SLV Castle Oaks

Douglas County, Colorado

SLV Castle Oaks proposed to build a residential development on 265 acres located along McMurdo Gulch in northeastern Castle Rock in Douglas County, Colorado. The project required U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, making the project subject to review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Faced with multi-faceted legal requirements, SLV Castle Oaks contracted PaleoWest to help them navigate through the compliance process and clear the way for the residential development.

PaleoWest archaeologists surveyed a total of 700 acres for archaeological remains. Most notably they found the remains of a depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp and over 20 of the erosion-control complexes the CCC built, which include rock and earthen dams, ponds, check-dams, gully plugs, riprap, and elaborate drop structures.

PaleoWest recommended that the CCC features were eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, and they worked with the USACE, State Historic Preservation Office, SLV Castle Oaks, and Castle Rock Historical Society to prepare a memorandum of agreement and treatment plan to mitigate adverse effects to the significant CCC resources from construction of the residential development.

Mitigation activities were implemented successfully, and SLV Castle Oaks developed their property, creating the Terrain community. This story is continued in the Archaeology Tomorrow section.

Photos generously provided by PaleoWest