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.

“History is important and posterity needs to understand the past, in particular the foundation of the Open Space institution which has enhanced our county,” Mackey said.

The whereabouts of the original sign are unknown and there are no plans for replacing it, Robbins said.

“The new program no longer involves plaques within our JCOS parks, as it was becoming very cumbersome to maintain the quality and integrity of all the plaques throughout the parks to the level which they deserved,” Robbins said in an email.

In some places plaques are posted along with memorial benches. “The current plaques that are out at the parks are permitted to stay until they reach their five-year mark and then JCOS will remove those as the benches become in disrepair or are removed,” Robbins said. However, the memorial bench program was discontinued seven years ago and renewals have been declined since then.

The sign explaining the foundation of open space was part of an outdoor seating area titled the Carol Karlin Overlook off Founder’s Trail in Elk Meadow Open Space Park in Evergreen.

The rustic monument consists of pine trees, a stone pillar that formerly held the sign, a boulder with a bronze plaque and couple of concrete benches. The plaque identifies 45 people under the inscription, “Recognizing the founders who laid the cornerstones on which the Jefferson County Open Space legacy was built.”

There is no standard procedure for removing a sign when it starts to show signs of age. “That is done on a case-by-case basis,” Robbins said.

“But in most cases if a sign is removed a decision is made to post the information at the trailhead or perhaps on the website.”

Robbins said there are no plans to remove the other elements of the Karlin Overlook, such as the pillar, the bronze plaque or the benches.

About a mile north of the Elk Meadow trailhead, the arrangement presents a pleasant place to rest and contemplate the view of the meadow and gentle foothills to the south.

Carol Karlin, who died March 28, 2021, is generally given credit as the person who started the movement that led to the 1972 passage of the citizens’ initiative creating Jefferson County Open Space and PLAN Jeffco, the grassroots organization that spearheaded the effort.

She is famously known for hosting the initial formative PLAN Jeffco gathering in her Lakewood living room in 1971.

Early on, Karlin recruited the support of the Jefferson County League of Women Voters, whose members became the core of the PLAN Jeffco leadership group. The League also produced influential land-use studies, especially “The Mountain Puzzle,” which documented the loss of open space to development. Karlin was a longtime league member.

Before PLAN Jeffco came into existence, Boulder passed a 1967 law which allowed the city to levy a sales tax for open space, but Karlin envisioned a wider-ranging, county-based effort.

In 1971, Bette Seeland, the League’s land-use chair at the time, and Karlin went to the League’s board for permission to take the sales-tax idea to the membership. Seeland is the longtime secretary and member of the board of directors of PLAN Jeffco.

The key element of Karlin’s vision was a half-cent sales tax, which at the time wasn’t a lot. It raised a measly $1 million or so per year but has since grown exponentially to about $68.5 million a year. The system has grown to encompass 56,000 acres, 27 parks and more than 265 trail miles and become a treasured public resource.

PLAN Jeffco is looking for a photo that shows the narrative sign that for many years was part of the Carol Karlin Overlook in Elk Meadow Park in Evergreen.  The sign was atop a rustic stone pillar in a seating area on the Scenic View Trail, a spur off the Founders’ Trail.  If anyone has such an image please send to victoriagits@comcast.net. We are also looking for more information about the creation of the overlook and the bronze plaque.