At the turn of the century, James Thomas Redmond was working for the Otis Elevator Company installing elevators across the country. He predicted that one of the last places to be developed would be Northwest Colorado. In 1915 James bought a piece of property known as the “Wright Place” between Yampa and Hunt Creek before moving to a new property on Bull Creek.

The family moved from the original house on the Bull Creek property, as it was sinking because it was built on an irrigated hay pasture. James disassembled the barn before moving it off the hay meadow and you can still see how James numbered some of the logs.

It was on Bull Creek that James and his wife Elizabeth raised their family. James bought this new property from a family with the last name of Boar.

James continued to buy original homestead plots until he had acquired about 320 acres. James and Elizabeth had four children. The oldest, Patsy, was born in 1917. James “Jack” was born in 1922, Bill was born in 1924, and John “Dean” was born in 1926.

The family raised cattle, hay, oats and other grains. The home place served many needs and had many buildings on it including a chicken coop, barn, lambing shed, granary, coal shed and blacksmith. Today there is still an original lamppost from the town of Yampa on the property. 

Jack received a Botany degree from Denver University and worked for the Soil Conservation Service. All three boys were involved in the armed services during World War II with Jack and Bill enlisting in the Navy and Dean joining the Merchant Marines.

The three boys worked the land with their father before splitting up the property into individual ranches in the mid-1980s and living in neighboring valleys. Currently the “Home Place” is 387 acres. Jack and his wife Wanda had three kids, James “Jim,” John, and Julie.

In the winter Jack always fed his cattle with a team of horses until the late 1990s. Some of John’s favorite memories include riding horses on the forest permit and herding Rambouillet and Suffolk sheep on his motorcycle and his horse. John can remember many tough days when, “everything is broken down and not working.”

John went to school at Soroco all the way through middle school and graduated high school in 1984. John and his wife Sara have two children of their own — Garrett, who is working and attending school in Oregon, and Grant, who is working in Idaho.

Today John runs cattle and puts up hay that they sell to buyers mostly on the Front Range. The future of the ranch is bright but undecided, with the original homestead under a conservation easement.