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MacGregor Ranch is the last remaining working cattle ranch in Estes Park and one of the few sites operating as both a working ranch and youth education center in northern Colorado. It is unique in that its historic collection and structures are original to the 1873 homestead family, and its collection is completely intact. MacGregor Ranch offers a window into the past for its visitors. Take a step back in time as you come in the front gate. Percheron draft horses and ranch hands work the hay meadow. The main ranch house, now the museum, is warm and inviting - welcoming children's groups and summer visitors. The Black Angus cattle and horses grazing the meadow remind you of simpler times.
The scenic landscape is untouched, as it offers a look back in time to the early homesteading days of Estes Park and the Black Canyon Creek area. The Lumpy Ridge borders the Ranch on the north boundary and offers dramatic views of the Estes valley. The Ranch is a unique living history example of early days in Estes Park.
The MacGregor family lived continuously from 1896 to 1970 in what is now the MacGregor Ranch House Museum. The Ranch House was opened to the public in 1973. Built in 1896, it is the last of five homes built by the family. Filled with three generations of original furnishings, documents, oil paintings and other personal possessions, it is a unique living history example of ranching and life in the early days of Estes Park. Visitors see personal diaries, early historic photographs, and hear trained guides share Colorado homesteading history. Included among the documents are copies of homestead papers signed during three president's terms. In the dining room, the china and silver of the period are displayed. School groups and visitors enjoy self-guided tours of the milk house, root cellar, smokehouse, and blacksmith shop within walking distance of the museum.
During Donald MacGregor's ranching days, from 1920 to 1950, work was done with several teams of draft horses and horse-drawn machinery. In the 1920's as many as thirty large haystacks dotted the meadow as baling continued into November each year. Historic methods of hay production continue today following the MacGregor tradition. The original horse-drawn machinery is being restored and the mowers, buck rakes, side-delivery rakes and the overshot stacker are used each summer and fall. Many bales of hay are needed to feed the cattle and horse herds. With the short growing season at 7,500 feet, the summer and fall go by quickly and only one cutting is obtained from the natural grass meadow.
The ranch has forty-two buildings, twenty-eight of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic structures date from 1873 to 1920 and range from log to vernacular wood frame construction, many with native stone foundations. Sidings vary from clapboard to shiplap and roofing ranges from tin to wood shingle. Loafing and calving sheds are used for the cattle, tack barns and stalls are still used for draft horses that work in the fields. Chickens are still kept in the brooding and laying houses. The main barn stores native grass hay grown on the meadow and side slopes of the ranch. Structures themselves represent the self-sustaining economy of the ranching business at the turn of the century and act as a mirror of the agricultural methods, and ranching techniques of the early Colorado settlement era. The Ranch has been awarded the two most prestigious awards given in the State of Colorado for historic preservation by the Colorado Historical Society; the Josephine H. Miles award in 2003 and the Stephen H. Hart award in 2004.
MacGregor Ranch will be hosting school groups beginning in April 2009.
The main fundraiser each year is our Chuckwagon Dinner held on June 20th, 2009.
FUN FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL
1) Completely intact 1873 Homestead that uniquely interprets high altitude ranching in the Rocky Mountains.
2) One of the few remaining historic working ranches in the state.
OTHER PLACES TO VISIT
1) Historic Fall River Hydroplant
2) Estes Park Museum
3) Enos Mills Cabin
BEST TIMES TO VISIT
July and August the Museum is open, Tuesday - Friday, 10 - 4pm
RELATED WEBSITES
http://estesparkcvb.com/
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