Chaffee County’s past comes alive at a unique historic spot between Salida and Poncha Springs, just off U.S. Hwy. 50. The Hutchinson Homestead and Learning Center is a place where it’s easy to imagine what life was like in the early settlement days in the Upper Arkansas Valley. The Hutchinson family settled in the region in the 1860s, and their ranch was started in 1868 when Joseph Sykes Hutchinson and Annabel McPherson were married, settled on a homestead, and began raising cattle – one of the largest operations in Colorado’s high country in its day. In 2019, the Hutchinson cattle ...