Lookout Mountain is a
foothill
Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topograp ...
on the eastern flank of the
Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encounter ...
of the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. The peak is located in
Lookout Mountain Park, west-southwest (
bearing 245°) of downtown
Golden in
Jefferson County,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
[
]
Mountain
Downtown Denver
Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, business, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado, United States. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers.
The downtown area consists mostly of the neigh ...
, 12 miles to the east, can be seen clearly from the mountain. It is known for its natural scenery and has played a major role in area recreation, transportation, water supply and telecommunications. The summit is famous as the gravesite of William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody and has several sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. Its earliest known inhabitants were the Ute
Ute or UTE may refer to:
* Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin
* Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah
* Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah
* Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...
tribe of American Indians, who used the mountain as a lookout point upon the surrounding region.
In 1890, the ''Denver Resort Railway and Telegraph Company'' built a narrow-gauge railroad to the mountain from Denver, but failed to complete or open it despite being listed as an operating railroad by the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...
until 1898.[Connelly, E: Railroad Operations Vol 2 2002 p. 23]
Built in 1913, the Lariat Loop road ascends from Golden up the steep east side of Lookout Mountain. Mountain bikers and hikers can also follow the Chimney Gulch trail, a difficult, narrow "single track" hiking trail that crisscrosses the Lariat Loop road twice on its way to the summit. Lookout Mountain is also popular with paragliders.
In 1917, Charles Boettcher, a Denver entrepreneur, built a summer home formerly called Lorraine Lodge on Lookout Mountain for his family that was used for hunting retreats. In 1968, Boettcher's granddaughter, Charline Breeden, donated the lodge that is now known as Boettcher Mansion and 110 acres to Jefferson County. The mansion has been restored and is now a site for special events.
See also
*List of Colorado mountain ranges
All the major mountain ranges in the state of Colorado, United States, are considered subranges of the Southern Rocky Mountains.
As given in the table, topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical mode ...
* List of Colorado mountain summits
**List of Colorado fourteeners
This is a list of mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado that exceed of elevation.
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a ''fourteener'' is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. This is a co ...
** List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits
**List of the most prominent summits of Colorado
The following sortable table comprises the 100 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea le ...
*List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of the 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado and the Rocky Mountai ...
References
External links
Lookout Mountain Nature Center & Preserve
- Jefferson County
Mountains of Jefferson County, Colorado
Two-thousanders of the United States
Tourist attractions in Jefferson County, Colorado
Golden, Colorado
Buffalo Bill
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