Red Feather Lakes is located in north-central Larimer County at , at an elevation of. Via Red Feather Lakes Road, it is west of U.S. Route 287 at Livermore and northwest of Fort Collins, the county seat. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of, of which are land and, or 5.49%, are water. There are at least 12 named lakes in the community, including Parvin Lake, Dowdy Lake, West Lake, Snake Lake, Letitia Lake, Red Feather Lake, Lake Ramona, Hiawatha Lake, Apache Lake, Shagwa Lake, Lake Nokomis, and Lake Erie. All of the lakes in the CDP eventually drain to Lone Pine Creek, an east-flowing tributary of the Cache la Poudre River, part of the South Platte River watershed.
History
Other than Native Americans, only occasional hunters and trappers passed through the Red Feather Lakes area until the middle of the 19th century. The first known settler was John Hardin, who built a cabin about from the current Red Feather Lakes village in 1871. Other settlers, many of them families of Hardin's eleven surviving children, homesteaded and built nearby. In these early years, the settlers were primarily ranchers, but another important activity was lumbering. The trails in the area, some of which eventually became roads, were built by tie hacks, who hauled their railroad ties
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 525 people, 262 households, and 175 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 14.3 people per square mile. There were 1,106 housing units at an average density of 30.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.95% White, 0.95% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.19% from other races, and 1.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.29% of the population. There were 262 households out of which 14.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.5% were married couplesliving together, 2.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.2% were non-families. 27.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.40. In the CDP, the population was spread out with 13.0% under the age of 18, 3.0% from 18 to 24, 18.7% from 25 to 44, 40.4% from 45 to 64, and 25.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.0 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $33,527, and the median income for a family was $40,714. Males had a median income of $36,250 versus $43,333 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $19,231. About 3.2% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26.7% of those under age 18 and 9.5% of those age 65 or over.
