# Kreutzer Homestead

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/kreutzer-homestead/

- Kind: Ranches and homesteads
- Status: Living today
- County: Douglas County, Colorado
- Point: 39.3741, -105.0689 (from a cited description (good to a few hundred feet))

- Updated: 2026-10-20

## What we know

Edward Kreutzer homesteaded here from 1878; he helped found the first Douglas County High School and was Sedalia's justice of the peace. His son William Kreutzer became the first U.S. forest ranger in 1898, the only one in Colorado then, and served 41 years; a 13,120-foot peak in the Gunnison National Forest bears his name. A 1908 house on 480 acres; a source of Indian Creek rises here. County landmark, 2000 (county map, S-0123). The Castle Rock Writers' book has Bill Kreutzer riding to Denver on Aug. 8, 1899, aged 20, being told by Col. W. T. May to start at once, and patrolling 300,000 acres of the Plum Creek Forest Reserve for $50 a month (S-0261, p. 115); its own count of 41 years to his retirement in 1939 points to 1898, and Jack's 1898 survey gives the reserve 179,200 acres (S-0180). Weber and Schlupp's county history puts the appointment on Aug. 8, 1898, the day Col. W. T. S. May became forestry superintendent for the Colorado reserves, and has Kreutzer working on the H. H. Metcalf ranch at the time (ch. 30, Johnson, p. 167; S-0262); 1898 is followed.

## Where it was

On the fringe of the Divide outline (3.9 miles outside its edge), included as a fringe place. Pin on the Douglas County Historic Resource Map (DCHR-013; S-0123). Where that map and ours place the same site, the pins mostly fall within about 300 feet. Good to a few hundred feet.

Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.

## Sources

- S-0123: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0123
- S-0126: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0126
- S-0180: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0180
- S-0261: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0261
- S-0262: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0262

## Nearby

- [Jarre Canyon silver fox farm](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/jarre-canyon-silver-fox-farm/): 0.8 mi northwest
- [Woodbine Lodge](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/woodbine-lodge/): 0.8 mi northwest
- [Shambala Ashrama](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/shambala-ashrama/): 2.7 mi southeast
- [Campbell Cemetery](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/campbell-cemetery/): 2.9 mi northeast
- [Waterhouse Ranch](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/waterhouse-ranch/): 2.9 mi north
- [Jarre Creek School](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/jarre-creek-school/): 3.7 mi northeast

Source numbers (S-0000) refer to https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/. Compiled by Michael Christensen for Palmer Divide Research; CC BY 4.0.