Mr. Peabody’s WABAC Machine and Creeks in Park Hill
Imagine that you are invited by everybody’s favorite dog, Mr. Peabody from Rocky and Bullwinkle, and his boy Sherman, to join them on the WABAC machine. Imagine that the destination is your Denver neighborhood, but the year is 1850. There are no European/North American urban features. Your surroundings are pretty much as they have been for centuries.
Focus on the topography and the vegetation. You are seeing Park Hill and the adjacent neighborhoods in that way that allows a greater awareness of the creeks. They were once quite obvious, but are now more difficult to recognize due to buildings, streets and other urban features that have covered or obliterated much the community’s original watershed network.
On days like July 7, 2011, Mother Nature takes us on a journey in Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine, sending stormwater down creeks we didn’t even know existed.
In an area roughly bounded by Havana and York on the east and west, and by I-70 and Alameda on the north and south, besides Cherry Creek in the southwest corner, there are three major waterways. Westerly Creek runs through Lowry, East Montclair, northwest Aurora and Stapleton, where it joins Sand Creek. The Montclair Watershed (Montclair Creek) starts in the Fairmount Cemetery/Lowry area and in the “hills” between George Washington High School and Cranmer Park; it runs to the northwest, in two primary branches that join in Ferril Lake at City Park. The Park Hill Watershed is north of the Montclair Watershed and west of the Westerly Creek Watershed. It starts in the Richthofen portion of East Montclair and portions of the Colfax corridor east of Monaco Parkway and flows northwest toward Park Hill Golf Course and then to the South Platte.
Over the next few months, this column will explore these three watersheds. Westerly Creek, through the Greenway Master Plan approved by City Council last June, is leading the charge in terms of becoming a visible and green part of the community’s recreation, open space, drainage, riparian habitat and bike/pedestrian infrastructure. There may be opportunities in the other two watersheds for some of the same kinds of changes.
Brian Hyde worked in floodplain management and stream restoration at the State of Colorado for 25 years. This February, he started a series of regular Creek Restoration Walks as a way to share his passion for stream daylighting, as well as to build community and promote walking. A Park Hill resident, he’s lived near Monaco and 17th with his wife and three children, now raised, for over 30 years. To join a walk, call 720-939-6039 or email westerly_connect_brian@comcast.net.