Douglas County, Colorado

Douglas County is the eighth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county is located midway between Colorado's two largest cities: Denver and Colorado Springs. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the county population was 280,621 in 2008, a 59.7% increase since U.S. Census 2000, making Douglas County one of the fastest growing counties in the United States.^[1] Douglas County is part of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area. The county seat is Castle Rock, named after a small butte just north of the town. Castle Rock is located in the Interstate 25 corridor just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

Douglas County is lightly wooded, mostly with ponderosa pine, with broken terrain characterized by mesas and small streams. Cherry Creek and Plum Creek rise in Douglas County and flow north toward Denver and into the South Platte River. Both were subject to flash flooding in the past, Plum Creek being partially responsible for the Denver flood of 1965. Cherry Creek is now dammed.

Most residents commute to workplaces elsewhere in the metropolitan area outside of the county. Suburban development is displacing the ranching economy of the county.