Wall Mountain Tuff and the Raymond Mansion

The first stop on tour is just around the corner from my apartment. I usually ride my bike by this house on the way to work. The building we’ll look at is the Raymond Mansion, also called Castle Marne by the owners who operate it as a bed and breakfast.

This building is one of the best examples in Denver of the use of Castle Rock rhyolite, which is the trade name for Wall Mountain Tuff. Wall Mountain Tuff was deposited about 36 million years ago all over Colorado and came from a huge volcanic explosion, bigger than Mt St. Helens. It erupted from the area where the present day Sawatch range is. The pyroclastic flow was mostly ash when it got to the area around Castle Rock, and when it cooled it solidified into a rock layer about 30 feet thick. It form caps on some of the buttes in the area, and has been quarried for about 125 years in Douglas County.

This house is just around the corner from me at 1572 Race. Notice the hitching post outside.

The older houses still have them, and they are usually made of sandstone. This is a closeup of the sandstone grains.

Directions for this leg: (Units in miles)
Start at Vine and Colfax.
Go north . 1 on Vine and turn left on 16th.
.15 Go west and turn left on Race.
Raymond Mansion on corner (Castle Marne)