Parker is a home rule municipality in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. As a self-declared "town" under the home rule statutes, Parker is the second most populous town in the county; Castle Rock is the most populous (the community of Highlands Ranch, with a population of over 100,000, is an unincorporated CDP). In recent years, Parker has become a commuter town at the southeasternmost corner of the Denver metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census the town population was 58,512. Parker is now the 19th most populous municipality in the state of Colorado.
History
Native Americans
The first known people to live in the area were ancient and Plains Woodland peoples. Utes, Arapaho, and Cheyenne were in the area by the 1800s. They were all hunter-gatherers who established seasonal camps to acquire food. A nearby rock shelter, Franktown Cave, shows evidence of habitation beginning in the early Archaic period about 6400 BC and continuing through each of the intervening cultural periods to 1725 AD.
Pine Grove
Stage roads were established on historic Cherokee and Trapper's Trails through present-day Denver. In 1864, Alfred Butters established the Pine Grove Way Station in a small one-room building (south of the current Parker United Methodist Church) to sell provisions, handle mail and messages, and provide respite for travelers. The area was then within the Territory of Colorado (1861–1876). Butters became a state senator and representative. His house is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in downtown Denver. George Long and his wife purchased the building, moved it to its present location on Main Street, and expanded it to include ten rooms, a ball room and outbuildings. Built at the junction of stage routes, it was called Twenty Mile House for its distance to Denver. The stage station offered provisions, meals, and lodging, as well as protection for early settlers against attacks by Native Americans.
Initially, there were peaceful interactions with Native Americans. Chiefs Washington and Colorow led their tribes along Sulphur Gulch, passing and sometimes visiting cabins of early settlers, like John and Elizabeth Tallman. During one visit, Chief Washington offered up to 20 ponies in trade for their red-headed son. They occasionally heard the sounds of celebration and mourning from nearby encampments. Tension between settlers and Native Americans began to build in the 1860s due to broken treaties, aggression, and cultural misunderstanding. People became especially fearful following the Hungate massacre of 1864 in present-day Elbert County, which may have been started by Nathan Hungate shooting a Native American who stole his horse. It may have been a precipitating factor in the Sand Creek massacre led by General John Chivington later that year. John Tallman was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the Hungate Massacre and he served under Chivington during the Sand Creek massacre. The citizens of Parker became quite concerned and closed the school for a brief time after the massacres. In 1870, Jonathan Tallman (John's brother) was killed by Native Americans while out riding his mule.
In 1869, Twenty Mile House was owned by Nelson and Susan Doud. In 1870, the Douds purchased the Seventeen Mile House in what is now Centennial and sold the Twenty Mile House to James S. Parker, an American Civil War veteran from Illinois who came to Colorado in 1865. He added a blacksmith shop and mercantile store. In December 1870, or 1873, a post office was established for the Pine Grove settlement; James Parker was the postmaster. He built a schoolhouse and provided lodging and the first year's salary for the teacher. George Parker, James' brother, homesteaded and built a saloon on land east of Parker Road. George owned most of the land that ultimately became the town of Parker. He encouraged settlers and business development by "parceling out his spread" to newcomers.
Parker
The name of the settlement was changed to Parker in 1882. It was first called Parkers' for the two brothers and largest landowners, but the apostrophe was later dropped. That year, the Denver and New Orleans Railroad completed the initial railroad route that provided service between Denver, Parker, and Colorado Springs. To ensure that the railroad came through the center of town, rather than along Cherry Creek, James Parker sold his right-of-way for $1 and his brother George sold his right-of-way to bring the railroad into the center of town to Parker station.