The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Tom Ross

Tom Ross' column appears Tuesdays and Saturdays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com.

Steamboat Springs — I have a sense that William and Sarah Belton might have been taken aback by the wagonload of youngsters that rolled through a meadow in the lower Elk River Valley on Friday. The meadow was filled with 150 cows and calves, and the children were clad in bright pastel clothing.

Most of all, William and Sarah would have been flabbergasted at the sight of the big green John Deere tractor that was pulling the wagon full of children.

The Beltons homesteaded in the valley in 1898, a few years before tractors were invented.

The youngsters visiting the ranch Friday were Steamboat Springs third-graders who have been studying Colorado history. The annual Ranch Day visit is part of the schools’ commitment to place-based education, teacher Kim Waldschmidt said. Her colleague, Holly Curtiss, said the ranch visit also is an effort to provide the students with hands-on learning opportunities.

“It’s a way to see what they’ve been learning about and apply it,” Curtiss said.

Prior to the visit, the students listened to CSU extension agent Jay Whaley talk about how steaks get from the pasture to the plate. And South Routt rancher Britta Horn visited the schools to tell the students about all of the products that are made with beef byproducts. Cow parts most of us would refuse to eat are put to use in gelatin, brake fluid and insulin. Cattle even supply blood plasma used in treating humans.

As the students enjoyed their wagon ride amid the four- to seven-week old calves, Larry Belton, great-grandson of William and Sarah, talked to the youngsters about the long tradition of family ranching in the Elk and Yampa valleys.

“I think it’s great they come out here,” Belton said. “They need to understand a little bit about where food comes from.”

Larry’s son, Matt, and daughter-in-law Christy hosted the school children at the ranch they lease from a Chicago man, who purchased the former Ruth and Forrest Warren ranch a few years ago. The 1,600 deeded acres of the ranch were placed under a conservation easement in 2000.

The little homestead where William and Sarah Belton first established their ranch 110 years ago is just down the valley.

Larry Belton is pleased to see his son and his wife continue ranching.

“Their son, Tell, (represents) the sixth generation of Beltons ranching in this area,” Larry said.

Matt and Christy Belton might own a modern tractor, but they still do some things the way their great great-grandparents did.

Through a record snow season that still is reluctant to die, Matt used a team of four draft horses to feed his cattle from a heavily loaded sled.

The good thing about draft horses is that they never fail to start, no matter how cold it gets outside.

When the cows began giving birth March 27, heavy snow continued to fall.

“This was the toughest calving season,” Matt said. “We lost three of them, but it would have been worse if I didn’t basically live out there.”

Looking across the hay meadow, greening with new grass, and snowy Elk Mountain in the background, it’s easy to recall what ranch families had to contend with during the past winter.

For the third-graders and their teachers, it was a chance to get a little closer to the food chain — call them burgers on the hoof if you want.

“It’s one of the best weeks of the year for us,” Waldschmidt said.