The ranch was settled in the 1880’s when “Gold Fever” was running rampant in the region. Numerous remnants of that period, such as abandoned cabins and mine shafts, can still be seen.
After the turn of the century, mining gave way to ranching as the economic mainstay. By 1920 the area caught the interest of a Colorado Springs family who were impressed with its sculptured mountains and pristine beauty. The Taylor family purchased the ranch as a summer retreat. In 1930 the ranch was acquired by Leon Snyder, a prominent Colorado Springs attorney who developed it into a unique guest ranch. Thus began the tradition.
Our Story… how the dream became reality!
The Western lifestyle has always been an integral part of our lives, but it wasn’t until after being guests ourselves at a dude ranch that we realized Dude Ranching was a unique way to share our way of life and dreams of living out West!
Kevin was the first one to expand the mold of our Midwest (Iowa) lifestyle by going to help a friend on his dude ranch in Colorado. The next summer Kevin and Lisa and the family took the opportunity to visit a dude ranch and had the vacation-of-a-lifetime!
A few years later, Kelvin, our oldest son and now our Head Wrangler worked at that same Colorado ranch where he met his wife Bridget, now our Head Cook. Kurtis, our second son, also worked at that same Colorado ranch. Kevin continued helping out at that ranch for short periods of time for about ten years.
None of us have ever experienced a vacation where we went to a place, met complete strangers, and left with tears in our eyes, feeling that we were leaving a part of ourselves behind. We knew then a dude ranch was the perfect avenue for us to share our love for horses and our passion for the Western lifestyle with others.
Our third and fourth sons, Kody and Klayton, undoubtedly would have followed in their older brothers footsteps except for the fact that we were blessed with the opportunity to run our own dude ranch.
As the story goes… one thing led to another and before long we were loading the horses on the trailer and heading West to the Tarryall River Ranch in Lake George, Colorado! Now, every summer all of us in the Tesch Family thoroughly enjoy sharing in a unique and special opportunity with so many great people from all over the world!
We hope you will check out the rest of our website and stop by our corner of the west and see why we say…
