St. Vrain State Park, formerly known as Barbour Ponds, is a Colorado state park. The park hosts year-round camping. It is a popular birding destination, hosting the states largest rookery of Blue Heron, it is home to several other bird species as well including migrating waterfowl, songbirds and the occasional bald eagle. Other park activities include year round fishing and hiking. There are plans for a reservoir to be built at the park named Blue Heron Reservoir.
History
1800s
The land of St. Vrain State Park was originally home to Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Native American tribes. Once claimed by Spain then France who sold it to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Having just made the largest land purchase in the history of the nation, the government was eager to discover what $15,000,000 had bought. They sent out scouts, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, then Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike to explore. Although neither group traveled in the area, their descriptions of the land and a growing fur trade encouraged adventurers to head west. In 1817, the US War Department sent Stephen Long, a Major in the Topographical Engineers, to explore the upper Mississippi. Following the North and South Platte Rivers, Long likely saw the St. Vrain Valley in July 1820.
In 1848, gold was discovered in California bringing a wave of eager gold-seekers headed west. A few made their fortunes, but more often prospectors headed home with empty pockets or found work in the communities that had sprung up around the prospectors. Some who left the goldfields found their fortune in land and sent word to their families. That sparked a new wave of immigrants moving west. The Oregon Trail passed by Fort Laramie, north of the St. Vrain Valley, and was a major route for the steady stream of immigrants moving from east to west. Historians estimate a combined 150,000 prospectors and immigrants traveled through Fort Laramie, north of the St Vrain Valley, between 1841 and 1853. Native Americans watching these travelers had cause for concern; their way of life was in jeopardy. The immigrants did not understand the Native American tribes any more than the Native Americans understood them. Tensions rose. Although the government tried to address the issues through treaties, the government also broke those treaties. Bison hunters actively sought hides decimating the Native Americans' food supply while settlers were encroaching on what was supposed to be their land. The Native Americans' only recourse was to push the white men out.
In 1858, gold was discovered near Denver. Another wave of adventurers set off seeking their fortune. Again a few were lucky, but far more became discouraged with the search and left the goldfields. Many of them found land to their liking and made a home. Agriculture began to develop and cities were formed. Milo Smith, Perry L. Smith, and Elisha Duncan settled east of St. Vrain Creek and Boulder Creek on land that would one day become St. Vrain State Park. Life was good along the St. Vrain, but stories of trouble with Native Americas made the settlers wary. In June 1864 the Hungate family, living northeast of Denver City, was murdered by a raiding tribe. The settlers felt they needed to protect themselves, so they formed the Home Guard with 4 officers and 58 volunteers. The government provided each man a six-shooter and a rifle, and they drilled twice monthly on Elisha Duncan's homestead. Perry L. Smith donated a plot of land for a fort, and the community came together in July to build a sod fort. They cut the sod into strips one foot wide and two feet long and stacked them like bricks. The walls were two feet thick. The fort was 100 feet by 130 feet with portholes large enough to shoot through spaced every eight feet wide and eight feet high above the ground. There were sod benches two feet wide and three feet high lining the walls, so defenders could move along any wall in any direction to protect the fort from attack. Inside two structures were built in opposite corners to store supplies. Their roofs could be used as observation towers. They filled voids or gaps in the walls with mud and coated the walls from the bottom to the top both inside and out. Because it was close to where the St. Vrain and Boulder Creek join, it was called Fort Junction.
