About

The Monument Independent is a locally owned news source covering Monument, Palmer Lake, Woodmoor, and the wider Tri-Lakes — accountable to readers, not owners.

Why We Exist

Local news has thinned out across Colorado, and the Tri-Lakes has felt it. Town councils meet, the county commission votes on the land around us, and the school district makes decisions that shape thousands of families — often with no one in the room to write it down. We owe a debt to Our Community News (OCN), the all-volunteer monthly that has chronicled the Tri-Lakes since 2001; we read it, value it, and regularly cite its reporting in our own research and sources. We started The Monument Independent in 2026 to add to that work: steady, professional coverage of the decisions that shape where we live.

The word “Independent” is in our name for a reason. We are not owned by a national chain or a private-equity fund, and no advertiser or official sets our agenda. We are not beholden to any political party, and we carry no partisan label. We cover issues, not agendas, and we follow the facts wherever they lead. We answer to the people who read us. There is no paywall — our journalism is free to read, supported by readers and local advertisers who want the same thing we do: a community that knows what is happening around it.

What We Cover

Our coverage area is Monument, Palmer Lake, Woodmoor, and the wider Tri-Lakes region along the Palmer Divide. We report on the local government that governs it — the Monument and Palmer Lake town councils, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners, and the land-use and development decisions that come before them. We cover Lewis-Palmer School District 38 and the schools that serve the area, the businesses of downtown Monument and the wider Tri-Lakes, and the outdoor life that draws people to the Divide in the first place.

We also keep a running record that most local papers do not. BoardWatch tracks how the Monument Town Council votes, meeting by meeting, so you can see the decisions and the votes behind them without sitting through every session. You will find the rest of our work under Government, Schools, Business Spotlight, Sports & Outdoors, Events, and Opinion.

Things That Matter to Us

A few commitments run through everything we publish.

• Fact-based research. We build stories from primary sources — meeting minutes, staff reports, budgets, recorded votes, and public records — and we show our work. Every reported feature ends with the sources behind it, so readers can check the record for themselves.
• Good land governance. How the Tri-Lakes grows is the defining question of the next decade. We follow rezonings, subdivisions, water-supply findings, and traffic studies closely, and we hold decision-makers to the rules already on the books.
• Supporting our schools. D38 and the area’s schools are central to why people move here. We cover their governance, budgets, and results plainly, because a strong community and strong schools go together.
• Supporting local business. Our Business Spotlight profiles the shops, cafes, and founders who make the Tri-Lakes its own place. Local ownership — of businesses and of news — is worth defending.
• Developer accountability. Growth is not the enemy, but neither is it exempt from scrutiny. When a project asks the public to bend a rule, absorb the traffic, or trust a promise, we ask the questions the record demands.

How We’re Funded

The Monument Independent is reader-supported. We keep our journalism free and out from behind a paywall, which means it depends on people who value it. If our reporting is useful to you, you can support us with a one-time or recurring contribution. Because we are a Colorado limited liability company rather than a nonprofit, contributions are not tax-deductible — they are simply a way for readers to keep local coverage going.

We also run a small, clearly labeled advertising program for local businesses that want to reach Tri-Lakes readers. Advertising never buys coverage or influences it; you can read about the current options on our Advertise page.

Who We Are

The Monument Independent is edited and published by Michael Christensen, a Tri-Lakes resident who founded the paper in 2026. Community and institutional coverage runs under a Staff byline; analysis and opinion carry a named byline. We live here too — the decisions we cover are the ones that affect our own streets, schools, and open space.

Our Standards

We aim to be accurate, fair, and clear about how we know what we report. When we get something wrong, we fix it promptly and transparently — see our Corrections page. Our approach to sourcing, opinion, and conflicts of interest is set out in full in our Editorial Policy.

Get in Touch

The Monument Independent is published by Monument Independent LLC, a Colorado limited liability company.