Cascade has drawn tourists since 1888 when the large and elegant Ramona Hotel was built.  It was torn down in 1924, but the Pikes Peak Toll Highway, also built in 1888, and Santa's Village North Pole amusement park, built in 1956, are still thrilling visitors today.  The Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the second oldest car race in the country, attracts competitors and fans every July.

Cascade began as a camping spot for parties of Ute Indians, and later freight wagon drivers and other weary travelers, who stopped to rest where the narrow red rock canyon of Fountain Creek widens out into a valley. An early settler, Lucius French, ran a shingle mill here, and the Long's pastured their dairy cows in the meadow. Henrietta Browning also settled here. After she was widowed she remarried to Daniel Steffa and became one of the leading citizens of Woodland Park. Sisters Eliza and Caroline Marriot built the Eastholme Hotel and opened a post office in 1887. David N. Heizer, mayor of Colorado Springs, became involved with the community in the late 1880s and participated in the building of the Pikes Peak Toll Road, the Cascade House Hotel and the Ramona Hotel.

After the completion of the Pikes Peak Toll Road in 1888, thousands of visitors rode the Colorado Midland Railroad to Cascade to take the carriage ride to the summit of Pikes Peak. The most famous of these travelers was Catherine Lee Bates who was inspired to write the words of "America The Beautiful" after seeing the view from the top.

Another prominent local resident was Thomas Cusack, who was known as the Billboard King of Chicago, having made his fortune as a sign maker after immigrating to America from Ireland as a boy. In 1895, Cusack bought a home in Cascade. In the 1920's he built an elegant mansion, Marigreen Pines, in memory of his wife after her early death. He purchased the Cascade Town Company in 1920. He made plans to further the development of Cascade as a resort, and tore down the aging and neglected Ramona Hotel. He then died himself before he was able to build a new resort.

Chipita Park was also once a bustling summer resort.  The town had a large hotel and beautiful sandstone railroad station as well as ranches and a sawmill.  Now it is a quiet year-round community.

Resources:

McConnell, Virginia, Ute Pass, Route of the Blue Sky People, Sage Books, Denver, Colorado, 1963

Petit, Jan, A Quick History of Ute Pass, First Edition, Little London Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1979