An Oasis in South Park: Buffalo Peaks Ranch Transforming Into Rocky Mountain Land Library

Article and photos by Laura Van Dusen

The Rocky Mountain Land Library at Buffalo Peaks Ranch is one of a kind. Located about nine miles southeast of Fairplay on Colorado Hwy. 9, it will soon be a nature research study center – a library with residential facilities where students, artists, writers, naturalists and scientists can study and stay for a few days, weeks or even months.

The project has been in the works for six years, since negotiations began in 2006 between co-directors Jeff Lee and his wife Ann Martin and ranch owner, the City of Aurora. On Sept. 25, 2013, a 95-year lease was signed, giving Jeff and Ann control of 60 acres at the heart of the ranch. It includes a 1906 home and several barns and outbuildings dating to the 1940s.

When a group of about 50 gathered at the ranch on June 6, 2014 to celebrate the lease signing, conversations were about the changes to come.

All of the buildings are sturdy and the construction is sound, but all need work to become libraries, residential facilities, dining areas, an artists’ studio and an orientation center. Now that the lease is signed, work will take off in earnest. Jeff said they hope to have at least one building functional and an education program underway by next summer.

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The real start of the project began long before 2006. In 1991, Ann and Jeff were on a book-buying trip to London for their employer, Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore. A visit to St. Deiniol’s Library in Wales, now renamed Gladstone’s Library, got the two thinking about a similar library in the U.S., a sort of bed and breakfast with books.

Jeff and Ann have been collecting books on nature and the land for 25 years and now have 30,000-plus volumes; those will stock the library. The collection includes books on history, mining, railroading, astronomy, botany, entomology, ranching and fishing, to name a few.

It took until 2006 to find a location where the collection could be shared. They found it at the easily accessible yet secluded Buffalo Peaks Ranch.

“The land library’s hope has always been to create a place where people can slow down to nature’s rhythms and appreciate their ties to the land,” said Jeff.

Complementing study is the opportunity to wander and observe, to photograph and paint, to be inspired. On a perfect early spring day, the smell of sagebrush is strong, and with a trained ear one can hear the songs of dozens of birds. The South Platte River flows through the property, a fishing paradise for some. For others it’s a quiet retreat away from the noise and traffic of distant cities.

On a typical day in the not-too-distant future, an author may want to research ranching in the West for an upcoming novel. The books are there, and so is the ambiance.

Buffalo Peaks Ranch is the former Guiraud Ranch. Originally homesteaded by French immigrants Adolphe and Marie Guiraud, it grew into one of the most successful ranches in Park County after Adolphe died in 1875 and Marie took over the reins.

The Guirauds moved to South Park from Kansas in 1862, with four of an eventual family of 10 children.

Following her husband’s death at age 57, Marie continued working the ranch, which grew from 160 acres to 5,000. The high-quality beef sold at the Guiraud Ranch rivaled that of neighbor Sam Hartsel, founder of the town of Hartsel.

In 1879, the narrow gauge Denver, South Park & Pacific railroad laid tracks adjacent to the ranch. In response, Marie platted a town across the Middle Fork of the South Platte and called it Garo – a shortened, Americanized version of the family name.

The home still standing on the property is the one Marie hired contractors to build in 1906, after the original homestead burned down. When she died in 1909, her estate was one of the largest in Park County up to that time.

The ranch stayed in the Guiraud family until the early 1940s. Rancher James McDowell owned the land from 1943 to 1976, and a series of owners held the deed from 1976 to 1985.

The City of Aurora bought the now 1,840-acre ranch in July 1985, said Kathy Kitzmann, Aurora senior water resources engineer, to partially replace loss of river access when Spinney Mountain Reservoir was built. As owner of the water in Spinney, Aurora is contractually required by the state to replace six miles of public river access. A portion of that runs through Buffalo Peaks Ranch.

Laura Van Dusen writes about South Park history and happenings from her cabin near Como.