A horse-drawn hay wagon transported members from the Genesee Grange (historic Rockland School) to the third oldest church in Colorado that rests below in the Rockland Valley.

Parishioners were awed by the preservation of the little white church furnished with pews acquired during the 1950s. They explored 128 Rockland Cemetery grave sites of past residents named Ralston, Thiede, Warren, Craig, Hess, Jewell, McCoy, and Rilliet among others.

Authors Shirley Johnson and Sid Platt signed fresh-off-the press copies of their book, Rockland Community Church History, with details about the past 120 years.

The deed for the church land was donated by Henry Chiles and filed in Jefferson County on December 12, 1879. The sweet little building was constructed with locally milled pine and cut nails at a total cost of $250. The most expensive amenity was high windows to let the sun light the interior. The Mt. Zion Church of the Rocky Mountain Mission of the United Brethren in Christ was dedicated on January 18, 1880.

Church leaders Chiles, Abraham Hartzell and Abraham Hess stipulated that its "gates shall stand ajar for any other religious denomination to worship therein."

Services were held when a traveling minister stopped to preach. A framed picture of Jesus as a young man hung in back of an oak podium.

The 19th Century Golden Transcript referred to the early settlement in Mt. Vernon Canyon as "Rockland." Pioneer families built their Rockland School in 1873 and Rockland Church in 1879 next to Mt. Vernon Creek which still runs north of I-70 to Exit 256 where it travels under the highway and continues east on the south side of I-70.

“Mt. Vernon Canyon” was named in 1859 by founders of Mt. Vernon towne, at the bottom of the canyon, near today’s Matthew-Winters Open Space Park. Founders filed a city plat for hundreds of lots adjacent to Mt. Vernon Creek. The towne was the first territorial capital of Colorado. Miners, settlers and tourists passed through the Mt. Vernon "Gateway to the Rockies" toll gate and climbed the steep canyon to the next toll gate at the Patrick House (1861) in Genesee Park.

Constant washing out of the canyon wagon track "road" ended the Mt. Vernon Towne toll gate by 1861 when the more reliable Apex Trail was built (still visible today).

The isolated Rockland community struggled to make ends meet. It took two to three days to travel over muddy, rocky trails to Golden, select supplies, and return back to Rockland. By 1873, railroad lines through Clear Creek provided more convenient travel, boarding at the Beaver Brook Station. Rockland citizens demanded that Jefferson County take over the washed out Mt. Vernon Canyon Road in 1880. Government ownership didn’t improve the road. Completion of the Lariat Trail to Golden made a huge difference for Rocklanders in 1914. (See "Heritage of Lariat Trail".)

The little white church was not used much until U.S. Highway 40 provided a reliable paved road up the north side of the canyon in 1937. By 1948, there were 254 improved properties in Rockland School District #13. "Grandad" Ralston organized a pot-luck and painting bee at the church in August, 1951. Residents repaired windows, scrubbed the interior and installed a propane gas furnace. The Mountain Parks Women’s Club found some discarded pews from a Denver church to replace the original pine plank pews previously damaged by vandals.

The 1950s population increase could not squeeze into the little white church. A building committee planned the second church on land donated by the Ralstons near the west entrance to Mt. Vernon Country Club. The new church has walls of glass for breathtaking views of the Continental Divide as a backdrop for the preacher and events. It was dedicated on December 4, 1960.

The historic Rockland Church still stands quietly in rustic Rockland Valley, to remind us of a more humble lifestyle 120 years ago.