Horses for Sale in Fort Collins CO, Berthoud CO

About Red Feather Lakes, CO

Other than Native Americans, only occasional hunters and trappers passed through the Red Feather Lakes area until the middle of the 19th century. The first known settler was John Hardin, who built a cabin about 2 miles (3 km) from the current Red Feather Lakes village in 1871. Other settlers, many of them families of Hardin's eleven surviving children, homesteaded and built nearby. In these early years, the settlers were primarily ranchers, but another important activity was lumbering. The trails in the area, some of which eventually became roads, were built by tie hacks, who hauled their ties [ clarification needed ] lumber down to what is now Tie Siding, Wyoming, where they were used in building the transcontinental railroad.