LOVELAND, Colo.—Backyard amenities that include thousands of acres of open space, endless views of the foothills and red sandstone ridges out your front door are a Colorado reverie. A few lucky landowners soon will have such home sites as their home on the range through Sylvan Dale Ranch’s Preservation Community.
The Sylvan Dale community west of Loveland is one of many pieces of former dude-ranch territory that are now being developed or sold.
Nearby ranches Elkhorn Lodge and Pittington Ranch also are developing property, and the Beaver Meadows Resort outside Red Feather Lakes is on the market.
Disappearing Western retreats may indicate that dude ranching is in decline.
“The dude ranching tradition is a little bit endangered, especially in places where there is development pressure,” said David Jessup, who runs Sylvan Dale with his sister, Susan. Their family has owned Sylvan Dale Ranch since 1946.
When John Mathey, Realtor for the Sylvan Dale and Pittington properties, worked at Sylvan Dale in the 1970s, he could take 25 guests out on an overnight pack trip by himself, he said.
His only assistance was from girls the ranch would send up to cook at night, which is how he met his wife. Other than that, he could handle it alone, he said.
Today, because of insurance liability, there has to be one wrangler for every six guests on pack trips, so staffing has increased.
Making adjustments for insurance demands is one of many economic hardships that operators of guest ranches face today.
“Most do it out of love and subsidize it with labor and their own income,” Jessup said. “There are 35 or so dude ranches in Colorado today. Ten years ago, there were about 70.”
At the Beaver Meadows Resort Ranch, business is still strong, but longtime owners Don and Diane Weixelman are selling the property so they can retire, Don said.
Even with business going well, it still is a temptation to succumb to high offers from developers, said their son, Gary Weixelman.
With their scenic locations, many ranchers feel pressure from developers to sell off parts of their land.
Jessup knows he could make a large profit by putting subdivisions on his property, but he chooses to preserve the area and its heritage, he said.
Jessup and Mathey put eight lots, which range between 4 and 6 acres, up for sale at the Sylvan Dale Ranch Preservation Community on County Road 31D north of U.S. 34.
Six of the lots are membership lots available for between $250,000 and $280,000. All but three membership lots and one nonmembership lot, which is selling for $195,000, have been sold, according to Mathey.
As members of Sylvan Dale, lot owners are given access to several thousand acres of the ranch and fishing privileges and are encouraged to become part of traditional ranch work.
The initial membership fee is $50,000, in the form of a no-interest loan to the Preservation Community.
Homeowners also will pay an annual fee, which aids the Preservation Community’s goal of preserving the legacy of Western dude ranching. In 2007, the annual fee was $9,000.
Jessup wants the landowners to build eco-friendly homes that will be harmonious with the natural environment.
The land was put on sale through the county’s Rural Land Use Process. This allowed about 200 acres to become perpetual open space next to the development, according to Mathey.
“The rural land use is a perfect scenario,” Mathey said. “You can utilize land and preserve the Western way of life.”
Located 10 miles southwest of Loveland near Flatiron Reservoir, the Pittington Ranch has been owned by the Pittington family for 70 years.
The current owner, Jarene Pittington, sold part of her property to Foothills Vista Development, also through the Rural Land Use Process, which allowed Pittington to create about 300 acres of perpetual open space, according to Mathey.
This put more than 90 acres into conservation easements, and the land is available for residents to use.
The arrangement has allowed Pittington to afford to keep her ranch and preserve some of the land, Mathey said.
There are 17 lots, ranging from 2.08 acres to 3.15 acres. The properties’ listed prices are $220,000 to $235,000.
In Estes Park, the Elkhorn Lodge has been boarding guests for 134 years and is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Colorado, according to its Web site.
The seasonally open ranch operated as a hotel and guest ranch, which offered horse riding. It hasn’t been a working cattle ranch for a long time, said Bob Joseph, Community Development Department director for the town of Estes Park.
Rock Castle Development, the new lodge owner, is proposing a development for the property to the Estes Valley Planning Commission.
Plans include 56 single-family homes on 20 acres, three multifamily residential lots, seven commercial and multi-use lots and 20.6 acres of open space, according to Rock Castle’s statement of intent. The Elkhorn Lodge also would be renovated and a new hotel wing added.
The development proposal includes a western bypass connection through Estes.
This would be a road between northwest and southwest Estes via U.S. 36 and U.S 34 that would allow people to avoid downtown when going through Estes Park.
The plan will go before the Estes Valley Planning Commission again this month, and it may go before the town board in June, Joseph said.
Area residents have had some concerns about the project, including the density of the residential neighborhood and the noise and traffic impacts, Joseph said.
The Weixelman family has owned Beaver Meadows Resort Ranch, outside Red Feather Lakes, since 1977. Owners Don and Diane Weixelman decided to put it on the market in March so they could retire.
The ranch was built in the 1950s as a small three-cabin facility. Now the 434-acre property can accommodate 100 overnight guests.
The family is asking $5.9 million for the entire property, said Gary Weixelman, Don’s son, who is co-brokering the sale with Continental West Realty of Red Feather Lakes.
Don wants whoever takes over the property to continue the operation as it stands. He said he will miss the relationship with the land and guests and the pride he had in the ranch.
The property is zoned and has the water rights in place for further development, which might be the best use, Gary said.
Beaver Meadows includes 2.5 miles of frontage on Roosevelt National Forest, a tubing lift for sledding and has miles of cross country skiing and riding trails, Gary said.
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On the Net:
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Pittington Ranch:
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