In 2024, a Colorado county paid $34 million for a 650-acre ranch privately owned for more than a century; 2 years later, 530 acres are being transferred into the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness
In a major expansion of protected public land, 530 acres of a historic Colorado mountain ranch are being formally added to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, two years after local officials secured the property in a record $34 million purchase. Known as Snowmass Falls Ranch, the 650-acre property sits in the upper Snowmass Creek Valley and had been privately owned for more than a century. Pitkin County bought the property in 2024 through its Open Space and Trails programme to prevent it from being divided for housing. Under the planned agreement, most of the ranch will be transferred to the United States Forest Service and permanently added to the surrounding 181,535-acre federal wilderness area. The transfer completes a decades-long effort by conservationists to protect the environmentally sensitive valley floor, which lies at the foot of the Elk Mountains.
A century of private ownership
Before European settlement, the land was part of the historic territory of the Ute People. In the early 20th century, Danish immigrant Kate Lindvig put together several parcels through the Homestead Act and direct purchases. She became known as the “Cattle Queen of Snow Mass”. Lindvig ran the ranch on her own until 1943, when she sold it to Bob Perry, his wife Ruth Brown Perry and her brother, D.R.C. Brown, Jr. The Perry family looked after the property for nearly 80 years before eventually putting it on the market. The ranch was listed for sale in 2021 for $50 million. With property prices rising rapidly in Pitkin County, local conservation groups feared that the rare, connected stretch of land could be divided into expensive luxury homes. “Snowmass Falls Ranch is quite easily the most extraordinary piece of private land in Pitkin County,” said Dale Will, acquisition and projects director for Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, during public discussions about the proposal. “We’ve held our breath since the property was listed, but never gave up on the hope that the ranch could be preserved”.
Financing the record purchase
The $34 million purchase was the largest open space acquisition in Pitkin County’s history, doubling the previous record of $17 million paid for Sky Mountain Park in 2010. The county financed the deal through open space bonds issued in 2020, along with a $10 million loan from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). The organisation distributes state lottery money to support conservation projects by local governments. Additional help came from The Wilderness Land Trust, which worked with local officials on the federal land transfer process. According to local news outlet The Slope, official records published through Pitkin County’s civic alert portal and financial information from Alpine Bank, the deal was designed to allow the county to sell a large part of the ranch to the federal government later. The county plans to transfer 530 acres into the White River National Forest using money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). This will allow Pitkin County to recover a significant part of the money it spent buying the property. The remaining 120 acres contain historic farm buildings and basic cabins. These will remain under county control or be protected through a conservation easement to preserve the land and maintain future public access.
Protecting important wildlife habitat
The ranch is surrounded on three sides by federally protected wilderness and contains a range of habitats, including beaver ponds, spruce forests, alpine wetlands and large aspen groves. The property also has two miles of frontage along Snowmass Creek and holds senior water rights that are important for agricultural and municipal supplies downstream. The land provides important summer habitat for native wildlife, including elk, mule deer, moose, black bears and mountain lions. It also contains two natural waterfalls, including Snowmass Falls, which gives the ranch its name. The property is also important for outdoor recreation. Two major U.S. Forest Service trails cross the ranch, giving hikers and backpackers routes into the Maroon Bells-Snowmass area. With the land now under county ownership and being transferred to federal protection, public access to the trailheads will be secured permanently, ending long-running access concerns near the entrance. Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, described the acquisition as an important moment for conservation in the county during the early stages of the purchase. “The final pieces of major public land in Pitkin County that we haven’t been able to conserve are out there, and this was one of them, and it was a big one,” Tennenbaum noted. “We hope to transfer most of the ranch to the Forest Service as soon as possible, but for now, this amazing property will be open space”. With 530 acres now moving into federal management, the former private property will receive permanent protection under the Wilderness Act. The move ensures that the upper valley floor will remain undeveloped and open to the public for generations to come.
