Just Ranch

The Just family, Karl Just and his son Carl Jr., immigrated from Austria and arrived and made a homestead claim on Pole Creek in the early 1880s. No homesteader had claimed a plot on Pole Creek, so they were the first settlers to draw water from the creek. As they were the first homesteaders to use the water to improve their land, they were awarded the water rights under the doctrine of prior appropriation (the water rights law in Colorado). Water was an important resource in the West. Without water rights, homesteads were often unsuccessful. Carl Jr. married Della (Adelia) Lehman in 1898. The couple had eight children during their marriage, but Carl tragically passed away during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Della had to raise all eight children by herself. She not only raised them, but accumulated nearly 3,000 acres of land including the Rowley Homestead before she died in 1969.

Karl and Carl Jr. both made homestead claims when they moved here in the 1880s, since both were over 21 years of age and could claim “head of household” status under the 1862 Homestead Act. Their claims were adjacent to one another and as result, the Just homestead had 320 acres on which to start their new life in the West. 320 acres was double what most homesteaders began with. With both land and water rights, the Justs started a profitable haying operation, one of the few cash crops at this high altitude. The Justs also had herds of both cattle and sheep and supplemented their income with fur trapping in the winters.

After Carl Jr. married Della in 1898, they built a brand-new ranch house and had eight children between 1899 and 1918. Henry, her eldest son, died in 1919. After Carl Jr. passed away during the influenza pandemic of 1918, Della ran the farm and raised the children. She traveled to town weekly to sell their animal products while the kids attended school at the nearby Skunk Creek School. High snow drifts and dangerous storms made travel to school difficult in the winter, so many children attended only during the summer. Even so, work on the farm came first. Many homesteaders’ children were left with only a rudimentary understanding of math, reading, and writing. Their chores included gardening, helping around the house, milking cows, and mucking out stables. Some of the children learned how to trap and skin animals to make furs to sell. On homesteads everyone, including the children, pitched in to make a living.

When the YMCA bought the property in 1967, Della, her sixth child Rudy, and his wife Clarabelle were still living in the ranch house and running a haying operation. Within the purchase agreement, Della Just secured lifetime rights to her home. After Della died in 1969, Rudy and Clarabelle continued to operate the ranch on behalf of the YMCA until his death in 1986. Clarabelle and Rudy often told stories of early settler life to guests visiting Snow Mountain Ranch. Clarabelle was a good markswoman, and shot coyote that worried the sheep. Her fur collections were also part of their storytelling. Long time visitors to the Y have fond memories of Clarabelle and Rudy.

Archives of YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch Collection, Just Ranch folders.