What we know
In July 1922 the Record Journal reported that a silver fox farm would be 'located on the Woodbine Lodge ranch on Jarre Creek, two hundred and fifty acres of which have been purchased for that purpose,' with pens building and foxes due from Eagle River, Wisconsin, in October; its manager was R. H. Werner of Englewood (Englewood Enterprise, July 21, 1922), and that September Roy Crowder, 'resident manager of the Colorado Silver Fox Company,' came down from Jarre Creek (S-0202). Crowder and Dr. William Ellison are remembered as having 'started a ranch in Jarre Canon,' among the first fox farms in Colorado (Rocky Mountain News, Dec. 7, 1938, S-0140), and the Gazette of March 2, 1924 reported the Colorado Silver Fox Company moving its farm to Jarre Canon near Sedalia (PPLD index, Dr. W. M. Ellison). In 1935 John M. Dorffler of the Aurora Silver Fox Farm bought the 250-acre 'Jarre Canon Silver Fox Farm' (Aurora Democrat, Aug. 2, 1935; S-0202), and in 1938 it was John and Jane Dorffler's 'Jarre Canyon Silver Fox Farm, Sedalia' (S-0140).
Where it was
On the Woodbine Lodge ranch on Jarre Creek (Record Journal, July 7, 1922; S-0202), and placed at the Woodbine Lodge pin of the Douglas County Historic Resource Map (S-0123). The farm's 250 acres lay around it. Good to about half a mile.
Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.
Sources
- S-0016: Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (coloradohistoricnewspapers.org)
- S-0017: Pikes Peak Library District, Regional History & Genealogy
- 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
- S-0140: The Black Forest Fox Ranch in the Colorado newspapers, 1929–1952 (CHNC, 23 items)
- S-0202: Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection: the unlocated-list hunt, 1867–1960 (via S-0016)
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.