Cozens Ranch

1874

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

1. Cozens Ranch Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by Regina M. Black, 5/1988:
The Cozens Ranch House is a 1½ story vernacular board and batten structure constructed in 1874. The house has a large stage stop addition to the rear and a small post office addition on the south elevation. The house was the focus of a ranch operation, stage stop and post office in Grand County, Colorado. The ranch is situated in the Fraser Valley, an area of open "parks" or meadows surrounded by high mountains which lead into Middle Park. Around the ranch, Fraser Valley remains essentially undeveloped with the Winter Park Ski area 3 miles south of the ranch house and the Fraser shopping center two miles to the north as the only major modern intrusive elements in the area.
The ranch house sits 50-75 feet east of the historic wagon road, now U. S. Highway 40, which winds its way through the valley. The Fraser River flows

July 30, 2025

2. Marker detail: Cozens Ranch (historic photo)

within 200 feet of the rear of the house. The original ranch lands surrounding the Cozens Ranch House and Stage Stop are little changed from the time of William Cozens death in 1904. However, most of the outbuildings and structures associated with the ranch no longer exist. Photographs taken before the turn of the century show that the stage stop and ranch house were part of a substantial ranch complex fronting the road then as it is aligned today, as a prosperous grouping of barns and dwellings. All that remains of the ranch complex is the main house constructed in 1874 with its post office and stage stop additions constructed soon thereafter.
The Cozens Ranch House and Stage Stop is architecturally significant as one of the few remaining planked log buildings in Colorado and for the quality of its late nineteenth century western vernacular classical architecture. The craftsmanship of its construction is exemplary. The building is significant for its association with the history of 19th century transportation and settlement in Grand County from 1874 to 1905. The building was an important stage stop on the road from Georgetown to Hot Sulphur Springs, serving from the first opening of the road over Berthoud Pass in 1874 until the coming of the railroad in 1905, when roadhouses associated with stage lines were no longer needed. The significance of the building is enhanced by

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

3. Cozens Ranch Marker

Supplemental details are provided on a panel mounted beside the historical marker.—————Life was hard for women during the last decades of the 1800's. Isolation made Middle Park truly an “island in the Rockies” and the winters were so very long. Mrs. Cozens and her two girls were expected to care for any travelers who stopped by, at whatever hour and in whatever numbers, a duty sometimes resented by Mary Elizabeth, at least.

What pleasures might the women hope for? When spring came at last, there was the garden. It surely must have brightened Mary Elizabeth Cozens' eyes and lifted her heart. In her diary written in 1887-1888, she often speaks of the growing things.

Sept. 27. 1887 — Extra frost after rain — it covered the ground like snow. Pansies, poppies, and daisies all right yet.
Oct. 11 — Pansies still in bloom, also daisies, in spite of heavy frosts.
Oct. 24 — The pansies, poppies, and daisies are flat. No more blooms this year.
Oct. 31 — Oh, if only winter would miss us this year!
Jan. 8, 1888 — 42 below zero, more plants frozen and banished to cellar for the winter.
Feb. 29 — Order seeds from Vick — pansy, morning glory, phlox, dandelion, nasturtiums, and plants also — 2 roses, 1 daphne, 1 paeony, 1 mock orange.
March 14 — No seeds yet.
March 21 — Seeds come at last.
April 2 — Poppies and dandelions coming up.
April 17 — Clear the straw and rubbish from flower garden — find most of the giant pansies dead but contrary to expectations, carnations and sweet William all right.
April 24 — Rains very hard — plants in garden ought not to be uncovered here before May 1st. The carnations suffer for my haste.
May 7 — Get plants from Vick at last, in very nice condition.
May 9 — Set out daphne, paeony, and lilac.
May 26 — Somehow the spring impresses me badly — these heavy frosts and sudden warm spells. Storms seem to check the growth of everything except the grass!
June 27 — First pansy gathered this morning — lilacs sprouting.
July 13, 1888 — Nearly all the plants are budded!

the local fame of its owner and builder, William Zane Cozens: ex-sheriff of Central City, early homesteader of the Fraser Valley, postmaster and stage stop host.
Cozens was one of the earliest settlers in the valley and contributed to the area's development. William Zane Cozens and Mary York Cozens crossed the divide from Central City to the east and homesteaded 160 acres on the Fraser in 1872, and in 1874 built the house which stands today, essentially unaltered. Appointed deputy sheriff soon after his arrival, William, better known as Billy, was appointed chief deputy sheriff of Gilpin County in 1861. Cozens assumed the office of sheriff in 1862 when the elected sheriff resigned. He completed the term, gained election in his own right, then held the office for six years.
Mary York Cozens was born in England of Irish parents in 1830 and immigrated with her family to Canada when she was twelve. Her father died at sea, and her mother died but three months after landing. Mary was placed in a private home as a servant, later moved to New York, then to Baltimore. She came west with a family as their house servant, and as the Cozens children later told the story, was intended by her employer as a white slave for the gold fields. She escaped and found protection with the Gregory party (of Gregory diggings fame), ultimately to meet and marry Billy Cozens in 1860.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

4. Cozens Ranch Marker

The marker is mounted near the southeast corner of the ranch house, on the right side of the east entrance.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

5. Cozens Ranch (southwest elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  The 1874 ranch house features a rectangular plan with a front gable roof. A four-over-four double-hung window is placed in the middle of the front gable. A center doorway with a four-over-four window on each side compose the first floor facade. The northwest elevation has two windows, equally spaced, on the first floor, and as with the other original windows, have four-over-four pane lights and a double-hung sash. All doors and windows in the building have plain surrounds and appear to be original. Typical of the rural character of the building is the one story shed-roofed porch which is supported by plain square posts and extends across the front of the house and wraps around the southeast side of the building. The porch ceiling is made of narrow tongue in groove boards.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

6. Cozens Ranch (southeast elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  The porch terminates at the small, one story shed addition on the south side which served as the Fraser Post Office from July 1876 to 1904. The stage stop is a one-story structure with its gabled front facing south. It sits partially behind the house, at right angles to it, joined by the one-story post office addition on the south elevation. Like the ranch house, the post office and stage stop additions are of board and batten construction, but the workmanship of the stage stop addition is less polished than that of the ranch house.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

7. Cozens Ranch Museum

Looking north from Zerex Street (U.S. Highway 40).

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

8. Cozens Family Cemetery

The Cozens Family Cemetery is on the hill behind the Cozens Ranch, at the intersection of River Run Circle & Homestead Loop. William and Mary Cozens are buried here alongside their children. Today the small family plot is surrounded by condominiums.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 30, 2025

9. William & Mary Cozens Headstones

Wm. Z. Cozens
Born July 2, 1830
Died Jan. 17, 1904
R.I.P.

Mary Cozens
Nee York
Born Mar. 17, 1830
Died Mar. 15, 1909
R.I.P.