Where the West meets the cul-de-sac: A history of Douglas County, Colorado (1945--2010)

The transformation of the West continues today and places like Douglas County, Colorado represent fruitful ground for students of twentieth and twenty-first century history. Promoting a central location along Colorado's Front Range developers, real estate agents, county commissioners, and other pro-growth factions recently enjoyed a twenty-year feast. At its peak Douglas County ranked number one in the nation for growth from 1990 to 1994, outdistancing the nearest competitor, Summit County, Utah, just east of Salt Lake City, by an eight percent rate of increase.1 Population increased seven-fold from just over 25,000 in 1980 to nearly 176,000 residents at the end of the twentieth century.2 As of the early twenty-first century nearly four million people call the leeward side of the Colorado Rockies home. Today Front Range cities, suburbs, towns and highways illuminate a 200-mile strip clearly visible on nighttime satellite photos. Traffic reporters flying over the scene in helicopters and airplanes witness countless automobiles, on a daily basis, crowding arterial side streets and coursing along an over-burdened Interstate 25 from Ft. Collins to Pueblo.;Amidst the phenomenal growth reside citizens with interests in land stewardship, progressive government officials, and conscientious developers and business leaders who grasp an understanding of the "New West" and an appreciation of the "Old." In 1994 Douglas County citizens voted for a sixth-of-a-cent sales and use tax to preserve Open Space. Today the County's Division of Open Space and Natural Resources provides an escape from development for residents by protecting wildlife habitat, natural resources, historic sites, scenic views, and the western rural heritage of the area.3 As of 2010, 46,552 acres of land have been protected as open space.4.;Although frequently criticized for creating a satellite city of Denver in Highlands Ranch, Mission Viejo and successor, Shea Homes deserve some recognition for holding to parts of the 1988 Open Space Conservation Agreement. To counter balance future development, programs and organizations such as the Land Conservancy, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), the Cattlemen's Association, and financial incentives such as conservation easements offer alternatives for preservation minded landowners. Finally, in the face of a rapidly changing "New West," families with generational ties to the "Old West" persevere and still manage to hold on to their farms or ranches in the face of rising land values. This thesis highlights some of Douglas County's western attributes and explores efforts to preserve the "Old West" in one of the fastest growing regions in the United States.;1Peter Wolf, Hot Towns: The Future of the Fastest Growing Communities in America, (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1999), 19. 2Colorado Department of Local Affairs: State Demography Office. Historical Census Population. http://www.dola.state.co.us/demog_webapps/population_census (accessed September 27, 2009). 3Douglas County Open Space: Douglas County Government, http://www.douglas.co.us/openspace/index.html , (accessed February 11, 2010). 4Ibid.