About Charter Oaks
Heaven on Earth, 20 miles south of Denver
A close-knit neighborhood of 42 single-family homes: rural but suburban, rustic yet close to everything.
The neighborhood
Charter Oaks sits near the City of Castle Pines, just off Interstate 25 and Castle Pines Parkway. The community is defined by its wildlife and its foothills terrain. Ecologists would call it mixed montane scrubland, dominated by scrub oak and punctuated by pines and junipers.
It is far enough from Denver and Colorado Springs to avoid their noise and pace, and close enough to enjoy all they offer: Rueter-Hess Reservoir, Cherokee Ranch and Castle, Castlewood Canyon State Park, miles of trails, and more than ten golf courses within ten miles.
Charter Oaks is self-managed. The board of directors is made up of residents elected by their neighbors.
Location
Charter Oaks is an unincorporated neighborhood of estate-sized lots in Douglas County, about 20 miles south of Denver along I-25 and nearly 6,500 feet above sea level.
Happy Canyon Ranch
Charter Oaks and its neighbors sit on what was once Happy Canyon Ranch, founded in the 1870s by three Austrian immigrant brothers named Schweiger. Their cattle and farming operation covered about 4,000 acres, reaching present-day Lone Tree to the north, Sedalia to the west, and Newlin Gulch to the east. A preserved homestead, Schweiger Ranch, still stands today.
History of the area
The area traces its modern roots to gold mining and ranching. Archaeological evidence shows people visited and hunted here thousands of years ago; settlements uncovered during excavation for nearby Rueter-Hess Reservoir date back about 6,500 years. The Ute are documented as Douglas County's oldest continuous residents before white settlement, and the Arapaho and other tribes frequented the region as well.
Newlin Gulch, a couple of miles east, drew prospectors from around 1880 until 1941. The gold was small and hard to harvest, so most settlers made their living supplying a growing Denver instead: quarrying rhyolite, firing brick from local clay, and milling lumber.
The people who founded Charter Oaks set out to honor that beauty and history. Residents enjoy large lots unencumbered by fences and dense development: a country lifestyle, without most of the hardships the pioneers faced.