Ranching in the Mountain Parks of Colorado

rT nHE mountain parks of Colorado constitute the most elevated large area of yearround agricultural settlement in Anglo-America. In these high basins one finds prosperous, year-round livestock ranching where only summer grazing or marginal agriculture might be expected. For the first seventy-five or so years of its existence, the mountain-park ranching industry prospered in relative serenity, attained a national reputation for fine cattle, and was disturbed only briefly by an unsuccessful homesteading rush of dryland farmers early in the i9oo's. During the last quarter of a century, however, a number of outside influences have exerted increasing pressure on mountain-park resources. The purpose of this paper is to describe the traditional family ranching industry, its physical and human-economic bases, and its probable demise in the not-too-distant future.