WEEK OF JULY 3, 2025
VOLUME 123 | ISSUE 31
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Home rule plan’s landslide loss leaves questions Residents aren’t finished talking about how they want to be governed BY JULIA KING SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
the land is dug up, unearthing new discoveries each time. In the 1960s, along with the mammoth bones, archeologists found worked flint chips — a sign of human activity in the late Ice Age. During this excavation, they also discovered that the site had two layers. One from the Ice Age, roughly 15,000 years ago, which is referred to as Unit 1, and one from roughly 10,000 years ago, filled with evidence of human hunting, which is referred to as Unit 2. In the 1980s, excavation focused mainly on the older, Unit 1 layer. A full, juvenile mammoth skull was excavated, then reburied. In the newer, Unit 2 layer, more evidence of human hunting and bison bones were uncovered.
Douglas County voters sent a decisive message with the June 24 home rule ballot: not so fast. But also — maybe not never? Though home rule — the ability for the county to write its own governing charter — wasn’t universally opposed, many residents objected to how the proposal was introduced. Roughly 71% of voters rejected the measure in the special election, but conversations about home rule and the structure of Douglas County’s government are likely to keep unfolding. The election marked a moment of broad consensus in a county with a shifting political landscape. With unaffiliated voters now making up about half of Douglas County’s electorate — which historically has been a Republican stronghold — the result offered more than a simple party-line rebuke. Nearly 95,000 ballots were counted on Election Night, with the vast majority — over 98% — cast by mail. Unaffiliated voters made up the largest share of participants at 45.5%, followed by Republicans at 31.5% and Democrats at 23%. Turnout was highest among older voters, particularly those between the ages of 50 and 75, and was concentrated in larger suburbs like Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock and Parker.
SEE LAMB SPRING, P4
SEE HOME RULE, P7
A child throws an atlatl, which is an early throwing spear used for hunting, at Lamb Spring. The tours offer a hands-on taste of prehistoric life. COURTESY OF CAMERON RANDOLPH
Lamb Spring site is portal to last Ice Age BY LILLIAN FUGLEI SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Charles Lamb wanted to expand a natural spring on his land to create a stock pond for his animals. In 1960, when he started digging in northwestern Douglas County, his efforts were stalled by a discovery 13,000 years in the making: mammoth bones. Lamb knew the discovery was out of his league, so he quickly contacted the United States Geological Survey, who confirmed his discovery. Lamb had found the tusk of a Columbian mammoth. Shortly after, archaeologists from the Smithsonian traveled to Lamb Spring to excavate the site, finding the remains of at least five mammoths that came to the spring
at the end of the last Ice Age. Now, after excavations in the 1960s, 1980s and 2000s, Lamb Spring has quieted down. The site is empty most days, except for their monthly tours, or when Cameron Randolph — co-chairperson of the Lamb Spring Archaeological Preserve Board of Directors — goes out to mow in preparation of visitors. Each month, typically on the first Saturday of the month, LSAP offers tours. At 9 a.m., Randolph and some volunteers lead visitors on a quarter-mile walk through the area, past a big depression in the land where the spring once was, to the site where the archeological excavations occurred. At Lamb Spring, now in the Sterling Ranch area, excavations have occurred on a somewhat timely schedule. About each 20 years
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