Walden in Jackson County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)
Northwest Colorado
Walden/North Park
| — | Boundless Landscapes & Spirited People | — |
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 29, 2025
1. Northwest Colorado Marker
(south side)
(south side)
Community Legacy
Isolated North Park, a high mountain valley encompassing Jackson County, requires resilience from those who choose to live here. It is a place where rugged ways of life have endured the test of time. No matter the season, you're likely to still meet cattlemen, cowgirls, forest rangers, and loggers. Timber harvesting in the region began in 1905 with the creation of the National Forests and the first timber sale on the Routt National Forest in 1906. Growing northwest Colorado towns created a demand for saw timber and railroad ties. The Laramie, Hahns Peak & Pacific Railway reached North Park in 1911 and hauled coal from nearby Coalmont.
Like early explorers who ventured into the valley and across the Continental Divide to camp and hunt along its creeks and deep forests, today locals, guides, outfitters and photographers still hunt, fish, hike, and camp.
1 — North Park Pioneer Museum
387 Logan Street
Housed in a ranch house built in 1882, the museum traces the town's history back to its founding in 1890. Through several expansions the museum has grown to 27 rooms, including some re-created historical rooms and
this page online
2 — Coalmont Schoolhouse
1018 Jackson County Road 26
This was the only schoolhouse in the area from 1915 to 1945. Around 1920, the Hebron Schoolhouse was relocated and joined with the Coalmont Schoolhouse. As in many rural communities, it provided a place for gatherings and social life.
3 — Jackson County Courthouse
396 Lafever Street
Designed by noted Denver architect William Norman Bowman and constructed of locally quarried stone in 1913, the Courthouse retains most of the original interior detailing.
4 — Lake Agnes Cabin
Jackson County Road 62B
This 1925 cabin exemplifies the rustic style that was implemented in national and state parks of the time with log walls, simple form, rubble foundation, and gently pitched roof.
5 — Hog Park Guard Station
West of Cowdrey
Constructed in 1910, the Hog Park Guard Station is the oldest standing guard station in Routt National Forest. It is a rare example of a time when the Forest Service District Rangers were using common standards to construct buildings of local materials with local labor.
6 — Teller City
Jackson County Road 21
The once-prosperous silver mining town had a population
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 29, 2025
2. Northwest Colorado Marker (south side)
Looking north; the North Park wildlife watching trail is in the background.
Wild Game Hunting
The Ute are said to have called this valley the Bull Pen because of the prevalence of great buffalo herds living within the expansive park and encircling mountains. Great herds of wild game — deer and antelope — also roamed free. Prior to 1820, the Ute Indians spent their summers here then returned to lower altitudes in the late fall when severe winters arrived. The Arapaho Indians also hunted in North Park along with occasional bands of Crow, Sioux, and Cheyenne.
Famous fur trappers who ran lines in North Park include Jim Bridger and Jim Baker. Lt. John C. Fremont with guide Kit Carson surveyed the region in 1844 and documented the richness of wild game. Lord Gore (namesake of Gore Pass) brought a hunting party in 1855, which reportedly included six wagons, 21 carts, 12 yoke of cattle, 112 horses, 14 dogs, and 40 servants. Since this early exploration, people have continued to come to North Park to see and hunt wildlife.
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 29, 2025
3. Jackson County Courthouse
It is located about ˝ mile north of this historical marker on LaFever Street in Walden.
Life Blood of North Park
“The valley narrowed as we ascended and presently we degenerated into a gorge which the river passed as through a gate. We entered it and found ourselves in New Park, a beautiful circular valley, walled in all around with snowy mountains. It is from this elevated cove and from the gorges of the surrounding mountains that the great Platte River collects its first waters.”
—Lt. John C. Fremont, 1844
Water is and forever has been the life blood of North Park. Water provided the habitat for the beavers that first attracted the explorers to this valley. Water nourished the lush grassland habitat of wild game and later fed the cattle that grazed on open range.
North Park ranchers have engineered a system of ditches and diversions designed to maintain lush irrigated hay meadows, pasture cattle, and provide extensive wetland habitat for regional wildlife including the species of the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge.
Moose on the Loose
North Park is the Moose Viewing Capital of Colorado. It started in 1978 when 12 moose were introduced on the upper Illinois River. The herd now numbers more than 600 and the original transplants’ offspring have spread over North Park and moved into Middle Park and beyond.
In the Medicine Bow, Never Summer, and Park Mountain ranges, you can view herds of elk, deer, and antelope.
Ranching in the Bull Pen
In the late 1870s the Ute, having been confined to reservations, no longer hunted in the valley's Bull Pen. North Park remained unsettled until a silver rush created Teller City in the south-eastern edge of the valley. On the north end, James O. Pinkham was the first prospector to spend a winter. He built a home in 1874. Pinkham's tales of a rich placer land interested others. Prospectors made trips in and out of the park, spreading stories of a land that was a stockman's paradise. The era of steer outfits and homesteaders began to flourish. It's thought that the first cattle to winter in North Park were milk cows. By the summer of 1879, naturalist George Bird Grinnell, on a journey through North Park, reported 6,000 head of steers. He described a vast wetland, most of which continues to thrive today.*
The town of Walden, first known as Point of Rocks, was founded in 1889. Many of Walden's first residents were refugees from the Teller City mining bust. Today, Walden is the first and only incorporated town in North Park.
*“In the valley at my feet, stretching away to the west for seven or eight miles, and to the north and south for fifteen, lay the largest beaver meadow that I have ever seen. I presume that there were 500 dams in sight… The water set back by these dams flowed through a thousand little canals and ditches, and the whole from the height looked like a silver net spread over an enormous carpet of emerald velvet.”
—George Bird Grinnell, 1879
Loggers
In 1936, 16,830 acres of land was sold near the timber camp community of Gould. The Michigan River Timber Company was formed. Loggers were lured from several states to work in the woods. One hundred men and their families lived in the camp. North Park’s timber industry prospered through the 1980s. Today, a markedly scaled down industry still exists.
[photo captions]
• Bronc rider at Owl Creek Ranch
• “Little roper” on the Meyring Livestock Ranch
• Haying rake on the Meyring Livestock Ranch
• Buffalo hunters
• Buffalo on the Eagles Wing Ranch
• Moose roam in the cemetery
• Rainbow Lakes
• Loggers near Gould
Erected by History Colorado.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Agriculture • Indigenous Peoples and Communities • Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers.
Location. 40° 43.619′ N, 106° 17.189′ W. Marker is in Walden, Colorado, in Jackson County. It can be reached from Main Street (State Highway 14/125) just west of Grant Street, on the right when traveling west. The marker is in the interpretive wayside on the north side of Colorado Highway 14/125. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 32677 Colorado Highway 14, Walden CO 80480, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Colorado High Rockies and on the Continental Divide. It is also in the American Mountain West. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere.
Other nearby markers. At least 7 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: A different marker also named Northwest Colorado (here, next to this marker); Hunting in the "Bull Pen" (approx. 2.9 miles away); Fur Hat: The Opening of North Park (approx. 2.9 miles away); Ranching: An Enduring Legacy (approx. 2.9 miles away); Riches From the Earth (approx. 2.9 miles away); Timber: A Growing Need (approx. 2.9 miles away); The “Iron Horse” Comes to North Park (approx. 2.9 miles away).
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Northwest Colorado
Also see . . . Explore Northwest Colorado’s Boundless Landscapes, and Discover Ways of Life – Past and Present.
Excerpt: Through collaboration, interpret the vast heritage of Northwest Colorado and impart the legacy and stories of the region and its communities in order to generate economic vitality.(Submitted on September 1, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
Credits. This page was last revised on September 1, 2025. It was originally submitted on August 31, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 91 times since then and 30 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on August 31, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 3. submitted on September 1, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
