Bear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River in central Colorado in the United States. It begins as a small creek up in the Mount Blue Sky Wilderness in Summit Lake and makes its way through Evergreen, CO, Kittredge, CO, Idledale, CO and Morrison, CO before entering Bear Creek Lake Park, managed by the City of Lakewood, Colorado.
Bear Creek flows to a confluence with the South Platte River in Sheridan, Colorado, just south of Denver, and then into the South Platte River near Englewood. As it moves downstream, Kerr Gulch, Cold Spring Gulch and Saw Mill Gulch all add to its flow making it a sustainable river to fish from spring to fall, with close access to the Denver area and offering many recreational opportunities.
The Bear Creek Watershed totals , including all tributaries that discharge into the Bear Creek Reservoir. The two main tributaries are Bear Creek and Turkey Creek. Bear Creek Lake Park is on the plains against the foothills and Hogback (first line of foothills) on the western outskirts of Lakewood and metro Denver, Colorado, adjacent to the town of Morrison. Bear Creek Greenbelt is a greenway running east and west along Bear Creek, bordered on the west by Bear Creek Lake Park and on the east by Wadsworth Boulevard. Bear Creek Lake Park is a in a diverse portion of the metro area.
Earlier Names
The original name of Bear Creek comes from the earliest known settlement in Lakewood, which also gave Bear Creek its first name by white explorers: Grand Encampment or Grand Camp Creek. The latter was the name given by Auguste Pierre Chouteau and Jules de Munn, who led a French trading party that came to Colorado Springs and then what is now Bear Creek Lake Park. The party of 47 men found many Indian nations settled together on the banks of the current Bear Creek. The Long expedition report in 1820 also reported that in 1815 a French trading party passing through the area observed a grand encampment on what they called Grand Camp Creek or Grand Encampment. The name Grand Camp Creek or Grand Encampment continued in use until at least that time, 1820. Later in the 1800s Grand Camp Creek was renamed Lupton's Creek and Montana Creek. Its original Indian name is unknown.
Indigenous Nations
People have lived in the Front Range Bear Creek vicinity for around seven thousand years. An archaeological site on Magic Mountain between the City of Golden and Bear Creek revealed Paleo-Indian people in residence 4–5,000 BCE. Other evidence shows "Indigenous hunter-gatherers along the Front Range as early as 12,300 years ago."
Multiple Indigenous Nations lived together where Bear Creek exits the foothills and spills out onto the plains. Francis Cragin, reports that "In 1816, Arapaho, Cherokee, Comanche, Kiowa and Apaches were assembled together in a "grand camp" on Bear Creek, near present-day Morrison, (estab. 1872, listed on National Register of Historic Places in 1976) where Bear Creek opens onto the plains, trading with Frenchmen and evidently all at peace with each other under Chief Bear Tooth." (Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Cragin Collection, Box 10, v. 12, "Indians of North America, Intertribal Relations", nd). Multiple tribes living together in one place like this was somewhat unusual and noteworthy, hence the name.
Colorado Encyclopedia notes for the Morrison area that "along the Front Range near what is now Denver was a favored campsite for Native American groups stretching back thousands of years. Evidence from nearby archaeological sites such as LoDaisKa, Magic Mountain, and Ken-Caryl South Valley suggests that the area was used at least as early as 6,000 BCE, and Indians continued to camp, fish, and hunt in the valley until whites displaced them in the nineteenth century." The next entry in the history is 1859.
Utes were also settled in the area and had a long history here. In early summer, they moved from more permanent settlements to ones throughout their territory. Lodges covering the grassy slopes on what is now Lookout Mountain are mentioned, and that "more than 1,000 horses and goats traveled with the band across the land, moving to greener pastures every few weeks. As the grass grazed out, the women and children packed their belongings and headed to the famed Iron Spring in Rooney Valley. The tribes, including Arapahoes, Cherokees, Comanches and Kiowas gathered there peacefully, partaking of the mineral springs and lush pasture near Morrison on the banks of what is now called Bear Creek.Beth Simmons, Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, Congressional Series Set, Secretary of the Interior, Transmitting copy of evidence taken before White River Ute Commission, v. 24, #83, Appendix O, "Testimony of Colorado, Chief of the White River Utes, Dec 1, 1870, p. 61-65
These are the earliest known history and peoples in what is now the Lakewood and Morrison municipal areas, in Jefferson County Colorado. The next historical record in the area is 1839: "Towards evening passed a great number of buffalo – the prairie being actually alive with them — they extended probably about four miles and numbered nearly 200,000. It was a grand sight. Such a scene as this cannot be appreciated by one who has never beheld it. The next day they saw nearly as many buffalo as yesterday." Utes wintered in the Foothills in the area including near Bear Creek. "Native tribes hunted buffalo as their chief food source, following the herds on foot and, after the horse was introduced by the Spanish in the 18th century, on horseback. Their trails followed natural routes into the mountains.""Cathleen Norman for Jefferson County Historical Commission, Historic Contexts Report, Cultural Resource Survey of Unincorporated Jefferson County, 1999-2002, published December 30, 2002, funded by two State Historical Fund grant awards, a Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFC) grant, and by Jefferson County. https://www.jeffco.us/DocumentCenter/View/9446/Historic-Contexts-Cultural-Resource-Survey-Jefferson-County-PDF f
In 1832 Vasquez Fort was established near Golden. The 1839 report notes a "large encampment or village about 5 miles off," including Arapaho Indians. "22 came out to see us, mostly chiefs. They are rather lighter-colored than our eastern Indians. Two or three women accompanied them. The chiefs seated themselves around the fire, forming a ring with Mr. Vasquez and commenced smoking their long pipes, which they passed around several times. They were all well acquainted with Mr. Vasquez. They remained with him two or three hours. Before they left, we presented them with some tobacco and knives. Among their number was one Cheyenne and one Blackfoot."
In 1840 Little Raven negotiated peace between the Southern Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache. Little Raven is more associated with the Denver area than with Bear Creek in particular and for interacting with the white settlers who were coming to the area. "Friendly relations, however, deteriorated when many Arapaho refused to sign the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861, which expelled them from their homeland in the Cherry Creek and South Platte valleys. Despite Little Raven's efforts, peace was hard to maintain. The Fort Wise Treaty of 1861 forced the Arapaho away from their homes. Although many Arapaho chiefs did not sign the treaty, Little Raven did sign in hopes of maintaining peace. However, he soon discovered that whites were violating the treaty."
The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie encompassed Bear Creek. "In 1851, the Congress of the United States authorized holding a great treaty council with Plains Indians to assure peaceful relations along the Overland Trails. Fort Laramie was chosen as the meeting place and various Indian tribes were invited to come by September 1st. More than 10,000 Plains Indians (men, women and children) gathered to sign the treaty causing the location to move to Horse Creek since Fort Laramie could not accommodate the crowd. The treaty outlined the rights and responsibilities of both the American Indians and the U.S. Government. Never before had so many American Indians assembled to parlay with the white man. This was perhaps history's most dramatic demonstration of the Plains tribes desire to live in peace. Oglala Sioux, Assiniboin, Arapaho, Shoshone (attended though not invited), Brule Sioux, Mandan, Crow, Arikara, Rees, Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, Snake. The Comanche, Kiowa and Apache refused to attend." A small number of people were involved in the negotiations and approval of the agreement at the Treaty Council. "The Americans demanded the name of the head chief of each tribe who could sign for his people. However, none of the tribes responded with a single name of a leader, so the white men arbitrarily picked chiefs for them," including White Antelope (Cheyenne), Little Owl (Arapaho), Big Robber (Crow) and Conquering Bear (Sioux). Notably the centuries long owners and residents along the banks of what is now Bear Creek, the Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, other Lakota nations, and Utes did not participate or sign.Cheyenne and Arapaho Territory Map February 2014 coloradoencyclopedia.org
First White Settlements
As described above, white visitors and settlers began dropping in during the 1800s, calling on the villages and trading along the banks of what is now Bear Creek "Grand Encampment." In 1858 the first white settler town in Jefferson County was recorded as Arapahoe City. According to founding treasurer Thomas L. Golden in a letter to the Missouri Republican it was named after the Arapaho tribe after chiefs warned residents to "quit their country". The 1860 census found 80 people living at "Arapahoe City," including 17 females. An Arapahoe Post Office operated from January 17, 1860, until October 12, 1861. Arapahoe had fifty houses, ranging from tents to log cabins and buildings, but by the end of 1860, Arapahoe City had shrunk to just a few cabins. By 1867, the town was entirely gone. All that remains is a historical marker on the south side of 44th Avenue, 0.2 miles west of McIntyre intersection.
George A. Jackson reported in 1859 that "Indians are thick here...They have sent us word by some of their chiefs to quit their country, but I think we can stand them a rub as we have 700 white men here." In 1860, the town of Golden became the capitol of Jefferson territory. Jefferson County records note an Indian Burial Ground at the northern edge of the City of Golden, near the old cemetery. Another is on what was later the Rooney Ranch, on the north side of Bear Creek. The area's "location along the Front Range made it a gateway to the mountains for indigenous peoples and for Euro-American gold seekers." In the 1860s as more white settlers entered the area, "Jefferson County opened its first school, endured windstorms, floods and a plague of locusts." A decade later the first telephone service was extended to the county.
First White Settlers in Lakewood