Fountain Schools

In this article, Staff Sergeant Jose Ruben Aragon's name was offered for a new park in Fountain.

The article reads:

Jose, born and raised in Fountain, served in the Air Force. On May 16, 1965, while serving at Bien Hoa Air Base in Vietnam, several 500 pound bombs exploded while B57 Canberra bombers were preparing to take off on a mission.   He remained on the flight line despite fire, exploding ammunition and flying debris. He rescued fellow airmen and cleared equipment. He was credited for saving many lives, but he unfortunately could not save his own. He became the first Colorado airman to die in action in Vietnam.  Jose was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star.

In November, 1987, the Fountain Fort Carson Jr. High School, which stood on S Main Street at the time, was renamed in his honor (11/11/1987, Gazette, B 9:1).  Today it is Aragon Elementary School.  For more on the Fountain Schools see the research tab at right.



Fountain HIgh School, built 1954 on Santa Fe Avenue, now the Middle School



The Lock Family

Matthias Lock, originally from the Rhine Valley, left the environs of Quincy, Illinois in 1859 with a wagon train bound for Denver.  He brought his young family to Fountain in 1860.  As this Gazette Telegraph (May 1, 1938) article relates, one building on the Lock homestead still stands. It was built in 1876 of thickly sawn boards, produced at the Fountain Valley’s first saw mill, and was being used as a garage.  Lock’s 880 acre estate included the 160-acre parcel on Fountain Creek, which was preempted, another 160-acre parcel four miles east that was homesteaded, and lands purchased from other homesteaders.  Lock had brought two black lava millstones with him from Illinois, and in 1864 set up a mill about ½ mile south of the Lock ranch headquarters, on the east bank of the creek near the head of Ditch 14.  The mill was destroyed by the Memorial Day flood of 1885, but the millstones were said to be prized relics at the ranch.  Lock was the sole owner of Ditch 15. [Lava from Illinois?]