El Paso County to assume control of historic park

For many local people, it was a well-kept secret — a park dating to the 1870s that was owned by Colorado Springs Utilities.

But the secret is out now about Jones Park.

The 1,100-acre open space southwest of the city limits was to fall under the responsibility of the U.S. Forest Service until El Paso County Commissioners expressed interest. The Colorado Springs City Council this week voted to transfer jurisdiction to the county.

Utilities spokeswoman Patrice Lehermeier said the park has remained open to hikers, bicyclists and equestrians and that the park has been closed to motorized use since 2012.

Commissioner Sallie Clark said many people hike in Jones Park and commissioners believe the property should remain under a local government’s control.

“We already have budgeted $650,000 from a variety of sources to pay for most of the cost of developing the park,” she said. “It will include multi-use so it might include equestrian trails, mountain bike trails, certainly those trails for hikers and additionally some recreational use for motorcycles.”

Clark hopes the park will open this summer but added the federal government must approve the final design to protect a threatened trout species in nearby Bear Creek.

Jeff King, a local hiker, said he’s thrilled by the change in park ownership.

“I have someone visiting right now from Charlotte, North Carolina, and this is the first place we bring somebody coming in to Colorado Springs, just because it’s a beautiful place and it’s accessible in 15 minutes,” he said.

According to local historian Michael Chaussee, the park began in 1873 as a settlement by Boston homesteader John Jones.

“He and some others wanted to turn it into a tourist area for people traveling to the summit of Pikes Peak,” he said. “This was back when the Bear Creek Toll Road was the only way to get there.”

Nine years later, however, Jones died and his dream soon followed.

“The settlement started to come undone when the railroad decided not to build through there,” Chaussee said. “Instead, they built along Gold Camp Road and Old Stage Road. That was in about 1891.”

Chaussee said Edwin Giles built many of the park’s cabins — parts of which still remain — but Colorado College professor Frank Loud eventually owned much of the park. Colorado Springs assumed ownership in 1952. A proposed dam on the park site was never built.

In an interesting twist, Chaussee said a stop at the park by Katherine Bates on the way to Pikes Peak provided part of the motivation for her to write the words to “America the Beautiful” in the summer of 1893. At the time, she taught English at Colorado College.

During its brief heyday, the park had 200 residents and an eight-room hotel and restaurant to serve the tourism boom that never came.

“I think the hiking and biking community is excited about the possibility of a trail that will be open all the way from Bear Creek Park to the Summit of Pikes Peak,” Chaussee said. “That would follow the historic trail that the original pioneers used.”

The primary access to Jones Park is off High Drive above North Cheyenne Caon Park.