MEDANO-ZAPATA RANCH HISTORY

SOUTHERN UTES and SPANISH EXPLORERS

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be an early settler in the San Luis Valley? Begin by picturing clouds of dust moving closer from the other side of the Valley. Until the late 1800’s that would have signified the approach of Native Americans or a herd of bison. The Southern Ute tribe claimed the San Luis Valley as home, but several other tribes, such as the Hopi, Navajo, Apache and Kiowa, are known to have lived here. Native Americans, from New Mexico, frequently came north to the Valley in search of hunting oportunities and religious pilgramages. In fact, there are several archaeological sites on the Medano-Zapata Ranch where various artifacts have been found. One such site is a Folsom bison kill site and a couple of years ago a pit-house site was found. These sites have been discovered and studied by a team of two archaeologists, Pegi Jodry and Dennis Stanford, from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, who have been conducting archaeological digs on the Ranch for over 20 years. On one of their early excursions they uncovered bison bones believed to be roughly 11,000 years old.

Early European explorers, mistaking the plains bison for water buffalo, tried to domesticate the animals. One of the earliest recorded histories of the San Luis Valley includes an account of one such incident. The tale involves Spaniards who entered the Valley around 1599 in search of gold, meat and religious conquest. Upon hearing of the bison in the north, a small party of Spaniards was sent to domesticate the animals. On the East Side of the Valley, The Ute, who gave an elaborate demonstration of bison hunting, greeted the party. With little knowledge of the temperament of bison, the would-be Vaqueros stampeded a herd of 500 bison. Many of their horses were killed, and the idea of domestication was abandoned.

With winter approaching, the initial friendliness between the Native Americans and the Spaniards deteriorated rapidly. The Spanish needed food and shelter, so they commandeered the Native Americans’ corn and enslaved them. For nearly a century the Spaniards enslaved the native peoples. When the slaves finally rebelled, they drove the Spaniards down from the mountains, across the sand dunes, and into makeshift rafts on the Rio Grande River. Francisco Torres, a Catholic missionary, had been mortally wounded in the uprising. Too weak to make it into the raft, his dying vision was of the mountain peaks tinged blood red by the setting sun. As he lay dying in great pain, he cried out, “Sangre de Cristo!” (Meaning blood of Christ) giving the mountains surrounding the ranch their name.

ZEBULON PIKE

In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson sent Lt. Zebulon Pike to discover the source of the Red River, which was considered to bethe dividing line between the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and the Spanish Territories. In the dead of winter, Pike crossed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with twelve men. Upon exiting Mosca Pass, he described his first view of the sand dunes. He said it was as if one was looking upon a sea. We know from his journals that he descended and camped in a “copse” of cottonwoods that is now the headquarters for the Zapata Ranch. Unfortunately, Pike wandered into Spanish territory and one month after building a fort, the Spanish imprisoned him. Over one year later, he and his men were released at the Texas border.

MEXICAN and AMERICAN SETTLEMENT

In the 1810’s, New Mexican pastors began herding sheep up the Rio Grande for summer grazing. Considerable trouble developed with the Ute Indians, but each year the sheep men secured more land. The demand for wool and mutton was so great in Colorado that cowboys are said to have planned raids to rustle sheep from Native Americans in Texas and bring them back to sell at Fort Garland, CO.

By the 1860’s cattlemen began to move into the San Luis Valley. Mexican families began settling the Zapata Ranch. Rivalries developed between the sheep ranchers and cattlemen over the acquisition of the land. Slowly but surely, with no legal recourse, the Mexican families sold their land to the Dickey family. Soon the Dickey Brothers owned 9,000 acres and acquired leases on 90,000 more. They chose, out of all their land, to make Medano Ranch their headquarters.

TEOFILO TRUJILLO

One Mexican family that the Dickeys had particular trouble with was the family of Teofilo Trujillo. Teofilo came to the Valley as a cattleman and also began a sheep operation. His son, Pedro, repeatedly begged his father not get into sheep ranching. Teofilo was determined though, and soon had a thriving sheep ranch. He built one of the finest homes in the Valley, complete with stained glass windows, oriental rugs, and the finest furniture. Trujillo was most notable for riding around in a brightly painted stagecoach. It is speculated that the Dickey Brothers both wanted the Trujillo land and wanted the sheep operation stopped. Legend has it that one day the Dickey Brothers sent some cowboys over to the Trujillo homestead. After the women of the house were distracted by one cowboy at the front door, the others surrounded the house and broke the windows with flaming bottles of kerosene while others slaughtered the prize ram and hung its head from the ranch entrance. Teofilo returned to find his ranch destroyed. Shortly after, the Dickeys came into ownership of his land and Teofilo relocated to San Luis, CO where he is buried today. His son, Pedro, stayed on and built his own house just a

mile from the ruins of his father’s home. That house is still standing and is now known as the Trujillo Homestead.

MOSCA PASS

Around the same time period, two enterprising men built a toll road through Mosca Pass. The fare was $1.50 for stagecoaches and $.75 for other travelers. One of the many gatekeepers on the pass was an old man named English Billing. To amuse himself in his solitude he broke a team of elk and put them in harness, much to the amusement of anyone who passed his way. Unfortunately, so few passed through Mosca Pass, the toll business barely limped along until 1911 when the road, ravaged by floods, was completely washed out.

In 1878, William Adee, with the assistance of his attorney Mr. Durkee (of Durkee Spice fame), bought the Medano Ranch from the Dickey Brothers. By 1879, a store and post office were established at Zapata Ranch in what is now the headquarter buildings. The building we now use as a boiler room was the original post office and chicken coop; the Mouse House, on the east end of the parking area, was a stage coach stop; and the Education Building, the building on the west end of the parking area with the red door, was the barn. It is said that a horse thief was hung outside of the post office.

In 1889 members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, having troubles with Native Americans in Utah, attempted to start a settlement in the San Luis Valley and purchased part of the Zapata Ranch. They envisioned a reservoir in the mountains above Zapata Falls, with a flume designed to bring water down to the valley floor where it would irrigate the Mormon farms. In an attempt to put this vision into reality, a cement buttress was built across the creek just below the falls. Chinese workers, brought in from Denver, attacked the unyielding rock with pick and shovel, eventually scratching a mile and half through the rugged mountain terrain before the project was abandoned.

One story that survives from this time occurred in a nearby mining community. In the 1890’s, some rich ore was found south of Mosca Pass. Soon a small mining town existed there but, as a rich strike was never found, the town closed down as quickly as it had grown. A few miners stayed on, determined to make it rich. Since the saloon closed down, the miners had to travel 6o miles round trip into Hooper if they wanted alcohol. On one occasion Jim Bowerman went to Hooper for supplies. Among other things, the miners asked that he bring back at least five gallons of good alcohol. It seems he was misunderstood when he asked for good (grain) alcohol and was given wood alcohol instead. Bowerman assumed that the skull and cross bones on the containers were a joke. On the way back he passed through Medano Ranch and offered ranch hand Charlie Wellington a drink. Wellington declined a second drink because it tasted so bad. Wellington became seriously ill and later commented about the incident; “I lay down on the hay rack, hung my head over and threw-up my high-heeled boots and everything else that would come up. Had I known it was wood alcohol I would have died right there.” Bowerman returned to the mining camp. Although they realized the alcohol was bad, the thirsty miners freely consumed the alcohol. Soon, Bowerman and another miner died. One of the less afflicted miners went on horseback for the doctor in Mosca. By the time they returned, many of the miners had died and the ones who had not were fast on their way. Those who died were buried in a cemetery, which is the only remnant of the mining camp left today.

In 1900, William Adee, a heavy drinker, committed suicide on the ranch after a prolonged drinking spree. This disillusioned both Durkee and the Mormon Church causing them to sell their property to a man named Sylvester. Sylvester found the task of ranching too great and soon went bankrupt. G.W. Linger purchased both properties from the bank 1911.

CATTLE RANCHING

When the train delivered Linger’s first cattle to Fort Garland in 1914, the cows were in such bad shape they could barely stand. Having just acquired the ranch, the Lingers faced total disaster. They built sleds, strapped each cow on a sled, and hauled them back to the Ranch. It was tough going considering there was no snow at the time. Linger later introduced better breeding stock and with his children he eventually built the Medano and Zapata Ranches into one of the greatest cattle spreads in Colorado.

RENOVATION and RESTORATION

In 1993 the ranches were entered into the National Register of Historic Places. Much of the antiquity of this area can be chronicled by the surviving structures and buildings, many still in original form. The earliest structure at the Zapata Ranch, which dates back to 1876, is a stage coach stop, now known as the Mouse House. Originally, the stop was two separate buildings; one used as an office for the stage coach company, and the other used as housing for up to eight guests. Although many renovations and restorations have taken place on the inside of the structure, including the addition of wall partitions, window and door rearrangement, and the pouring of a concrete foundation, the building looks virtually unchanged from the outside.

Four other buildings on the Zapata Ranch date back to approximately 1880. They are the Post Office (currently used as a boiler room), and the blacksmith shop (presently the laundry), the Bunk House (now used as

guest quarters), and the cattle barn (converted into the sauna and massage area for the former Inn at Zapata Ranch.) The post office served not only to get mail to the small community, but folklore has that it served as a chicken coop as well. The eastern side of the Bunkhouse still consists of the original logs used over a century ago. The fencing and gates that enclose the pool area are original and date back to the 1920’S.

The main lodge/dining building dates back to 1928, when the Linger family built it over an existing structure. The building was used as a ranch house up until 1989, when a Japanese investment group opened the Inn at Zapata Ranch. In 1948, two ranch buildings were disassembled and moved to the northern corners of the Linger home. The stone wall encircling the building was built in 1950.

The renovation of the Zapata Ranch began in 1989 after the Japanese investment group, Rocky Mountain Bison, Inc., purchased the Ranch from the Stewart family. Plans for the Ranch included a high-end bed and breakfast-style resort, restaurant and golf course. Rocky Mountain Bison, Inc. was headquartered on the Medano Ranch where they operated a 2,800 head bison ranch. In the early 1990’S, Hisa Ota emerged as the sole owner of Rocky Mountain Bison, Inc. Through his time on the Ranch, Mr. Ota came to appreciate the landscape and realized the need to protect the natural integrity of the Ranch. Mr. Ota sold the Medano-Zapata Ranch to the Nature Conservancy in July 1999. The Nature Conservancy continued to operate the inn, restaurant and golf course. In the Fall of 2004, Duke Phillips was contracted to manage the land, cattle and bison at the ranch. The restaurant and golf course were closed, and the course is now being restored to native grass and rangeland. The lodge now serves as a the center for a guest Ranching program and Nature Conservancy events.