• Massive petrified redwood stumps

    Florissant Fossil Beds

    National Monument Colorado

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  • Exhibit Installation May 14 - 22

    New exhibits will be installed in the new visitor center May 14 - 22. Access to the park film and exhibits may be reduced. You may want to consider visiting after May 23 if you schedule permits. The park remains open every day from 9am - 5pm.

Places

The Hornbek Hornbek Homestead Complex
Adeline Hornbek's Homestead
NPS Photo by Sheena Grabski
 
Hornbek Homestead Days 2010

A volunteer teaches park visitors about the life of homesteaders during the Hornbek Homestead Days in 2010.

NPS Photo by Sheena Grabski

The Historic Hornbek Homestead

Colorado's Florissant Valley lies 35 miles west of Colorado Springs on the flanks of Pikes Peak. To the north and east, the Rocky Mountains dominate the skyline. To the west lies high meadow land with large expanses of undulating native grasses so beautiful that early fur trappers to the area referred to it as a park. In the summer the grassy meadows are filled with the colored mists of thousands of wild flowers. In the center of this lush valley stands the Hornbek homestead complex, the home of a strong, determined woman who came to the area with her four children in the 1870s. Claiming land under the Homestead Act, Adeline Hornbek defied traditional gender roles to become the owner of a prosperous ranch.

For more information, ask for the Guide to the Hornbek Homestead in the Visitor Center

To learn more about Adeline Hornbek visit http://www.nps.gov/flfo/historyculture/adeline-hornbek.htm

 
Hornbek Homestead Days

Learn more about the history of the Florissant Valley by attending Hornbek Homstead Day during the summer. 

NPS Photo by Sheena Grabski

Join us on Saturday, July 28th, 2012 for the next Hornbek Homestead Day!

Did You Know?

Historic photograph of tourists in the late 1800's fossil hunting near a train

The area now known as Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument had become a popular tourist area by the 1870's.