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Ranchers take new approach to save their home

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Contributed by: YourHub.com on 9/19/2006

John and Mary Welty are trying desperately to save their Black Forest ranch.

In its third generation, the farm and cattle ranch rambles across rolling acres of coarse grasses lacerated by dry ravines and dotted with white rocks and clusters of pine. Elk and antelope wander the landscape. At night, the stars are a milky wash across the clear black sky.

The Weltys love their peaceful country life. But lingering drought conditions have choked off their feed crop, and the couple can't raise many cows on the dry pasture.

"The drought has been horrible the last four or five years," Mary said. "We had to sell off most of our cows. You don't get anything out of them because nobody has pasture or water. It's not a quick recovery to build your herd back in the cattle business."

To save their ranch, the Weltys are tapping into the same pioneer spirit that carried
John's family west on covered wagons in the 1800s. While other struggling farmers and ranchers are retiring or selling out, the Weltys are trying something different.

By next summer Point of Rocks Ranch on County Line Road may be a bustling little Western town each weekend, with live music and small-scale chuckwagon dinners, upscale shopping, horse training clinics, portrait shoots, elk hunting and whatever else they think up.

Although they have big dreams, they're taking small steps.

Last month they opened Flyin' Cowboy Ranch Store, an upscale Western décor and roping supply store.

Customers probably wouldn't guess the boutique is housed in their remodeled chicken coop. Amidst the pungent scent of new leather, handmade jewelry, ceramics, purses and Western apparel share space with decorative cow, alpaca and sheepskin hides and high-end ropes, bridles, stirrups and hand-crafted saddles.

Dozens trekked to the store for the Aug. 20 grand opening, passing Mary's life-size sculptures of horses and cattlemen along County Line Road en route to the ranch.

The store joins Mary's fine art gallery, which she opened in 1997 to sell her bronze, wire and clay sculptures, oil and acrylic paintings, wood carvings and hand-molded story-teller dolls.

If business increases through the fall, the couple hopes to launch additional weekend attractions in the spring, such as a blacksmith shop, a trading post, the chuckwagon dinners and expanded live music offerings.

"It's just going to be an old-fashioned Western get together every Saturday and Sunday," she said. "We'd like to have some entertainment without all the hoopla and electrical stuff. People can just listen to it in the nature and it kind of echoes down in the meadows."

The couple is banking on busy people's desire to slow down and reconnect with nature and the past. Point of Rocks Ranch is poised to offer that connection.

"When you come out and you walk in the woods and you hear the raindrops falling on the leaves - we can all find that sense of peace people are looking for," Mary said. "You can still hear the wildlife like it was out in the Old West - the coyotes howling, you still get that out here. It's important to preserve the land that is left in this country. Developers get a hold of it and it never returns."

Point of Rocks Ranch might be successful with its weekend plans if several other Colorado Springs ranches are any indication.

Flying W Ranch in Mountain Shadows and Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site at Garden of the Gods are successfully drawing people with music, meals, living history demonstrations and Western shopping.

Flying W draws more than a thousand people each summer night to its live cowboy music and chuckwagon dinners, supplementing income from its cattle operation in Del Norte. Sales manager Aaron Winter said despite its established success with tourists, Flying W still struggles to reach locals and customers under 55 years old.

Winter said Point of Rocks will be successful if it advertises heavily and networks with other businesses who cater to people interested in the Western experience.

"Their main thing is to advertise and coldcall," he suggested. "They gotta establish a name for themselves and get people to know that they actually exist. We get tons of tourists every single year. When it comes to the locals, a lot of folks don't know that we're here."

Rock Ledge Ranch focuses on the living history experience, not on entertainment, but draws 45,000 to 50,000 visitors a year, said lead interpreter Cheryl Catalano.

"Our blacksmith does have occasional workshops and people attend and those are very full," Catalano said. "Ranching and the way people lived in the 19th century is really far removed from us today but you can reach back somewhat, especially on a working ranch."

Call 495-4544 for Point of Rocks Ranch store and gallery times of operation.
Reach Gina Grate at 636-0296 or gina.grate@gazette.com

On the Web
www.mjwelty.com

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