Staunton State Park was opened to the public in May 2013, as the 42nd Colorado State Park, with about 4,000 acres of land adjacent to the Pike National Forest. The original 1720 acres of property was donated to Colorado by Frances Staunton in 1986 to preserve the beautiful area for public use. Colorado needed the intervening time to acquire enough adjacent land to provide an entrance route from the main road, and to preserve some of the other natural wonders in the area.
Archibald and Rachael Staunton, Frances’s parents, were both educated as medical doctors in Pennsylvania, and practiced medicine in Charleston, WV. For health reasons, moved west to Denver about 1906, and began medical practices in Denver. Over the next few years, they explored the foothill areas west of Denver, and were attracted to the area that is now Staunton State Park between Shaffer’s Crossing on U.S. highway 285, along Elk Creek to the north, to the imposing flanks of Black Mountain at over 11,000 feet elevation. They filed homestead claims on 160 acres, and proceeded to tackle the list of responsibilities that allowed homesteaders to file a claim for property after 5 years of hard work. These tasks include building a cabin, living on the property for 7 months per year, raising their own food, and filing annual reports of their activities to prove the claim to the property.
The construction of Staunton Cabin took place between 1916 and 1918, after which they were granted title to the property. They provided medical care to their neighbors, and since it was typically a cashless business world in these remote areas, this care was bartered for other goods and services, such as land. In this process, the Staunton’s acquired a total of 1560 additional acres, to account for the land donation by Frances later. They also ran summer camps for children who came up by train from Denver to Pine Junction, and treated a large number of people affected by tuberculosis, a major cause of premature death in the 1920’s. These people relied primarily on locally mined coal for heating and cooking in their Denver dwellings and businesses, and the cleaner and cooler air above 8,000 feet at Staunton Ranch helped them feel better. Later, summer camps were run for families, girl scouts, and other groups. This income helped in the development of the properties on their Ranch, including a shower house and a number of rental cabins.
During 2021, the Friends of Staunton State Park initiated a cabin stabilization project with Historicorps at the cabin. This involved stabilization of the foundation, strengthing of the roof supports, a new roof, and new rain gutters. It was done in the manner of the original construction, and involved a number of volunteers who did the work under Historicorps direction.
Frances spent the summers of the second half of her childhood at the Ranch, and her parents helped instill her with a love for this area. She later went to music school, and became an opera singer, performing in major Denver venues. After spending much of her life on this property, as well as the family home in Denver during the winters, she wanted to preserve this wonderful setting for Colorado public enjoyment. Not having married or having any children of her own, she decided to donate her family’s land to the state for the purpose of establishing this newest Colorado State Park.
The GPS location above will take you to the limits of the buckrail fencing that has been placed around Staunton Cabin to protect it. A grant from the State Parks Foundation has been awarded for the rebuilding of this cabin’s structure in a historically accurate fashion, so that it can hopefully be opened to the public on weekends as a museum with artifacts from the Staunton Family and medical practice in the early 20th century.
Please see the trails map available at the entrance station or the Park’s website Staunton Trails Map for more details.
Logging Requirements
To prove that you visited this site, you are required to do one of the following (A or B) before you can log this virtual geocache:
A) Answer the following three questions for which the answers should be obvious if you walk completely around the cabin. Send these in an email to the cache owner. Do not post them in the cache log, as they will be deleted.
- The windows are currently boarded up with red painted plywood. Not counting the doorways (for which the plywood goes to floor level), how many windows do you see on the cabin exterior walls?
- There are windows in the shape of a diamond (a square rotated 45 degrees). How many are on the exterior walls of the cabin?
- There is a door on the left side of the porch, which was used to access the attic. How many steps up from the porch surface is the bottom of the door?
B) Take a photo of some item you have with you in front of the cabin or a sign or fence near the cabin, and post it in your log entry.
Since the answers to the A) questions require observation of the outside of the cabin, you should not post photos of the entire cabin walls in the cache log or gallery. You may however post photo(s) of some aspect of the cabin structure, but please stay outside the buckrail fencing until the cabin is opened to the public at some future date.
This cache is located within Staunton State Park, which has one public entrance along S. Elk Creek Road, six miles west of Conifer, about 1.5 miles off U.S. Highway 285. Parking along either side of S. Elk Creek Road and Upper Ranch Road adjacent to the park boundary is prohibited. All vehicles entering the park must have a daily park pass ($10) or a CO state park annual or special pass.
The Park is open year-round, and day use hours at 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. A walk-in campground (up to ¼ mile from parking) is open for public use, and overnight parking is currently permitted only for those staying in the campground. During summer and autumn weekends, the park may reach capacity, and cars are allowed to enter only if a parking space is available. Horse trailers are admitted if space is available for parking trailers in a new, dedicated, unpaved parking area. All Park trails are natural surface, some trails are hiker-only, but other trails are multiuse for bicycles and horses also. Information about the park can be found at Staunton State Park website
All visitors must follow park rules and regulations. These include dogs on leash at all times, clean up after pets, travel on developed trails to the extent feasible, leave no trace, respect areas closed for resource management, and be careful around wildlife (especially mountain lions, coyotes, and black bears). Fires are strictly prohibited, except for camp stoves with an on/off switch in the designated campsites and grilles found in the picnic areas. No motorized vehicles are allowed on trails within the Park. An exception is the special tracked chairs that the Park offers to visitors who cannot access selected trails on their own mobility. Pack your own trash out of the back country, and trash receptacles are located near the parking areas. Also, be prepared for changing weather, bring adequate water and footwear, and trails may be snow-covered or icy in winter.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.