Skip to main content

From the late 1800's through the 1920's, the area was an agricultural community based on cattle ranching, sawmills, and farming.

Up until the early 1920's, the schools were built wherever there was the greatest concentration of children from the farms or sawmills. The schools had to be near the families as transportation was difficult. These areas were generally north of Hodgen (three schools), south near Woodmen and Vollmer Roads (two schools), east of Meridian Road (three schools), and west near Northgate Road and Highway 83 (one school). Only Pine Grove School stands on its original site on County Line Road.

The beginnings of a Black Forest school were in 1923 when a log schoolhouse was built by the community just northwest of Shoup and Black Forest Roads. This building, still standing on the original site, housed grades 1 through 8. Grades 9 through 12 attended the Monument School as tuition students.

In 1951, one of the school buildings, located near Hodgen and Black Forest Roads, was moved to the present school site at 13710 Black Forest Road. The school was now a part of Lewis-Palmer School District #38. By 1954, a new brick building was built next to the relocated building and was named the Black Forest Elementary School. It became part of Academy District #20 in 1957. The area continued to expand and sections were added to the school, which was renamed Edith D. Wolford Elementary school in 1969, in honor of Mrs. Wolford who had been the school's principal since 1952.

The building of the United States Air Force Academy, the land and population booms, the subdividing of large areas of land, and the encroachment of Colorado Springs have brought many changes to the Black Forest and to the school. The present community is no longer based on agriculture, but is presently a "bedroom" community and a Colorado Springs suburb.