Franktown is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Douglas County, Colorado, United States.

(Russellville, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) southeast of the present location of Franktown, had been settled by members of the William Greeneberry Russell Party in 1858.)

In 1864, the county seat was moved south to California Ranch (at the present location of Franktown), a popular rest stop on the busy Jimmy Camp Trail (which followed Cherry Creek north to Denver.)

The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad reached the new town of Colorado Springs on October 27, 1871, and traffic on the Jimmy Camp Trail rapidly subsided.

Despite losing the county seat, Franktown remained a ranching and farming hub, held together by its church, school, grange, and handful of businesses.

[7] Franktown's strong agricultural roots made it a natural fit for The Grange, a cooperative farmers' movement that swept rural America in the mid-1870s.

Only two people drowned, thanks to a switchboard operator's life-saving calls, but the flood devastated farms in this area and tore out six bridges in Denver, thirty miles downstream.

In the early 1870s, the Pinery supplied railroad ties to the Kansas Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande, both of which were laying tracks within twenty-five miles of here.