Cobweb Express
Place Names
by Mel McFarland
 I recently received a note from a couple of my readers about places around here, so today I will try to cover a few things. The way this place is growing some of the names around here have nothing to do with our past. As developers build houses they need names for streets. Many use names that are the same as they used when they developed property in some other state, but some try to use local names. Every now and then even I get asked for suggestions about street names.
How about some of these names. I know I mention some of them regularly, like Crews which is just north of the 83 overpass on Santa Fe near Widefield. Or Kelker which is the railroad yard near the Criminal Justice Center that the Army uses. How about Buttes, or Little Buttes? Buttes was down 125 near the race track and Little Buttes was on Old Pueblo Road before the turn to Hanover. Both of these were railroad towns but never had more than a hundred residents.
Franceville and Franceville Junction were on the old C&S north of Fountain, which is now Marksheffel Road, but do you know about Burial Rocks? I was told years ago that the Plains Indians used the site for burial of important chiefs. Generally the Indians did not put their dead underground, but elevated them on platforms. In this area the high rocks made great platforms, and were reserved for important burials. When there were coal mines at Franceville the area was used as a park. The area was important for coal mining between 1880 and 1920. Today there are nearly no building remains near Franceville and Burial Rocks from this time, only piles of old wood that once was a building. It is east of Marksheffel about 2 miles and about 2 miles south of "Farmers Highway" (94). Or should I say about a mile north of Peaceful Valley, or just west of Shriever Air Force Base?
How about Manitou Junction? It was a railroad terminal on the Old C&S at the Junction of US 24 and Colo. 94. How about Grandview or Bierstadt? Grandview was about four miles north of Franceville, while Bierstadt was near the Banning-Lewis Ranch along US 24 between Manitou Junction and Falcon. I know some of these are not in the Fountain area but did you ever hear of Buzzard, McFerran, Breed, Elsmere, Edgerton, Sommers or Adams' Crossing?
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