# Lake Gulch School

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/lake-gulch-school/
- Also known as: Lower Lake Gulch; District 12
- Kind: Schools
- Status: Historic or vanished
- County: Douglas County, Colorado
- Point: 39.3158, -104.7612 (from a cited description (good to a few hundred feet))

- Updated: 2026-10-07

## What we know

District 12, formed from Franktown's district in 1871 at Frederick Doepke's urging, with Doepke as the first board president; the school stood between the Misner and Engl ranches on Castlewood Canyon Road, about two miles south of the dam. School, church and meeting hall for the German Catholic families of Lake Gulch; never more than ten pupils; closed in 1949 and torn down (county map, S-0123).

## Where it was

Pin on the Douglas County Historic Resource Map (DCHR-196; Douglas County and Douglas County Libraries, 2012, on the Larkspur Historical Society's Google map, 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-0045: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0045
- S-0046: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0046
- S-0123: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0123

## Nearby

- [Moschel grave (1864)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/moschel-grave-1864/): 0.6 mi northeast
- [Engl ranch](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/engl-ranch/): 0.7 mi northeast
- [Lake Gulch Cemetery](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/lake-gulch-cemetery/): 1.7 mi southwest
- [Castlewood Canyon Dam](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/castlewood-canyon-dam/): 1.8 mi north
- [Twin Creek Ranch](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/twin-creek-ranch/): 2.2 mi south
- [Bartruff graves](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/bartruff-graves/): 2.3 mi east

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