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Colorado - Mon. 03/09/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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HISTORIC TOLLAND RANCH PURCHASED; WILL BE PRESERVED AS WILDLIFE HABITAT
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The historic family-owned Tolland Ranch, located west of the Peak to Peak Highway near Rollinsville in a valley adjacent to the James Peak Wilderness and Roosevelt National Forest, has been purchased by The Conservation Fund and is being conveyed to Colorado Parks and Wildlife to be managed as a new state wildlife area. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed but the realtor handling the sale, Denver-based Mirr Ranch Group, listed it at $9.9 million. Charles Hanson Toll, who served as Colorado’s third attorney general, purchased the land in 1893 and it remained under the family’s ownership for more than 130 years.
Family members agreed to a conservation easement in 2015, essentially giving up development rights, and have now sold it for preservation under state ownership. The 3,314-acre property includes 3.5 miles along South Boulder Creek, 16 ponds and a lake that Parks and Wildlife is eyeing for fisheries and fishing opportunities. It is critical habitat for elk, deer and moose, with species including blue grouse, snowshoe hares, red foxes and varieties of waterfowl. The north end of the property encompasses cross-country ski trails operated by the Eldora Nordic Center, which it has been leasing from the Toll family.
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BLM COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF ESCALANTE RANCH: MAJOR INHOLDING
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The Bureau of Land Management has completed the acquisition of the 4,000-acre Escalante Ranch, a trophy inholding inside the canyon country of the Uncompahgre Plateau along Escalante Creek and the Gunnison River south of Grand Junction. The ranch is completely surrounded by the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. The Escalante Ranch was first acquired by The Conservation Fund in 2024, with the transfer to the BLM completed in March 2026. It is among the largest ever acquisitions by the BLM in Colorado, using a $6.9 million allocation from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The Escalante Ranch is a century-old cattle operation on 4,012 acres in separate parcels stitched together from old homestead tracts dating back to Colorado statehood. It has about 900 acres of irrigated hay fields that support about 1,400 cows and stretches from the Gunnison River to the top of the Uncompahgre Plateau, with 2,129 acres in Delta County and 1,884 acres in Mesa County. The property spans nearly 30 miles, including 7 miles of the Gunnison River and 8 miles of Escalante Creek. The riparian habitat supports golden eagles, wild turkeys, chukar and grouse. The ranch is home to large herds of desert bighorn, mule deer and elk, as well as mountain lions and black bears.
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DENVER SENDS 34 GENESEE PARK & DANIELS PARK BISON TO NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES
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Since 1914, the city and county of Denver have raised bison at Genesee Park in an effort to help stop extinction and repopulate the country with the animals that covered the Midwest and West. After the first two buffalo were provided by the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, city and county officials began bringing animals from Yellowstone National Park’s herd, the last few remaining wild bison in the world. In 1938, Denver placed a herd of bison at Daniels Park. In 2021, the city adopted an ordinance to donate bison from the Genesee and Daniels Parks herds to American Indian tribes and organizations until 2030. Denver now is working to make the ordinance permanent.
Last Friday, the city and county officials and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston were on hand at Genesee to transfer 34 yearling bison to Native American tribes and organizations. Buffalo First received 12, the Northern Cheyenne received 10, Navajo Nation took 11 and the Tall Bull Memorial Council received one. Since 2008, Denver Parks has provided 174 bison to American Indian tribes. Now, after near extinction, the tribes have come together to help reestablish the population, with more than 80 Indigenous nations, led by the InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), working together to repopulate the animals. The 82 tribes now have more than 20,000 bison across 65 herds.
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WRNF: REQUESTING “EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST” FOR HANGING LAKE OPERATIONS
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In 2018, the White River National Forest released the 2018 Hanging Lake Management Plan, which limited daily visitation to 615 people. The City of Glenwood Springs has managed the third-party contract for the operations of Hanging Lake visitation since the management plan was first implemented in 2019. The city is now interested in returning management to the Forest Service. The White River National Forest has issued a “Request for Expressions of Interest” to assess the potential interest from private entities to manage the visitor services and facilities under a Forest Service special-use permit.
At this stage, the Forest Service is seeking high-level, conceptual information, rather than soliciting formal proposals for managing visitation in the area. Information received will be used to assess competitive interest and gather concepts that may help inform future decisions related to visitor services at Hanging Lake. Submissions of interest are due by April 8, 2026. The RFEI is available on the White River National Forest website at fs.usda.gov/r02/whiteriver. An optional site visit will be offered on March 23 and interested parties can RSVP for the site visit by March 20 by emailing paula.peterson@usda.gov.
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THE TELLURIDE SAGA CONTINUES: TELSKI SUES TOWN OFFICIALS
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Telluride Ski Resort (Telski) is suing three current and former elected officials with the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village, alleging they conspired to pressure owner Chuck Horning into selling the ski area and leveraged a recent ski patrol strike to do so. The lawsuit, filed in San Miguel County District Court on Feb. 24 by lawyers for TSG Ski and Golf LLC, accuses former Mountain Village mayor Martinique Prohaska, former Telluride Town Council member Meehan Fee, and acting Mountain Village town manager Paul Wisor of using their positions to try to “harass and pressure” the resort into selling a majority share. It also alleges the three officials did so while offering incentives to resort ownership worth “millions of dollars of economic value,” thereby violating municipal ethics codes.
Telski’s lawsuit is the latest conflict to come from years-long tension between resort owner Horning and the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village. In recent years, the parties have sparred over land usage for a summer concert series in Mountain Village, how to pay for upgrades to the area’s signature gondola transportation system, and affordable housing projects.
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DENVER RESTAURANT WEEK
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The 22nd annual version of Denver Restaurant Week kicked off last Friday, March 6 and will run 10 days through Sunday, March 15. The event was launched in 2005, as an effort to repair and bolster the local and national reputation of the Denver restaurant scene. Now, Denver is recognized as the location of James Beard and Michelin awards and the New York Times last year named Denver as one of five “great restaurant cities” in the U.S. The Denver Restaurant Week website, denverrestaurantweek.com, has scores of participating restaurants with a variety of multi-course meals priced in tiers: $25, $35, $45 and $55.
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS OK’s $3 MILLION DEED RESTRICTION PURCHASE PILOT PROGRAM
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After several months of discussion on how to allocate the revenue from a short-term rental tax that voters approved in 2022, the Steamboat Springs City Council in mid-February approved a pilot program to purchase deed restrictions on existing homes, and with the approval, the council also approved a $3 million supplemental budget appropriation to fund the program. Council members, city leaders and staff hope the pilot will be a quick solution and boost to workforce housing. The pilot program was modeled closely on the one in Breckenridge.
The pilot program targets households that earn too much to qualify for the limited number of income-restricted units already in Steamboat Springs but still cannot realistically compete in a market where even modest homes typically list well above what local wages support. Rather than building new units, the city will put money directly into transactions for homes that already exist. Participation is entirely voluntary. A buyer shopping for a market-rate home within the city’s urban growth boundary can apply to become a qualified buyer under the program.
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MASSIVE JOB LOSS REPORTED FOR FEBRUARY
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On Friday, the U.S. Dept. of Labor released its unemployment report which showed the U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, an unexpected downturn, especially in view of the January gain of 126,000 jobs and the projected gain of 50,000 jobs that economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had expected to see. The unemployment rate ticked slightly higher to 4.4 percent. While that is still low, the Friday report exposes troubling weaknesses in a labor market that has shown very little employment growth in recent months. Private-sector jobs fell by 86,000. Jobs in healthcare, which had been a major block in the labor market, collapsed, accounting for a loss of 28,000, due largely to a strike at Kaiser Permanente that sidelined more than 30,000 workers in Hawaii and California. Though the strike has since been resolved, it occurred during the BLS survey week, so it subtracted from the jobs total.
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LAS VEGAS: STILL BIG CONVENTION & WEEKEND BUSINESS, OTHERWISE NOTICEABLY DOWN
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Analysts looking at the U.S. travel industry note that higher-income travelers are still traveling, and luxury markets are still doing well, but otherwise there is a pullback. Nowhere is it more apparent than Las Vegas. Las Vegas drew about 3.1 million fewer visitors in 2025, a 7.5 percent drop – its sharpest decline outside the pandemic since record-keeping began in 1970, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The agency does not break down its visitation figures by domestic versus international travelers. Conventions are holding up; the weakness is leisure travel, which is the lifeblood of Las Vegas. The downturn is obvious during weekdays. The combination of losing overseas travelers and leisure travelers has resulted in airlines cutting back on flights, with carriers having about 7 percent fewer seats scheduled at Harry Reid International Airport in the first quarter of 2026.
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LA DESIGNATES THE BRADY BUNCH HOUSE HISTORIC-CULTURAL LANDMARK
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Last week, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the designation of the Brady Bunch House as a Historic-Cultural Landmark. The Los Angeles residence was used for the exterior shots on the popular sitcom, “The Brady Bunch.” The city's Cultural Heritage Commission first approved the designation in January. Los Angeles City Director of Planning Vince Bertoni said, "Designating the Brady Bunch House as a Historic-Cultural Monument allows Angelenos to preserve the cultural significance of the entertainment classic and revisit the iconic aesthetic of 1970s California living."
While the majority of the sitcom's interior shots were filmed in a studio, the 1959 home located in the San Fernando Valley was used for filming from 1969 to 1974. The residence also appeared in the 1995 film "The Brady Bunch Movie." As a historical landmark, the home is now protected from major demolitions or renovations. To make any changes to the structure, homeowners will need to undergo a design review and obtain approval from the Cultural Heritage Commission.
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LOVE COLORADO HISTORY & A GOOD BAR? TRY THESE HISTORICAL SPOTS
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As Colorado continues through its sesquicentennial year, here’s a list of 11 bars with roots in the 1800s that you’ll still find around Colorado:
- Buffalo Rose (1859, Golden)
- The Mint Steakhouse (1862, Silverthorne)
- My Brother’s Bar (1873, Denver)
- Gold Pan Saloon (1879, Breckenridge)
- Silver Dollar Saloon (1879 or 1883, Leadville)
- Kochevar’s Saloon (1886, Crested Butte)
- J-Bar (Hotel Jerome) (1889, Aspen)
- Creede Hotel & Restaurant (1892, Creede)
- Buckhorn Exchange (1893, Denver)
- Hotel Colorado (1893, Glenwood Springs)
- New Sheridan Bar (1895, Telluride)
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MARKET UPDATE - 03/06/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 03/05/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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