JEFFERSON COUNTY —When Lou Fohn was growing up in southern Jefferson County in what is now known as the Columbine area, a 7-Eleven store was the closest place to get gas and groceries without driving to Littleton. There was also an airport nearby where he flew his first plane.
Chuck Hause’s father worked as a farmer before the area was covered in homes.
Fohn and Hause rode the bus together to Bear Creek High School after the one-room schoolhouses in the area closed.
There may not be two other people who know the history of the area better than Fohn and Hause. Now they are hoping to give folks a new way to learn about Columbine.
The two, lifetime residents of the locality and members of the , are looking to compile a history of the Columbine area and they want help finding stories and old photographs.
The biggest challenge is that there aren’t too many resources out there.
“We’re in neverland here,” Hause said.
The first step was to define the boundaries of the Columbine area. Hause and Fohn settled on an area south of Bowles Avenue down to Waterton Canyon, with Simms Street serving as the western boundary. The county line shared with Arapahoe County serves as the eastern boundary.
Fohn and Hause are soliciting neighborhood groups and trying to find people who know something about the area or have some old photographs they can add to the collection.
Earlier this month, they spoke to the CoHope neighborhood group meeting to a sparse crowd, and they hope more presentations are in the future.
“I think it’s a very worthwhile project,” said Diane Suchomel, vice president of CoHope, who has lived in the area continuously since the mid-1990s. “It’s hard to find information and they’re just a wonderful source.”
The focus of the early history has surrounded and the Cheesman Dam, which was built in 1905 about 15 miles upriver from the area Fohn and Hause consider Columbine. The two say that the city of Denver wouldn’t be what it is today if not for the dam and the Kassler water treatment plant, which supplied Denver with clean water.
Hause, a former employee of Lockheed Martin, said the U.S. government’s purchase of some of the land in the south portion of the Columbine area for a missile testing facility was the second key event in the area and led to an influx of homes. Workers for the Glenn L. Martin Co. — later Martin Marietta and then Lockheed Martin — needed places to live.
The 3 square miles that became Columbine Hills and Columbine Knolls were the first areas to develop starting in the late 1950s. More development followed, but it has stayed largely residential. That is the biggest reason Hause and Fohn believe the area has never been incorporated into a city or annexed into a pre-existing municipality.
Another challenge in compiling the history of the area is the lack of landmarks. Very few homes date before 1958 and, aside from Waterton Canyon, there are no notable physical features.
When everything is done, Hause and Fohn hope to have a place to display the information and find people to keep adding to it. They also would like to produce a book at some point. In the meantime, they’re searching for information and for people who may know more than they do.
Fohn joked, “We know just enough to be dangerous.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com
To contribute
Contact the Jefferson County Historical Commission at jefferson countyhistoricalcommission@ jeffco.us or call 303-271-8708.
