What we know
The first Huntsville post office, March 25, 1860 to July 9, 1861, Henry H. McAfee postmaster; a sawmill town that failed for want of water in West Plum Creek (Bauer, via S-0123; other sources give March 24, 1860). H. P. Bennet's 1862 letter puts the first town 'some two miles west' of the later Huntsville on East Plum Creek (S-0113).
Where it was
Bauer's best determination, as given on the county map (DCHR-147, S-0123): on West Plum Creek a short distance south of where Tomah Road meets Perry Park Road, probably 'Plum Creek Hollow,' 7335 Perry Park Road; the map's pin. Good to about a quarter mile.
Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.
Sources
- S-0044: Books to borrow on the Internet Archive (controlled lending, in copyright; catalog records in archive/railroads/catalog/IN-COPYRIGHT-CATALOG.tsv)
- S-0113: U.S. Post Office Department, Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1950 (NARA microfilm M1126), Colorado rolls 73 and 74: Douglas, Elbert and El Paso counties
- S-0123: Douglas County Historic Resource Map (Douglas County Community Planning and Sustainable Development, the Douglas County History Research Center of Douglas County Libraries, and the Douglas County Historic Preservation Board, 2012), as put on Google Maps and Google Earth by the Larkspur Historical Society
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.