"By the 1930's, there were several hundred families living within the boundaries of what would become Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Many of them were German, Swiss or Scandinavian origin, but there were also some families of Italian and Slavic ancestry.

Roughly 70 percent of the land holdings were now 20 acres or less, and a majority of these were five acres or less. Most families lived in small wood frame houses.

The army took over the land in 1942 and compiled a thorough inventory of all houses, barns, and other structures that had been built over the preceding decades. Also, many of the people who lived on the land at that time have recorded their recollections of growing up in the area."

Excerpts from
"Twenty-Seven Square Miles: Landscape and History at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge"
by John F. Hoffecker © 2001, All Rights Reserved

In a few years the environmental cleanup will be complete. Most of the land will be restored to a native shortgrass prairie--the way the first Euro-American settlers found it 200 years ago.The part this land played in the growth of Colorado and in the American victory in World War II and the Cold War will not be readily evident on the landscape, but is recorded in this book.

Last Updated: 9/5/08