Palmer Divide Research

Rock Ridge School

Also: District 24 · later the Case and Irving school · Cherry School (1913 USGS sheet)

SchoolsHistoric or vanishedDouglas County

What we know

District 24, begun before 1886 on a ridge east of the junction of Russellville Road and Highway 83. A new school of the 1920s had a basement for community meals; the earlier Case school became a granary and burned on June 29, 1998. The Irving school was moved to Cherry Valley in 1952 (county map, S-0123).

Where it was

Pin on the Douglas County Historic Resource Map (DCHR-206; 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.

See it on the map

Sources

  • S-0045: Larkspur Historical Society website (larkspurhistoricalsociety.org)
  • S-0046: Douglas County Libraries, Archives & Local History: "Douglas County Timeline," "Douglas County Historic Sites," "Douglas County Schools Overview" (research collection PDFs 2, 7, 6)
  • 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.

Know more about Rock Ridge School?

Corrections, family stories, photographs, deeds, letters and maps are all welcome. Messages and files come to Michael Christensen privately; nothing appears on the site until it has been checked, and you'll be credited the way you ask.