Who: Steamboat rancher Elaine Gay
Cattle rancher, grandmother, author and baker Elaine Gay has lived 79 of her 88 years in Pleasant Valley, 20 minutes south of Steamboat Springs. The area was settled in the late 1800s by Swiss families – including the parents of her late husband, Bob – lured by free agriculture land offered under the Homestead Act of 1862. Her son Bill, who once traveled Europe as the Marlboro Man, is among the last ranchers running cattle in the area. Elaine has written a cookbook, “Cowpokes, Cowpies and Otherwise” and “How Pleasant Is the Valley,” a 1995 history of Pleasant Valley’s pioneers. But above all she’s known for welcoming people into her home and for leading the fight against plans for a massive ski and golf resort – Lake Catamount – in her backyard. Her secret weapon, so the story goes, was her pies. – Kelly Pate Dwyer, Special to The Denver Post
Why did you oppose Lake Catamount, which was to be a companion to Steamboat as Beaver Creek is to Vail? In the 1970s and maybe even earlier, these fellows had bought up ranch land (around us) with this in mind. They come along to buy us out. They left a blank check on our table and they said we could set any amount. We refused that. We couldn’t ranch next to a ski area. They’d just run right over you, because the hill’s right above us.
Those developers sold the land to another group, which also pursued the resort plan. How did you fight? The big fight was with the Forest Service, whether or not (the developers) could get a ski-area permit. Eventually in the ’80s the Forest Service said yes. They gave consent. (Then) we’d ask lots of questions, raise arguments. I would say three or four years we fought the forest for (granting) that permit.
You lost that battle, but how did stalling plans pay off? Ski areas weren’t going well then. Skiing was going downhill in Steamboat and it wasn’t making any money. In the early ’90s, Mitchell (Energy and Development Corp.) pulled out (as the financial backer), and they sold it.
Is it true pies were your secret weapon in the fight? I made a lot of them. If there was ever a meeting or anything, I served pie. Banana cream I think was the favorite one of people. But I baked apple, pumpkin, a lot of different kinds.
Do you feel like you won? Yes, in a way but we couldn’t convince our neighbors, so there are barely any more ranches. You need other ranchers. Fixing fences, branding cattle, thrash your grain together. The two fellows that sold the land to (developers) in the first place were ranchers, and they weren’t making enough money to hold onto their ranches.
How were you able to stay? Bob was a worker, and he worked himself to death, and I helped. We did without. (In the late ’90s) the Yampa Valley Land Trust bought up (much of) our land and paid us to keep it in agriculture land. We wanted to keep it, and that was the only way we could do it.
Pleasant Valley is much the same. But how do you feel about the influx of wealthy homeowners in Steamboat?
Most of them are extremely rich people who have built great big houses, (but) they are very easy to get along with. I play bridge with a bunch of them. I have nothing against them. They’re here because they think Steamboat is as friendly as a town gets. I don’t think it’s as friendly as it was without them.
Do you still bake? I have French bread I bake nearly every other day. A lot of people make it off my recipe in “Cowpokes, Cowpies and Otherwise.” I love to cook and entertain. I entertain a lot. I would say cooking is my favorite sport.
RIVER PROTECTORS
After spending nearly 30 years with their cowboy boot heels dug in deep, Elaine Gay and her family put their money where their mouth was.
Cordillera Corp. declared plans for the massive Lake Catamount Ski Resort and Development dead and in 1998 donated a 3,296-acre conservation easement to the Yampa Valley Land Trust. The Gays soon stepped up, too, placing 920-acres of their 2,000-acre ranch under conservation easement, which protects nearly a mile of the Yampa River from future development.
Today, more than 36,000 acres of land in northwest Colorado is under conservation easements held by the Yampa Valley Land Trust and six other organizations.
