Palmer Lake, Colorado
Near Manitou Springs, Colorado
Palmer Lake sits atop the Palmer Divide at just over seven thousand feet, and it owes its existence to the same man who founded Colorado Springs: General William Jackson Palmer. Palmer built the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad through here in eighteen seventy-one, and his trains stopped at the lake to take on water. He named both the town and the lake after himself with no apparent embarrassment.
A dentist named William Finley Thompson arrived in eighteen eighty-two and platted a formal townsite, intending to develop it as a health and vacation resort. The mountain air and the pretty lake made it plausible. Palmer Lake incorporated in eighteen eighty-nine and has stayed intentionally small ever since, a quiet enclave between the Springs and Castle Rock where the divide keeps the weather interesting and the light lasts longer than it does in the cities below.
