South Park (Park County, Colorado)

South Park is a 3,000 m high located between the mountains grassland area in the Rocky Mountains in the central part of Colorado. It covers 2,800 km ² and is located at the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County about 100 kilometers southwest of Denver. It is the southernmost of three such mountain high valleys in Colorado, the others are North Park and Middle Park. The largest city in South Park is fair play, which is located near the northern end.

Geology

Geologically, the valley of South Park is a broad grave break -like synclinal between the basement blocks of the Front Range to the east and the Sawatch Uplift in the west. The Mosquito Range locked the valley from the west. The long- extinct Thirty -Nine Mile volcanic area is close to the southeast. The valley floor itself is mainly underlain by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, which are covered by a relatively thin glacial debris layer of the Pleistocene. The sedimentary rocks fall slightly this one to the east. The younger east side of the valley is mainly constructed from the Cretaceous Pierre Shale, in the older west side ( west of Red Hill ) are sediments from the Permian and the Pennsylvanian ( Upper Carboniferous ). The Red Hill is in the central valley of a layer back from the Cretaceous and Jurassic sedimentary rocks.

Mineral resources

Gold

Gold mining began in a South Park in 1859. Extensive soap deposits were mined in the western part of South Park and in the Mosquito Range, there were core deposits. The huge scree slopes east of Fair Play are a result of the former gold mining.

Petroleum

Even if some of the same formation as in the eastward located, oil-and gas-bearing Denver Basin occur in South Park, so the search for commercially eligible oil and gas reserves was still far been unsuccessful.

Uranium

At uranium ( here mainly bound to sandstones ) so far only relatively small quantities were mined in South Park.

Traffic

The valley is crossed by several highways, including U.S. Highway 285 This leads from the east via the Kenosha pass through the Front Range and connects the region with Denver. The highway crosses the Red Hill Pass. In the north, the valley is connected via various Hochgebirspässe with the valley of the North Fork South Platte River, a tributary of the South Platte River. About the Hoosier Pass, the road to the Blue River in Breckenridge. On the south end of Trout Creek Pass performs at the southern end of the Mosquito Range to the headwaters of the Arkansas River in Buena Vista. U.S. Highway 24 leads from the east over Wilkerson Pass the to South Park.

History

As most of the mountainous area of Colorado has been inhabited before the arrival of whites in the mid-19th century by the Ute Valley. It was explored in 1844 on the second expedition of John C. Fremont. The discovery of gold in the streams led in 1859 to the Colorado Gold Rush, made ​​to flow into the region more scouts and miners. Fairplay was founded at this time as a place where law and order were more respected than in the older located near Tarryall City. Fairplay remained the center of the mining of Gold and Silver in South Park until the mid- 20th century. South Park City, an open-air museum outside of fair play, showing buildings and objects from the time of the gold rush. The valley is connected to Denver by an extension of the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, which was built in 1879 over the Kenosha Pass.

Popular culture

In the 1990s, South Park was known that there was the name of the animated series South Park. Trey Parker, one of the creators of the television series, grew up in Conifer, about 70 km north- east of Fair Play.