Is There a Predominant Cowboy Culture in Colorado? If so, where? (Ranching, Equine, Western etc.) (Durango: real estate, broker)

[delta07]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

Agreed. The Craig area is probably your best bet here. I also agree with Jwiley (post#2) regarding Meeker and Rangely.

A few other towns worth considering here would be Walden, Kremmling, and a group of towns that get very little mention on this board; Dove Creek, Cahone, and Pleasant View which are northwest of Cortez.

Added one more -Westcliffe.

Westcliffe would certainly be worth looking into! The beauty of the Sangre de Cristo range, plus the moisture the Wet Mountains provide, makes it a relatively lush area of Colorado. It's also only 55 miles west of Pueblo, so you're within a reasonable distance to shopping, hospitals, and whatever else you might need from a bigger town. I spent about 6 weeks one summer up in the Wet Mountains and was continually blown away that I was still in Colorado.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by delta07

Westcliffe would certainly be worth looking into! The beauty of the Sangre de Cristo range, plus the moisture the Wet Mountains provide, makes it a relatively lush area of Colorado. It's also only 55 miles west of Pueblo, so you're within a reasonable distance to shopping, hospitals, and whatever else you might need from a bigger town. I spent about 6 weeks one summer up in the Wet Mountains and was continually blown away that I was still in Colorado.

There are certain areas of Colorado with microclimates that defy the norm for the rest of the state. Another "wet" area is the Holy Cross Wilderness near Aspen.

I'm sure Jazzlover will chime in with more unless his posting abilities have been suspended again ...

[Gunluvver2]

Originally Posted by countryway

Hi folks. I live in Fort Collins and I am considering relocating somewhere more rural and agriculture-based in this state... namely a place with a dominant cowboy lifestyle.

I thought Northern Colorado would be that way when I moved here (and was years ago I am told), but is turning out to be ever more urban in life, work and culture. I really need some place that identifies with the cowboy/traditional western lifestyle. Fort Collins is a wonderful city with tremendous assets indeed, however it simply does not fit, to the degree, the life that we want.

I desire to live and work in the cowboy/western/ag/ranching/ lifestyle and environment. I grew up in an agriculture-based area and have had some experience with horses and livestock. I want to learn more and live where those traditions, lifestyles, and values are an integral part of life.

I have looked up and down the Front Range and though some of these areas partly embrace that lifestyle, I have not seen anything that is as purist as I desire.

I am financially sustained at this time and have the ability to relocate, then look for work later. I have considered moving out of state to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho several times but have not been able to. My family likes it here as do I and would like to find a place more suitable. We prefer close proximity to the Rockies and would gladly live in them if there was the right community for my needs. Meaning, Eastern Colorado may suite this lifestyle, but if there were places in or near the Rockies (North, South, East or West) that would be preferable.

Thanks for your time. Feel free to ask questions.

If you want to experience the "cowboy" lifestyle you need to go to ranch country. Ranch country is where there are 10,000 cows for one person. The Sandhills area of Northeastern Colorado and Southwest Nebraska offer that. Southeast Colorado around Limon and Lamar also has quite a few ranches. The Western slopes are ranch country also.
GL2

[oldtrader]

But as I said before in this thread, the Cowboy Culture is not the same as it used to be years ago. It uses a lot less people, and uses modern equipment. If you want to see the old time cattle drives, etc., look to dude ranches where they run this type of thing charging city people to experience the old west. The cowboy west as my grandfather knew it in the 1800s, and immortalized in books, and movies, is long gone.

In the 1880s, my grandfather starting at 16 years old, would take a group of gunfighter/cowboys and a saddlebag full of gold and go to Mexico and buy a herd which they would drive back to Montana. Today they would use trucks to do it buying them at an auction yard.

In the 1880s, my grandfather and their cowboys, drove cattle with horses. Today one man with an ATV and 2 or 3 well trained cattle dogs can do it. When it took a day to ride out to where the cattle are on a horse, can be done in an hour or so on an ATV.

Riding fence today, is done on a dirt bike or with fencing pulled out to where needed with an ATV pulling a light trailer or on a 4x4 pickup.

Branding is no longer done with a group of cowboys roping, throwing on the ground and using branding irons heated in an open fire, castrating cattle, etc. Today they are ran through a squeeze chute, and then held in the chute while they do everything to the animal, releasing and running the next animal into the chute. The branding irons are not heated in an open fire, but are electric branding irons where the heat is always uniform.

As methods have changed, the culture has changed. The old cowboy glamour is gone no matter where you go in cattle country. I lived the old way on our ranch when I was a teenager in the 1940s, but if I was still involved in cattle ranching I would do it the new way, not the old way still being done then.

The modern cattle ranch is more of a regular business, than the old cowboy culture even dreamed it would become.

[CAVA1990]

If I'm reading the OP correctly I don't think he's wanting to get into cattle ranching as a big time business but more as a hobby or boutique operation. In that mode he can run things however the heck he wants. If he wants to ride fence on a quarterhorse rather than an ATV there's no reason he shouldn't be able to do that.

[MtnJam]

Hobby or boutique operation = very wealthy individual. Most likely "All hat and no cattle" for the most part. Wouldn't meld well with a real ranching community.

[brightdoglover]

I wonder if the old-timers who handled things "the old way" would agree that it was glamorous!?

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by MtnJam

Hobby or boutique operation = very wealthy individual. Most likely "All hat and no cattle" for the most part. Wouldn't meld well with a real ranching community.

I wouldn't be so judgmental. Since the West was settled livestock operations have come in all shapes and sizes. Many stockmen supplemented their earnings by doing other things like farming or holding a day job in town. Some cattlemen turned to raising sheep if market conditions warranted. If all you had was a 160 acre homestead in CO it was unlikely you could raise enough cattle to support yourself and your family. Most were "different hats and some cattle". I don't see why that couldn't still be the case today. My great grandfather who ranched on several hundred acres South of Durango back in the early 1900s also worked in a flour mill. His two uncles who also ranched part time were county sheriffs. They all lived in town and I imagine rode and later drove out to their properties on their days off.

[oldtrader]

If you go back to post #1, he is not looking to go into owning a ranch, but living and working the lifestyle of the cowboy. He thinks it is a glamours way to live. He says he has looked all up and down the front range and cannot find it. The reason that he cannot find it, that lifestyle is gone and not coming back. Today, it only exists on dude ranches, in movies, and western novels.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

If you go back to post #1, he is not looking to go into owning a ranch, but living and working the lifestyle of the cowboy. He thinks it is a glamours way to live. He says he has looked all up and down the front range and cannot find it. The reason that he cannot find it, that lifestyle is gone and not coming back. Today, it only exists on dude ranches, in movies, and western novels.

I don't see any mention of or allusion to "glamour" in his post. He says he wants to live and work around livestock. There's still plenty of that, which could include horses, sheep, llamas, goats, as well as cattle. Just because methods of managing them has changed, it's still a different lifestyle than sitting in an office. Pickup trucks have been around better than 100 years and barb wire in those parts about 130. Those changed the "glamour" of livestock management but the lifestyle continued albeit in a different form. If you were a real purist I guess you'd say that the "glamour" of the livestock business died with the end of the open range.