South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

, approximately 10,000 ft (3,000 m) in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 of central Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles (2,590 km² or 640,000 acres) around the headwaters of the South Platte River

South Platte River

The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...

 in Park County

Park County, Colorado

Park County is the 17th most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county was named after the large geographic region known as South Park, which was named by early fur traders and trappers in the area. The geographic center of the State of Colorado is...

 approximately 60 mi (100 km) southwest of Denver

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. It is the southernmost of three such large mountain valleys in Colorado, along with North Park

North Park (Colorado basin)

North Park is a high, sparsely populated basin in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States. It encompasses a wide valley in Jackson County rimmed by mountain ranges at the headwaters of the North Platte River and several smaller tributaries, including the Michigan River,...

 and Middle Park

Middle Park (Colorado basin)

Middle Park is a high basin in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado in the United States. It is located in Grand County, on the southwest slope of Rocky Mountain National Park, approximately 50 miles west of Boulder.-Description:The basin surrounds the headwaters of the Colorado River...

. The largest town in the basin is Fairplay

Fairplay, Colorado

The Town of Fairplay is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Park County, Colorado, United States. Fairplay is located in South Park at an elevation of . The town is the fifth-highest incorporated place in the State of Colorado. The population was 610 at the...

, which sits near the northern end. In 2009, South Park was designated as a National Heritage Area

National heritage area

National heritage area is a region defined by a government as notable for cultural, historic, natural or recreation reasons. Compared to a national park, a national heritage area is not subject to the same level of zoning and regulations on land use. They are typically managed at a local...

.

Geology

Geologically

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, the valley is a wide faulted syncline

Syncline

In structural geology, a syncline is a fold, with younger layers closer to the center of the structure. A synclinorium is a large syncline with superimposed smaller folds. Synclines are typically a downward fold, termed a synformal syncline In structural geology, a syncline is a fold, with younger...

 sitting between the Front Range

Front Range

The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the north-central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered moving west along the 40th parallel north across...

 to the east and the Sawatch Uplift

Sawatch Uplift

The Sawatch Uplift is a prominent geologic anticline in the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado in the United States. It was formed as a bulge in the North American Plate approximately 70–65 MYA during the Laramide orogeny that created the modern Rocky Mountains. The uplift runs north-south...

 to the west. The Mosquito Range

Mosquito Range

The Mosquito Range is a high mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The peaks of the range form a ridge running north-south for approximately 40 miles from southern Summit County on the north end, then along the boundary between Lake and Park counties...

 forms a high barrier along the western side of the valley. The long-extinct Thirty-Nine Mile volcanic field is located just to the southeast. The valley is mostly underlain by Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

 and Mesozoic

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

 sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....

s concealed by a thin layer of gravel

Gravel

Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...

 laid down by glaciation

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 during Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 time. The underlying rocks are dipping

Strike and dip

Strike and dip refer to the orientation or attitude of a geologic feature. The strike line of a bed, fault, or other planar feature is a line representing the intersection of that feature with a horizontal plane. On a geologic map, this is represented with a short straight line segment oriented...

 slightly to the east. The eastern (and newer) side of the valley is underlain primarily by Pierre Shale

Pierre Shale

The Pierre Shale is a geologic formation or series in the Upper Cretaceous which occurs east of the Rocky Mountains in the Great Plains, from North Dakota to New Mexico....

 laid down during Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 time. The western (and older) side of the valley, on the west side of Red Hill, is underlain primarily by Permian

Permian

The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...

 and Pennsylvanian

Pennsylvanian

The Pennsylvanian is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the younger of two subperiods of the Carboniferous Period. It lasted from roughly . As with most other geochronologic units, the rock beds that define the Pennsylvanian are well identified, but the exact date of the start and end are uncertain...

 rocks. Red Hill runs through the center of the valley as a hogback

Hogback (geology)

A hogback is a homoclinal ridge, formed from a monocline, composed of steeply tilted strata of rock protruding from the surrounding area. The name comes from the ridge resembling the high, knobby spine between the shoulders of a hog. In most cases, the two strata that compose a hogback are...

 ridge of tilted Cretaceous and Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 sedimentary rocks.

Gold

Gold mining in South Park began in 1859. Extensive placer deposits were mined along the west side of the park, and lode deposits were mined in the Mosquito Range

Mosquito Range

The Mosquito Range is a high mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The peaks of the range form a ridge running north-south for approximately 40 miles from southern Summit County on the north end, then along the boundary between Lake and Park counties...

. The extensive gravel ridges east of Fairplay are the result of dredging for gold. (see Gold mining in Colorado).

Petroleum

Although South Park contains some of the same geologic formations that yield oil and gas in the Denver Basin

Denver Basin

The Denver Basin, sometimes also called the Julesburg Basin, Denver-Julesburg Basin , or the D-J Basin, is a geologic structural basin centered in eastern Colorado in the United States, but extending into southeast Wyoming, western Nebraska, and western Kansas...

 further east, efforts to find commercial oil and gas in South Park have so far proven unsuccessful.

Uranium

A minor amount of uranium has been mined from sandstone in South Park (see Uranium mining in Colorado).

Transportation

The valley is traversed by several highways, including U.S. Route 285

U.S. Route 285

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 845 miles through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's northern terminus is in Denver, Colorado, at exit 201 on Interstate 25. Its southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S....

, which enters the valley from the eastern side over the Front Range at Kenosha Pass, providing a vehicle link to Denver. The highway crosses Red Hill at Red Hill Pass

Red Hill Pass (Colorado)

Red Hill Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass is located in the foothills of the Mosquito Range at the northern end of South Park in Park County. Though unlabeled at the summit, it is identified by signs from both directions at the...

. On its northern side, the valley is connected by several high mountain passes to the valley of the North Fork of the South Platte River (a tributary of the South Platte). It is also connected by Hoosier Pass

Hoosier Pass

Hoosier Pass elevation is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass is located on the Continental Divide at the northern end of the Mosquito Range, in a gap between Mount Lincoln and Hoosier Ridge...

 to the valley to the Blue River

Blue River (Colorado)

The Blue River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in the U.S. state of Colorado.It rises in southern Summit County, on the western side of the continental divide in the Ten Mile Range, near Quandary Peak. It flows north past Blue River and Breckenridge, then through the...

 near Breckenridge

Breckenridge, Colorado

Established in 1859, the historic town of Breckenridge is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Summit County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the town had a population of 4,540. The town also has many part-time residents, as many people have vacation homes in the area...

. On its southwestern side, at the southern end of the Mosquito Range, it is connected by Trout Creek Pass

Trout Creek Pass

Trout Creek Pass is a mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado in the United States. The pass sits atop the southern end of the Mosquito Range on the Park-Chaffee county line, between South Park and the headwaters of the Arkansas River to the west...

 to the upper valley of the Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

 near Buena Vista

Buena Vista, Colorado

Buena Vista is a Statutory Town in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,195 at the 2000 census.Buena Vista is located in central Colorado roughly midway between Salida and Leadville in the Upper Arkansas River Valley at an elevation of . The area between Buena Vista and...

. U.S. Highway 24 enters South Park from the east at Wilkerson Pass

Wilkerson Pass

Wilkerson Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains within Pike National Forest, in Colorado.There is a Forest Service visitor center and a few short trails. Wilkerson Pass marks the eastern boundary of South Park....

.

History

Like much of the mountainous areas of Colorado, the valley was inhabited by Ute

Ute Tribe

The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...

s before the arrival of white settlers in the middle 19th century. It was explored by John C. Fremont

John C. Frémont

John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...

 during his second expedition in 1844. In 1859 the discovery of placer gold

Placer mining

Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....

 in the streams of the valley during the Colorado Gold Rush

Colorado Gold Rush

The Pike's Peak Gold Rush was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861...

 led to an influx of prospectors and miners. The town of Fairplay was founded as a more law-abiding place to live than the older, nearby town of Tarryall

Tarryall, Colorado (ghost town)

Tarryall is a ghost town in northwest Park County, Colorado, United States. The town was located on upper Tarryall Creek northwest of Como, Colorado. It was once the county seat of Park County, but is now completely deserted....

 during this time and continued to be a center of gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, and later silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 up through the middle 20th century. South Park City

South Park City

South Park City is an open air museum located at the west end of Front Street in the town of Fairplay in Park County, Colorado. The museum is a historic reconstruction of a mining town from the days of the Colorado Gold Rush and the later Colorado Silver Boom in South Park in the late 1850s through...

, an open air museum

Open air museum

An open-air museum is a distinct type of museum exhibiting its collections out-of-doors. The first open-air museums were established in Scandinavia towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the concept soon spread throughout Europe and North America. Open-air museums are variously known as...

 outside Fairplay, provides a historical recreation of the gold rush

Gold rush

A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

 days. The basin was connected to Denver by railroad with the extension of the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad was a historic narrow gauge railway that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the first rail routes to a large section of the central Colorado mining district in the decades of the mineral boom...

 over Kenosha Pass in 1879.

Popular culture

Since the late 1990s, South Park has been best known for giving its name to the animated series South Park

South Park

South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

. Trey Parker

Trey Parker

Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...

, one of the creators of the South Park series, grew up in Conifer

Conifer, Colorado

Conifer is an unincorporated town in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Conifer is located along U.S. Route 285 in the foothills West of Denver. The Conifer Post Office has the ZIP Code 80433.-History:...

, about 40 miles (65 km) east of Fairplay. The famous "South Park" series has made this area popular.

See also

• North Park
  North Park (Colorado basin)
  North Park is a high, sparsely populated basin in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States. It encompasses a wide valley in Jackson County rimmed by mountain ranges at the headwaters of the North Platte River and several smaller tributaries, including the Michigan River,...
  
  
• Middle Park
  Middle Park (Colorado basin)
  Middle Park is a high basin in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado in the United States. It is located in Grand County, on the southwest slope of Rocky Mountain National Park, approximately 50 miles west of Boulder.-Description:The basin surrounds the headwaters of the Colorado River...
  
  

External links

• Topographic map from USGS The National Map
• South Park Colorado Region - Visitor Guide