LITTLETON: A History in Brief
By IntraDenver staff writer

While the mining industry was sweeping the surrounding communities, the area now known as Littleton was a thriving farming community. In 1860 a man by the name of Richard S. Little, who was at the time a civil engineer with Capital Hydraulic Company, came to the area to survey an irrigation ditch along the South Platte River. Mr. Little was astounded by the beauty of the land and saw great agricultural potential in it. In 1862 he filed for 160 acres on which to set up his farm. The land he filed for was just south of where Bowles and Santa Fe cross today.
Within five years the farm was so productive that Little and his associates opened a flourmill and he began selling plots on his homestead to the workers who needed a place to live. In 1872 the growth of the community had extended so greatly that Mr. Little platted it for a town that would bear his name. By 1890 Littleton was an incorporated community.

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