Palmer Lake Real Estate > Palmer Lake Community Info

A close knit community full of history, Palmer Lake is located in the foothills on the northern edge of El Paso County. Palmer Lake is named for General William Jackson Palmer who founded Colorado Springs. There are eight regional parks in the county along with two neighborhood county parks, trails, picnic pavilions, an archery range and numerous tennis courts. Largely held as ranch and farmland until the late 1950s when the Air Force Academy opened up around the towns of Palmer Lake and Monument, and the mid-1980s when housing developments started springing up around Colorado Springs, the land was basically kept for ranching.

After General Palmer established Colorado Springs, he started the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in 1871. Today, you could pay a $1.00 roundtrip ticket fee from Denver to ride up to Palmer Lake to spend the day outdoors; but back then the Palmer Lake stop held a different kind of importance. Steam trains at the time chugged up to the summit and in order for them to get down they had to take on water – which is where the lake came in. The lake was a natural supply, and passenger trains would stop for 10 minutes at a time to take on water before heading down.

Today, Palmer Lake residents enjoy the closeness of their community to the mountains, proximity to the downtown Colorado, and three lakes known as the Tri-Lakes area. The communities of Palmer Lake, Monument and Woodmoor feature three lakes that make up the well-known Tri-Lakes area: Palmer Lake, Monument Lake and Lake Woodmoor. Situated between Colorado Springs and Denver along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, residents and visitors come to Tri-Lakes to experience the beauty of the outdoors and mountains, in addition to shopping at locally owned businesses. It's also here in the Tri-Lakes area where the local schools are served by the Lewis-Palmer School District.