The area around the ranch was visited by the Spanish in the 1600s and their legacy still figures prominently today. Bear Canyon Ranch is located on the line between two historic Spanish land grants—The Nolan Land Grant and the St. Vrain Land Grant.
We’re snuggled in the Wet Mountains of the San Isabel National Forest. To the west is Greenhorn Mountain, which has multiple peaks, the highest stands at 12,346 feet. Greenhorn Peak, St. Charles Peak, and North Peak all reach above tree line. The Wet Mountains are a small mountain range, named for the amount of snow we typically get in the winter as compared to the dry Great Plains to the east. They are a sub-range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the southern Rocky Mountains System.
If you are interested in the area’s geology, the core of the mountains around us consists of Precambrian granitic rocks with Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata in fault contact.
To the east is the Greenhorn valley which then emerges into the Great Plains farther east. The valley is named after Cuerno Verde (Greenhorn in English), a Comanche chief and war leader who raided Spanish settlements farther south in New Mexico. In 1779 he was defeated and killed near the I-25 exit by a New Mexican army led by Governor Juan Bautista de Anza. The towns nearest the ranch are Rye, CO to the south and Beulah, CO to the northeast, both reflecting the influence of its history.
Among the many things we’ve enjoyed doing, is tracing the history of the property. It was first granted a homestead patent to Albert Bisbee on November 3, 1891 which included all of the current Bear Canyon Ranch as well as acreage to the north comprising of 162.92 acres.
Bisbee was born in Indiana in 1829 and came to nearby Pueblo in 1872 and had the distinction of being a passenger on the first Santa Fe railway train that entered this city. He was a Union Army Civil War veteran having served in the Second cavalry, Minnesota volunteers, under Capt. Isaac Bonham.
Considered one of the pioneers of the state, he was a farmer and contractor. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic—a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. Below is a copy of the homestead certificate for Bear Canyon Ranch.
Under the original Homestead Act of 1862, homesteaders were required to live on and improve their land for five years to be eligible for a free title to the land. Bisbee had also applied for a homestead on land further east of the ranch and decided to settle in there as the property offered the ability for easier farming. Since Bisbee had abandoned his homestead filing by not living continuously on the property, it was re-homesteaded by Amos Sweet in August 23, 1893. Following is his homestead certificate.
