Making of the Currie Ranch and Subsequent Residential Subdivisions
Information based on Don Wexielman’s unpublished memoirs , and Lucille Schmitt’s pamphlet, Red Feather Historical Society Tour, July 21, 2004.
At its completion the Currie Ranch was 17,000 acres owned in fee along with leases to 75,000 acres of National Forest grazing land. It was begun by John in 1906 and completed by his son Clarence and sold in 1967.
"Gordon Creek was a productive area for ranching."
Homesteaders from bottom of drainage on down: John Gordon, Isaac and John Riddle, Swan (Herbert and Wesley), John Sloan, Solomon Batterson (later owned by John McNey and then his son), Ray Stouffer.
The table below is a list of the John and Clarence purchases over the years. Following the table is another table of the two townships showing where a majority of these acquisitions occurred along Gordon Creek, in and around Glacier View Meadows color-coded to show the various purchases.
John and Clarence Currie Purchases
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John Currie owned a livery stable in Fort Collins before beginning his acquisitions. |
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1906 |
John passed through Sloan Ranch on route to a fishing trip on Poudre, at Dutch George Flats and decided to purchase if Sloan would make additional acquisitions to make it a productive unit. Sloan purchased properties of Isaac and John Riddle, Hector Cowan (properties along Gordon Creek ), and Dutch George property on the Poudre |
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1910 |
John now owned 3,000 acres winter range and leased 2,000 acres Forest Land |
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1915 |
Received patents for land in sections 18, 19, & 20 in Township T9NR71W and 24, 25 in Township T9NR72W.Currie’s LOX ranch house is located in the middle- western end of section 19, 74E. |
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1920 |
Son Maurice received patent for land in section 18 |
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1921 |
640 acres in the area known now as the North Rim (sections 28 and 29), homesteaded in 1914 – 1918 by the Randleman brothers, Dale, Lou, and Ray. Currie thereby secured the Forest Service grazing rights down to his land on Dutch George land on the Poudre, a section just below section 34. This gave him control of 5,000 acres |
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1922 |
Buys homesteads of sons William and Maurice. Made youngest son Clarence (1900 - ?) the ranch manager. |
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1926 |
Clarence makes his first purchase, the Maurice D. Spence homestead (patented 1922), on North Rim Road ½ mile south of Elkhorn Creek , Section 21-9-72 |
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1932 |
John acquires the Stouffer Ranch of 1,000 acres (GVM 2nd, 3rd, and 6th filings, Sections 15 & 14). Stouffer defaulted on his loan because of the 1930’s drought.The cabin is on Lot 25, 2nd Filing. Ranch included homesteads of Olsen, Theodore Ayers, Frank Ayers, Asbury Riddle Others refer to the ranch house at top of Batterson Hill, on the right in GMM as the Stouffer Ranch |
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1932 |
John sells his holdings to his son Clarence |
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1933 |
Clarence acquires Dr. Herman Maul properties in 11-10-74, the north ½ is the area around Crystal Lake and the south ½ is now Beaver Meadows (which at the time he leased as grazing land to Eugenia Murdock, Maul’s sister-in-law). |
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1940 |
John Currie dies |
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1943 |
Clarence buys Hattie McMurray Place which consisted of several properties homesteaded in the late 1880s: Isaac C. Riddle (23-9-71), John Riddle (22-9-71) and Edward N. Beattie (22-9-71). "This put Currie in direct competition with Wesley Swan who owned the ranch in between and had two miles of Gordon Creek." Buys McMurray sections 32 & 33 9-71 which gives him control of Hewlett Gulch with 1,500 acres. [This land is not on Hewlett Gulch.] Stove Prairie land on Poudre sold to Climax Molybdenum which traded it to Forest Service |
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1946 |
Buys August Young land (2 miles east of Log Cabin), now part of Green Mountain Meadows |
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1947 |
Buys Bert Bush property, 200 acres (which he had farmed) which is now GVM greenbelt (Filing 8) and Gordon Creek east of Mt. Moriah Road (Saddle Creek Ranches). Old ranch building is on GVM Lot 17 and dugout on lot 29, both 8th filing (does he mean 4th Filing? (Later Diana Lustig buys the Bush house and uses it for a pottery studio in 4th Filing.) |
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1953 |
Buys 3,000 acres Black Mountain Ranch (Crystal Lakes) from the Floyd family (homesteaders? Knell, Yockey, Sankey, Eggers, Clark Moore) at $5.00/acre. They had used it as a dude ranch and outfitters headquarters. |
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? |
Acquires section 36-9-72 (GVM 12th Filing) from State of Colorado. School located 300 feet from the intersection of Mount Simon and 74E. |
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1967 |
Sells ranch and farm in LaPorte to Chamberlain et al. |
Currie Ranch Holdings in Gordon Creek Area
Orientation to the map
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Currie’s LOX ranch house is located in the middle- western end of section 19, 74E, where Red Feather Lakes Road is furthest south.
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The blue lines are Gordon Creek on the right and Elkhorn Creek on the left.
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The black line is Red Feather Lakes Road.
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Glacier View Meadows land is located in sections in T9NR72W: 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, 25, 25, 26, and 36 and are shown as larger font. Total acreage of these sections is 5,760, of which 3,000 are part of GVM.
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Green Mountain Meadows land is along Gordon Creek in 9-72 sections 13, 11 and a tiny bit of 12.
Turning the Currie Ranch into Residential Subdivisions
, 1969 – 1976Beginning with the 17,000 acre Currie ranch, and other acquisitions totaling 24,000 acres, Don Wexielman and partners created six subdivisions along 74E, named as follows, beginning at the crest of McNey Hill:
- Hewlett Gulch
- Glacier View Meadows
- Green Mountain Meadows
- North Rim
- Crystal Lakes (west of Red Feather Lakes)
Some of the other 7,000 acres were
- 1,520 acres Swan Ranch on Gordon Creek south of 74E in Hewlett Gulch
- 560 acres Painted Post (earlier name for Pot Belly?)
- 5,000 acres other including Garnich homesteaded 36-9-72
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1969 |
Don Weixelman arranges sale from Chamberlain to Lee E. Stubblefield. Black Mountain Ranch bought [from Stubblefield] to form 2,320 lots in Crystal Lakes |
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1971 |
Green Mountain Meadows purchased to be developed as 10 – 40 acres parcels. Gray Mountain Company formed from purchase of 5,800 acres from Stubblefield. Glacier View Meadows formed from 3,800 acres from Gray Mountain. First Filing ready in September, with brisk sales. Crystal Lake construction begun and completed in fall 1972 with a capacity of 1,000 acre feet, 55 acres and 45 feet at its deepest, at a cost of $1 million. |
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1972 |
Colorado Legislature passes laws regarding compensation for use of well water, which led to the landmark "water augmentation plan". Well users had to compensate down stream users who had senior water rights. In order to continue developing the subdivision land, Don had to purchase water rights from some entity and then release this water to the Poudre River water system to compensate for the water removed by wells in the subdivision. "Development was basically stopped until the Augmentation Plan was approved by the Water Court in Greeley in 1976." |
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1972-1976 |
Mild recession in land sales prompted a change in marketing strategy to a "direct mail marketing" program where gifts were used to entice visitors to look at the land. |
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1975 |
The Water Court grants a water decree of seventy-five shares of underground water from the Cache la Poudre River in the Elkhorn and Gordon Creek drainages through the Mountain and Plains Irrigation Company. This "Water Augmentation Plan" turned out to be a landmark decision, both for the Water Court and for developers in Larimer County. |
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1976 |
Don purchases Beaver Meadows from George and Alice Drake who had operated it as a dude ranch from 1952 – 1971. Larimer County tightens zoning laws from the permissive O-Open Zone. |