Cruising Castle Rock

I drove down to Castle Rock, Colorado a few weeks back to check out its historic downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. The city was founded in 1874 to serve the nearby farms and surrounding mining camps, and although I have passed by this community on the way to Colorado Springs many times, I have never stopped until now. Unfortunately, I did not do much research before visiting, and after checking the town out on the internet after returning home, realized I had missed a lot of interesting sites. However, I did see the Benjamin Hammar House, built in 1887 and seen in the photograph on the left, with the town's namesake landmark in the background.

Another landmark I passed was the Castle Cafe, seen in the photograph on the right. This building started out as the Castle Bar and Cafe, and was the wildest spot in town back in the 1890s. Douglas County had to hire an extra deputy on pay day to stop brawls, and also to prevent drunken cowboys from riding their horses into the bar. The Castle Cafe still exists, and claims to have the best pan-fried chicken in the world, which I am sure is not an exageration. While there, I did not see one drunken cowboy riding their horse through the front door, and so am happy to report that the Douglas County Sheriff's Office is evidently doing a bang-up job.

The building on the left was built in 1904 and was originally the First National Bank of Douglas County. After failing during the depression, it became a Masonic temple. There are a lot of restaurants and shops in the downtown area, including several antique stores, and a surprising number of people were walking up and down the streets while I was there, enjoying the day. Since I visited, I have run across a walking tour of the area, and plan to print it out and visit Castle Rock again soon. That walking tour, by the way, can be found at http://co-castlerock2.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/337/Walking-tour-of-historic-Downtown-Castle-Rock-PDF?bidId= . And just for the record, Castle Rock beats the hell out of Lakewood, that ugly suburb to the west of Denver. I'm just sayin'.