History Of Perry Park Ranch
Fading Past
The Story of Douglas County, Colorado
Perry Park
The peaceful magnificence of Perry Park's enormous scarlet rock formations, countless regiments of tall stoic pine trees, and vast open land inspires images that belie the precarious nature of the area's history. Stating in the Mid-nineteenth century, Perry Park existed as the successive home and working ranch of some of Colorado's wealthiest families. The area endured tow attempts by developers to create upscale communities amid its awe-inspiring natural beauty. Today's residents, abandoned by the very developers who sold the such visions of paradise, are attempting to recover from a struggle that required determination among many hurdles.
Native Americans were the first to marvel at the mysterious rock formation of the Perry Park area. For centuries, the Ute, Kiowa's, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne traversed and often settled in the pristine place. Early legend reflect their efforts to decipher the drama behind the unusually human-like shapes of the towering rocks. One legend, recorded in the late 1800's told of a time when powerful and complacent "giants and giantesses" refused to heed the warning of Mokahna, a prophet who admonished them or there neglect of the go Gitche Manito, Master of Life. The legend explains:
Suddenly the great wrath of their God came upon them, and all living things were instantly but some images of their former selves. Tumpwichits (Toom-pa-kee-tis), the great chief and willful leader of this rebellion was reduced from great power and majesty to a dwarf, and condemned to stand on this height ever grazing upon his brave warriors, who lie prostrate or tower in their majestic height before him. Near by sings the voice of his beloved Wahuneep in the falls of Muaga (moo-ah-ga) canon where she becomes a fountain of tears at the sight of her silent and stony lover. In this state they must ever remain, until the veil of the Prophet Chief, the great Mokahna, is lifted. Then they will be set free, to the joy and gladness of a new life in this garden of the Rockies.
The Ferdinand Hayden geological survey expedition, possibly unaware of the tragic myth associated with the area, named the valley Pleasant Park in 1869. The designation seemed appropriate for a region so rich in geological hasty. The eroded sandstone and shale rock formations were formed during the Upper Cretaceous Period, and mineral deposits in the area include gypsum, limestone, and clay. During an 1891 convention of the Denver Society of Civil Engineers, Professor P.H. Van Diest claimed the area "has its massive portals and queer shaped rocks, but combines with solemn and awful grandeur, loveliness and attractive variety."
John Dietz Perry, a distinguished St. Louis businessman, first saw this captivating scene in the early 1870's. president of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, Perry was instrumental in providing a direct line from Kansas to Denver in 1870. he became acquainted with west Plum Creek area during earlier railroad surveys, and by 1872 he had acquired approximately 4,000 acres in Pleasant Park ranch and promptly constructed a house and ranch buildings within a colorful gorge partially formed by a 300-foot ridge called Nanichant Rock. Like the Native Americans before them, the Perry family enjoyed naming the unusual rock formations surrounding their new home. Names like castle Ridge, Kenilworth Castle, Washington Monument (known today as Sentinel Rock), the walls of Jericho, Cashmere Ridge, and Haystacks Ranch reflect places the family had visited during their world travels.
Although most Perry family members lived at the ranch during the summer and fall only, Charles Perry, the eldest son, happily called the are home year-round. Charles raised shorthorn cattle on the ranch and managed all of the farming operations until August 1875, when the Perrys hired Upton T. Smith, one of Douglas Count's most renowned pioneers, as farmer. Charles remained foreman of the ranch until the fall of 1876, when he died after being kicked by a horse.
Visitors to Perry Park traveled by train first to nearby Larkspur, then by stage to the remote rocky hills of the ranch. A small inn existed for those sojourners who wished to prolong their stay. The ranch was also a popular picnic spit for residents of both Denver and Colorado Springs, and the Perrys were accustomed to visits from sightseers. In the fall of 1873, a different type of visitor called upon the ranch: and English women named Isabella Bird, who traveled by horseback alone through the Rock Mountain region during 1873. Bird had many adventures on her trip, including a successful ascent of Long's peak. She was the second woman in Colorado history to climb it. Bird recorded her experiences in letters to her sister in England, and those letters were the basis for her book, a Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. On letter, dated October 28, 1873, is richly colored with scenic descriptions and provides precious insight into early life at Perry Park Ranch:
Finding that there would be risk in trying to ride till nightfall, in the early afternoon I left the road and went two miles into the hills by an untrodden path, where there were gates to open, and a rapid steep-sided creek to cross; and at the entrance to a most fantastic gorge I came upon an elegant frame house belonging to Mr. Perry, a millionaire, to whom I had an introduction which I did not hesitate to present, as it was weather in which a traveler might almost ask for shelter without one.
Mr. Perry was away, but his daughter, a very bright looking, elegantly-dressed girl, invited me to dine and remain. They had stewed venison and various luxuries on the table, which was tasteful and refined, and an adroit, colored table-maid waited, one of five attached Negro servants who had been their slaves before the war. After dinner, though snow was slowly falling, a gentleman cousin took me for a ride to show me the beauties of Pleasant Park, which take rank among the finest scenery of Colorado, and in good weather is very easy of access. It did look very grand as we entered it by a narrow pass guarded by tow buttes, or isolated upright masses of rock, bright red, and about 300 feet in height. The pines were very large, and about 300 feet in height. The pines were very large, and the narrow canyons which came down on the park gloomily magnificent. It is remarkable also from a quantity of "monumental" rocks, from 50to 300 feet in height, bright vermilion, green, buff, orange, and sometimes all combined, their gay tinting a contrast to the disastrous-looking snow and the somber pines.
In the late 1870's, John Perry decided to gradually break his connection with the ranch. Prior business obligations with the Kansas Pacific Railroad, two Colorado branch railroads, and other business enterprises out of state, along with the death of son Charles, no doubt contributed to his decision. In August 1879, he placed half of the property up for sale. The Rocky Mountain News announced that the sale posed a "rare chance for a man with means who is seeking a home in Colorado," and described the ranch's attributes:
It contains about 5,000 acres, under good fence, 4 ½ miles along the base of the mountains. The improvements consist in part of two good frame houses each with a rock milk house, with a running stream of water through each, large barns and other houses. These farms are well stocked with a herd of high grade cattle, horses, work mules, farming implements suited to an extensive farm, and there are two or three hundred acres of good land under ditch, most of it suitable for wheat, rye, oats and barley.
While family and business obligations took him away from his beloved Perry Park, Perry recognized the property's potential as a first-class summer resort for Colorado tourists and spent the next few years searching for a responsible party to manage this retreat. Unfortunately for Perry, who was now attempting to run his Perry Park estate from his permanent home in St. Louis, Missouri, several such business arrangements fell through. One difficulty was reported in an 1882 issue of the Castle Rock Journal, which loudly reprimanded the new operators of the Perry Park Hotel for serving "a mock dinner and a worse Supper" to Fourth of July partiers at the ranch, and the newspaper reported that several older citizens were overheard lamenting the days when "the gentlemanly Perry boys" hosted other annual receptions. The article concluded with a cryptic warning to the new proprietors: "Douglas County may contain thousands of dummies and numbskulls, but when the wind is right, they can tell a hawk form a hand-saw."
Frustrated and tired after years of incompetent partnerships, Perry finally sold the remaining Perry park land to the Red Stone Town, Land & Mining Company in May 1888, accepting a stockholder's position in the company. He hoped that his dream of turning Perry Park into a first-class resort would be realized under the Company's leadership. The Company's elected president and a staunch advocate of transportation links between Colorado and the East, wholeheartedly supported Perry's vision. Hughes and Perry had become friends during Perry's earlier efforts to connect Kansas and Colorado with rail lines.
Ironically, transportation was one of the issues that eventually set the red Stone Town, Land & Mining Company's plans awry in Perry Park. The remoteness of the area made a convenient, reliable form of transportation vital to its survival as a resort. Weighing its options, the company chose to construct a rail line from Sedalia to Palmer Lake, in northern El Paso County. Optimistic stockholders formed a separate organizations called Perry Park Railroad Company and hired a surveyor to estimate the cost. The line would be routed through Perry Park to serve the needs of the resort's patrons as well as to provide freight services for mining operations in the area.
Meanwhile, the Red Stone company refined its designs for the resort. After a dam was constructed across Bear Creek to form lake Wauconda (an Indian name for Almighty God), the company changed the resort's name to the Village of Lake Wauconda and specified plans for three additional lakes. A lakeside casino, chapel, library-museum, and a full relief sculpture of Castle Ridge, designed by sculptor Preston Powers, were also proposed. Other plans included two more residential developments in addition to the original one on Lake Wauconda. One of these to be called the Town of Perry, was to be located at the resort's eastern entrance gate. It was intended to provide reduced-priced housing for those who could not afford the more extravagant dwellings closer to the lake, and was also to house the company's business offices.
Once lots were platted and priced in the Village of Lake Wauconda, the company proposed strict regulations concerning the construction of buildings and fences and strongly recommended the use of native building materials whenever possible. It was hoped that rules such as these would protect the natural surroundings and make the resort more attractive to tourists. To accomplish these goals, the company hired the architectural firm, Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul, as well as renowned landscape designer Fredrick Law Olmsted to oversee construction efforts. In an 1890 analysis titled "feasibility of Perry Park as a resort," Olmsted prophesized success for the resort as long as its natural state was respected:
Kept clear of such puerile and cockneyfied structures as are too generally allowed to put nature out of countenance in places of summer resorts, as well of such as would be offensive from their rudeness and shabbiness, I should think that Perry Park would soon be found very attractive, first, to tourists, led chiefly by curiosity, second, to persons seeking rest and refreshment under the influence of invigorating mountain air, of a landscape that will grow more pleasing as it becomes more familiar, and of incitements to out of door contemplative occupations, such as are to be found abundantly in the conditions that have been described.
In the summer of 1889, the company opened Nanichant House, a two-story frame building with a large veranda, immense stone fireplace, thirty guest rooms, lobby, dining room, and modern kitchen. Originally located at the foot of Nanichant Rock, the hotel was later moved a few yards west at the opening of Bear Creek Canyon. The name Nanichant, meaning Echo, came from the Native American legend in which the cries of Wahuneep, Chief Tumpwichits' beloved, echoed thought the canyon. Consequently, the inn was informally referred to as Hotel Echo.
Nanichant House enjoyed a steady flow of guests. Dances, hayrides, ice-skating, and oyster suppers were among the favorite activates of younger patrons, while older clientele sought relaxation and privacy. Locals like Charles A. Nickson, who grew up at a ranch nearby, also enjoyed the hotel's festivities.
With the hotel going in the summer it made for lively times in the neighborhood. The large dining room afforded a good place in which to dance and there were parties and hayrides and it was always a thrill to be in the large lobby with rustic finish and large fireplace.
A reporter for the Denver Times wrote lavishly of the hotel's comforts, claiming the aim of the owners was "to attract the attention of people of culture and refinement, who wish a quiet retreat from the hum, bustle, and worry of social and business cares." Regarding the hotel itself, the reporter declared:
The mornings and evenings at any of the mountain resorts are a delightful as what we enjoy here at Perry Park; but there is not a hotel in the State of Colorado from which such a varied combination of attractive scenery greets the eye as from the broad piazzas of the Hotel Echo. The hotel is kept as neat as a pin, and the table is as gratifying as one can find at the oldest and most fashionable hotels in the West.
Douglas County citizens were aware that eh development at Perry Park would affect the way outsiders viewed their county and anxiously watched its progress. As noted in an 1890 issue of the Castle Rock Journal, transportation, namely railroad, topped the list of things the resort needed in order to succeed. The newspaper assured its readers that "[w]hen the improvements already commenced or contemplated are completed, and a railroad is laid into this beauty spot of nature, it will become more generally known that Douglas county can offer to the seekers of health, or pleasure, a retreat that is not only second to none but is superior to any."
Although the Red Stone Town, Land & Mining Company agreed that railroad transportation to the resort was vital, more pressing financial problems kept the project from progressing beyond a potential route survey. Consequently, the line's charter expired unrealized in August 1892. The construction and maintenance of the Bear Creek Dam and Lake Wauconda were substantial drain on the company's financial resources. The construction and operation of Nanichant House exacerbated the precarious financial predicament, as did an expensive excavation of a reservoir needed for a resort of this size.
Among the company's other problems was ambiguous legal title to the property. Upon examination of property deeds presented to the red Stone Company by John Perry, portions of the land, for reasons that were unknown, were found to be titled under Perry's son Charles, who died in 1876. John Perry could not establish legal heirship to the land. Secondly, missing deeds to other pieces of the property indicated that neither Perry nor his son owned the land. Rather, county records verified that title belongs to Native Americans, and no transfer was located. These legal tangles were not fully resolved until 1902, when a now company president, Colonel William E. Hughes, a banker, cattleman, and Lawyer, took charge. The Perry Park property title received clarification during carious court proceedings in which former residents of the area testified to John Perry's ownership of the ranch for twenty years, thus fulfilling the provisions of the Law of Limitations, which specified twenty years occupation of land for possession. Other court procedures established John Perry's legal heirship to property titled to Charles Perry.
Colonel William Hughes was at the right place at the right time. It is very likely that Hughes's keen business instinct recognized the Red Stone company's financial turmoil as personal opportunity. On March 2, 1900, Hughes had purchased one of two stone cottages constructed by the company and informed the Denver Times that "the property will be improved and put in shape, and is intended to make a fashionable resort." Not long after his purchase, Hughes procured a large portion of stock in the development company and became its president. In 1903, he purchased the Perry family shares of Rd Stone Company and by October 1904 bought out the remaining shareholders, thus becoming sole owner of the property.
While Perry Park's legal status swirled in confusion, a whirlwind of a different variety wreaked havoc on the property itself. In August 1903, "a cyclone of terrific furry swept the valley spreading devastation in its path and wreaking the summer resort." According to the Denver Times, a portion of the Nanichant House roof was ripped off, another cabin was demolished, and several trees were knocked down. The article described the damage to the hotel and a nearby approaching stage:
In an instant a terrible whirlwind was dashed through the place, licking up everything within a radius of 200 yards. The hotel was almost in the center of the maelstrom, and the laundry, barns, tents and cabin were near the edges of the circle. Very nearly all the damage was done at the moment the wind struck the place… The stage coach, bringing a party of three ladies… was but a few hundred feet from the hotel when the cyclone struck. It was raised completely from the ground and carried fro a distance of twenty feet through the air at a height of more than four feet from the ground. It was them raised a few times and stamped heavily, the last time capsizing and throwing its occupants heavily upon the road.
After the Nanichant House was repaired, Hughes renamed it Clifton Inn, most likely in remembrance of his daughter, Eliza Clifton, who died in 1904. He continued the traditional operations of both the hotel, which catered to the resort's guests, and the working ranch. Hughes's peculiarities charmed local resident Charles A. Nickson, who later remembered: "Although he drove his four-in-hand, dock-tailed horses with a Concord stage coach and a colored boy sitting up back to blow a bugle and open gates, the Colonel was very friendly.
In 1912, Hughes sold the ranch to J. George Leyner for $37,500. One-eyed George Leyner was a successful inventor. A farmer's son from Georgetown, Colorado, he designed a compressed air-driven hammer drill that became an instant hit among miner and was particularly useful during the construction of Cheesman Dan on the South Platte River. Following this success, Leyner formed the Leyner Engineering and Manufacturing Company, which he eventually sold, along with the patents for his mining drill, in order to pursue a career in agriculture and ranching. He purchased Perry Park Ranch and began raising hags as well as corn, beans, and potato crops. When the hogs fell victim to cholera in 1914, Leyner purchased some cattle and tried his hand at dairying.
During their ownership, the Leyner family ended the Perry Park hotel's long-standing service to paying customers. The building was still known as the Clifton Inn, but it was now used only as a private guesthouse for acquaintances and visiting family members. It was never used commercially again and is believed to have burned down in the 1920's. Another loss during Leyner's ownership was the Bear Creek Dam, Which formed Lake Wauconda. Repeatedly flood-damaged and neglected, the dam could no longer hoe the lake water.
Leyner became obsessed with inventing a new form of tractor that operated with vertically lined steel crawlers that allowed for easier crop cultivation. With the drain of bringing this new invention to market, his financial situation deteriorated. He was forced to sell Perry Park Ranch in 1918. Three years later he was killed in a car accident on Littleton road.
Perry Park's nest owner, one-handed Robert Patterson Lamont Jr., was the son of Robert P. Lamont Sr., Chicago's American Steel Foundries president and Herbert Hoovers' secretary of commerce in the late 1920's. During WWI, Lamont Jr. was discharged from military service with high honors from the French government after he received serious injuries, including the loss of his hand. An abiding interest in ranching prompted Lamont's purchase of Perry Park and later the adjoining 2,250-acre Benjamin Quick ranch. Lamont raised sheep Hereford cattle quite successfully and was eventually named president of both the American Hereford Cattle Breeders Association. In Around the World in Eleven Years ( a book written by three children, Patience, Richard and John Abbe, who visited Perry Park in the 1930's), "Uncle Bob" Lamont's deep love for the cattle business was afforded a child's insight: "The cattle Uncle Bob thinks better of than any human being. He loves his cattle. These cattle are prize cattle and are very delicate like opera singers."
Throughout the 1920's Perry Park flourished under Lamont's care. In addition to the restoration of Bear Creek Dam and Lake Wauconda, Lamont established a private game preserve on the property with turkeys, coyotes, eagles, deer and other wild animals. Nevertheless, serious financial problems during the Great Depression forced Lamont to sell the Benjamin Quick portion of the ranch in 1936 to a neighbor, Reginald Sinclaire.
One year later, Lamont sold the remainder of his beloved ranch to Water Paepcke, a fellow Chicagoan who owned the Container Corporation of America and later developed the silver mining town of Aspen, Colorado, into a thriving cultural hub. The Paepcke family used Perry Park as a summer residence and hired a foreman to raise cattle, hogs, turkeys, sheep, and horses year round on the ranch. In the 1930's, the Paepckes opened the ranch to the public and built a new guesthouse near Lake Wauconda. Rodeos and barn dances were popular events for guests and neighbors like.
Eventually, Paepcke moved his Colorado headquarters and family from Perry Park to the snowy peaks of Aspen. He sold Perry Park in 1951 to Boyd E. Cousins, a Kansas City furniture retailer who maintained the property as a working ranch until ill health forced him to sell it to Lee Stubblefield in July 1967 for $2 million. Cousins retained approximately 1,000 acres, including the guesthouse built by the Paepckes in the late 1930's
Stubblefield, a retired Air Force pilot and president of the newly created Colorado Western Development Company, was not quiet about his plans to develop the ranch into a country club style residential development. Claiming "[o]ur Perry Park project involves the blending together of community development and conservation of natural resources," Stubblefield praised the development's "uniqueness: in Panorama, a newsletter published quarterly to inform residents and prospective buyers about the happenings at Perry Park.
Developed entirely by private enterprise, the Perry Park community-conservation plan will result in people living and enjoying themselves within a 4,000 acre area of pine, spruce, cedar, lakes, streams, and rock formations that rival or surpass those in the garden of the Gods.
From the late 1960's through the mid-1970's, Colorado Western Development Company attempted to fulfill its grandiose plans. In addition to the proposed construction of a private airstrip, polo fields, pool, tennis courts, and 18-hole golf course, the company announced plans to remodel the Manor House, constructed in 1891 by the Red Stone company, for use as a country club. Stubblefield also announced that 40 percent of the property would be preserved as open space and recreational areas, while the reaming 60 percent would be subdivided into on-acre residential lots. Strict covenants and the formation of an architectural committee were intended to uphold the highest standards in home plans and improvements.
Because isolated, pristine Perry Park had never been home to more than a couple of families at one time, the construction of modern utilities and improvements was essential to the elaborate development pans of Colorado Western. Basic services such as water, sewage, electricity, gas, telephones, and roads topped the list of immediate needs. Intermountain Rural Electric Association provided the area with electricity, while Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company furnished telephone service. Homeowners used 522-gallon gas propane tanks for hooking and heating until late1969, when Plateau Natural Gas Company of Colorado Springs laid approximately twenty-two miles of natural gas pipeline.
When Colorado Western completed a well capable of pumping 300 gallons of water a minute in October 1967, Stubblefield crowed, "There is absolutely no doubt that we will be able to obtain the water necessary to complete the Perry Park project in the scope and magnitude desired." Nonetheless, Perry Park's water and sewage need were not trivial matters, and management of the services passed from Colorado Western to the Perry Park Water and Sanitation District, formed in September 1969. the district constructed a waste treatment plant in 1971 and completed four miles of water and sewer lines each by early 1973.
Building roads in heavily timbered Perry Park was a enormous challenge. In June 1969, Panorama explained the problems:
It involves more than simply moving dirt. Trees all must be downed, trimmed, and taken to the mill. Trimmings must be chipped up. Stumps are then pulled and hauled our for burial. Only then can the drainage be cut, culverts installed, dirt moved, and surface laid.
By early 1973, Colorado Western had completed the roads throughout nine residential centers and asphalted Red Rock Drive form the entrance gate to the Manor House, allowing homeowners and visitors to "travel dustfree…all the way to the center of Perry Park." Roads were also built into Perry Park East, a separate multipurpose residential development located east of Perry Park Village; Meribel Village, situated on the former Sinclair and Vorenberg ranches; and Sageport Village, established on land in Perry Park East near the airstrip.
Asphalting continued up a winding, steep road that les to the Echo Hills Club, located about 500 feet above the Manor House on a sharply rising ridge known as Inspiration Point. The club, designed by James Johnson and Associates of Denver and
Completed in 1972, was a large social and business facility that included conference rooms, dining areas, lounges, and recreational facilities such as swimming pools and tennis courts. Members of the club were also promised free use of club facilities in developments planned for Marble, Colorado, and Mansanillo, Mexico, through the Echo Hills Club Internationale system.
In the mid 1970's, Colorado Western encountered financial and legal problems that prevented further development. In an effort to avert greater trouble during 1973, the company voluntarily curtailed sales of new home sites in order to focus on capital improvements to their existing projects. In 1975, the Perry Park Landowner's Association (PPLA) initiated a legal investigation of homewoners' complaints concerning failure to lay utility lines underground, to complete road construction, to provide water and sewage lines, to sell lots no smaller than one acre, to set aside 40 percent of the property as a greenbelt, and to complete the Echo Hills Club, the Manor House country club, and the golf course. In 1976, the Colorado Real Estate Commission called a hearing in which Colorado Western was to show how it planned to honor its commitments. The hearing was postponed twice when the company failed to cooperate. When the commission set a June 1976 meeting to discuss terminating the company's license, Stubblefield met with the Perry Park Landowners' Association to discuss the planned resolution of various complaints, such as roads improvements, water access, and golf course improvement. Although on PPLA member pronounced after the meeting, "the fact that our developer is actively working with us to preserve the integrity of the development is cause of great satisfaction." the association still petitioned Douglas County commissioners to create a metropolitan district. The request was granted and the district formed in early 1977.
Relations between Colorado Western and homeowners deteriorated throughout the remainder of the 1970's. in late 1977, the company failed once again to fulfill its promises, and landowners filed suite. The Castle Rock district court ruled on January 26, 1979, against Lee Stubblefield, who had acquired all of the company's assets for $2.8 million, and slapped him with a $1.3 million judgment for failure to complete the subdivision's roads and recreational amenities. Although the awarded amount was said to be the largest in Douglas County history it was considerably less than the $12 million requested by the Metropolitan District, because the judge found that Perry Park Water and Sanitation District, not Colorado Western, was responsible for the extension of water and sewer lines. The judge also determined that promises made in Perry Park brochures were not connected to purchase contracts and therefore could not be included in the judgment.
Stubblefield and attorneys Bruce and Eric Pringle immediately appealed the district court's judgment, and the issue went to the state court of appeals in January 1980. in an unusual turn of events, the court of appeals reversed the trail court decision. Burdened by the time and cost of appealing the decision to the state supreme court, the Metropolitan District board grudgingly decided to accept the ruling. Sally Maguire, disappointment of determined Perry Park residents, who realized that completing the community and securing the lifestyle they desired was now in their own hands.
We were very frustrated. We didn't have the money to fight that appeal. We couldn't fight it anymore because we were using taxpayer money and it's not something that you can just keep spending and spending money on. So we decided we had to draw back and bite the bullet and just do it ourselves. I mean, we did everything except get out there and rake the roads ourselves… We worked extremely well as a community because we had to.
While the Metropolitan District board struggled to restore order to the chaos left in Colorado Western's wake, another hurdle obstructed their efforts. In 1977, inundated with legal problems, Stubblefield sold his Perry Park assets to Ramon Jarrell, a developer of industrial properties in Louisiana. Shortly after the sale, Jarrell began planning a community of 14,000 people called Douglas Park. Sally Maguire claimed that although residents initially likened Jarrell's presence to that of a savior's reality quickly proved otherwise. Claiming he was unaware of the extensive problems in Perry Park when he purchased the property, Jarrell vehemently denied any obligation to correct the damage caused by Colorado Western, stating that eh bought only Stubblefield's assets, not his liabilities or promises to further develop the area.
To make matter worse, in August 1979 he demanded the eviction of the Perry Park Country Club from the Manor House and golf maintenance building in the stable area, citing failure by the club to pay taxes, insurance, or rent. Outraged country club members, who argued that the two facilities were given to the people of Perry Park by Stubblefield, immediately filed suit against Jarrell, and the dispute was brought before the Douglas County District Court in late 1979. After the court ruled in favor of the country club, Jarrell responded with an appeal, and the two parties reached a private settlement. In the agreement Jarrell, whose interest in developing the Perry Park area waned, conceded and transferred the Manor House and golf maintenance facility deeds to country club members.
During and after the five years of tumultuous litigation, Perry Park residents labored to provide much-needed improvements to their community. The metro board's top concerns included the completion of the park's main and private roads, the preservation of greenbelts, mosquito abatement, and the elimination of the Mountain Pine Beetle and a parasitic growth known as dwarf mistletoe, both of which posed serious threats to the area's trees. A Park Beautification program, created in 1981, and the Architectural Control Committee (ACC), first established by Colorado Western, tended to the area's aesthetic qualities.
The Perry Park Water and Sanitation District managed water and sewage improvements. Through the passage of water and sewer bonds, the district was able to construct the "Hog John" water tank in July 1980, expand the Wauconda Sewage treatment Plant, and install a second community well in the early 1980's. growth in Sageport and Perry Park East necessitated the installation of water and sewer lines in the mid-1980's.
In the 1990's, the ACC, one of the few organizations remaining from the Colorado Western days, received unprecedented focus. Form 1991 to 1993, many residents, discouraged by ACC's tendency to enforce only those covenants that pertained to new home plans, attempted to revise and update the community's architectural regulation. The attempt floundered, however, when the issue failed to generate the 50.1 percent favorable response required for change, largely due to lack of participation by absentee owners. For several years thereafter, a growing distrust and suspicion lingered.