Red Feather Lakes Community

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Red Feather Lakes Community

Red Feather Lakes is an unincorporated mountain community in the Northern Colorado Rockies in Larimer County, 54 miles northwest of the City of Fort Collins, surrounded by 600,000 acres of Roosevelt National Forest, at an altitude between 8,000-8,600 feet, in a roughly sixteen square mile basin with many lakes – totaling 326 acres – 14 named and others, smaller in size (ponds), which are unnamed.

The history of modern settlement dates from 1871 when John Harden homesteaded across the road from what is now Parvin Lake, an area designated as a wetlands by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Parvin Lake

The township was surveyed in 1879 and the first of 11 subdivisions – Ramona Heights and South Nokomis Lake – were platted in 1924 when local landowners envisioned a large resort community. Hiawatha Heights was platted the next year, followed by West Hiawatha (1927); Letitia Lake, Owassa Lake, and East Owassa in 1928; McCarthy in 1947; Indian Prayer Park in 1965; Piney Knolls in 1971; Fox Acres Country Club and High Country Estates in 1979. The basic outlines of the community were established in a one hundred year period.

The Lakes

The fourteen named lakes in the Red Feather Lakes area are (listed east to west, south to north): Parvin, West, Dowdy, Snake, Red Feather, Ramona, Hiawatha, Shagwa, Letitia, Fox, Papoose, Apache, Nokomis, Pocahontas, and Erie. Only Parvin is visible from 74E.

Map of Red Feather Lakes Community

Several miles south of 74E just outside the District are Bellaire, Molly and Lady Moon Lakes. Several miles north of the District, in a completely different watershed are the three Creedmore Lakes, named after an early trapper and hunter, Bill Creedmore. The Beaver Meadows Resort, about five miles northwest on the Panhandle Creek has a large lake constructed in the center of the valley.

The four lakes with public access for fishing and boating are Parvin, West, Dowdy, and Bellaire. The density of lakes in the six square mile Red Feather Village area – 2 lakes per square mile – is evidence that the area is relatively flat. The lakes are man-made, or enhanced, by adding earthen dams to natural “swampy” depressions.

Six lakes are supplied from the local ground water Red Feather, Snake, Erie, Papoose, Apache and Letitia. There are no outlets from the first four, while outflows from the last two go to the North Lone Pine Creek (thus these latter two lakes are considered part of the “reservoir” system, to be discussed later).

Six lakes receive water from diversion ditches from the North and South Lone Pine and Elkhorn Creeks. Jake Mitchell constructed the first ditch in 1888 which diverted water from the upper North Lone Pine approximately three miles east to the present-day Lake Hiawatha. Later, slightly west of Hiawatha, Shagwa was constructed with a headgate from the ditch to supply it with water. Hiawatha outflows to Ramona, which flows to Fox and then down to the North Lone Pine. One year later Frank Gartman constructed a ditch from the Elkhorn northeast one mile to the Bellaire Lake and then three more miles to West Lake, which flows to Dowdy Lake, and in turn into the North Lone Pine. Noah Gower in 1898 added a second supply to West and Dowdy Lakes with a 1+ mile ditch from the South Lone Pine.

Two lakes were constructed on existing creeks: Nokomis on the North Lone Pine and Parvin on the South Lone Pine (in 1926 by the State Game and Fish Division, which they did without acquiring water rights).

Of the fourteen lakes, ten became part of the reservoir system because their water flowed via the North and South Lone Pine Creeks into the North Fork of the Poudre, then the Main Poudre and finally the irrigation farmers in Larimer and Weld County.

The area has many wetlands, the most significant being the area south of County Road 74E adjacent to South Lone Pine Creek. It begins at Indian Prayer Park subdivision and drains into Parvin Lake, and is classified as seasonal-riparian.

Origins of the Red Feather Name

In 1923 a group of developers created the Red Feather Mountain Lakes Association to promote their vision of a recreational community. One of the members, Dr. D. O. Norton, is credited with selecting the name Red Feather inspired by a Princess Tsianina Redfeather who he had heard sing at a Charles Wakefield concert tour. She had a Cherokee father and Creek mother and had studied voice in Denver. Her touring included France entertaining soldiers in World War I. Red Feather added charm to the fledgling recreational community, as it does for today’s community.

Community Boundaries and Land Use

Community boundaries were vague until the Spring of 2007 when they were established by a County-led planning process to coincide with the Red Feather Lakes (RFL) Fire Protection District and the surrounding private undeveloped landholdings as shown in the map later.

Much of the following information was obtained from the Larimer County website (http://larimer.org/redfeather/) discussion of the Red Feather Lakes Area Plan, May 2007. The planning process was citizen initiated in response to a business expansion request by a restaurant, and sought to determine appropriate economic development for the area and to perhaps resolve some historical problems.

One problem was land boundaries. Early developers relied on subdivision plats drawn by planners in Denver, who may have never visited the sites they were planning, thus the area’s terrain and natural features were not taken into account, and the roads and building lots shown on the plats often do not reflect existing development (Wexielman’s memoirs).
A second concern was sewer systems and quality of ground water since drinking water comes from wells. Many of the lots were platted prior to County adoption of zoning and subdivision standards, and are too small to accommodate wells and conventional septic systems. Continued pressure for more intense development in the “downtown” area, the conversion of many cabins to year-around dwellings, or a building boom on the remaining small lots would present significant challenges for maintaining safe water and sewer systems.
The third concern is domestic water systems and wells, their water quality and compliance with water law.
Fourth is protection of the water in the lakes for fishing and recreational use.
Fifth are road issues which arise because there is a mixture of county-maintained and private roads which were constructed according to varying standards, and whose locations do not always correspond with platted maps. Issues include dust control snow removal, width, traffic volume, and fire truck access.
Also of concern are economic growth and nonconforming uses of some structures which put constraints on building modification or change in type of business.

Red Feather Lakes Plan Area and Land Use

Major Land Use Categories
Land category	Acres	%
Agriculture	4315	62.5
Residential improved	668	9.7
Residential unimproved	533	7.7
Named lakes	326	4.7
Private Open Space	307	4.4
Total	6905

The district is approximately 6905 acres, most of which is privately owned (80%+), but it also includes public land owned by the US Forest Service and the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Poudre School District (7.5%). There are 1627 residential lots, about half of which are developed (more than half in terms of acreage). The regular summer population is estimated at 1,350, with about 450 people residing in the area year-round. Commercial activities involve 37 acres (0.5% of the land) and includes restaurants, grocery and general merchandise, hardware and lumber, arts and crafts, lodging, and real estate. Public and non-profit facilities include the Post Office, Library, Elementary School, Fire Station, Medical Clinic, Dental Clinic, Property Owners’ Association Building, Historical Society Museum, three churches and the facilities of the Red Feather Storage and Irrigation Company. North of the Village is Fox Acres Country Club, a private golf course and residential community, located, naturally, next to Fox Lake.

Most commercial activities are located in the Village, with a few enterprises on the east end on Dowdy Lake Drive, which is the access to the Dowdy Lake Campgrounds.

The RFL Village provides services for a larger geographic area that includes communities further west – Crystal Lakes, Beaver Meadows – and to the east down to Glacier View Meadows (but not as far as Livermore) and to visitors to area camps and retreats such as the Shambhala Mountain Center (a Buddhist retreat), Girl Scout Camp and Boy Scout Ranch, and campers and day visitors on the adjacent US Forest Service lands.

The Red Feather Elementary School expanded from a two-room school house in Red Feather Lakes Village to the present location on Creedmore Lakes Road in 1986. Enrollment for the 2004-05 school year is 60 students. The school has four certified teachers, and includes preschool for 3-4 year-olds and grades 1-6. A full-day kindergarten is provided at the Livermore Elementary School. Red Feather is one of the three mountain schools in the Poudre School District, the others being Livermore and Stove Prairie.

The planning document concludes that “there is potential for substantial change in the Red Feather Lakes Plan Area. Besides the 815 existing undeveloped residential lots, more than 4,200 acres of undeveloped private land surround the existing community.”

Red Feather Lakes Valley from Deadman Road

The view is to the east.

Red Feather Lakes Village

This section will be an overview of the buildings in the village.

Map of Red Feather Lakes Village

Main Street

Lake Ramona is in the background. The first building on the right is the post office, the rest can be determined from the map above. Photo is taken from the area of Hill Top General Store.