Turning Gold Fields into Fields of Green

Turning Gold Fields into Fields of Green. . , When gold became hard to find in the 1860s, some Park County gold-seekers turned to ranching., They quickly learned that irrigation was essential, and that water could turn Park County fields into rich meadows of native hay. By 1861, the rights to use water were being claimed and purchased for less than $100. Today these rights are worth millions., Ranchers often conducted side businesses to stay in business, operating saw mills, stores, stage stops and other services. Basic homestead claims were not enough to support a successful cattle operation in South Park. Ranches began to consolidate small holdings into the 1900s, until some exceeded over 100,000 acres in size., Some historic ranches are listed on the National Register of Historic Places; some are managed as State Wildlife Areas and others have recently been purchased by Colorado Open Lands and the Nature Conservancy., In the mid-1800s, rich, irrigated hay fields flourished throughout South Park. Today, most water rights belong to Front Range cities and little hay can be grown with the remaining water resources.,

"It is not necessarily those lands, which are the most fertile or most favored in climate that seem to me the happiest, but those in which a long struggle or adaptation between man and his environment has brought out the best qualities of both."

, , T.S. Eliot from After Strange Gods, Caption: , Middle right: The Salt Works Ranch