Founders Sign Removed from Open Space Park
By Vicky Gits and Bette Seeland, Nov 26, 2023
Early this year Jefferson County Open Space quietly removed without replacing an interpretive sign that had stood for about 20 years as a tribute to the visionaries whose genius and hard work launched PLAN Jeffco and created the Open Space Park system.
Now that the sign is gone, it is probably gone for good, according to Matt Robbins of the Open Space department. Positioned in Elk Meadow Open Space in Evergreen, the sign was removed because it had fallen into disrepair after weathering outdoors for so long.
Evergreen resident Joe Mackey brought the missing sign to the attention of the Open Space Advisory Commission in October at a regular meeting. A former member of OSAC in the ‘70s, Mackey thinks the sign should be preserved. Read more
What we know today as Crown Hill Open Space Park wasn’t always a public venue. One year before the end of the American Civil War, in 1864, a young man named Henry Lee sojourned west from Iowa to join his brother, William, who had a farm east of Golden, on the south side of Clear Creek.
Twenty-five years ago, a group of volunteers formed an organization called the Jeffco Open Space Foundation, whose purpose was (and is) to raise funds for programs and initiatives that align with its vision, mission, beliefs and its focus areas.
If you’ve recently been out to Alderfer/Three Sisters Park recently, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of forestry activity happening, especially in the eastern one-third of the park.
Have you seen a moose in our Open Space parks yet? If you haven’t, you may soon. Moose, which was a rarity in Colorado only 50 years ago, are now routinely sighted in Clear Creek and Jefferson Counties since their introduction in 1978 — transplants from Utah and Wyoming. The transplants have delighted in their new home state. According to biologists from Colorado Parks & Wildlife, there are an estimated 3500 moose roaming the Rockies between Red Feather Lakes and Pagosa Springs. 
