100 Years Ago
The dance hall on Castle Rock continued to operate, even after the funicular railway shut down. One Saturday night in July of 1925, a carload of boys from Denver arrived, hoping to join the party. They were refused admission, and subsequently two of the boys (brothers Carl and John Milliken) began arguing about whether they should return to Denver. Carl, age 18, marched off, saying he was going to walk to Denver. Instead, he walked off the edge of Castle Rock and fell about 100 feet to the rocks below. His skull was fractured and he died.
This story was covered in the July 9th issues of both the Colorado Transcript and the Jefferson County Republican. There were a few key differences in their versions.
According to the Transcript, after Carl stomped off, the other boys sat in the car for an hour, waiting for him to return. Eventually, they got out to look for him and spotted his body at the foot of the cliff. They retrieved his body and brought him back to the car at the top of the mountain.
According to the Republican, Carl walked away from his argument with John, and “had gone but a short distance when his companions heard a scream. Rushing to the spot they saw his body lying on the rocks….” The Republican doesn’t mention the boys moving the body.
In both versions, Coroner Woods decided that an inquest was unnecessary. Both articles end by saying that the victim was not related to the secretary of state, who was also named Carl Milliken.
