taught by people who hadn't much more experience than they did.

More than 850 aircraft accidents, from minor to cataclysmic, occurred in Colorado during WWII. "There were probably as many people lost in training in the United States as there were in combat; at least the numbers were comparable," according to Jim Howard, an archivist at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. "This is a dangerous business, and that was the first war fought at that kind of scale in the air."

The second wreckage in the RERA is that of a B-17. It went down February 26, 1944, killing all 10 airmen on board. (See a complete account.)

These crash sites are a silent memorial to the veterans who lost their lives. They are tantamount to a cemetery. We should respect that and minimize contact with them. It's a philosophy grounded not only in respect, but in law. Federal regulations prohibit the taking or destruction of artifacts over 50 years old on public land, including pieces of old planes.

Len Wallace, Instructor, Colorado Aviation Historical Society.

Born in Denver in 1884, Lucretia Vaile was one of the Founding Members of the Colorado Mountain Club in April of 1912. She was a librarian in Denver, but spent as many summers as she could in her family's summer house in Palmer Lake. Lucretia and her siblings spent many hours hiking in the Rampart Range above Palmer Lake. She led the second official CMC hike which started in Palmer Lake and ended in Woodland Park. When she died in 1977 she left $46,000 to Palmer Lake for cultural purposes. Her gift along with funds from El Paso County were used for the construction of the Lucretia Vaile Library and Museum in Palmer Lake. The Museum has many interesting exhibits relating to the history of the area. To learn more about this interesting woman see The Palmer Lake Historical Society's article about her.