Castle Rock, Colorado

The name comes from the butte on the ridge above town, a rhyolite outcrop that looks, from a distance, exactly like a castle turret. That formation gave settlers a landmark and the town its identity. Castle Rock became the Douglas County seat in eighteen seventy-four when Elbert County was split off from the eastern portion of Douglas County and citizens voted to move the county government here.

A pioneer named Jeremiah Gould donated one hundred twenty acres for the new townsite, lots were auctioned off for a total of thirty-four hundred dollars, and six streets were laid out. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad arrived soon after, sealing Castle Rock's role as a regional hub. The town was formally incorporated in eighteen eighty-one.

For most of the twentieth century it stayed small, a county seat and a ranch supply stop on the road between Denver and Pueblo. Since the nineteen nineties it has become one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Colorado.