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Farish Memorial and Carroll Lakes
- Steve Plutt
- Dec 19, 2025
- 6 min read
By Steve Plutt, Copyright 2019, all rights reserved
Farish Memorial Recreational Area is a 655-acre resort in the Carroll Lakes Region atop the Rampart Range. It is located in El Paso County, 5 miles northeast of Woodland Park at an elevation of 9,000 feet. For access you must be in the following category: Active/Reserve/Retired Military/Dependent ID card holders/DoD Civilian Employees/and retired DoD Civilians. VA card holders and their caregiver with proper documentation. To get to Farish from Colorado Springs, travel west on Hwy 24 for 17 miles to Woodland Park. At second stoplight near McDonalds, turn right onto Baldwin (street name soon changes to Rampart Range Road). Follow road through four stop signs. Road forks just past water-treatment facility, turn right and follow the Farish signs. Approximately 2 miles after the intersection, turn left onto Loy Creek Road and follow the signs to the new entrance into Farish. Facility is 5.5 miles past stoplight at McDonalds. The view of Pikes Peak is pretty incredible and the rock outcroppings, trees, lakes and pavilions make Farish a pretty amazing place for recreation.
Farish has been owned and operated as an off-base military recreational area since 1959 and as mentioned above, is not open to the general public. The property was donated to the Air Force Academy by the Air Force Academy Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. William S. Farish, parents of Lt. William S. Farish Jr. who was killed during WWII while serving with the Army Air Corps at Waco, Texas.
June 25, 1949 The Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce sends a proposal to Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington for consideration of Colorado Springs as a location for the new Air Force Academy. The C of C efforts were successful and construction on the Air Academy started in 1955.
August 17, 1959 Grace Lake Recreation Area opens
August 27, 1959 Grace Lake Recreation area is renamed and dedicated as the Farish Memorial Recreation Area
Lieutenant Farish was a flying instructor and had only been on duty at the Waco base for a week at the time of the crash. He was participating in a war bond rally at an air show demonstration. His father, William Stamps Farish II, was the founder of Humble Oil and Refining Company and later, the president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Lieutenant Farish’s widowed wife Mary was the daughter of General Robert Wood of Chicago who was chairman of the board of Sears-Roebuck & Company.
Farish Memorial was modest in size to begin with but with additional land acquired in 1963, 1967 and 1969 it is now a 650-acre utopia. The two lodges and the caretaker’s residence were built in the 1920s and 30s. Grace Lake was built in 1930, Leo Lake in the ‘50s and Sapphire Lake in 1965. It has several camp sites today and some picnic pavilions.
Carroll Lakes was originated and built by avid hunter and fisherman, John Carroll, who was an early pioneer of Woodland Park.
When John first came to Colorado, he and his wife Josephine settled in Howbert (present day location of 11 Mile Reservoir outside of Lake George) where they ran a store. Moving to Teller County, he engaged in the mercantile and sawmill business, supplying ties to the railroad.
It was on a Sunday, January 5, 1908, when John Carroll met with friends in Patton’s cigar store at 25 S. Tejon in Colorado Springs. It was there that they organized a fly-casting club located 4 miles northwest of Woodland Park. Their club was the very first of its kind in the State of Colorado. At the cigar store meeting, they also planned to erect a club house in time for the upcoming fishing season. Summertime fly casting tournaments were planned as well as hunting cottages and bungalows. At this inaugural meeting, John Carroll was elected president; Samuel Morrison, vice president; W. E. Cobb, treasurer and G. W. Sheff as secretary. The founders also decided that membership should be limited to fifty. Each of the above officers plus a Mr. J. A. Morrison took out five memberships a piece at $100 for each membership. Each member then was able to sell four to reimburse themselves which they did and that increased the membership to 25. The other vacant 25 available memberships were sold later. Dues were $15 a year.
Two days later, on January 7, 1908, the club was officially issued a Certificate of Incorporation in the name of the “Colorado Springs Fly Casting Club.”
The property the club obtained was originally a homestead that was patented by Peter Cutshall. After fulfilling government requirements of living on and improving the land for a period of five years, Peter was awarded his patent on January 7, 1898. Cutshall’s 160 acres had a nice lake at the far end of his meadow (now called Aspen Lake) fed by Beaver Creek. The Cutshall homestead also had beautiful views in all directions.
Cutshall later sold off half of that acreage, which through different transactions, ended up in the possession of John Carroll on October 7, 1904, for the consideration of $600. On September 11, 1911, Carroll sold to the club that 80 acres and coupled with the club’s 99-year lease of 67 ½ acres, they now had a total of 147.5 acres. That lease with the government was exchanged for a patent in 1926.
In 1908, Mike Hayes was the very first caretaker. He was hired after an incident in which six men were caught stealing fish after they dynamited the dam at Carroll Lake (now Columbine).
Hayes stayed at Dr. Patton’s cabin which was located on a point where Mike could watch the lake in both directions. During the winter of 1913 there was an unusually heavy snow and Mike was snowbound. John Carroll and W. E. Cobb made snowshoes out of barrel staves and walked from Woodland Park to take food to Mike. Many cabins were built at the resort in the early days. Several cabins were built in the 1920’s with a few built in the teens. The club bought the caretaker a cabin who now resided full time at the lake.
John Carroll also had a cabin on the lake and his wife Josephine loved to fish and would spend the entire summer there. John would walk into Woodland Park every day and back again to be with her. The road to Woodland Park was just a wagon road. Most members from Colorado Springs took the Midland train to Woodland Park and either walked up to the lake or hired a horse and buggy. Those that choose the latter most likely rented their conveyance from Abe Hackman. Abe was a Woodland Park pioneer who owned the livery stable in Woodland and Mrs. Hackman ran the Midland Hotel. The Hackmans were also early members of the fishing club and built a cabin there. John Carroll was also actively involved in starting up the Mt. Massive Trout Club near Leadville.
Over the early years, many members were very prominent businessmen from Colorado Springs. Just a few among them were J.P. Shearer, Tod Powell, E. E. Emery, Mrs. F.M.P. Taylor, E.C. Van Diest, Drs. McKinnie, McCorkly, Shiver and Cogswell, A. L. Blomfield, W. I. Lucas, Charles Tutt, Marksheffel and Adams, A. L. Kernochan and Charles Hopkins.
Carroll Lakes and Farish Memorial has been a place for recreation for over 100 years now.
John Calhoun Carroll died on May 22, 1955. He was born February 28, 1862 in Mason County, West Virginia. Mr. Carroll was a past Master of the Manitou Springs Lodge No. 68, AF and AM. He was also a member of the Royal Arch Masons and a member of Pikes Peak Commandry No. 6.
At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife Gertrude and son Hunter, both of Woodland Park. He was also survived by three daughters, Mrs. Mabel Powell, Mrs. Bessie Huston and Mrs. Mayme Campbell, all of Los Angeles, California.