DENVER—The National Park Service released a preliminary study Thursday that identifies spots in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico that it says are worthy of being included in the parks system.
The sites are located in the San Luis Valley and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The area includes three large ranches, including ones owned by billionaires Ted Turner and Louis Bacon, who has vigorously fought efforts by power companies to site transmission lines across his Trinchera Ranch.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar—who was born and raised in the San Luis Valley—requested the study, but only Congress can authorize a more in-depth review to look at the nuts-and-bolts of designating sites as parks or landmarks.
Park Service spokesman David Barna said the hope is that a lawmaker will ask for that next step.
The area is the northernmost area of the Spanish Colonial and Mexican frontier and the Park Service says it has a high concentration of sites associated with Latino settlement.
“We are trying to tell a broader story about the history of all Americans,” Barna said.
A 1979 study recommended that one spot in the area, Vermejo Park Ranch, be included in the park system but it never was. It’s now owned by Turner and is operated as a hunting, fishing and nature tourism resort.
Salazar will be at Adams State College in Alamosa on Jan. 4 to discuss the study. He’s scheduled to be joined by Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet and Colorado Gov. John Hickenloooper.
