PARKER
When you arrive in the town of Parker, what you’ll see amid the rolling plains is a growing community of new shops, low buildings, new home communities, and lots of open space. You’ll feast your eyes on a panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains from Pike’s Peak-sixty miles to the southwest, to Long’s Peak-an equal distance to the northwest.
The very new and modern look of the town should come as no surprise, since Parker incorporated as a city in 1981. What is surprising is that Parker has been a very important link with Denver for well over 100 years. Parker’s very modest beginning came in 1860, when a one-room shack was moved from Pine Grove over to Cherry Creek to serve as a stage stop called, appropriately, the Twenty-Mile House. It was twenty miles from the origination point of the Butterfield stage, what today is the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Colfax Avenue in bustling Denver. The humble little shack grew into a ten-room inn; changed hands twice, and finally became a major stopping point for the railroad in 1882 under the ownership of James Sample Parker.
What also doesn’t show when you’re in Parker today are the scars that ravaged the area during the 1930’s depression when the bank was robbed, railroad tracks were washed out, and low produce prices almost wiped out the small village. It was a struggle just to hang on for the next thirty years, but the same impetus that first created a need for the Twenty-Mile House provided the resuscitation the little town needed to become the hub of one of the fastest growing areas in the state today. That impetus was Denver. Denver, twenty miles to the northwest, was getting crowded. Developers and planners wisely looked to this area and found a beautiful environment where rural living could combine with modern day necessities, where country pleasures would join with today’s desired amenities.
Historic Franktown, located only seven miles south of Parker, was the original site of the Douglas county seat and the location of the first gold find in Colorado.
For those who desire acreage or stable facilities, the Parker area and Douglas County abound with a variety of choices. While driving around Parker, one might imagine they are in Kentucky with all the beautiful, rolling green hills, horses, stables, arenas, and barns in the area. Pick-up trucks and horse trailers are a familiar site on Douglas County roads.
