Fairplay

My family has owned land in Fairplay for many years now, and although we don't get up there often it's a nice place to get away and just relax. There are numerous things to do outdoors such as hunting, hiking, camping, and horseback riding. Over the years the area has changed and you can see much more growth, although the town's population is still only 679. There is a lot of wildlife just roaming about, such as deer and elk and it's peaceful to just sit back and watch nature around you. There are some larger ranches and also some smaller homes, with the median home price at right about $216,000. This number has greatly increased over the the last ten or so years when land used to be much cheaper here. The median household income here is $50,200.

Although the student base is small, the testing scores for this town are all well over state averages. South Park High School even scores a nine on a scale of one to ten (ten being highest) for state testing standards.

There isn't much to do in Fairplay unless you're a hunter or outdoor enthusiast. There are a couple of little shops and a small grocery store but mainly this town has gas for passers by and not too much else. There are a couple of locally owned restaurants and a Subway.

Overall I think Fairplay is a nice place to get away from it all, but it is a bit too far from larger towns or cities for my liking. Here you can get a lot of fresh air and see a lot of Colorado's wildlife, but outside of that, not too much else.

Fairplay in the town in the north part of South Park and might be the closest thing to the "town" in the infamous TV show South Park. There are cows and snow capped mountains in the distance just like in the show but I personally have not seen any aliens or UFO's when I was:)

Fairplay is about 85 miles from both Denver and Colorado Springs but that makes it a bit too far to commute, at least on a regular basis. Historically, the area was frequented by the Ute Indians as a summer camp for hunting and later the French trappers during the fur trade. In the mid 1800's ranchers moved into South Park and founded Fairplay with their livestock. In 1959, gold was discovered in South Park and later the gold and silver rush fueled growth in the area and Fairplay.

There are a lot of forest roads around Fairplay and scattered properties and ranches in the park and mountains. Residents range from old established families to well off new comers that have purchased property as investment/second homes. The area really is gorgeous and offers hot springs to the west and the cities to the east. The trout fishing along the creeks is legendary and the hunting grounds for deer and elk draw in people from all over the country.

I researched some properties around Fairplay and found some pretty affordable properties such as the $130,00o 37 acre property with a trailer and extensive barns for a starter ranch. This property has solar panels and many small custom buildings, this is a good example of the eccentric-ness of the area. There are some pretty desolate off-the-grid properties and people are serious about mountain living. This may be one of the similarities with the show South Park.