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The Smoke House removes moisture from meat so homesteaders could store meat for months, likely in their root cellars. This process is similar to how jerky is made today. Fred smoked most of the meat he ate himself in order to preserve it. This meat could come from wild game in the area, – like deer, elk, turkeys, and rabbits – from fishing, or from livestock like pigs. Smoking livestock generally occurred just after the weather turned cold in the fall— Fred had less pressing tasks during the fall, so he could prepare for winter by smoking lots of meat.The fire inside of the smokehouse was not built using the most common type of wood in this area, which is pine. Pine wood is unsuitable for smoking as it contains too much resin and emits terpinols (poisonous natural substances used to make turpentine) when burned. Instead, homesteaders used aspen wood and even corn cobs to produce a low-burning, heavy-smoking fire.In the field below the Smoke House, across the ditch is a foundation for Fred’s pig pen. The pigs were stabled far from the house because their sty had a strong odor. Today, the pig barn is gone, just a few foundation logs remain. Fred’s pigs were likely a money-maker for him. Not all settlers in this region kept pigs, so the pig meat was likely in high demand in nearby towns.

Smoke House in the early 2000s. There have been repairs made to the roof.

The interior of the Smoke House. Meat hung on the hooks and smoky fire sat below.

Fred used this building to smoke meat. Smoking removed the moisture from the meat and allowed it to be preserved for months. Fred hunted and fished for most of his meat and occasionally slaughtered the animals on the homestead. He hung the raw meat from metal hooks near the ceiling of the building and a small fire was lit in the pit below. This fire was not intended to be hot enough to cook the meat, but burned fairly cool in order to produce a lot of smoke.

Rowley Homestead Smokehouse

The Rowley Homestead is a historic site on the property of the YMCA of the Rockies-Snow Mountain Ranch. An historic homestead from the early twentieth century, this site tour offers an in-depth look at homesteading, agriculture, ranching, and daily life in Middle Park and Grand County during that era. It shares the story of Fred and Martha Rowley, a couple who moved from Denver in 1919 to claim land under the Homestead Act of 1862. This tour also includes information about the Just Ranch and Just family who homesteaded at this location in the early 1880s until the 1960s.

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.

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.

Just Ranch

Although the Logger’s Cabin is not original to the Rowley Homestead location, this building represents the history of the area and of the Snow Mountain Ranch property. Logging in this area began in the late nineteenth century and supported many other industries, including mining during the 1870s-1880s, local construction projects, a box making plant in Granby, and the westward expansion of the railroad. Today reforestation hides the scars of many years of intense logging in Middle Park.Built in the 1940s this one-room cabin is emblematic of the temporary shelters loggers constructed in this area of Colorado. Loggers often worked 10-12-hour days and used cabins like this one to sleep in and shelter from bad weather such as blizzards or thunderstorms. Loggers often moved to new areas and built new cabins as trees were cut down.Logging was a difficult and dangerous task. Several loggers in the Middle Park area suffered severe injuries while many more likely dealt with scrapes, splinters, and cuts on a daily basis. In Tabernash, Frank Speed, a young logger, shattered both his legs after a tree fell on him. Dr. Susie Anderson, a famed doctor in Middle Park during the early twentieth century, was often called out to logging camps for various injuries and illnesses. Many of the loggers in this area were Scandinavian immigrants when Anderson was here, but the lumbering workforce was diverse. In other parts of the West, Chinese immigrants made up a large portion of the logging labor force.The YMCA of the Rockies property at Snow Mountain Ranch covers over 5,000 acres, including hundreds of acres of forest. The Y purchased two logging locations – Blue Ridge and Nine Mile Mountain. Early staff members remember the road running through the YMCA campus being continually used by trucks hauling logs from the mountainside. Logging still takes place in this area today, but the industry is much smaller than the mid-twentieth century. New environmental regulations and shrinking demand is changing the logging industry and forcing counties and states to reevaluate their reliance on the logging industry.

The Logger’s Cabin, now located at the Rowley Homestead, was moved from another part of the YMCA property. It was built in the 1940s. Its simple design and construction suggest that it was not meant to be a permanent structure. Up to 5 loggers might have sheltered in this cabin during their 6 to 8-week stints logging in the forests. The cabin was moved to the homestead in the 1980s by YMCA of the Rockies. The porch was added at that time as the cabin is used as a storage area for the Homestead staff. It is the only building not original to the Rowley Homestead.

Rowley Homestead Logger's Cabin

Fred built this structure first to protect his animals from predators like wolves, bears, and mountain lions. Both wolves and grizzly bears are no longer found in this area, but they were a threat to homesteaders in 1919. The Rowley family traveled from Denver, probably over Berthoud Pass, and into Middle Park in the spring or early summer of 1919. At that time the road over the pass was a steep, curvy, rutted dirt road. The family likely traveled in a wagon pulled by two horses. The journey probably took them around 10-12 days. Fred came with his wife Martha Rowley and their three children: Fred Jr., Clara, and Opal who were 6, 4, and 2 years old respectively.When Fred arrived at the Homestead site, there were no buildings. He worked on the barn for 4-6 months while the family lived in a tent. During the first summer he also built the far side of the cabin. At the end of the summer they traveled back to Denver. Both Fred and Martha worked in the city, as a teamster driving horses, and a seamstress respectively. For the first three years of homesteading, the family only came to the homestead during the summer months. In 1922, Fred finished the cabin and decided to stay at the homestead full time. Martha was not on board with that plan. She returned to Denver and got a job as a draper (curtain-maker). Martha and Fred divorced in December 1931. The children spent most of the year with Martha, but visited Fred during the summer months, where they helped around the homestead.Fred’s animals were important to protect because they were his main source of income at the homestead; he sold animal byproducts like butter, milk, ham, eggs, and more in Tabernash, Fraser, or Granby. His horses also served a purpose: they pulled the farming implements and machines that Fred needed to grow hay to feed his animals.After Fred built the larger barn, he used this building as a workshop. Inside, he may have processed logs into planks, performed minor repairs to his tools and machinery, or shoed his horses. The machinery that is currently on display in the barn did not belong to Fred. The kerosene engine was purchased by Della Just, who lived further down the creek, in 1929 as a power plant to run a sawmill. He may have invested in a forge in order to perform small repairs on his metal farming machinery and to shoe his horses. The corn sheller was used to remove corn for the animals to eat. Storing corn in kernel form takes up less storage space and is easier for animals to eat. The cobs were likely used to light fires or were burned in the smokehouse.

Fred Rowley and his family arrived at their homestead location in the summer of 1919. Fred constructed this barn first. During its construction, Fred, his wife Martha, and their three children, Fred Jr., Clara, and baby Opal, slept in a tent. Eventually, Fred constructed more and larger barns for his livestock and turned this building into a workshop. Today, the original barn is set up as a workshop and features a small forge, a kerosene engine, and a corn sheller— all common farm implements for early twentieth century homesteaders.There is a two-seater outhouse attached to the back of this building. It is no longer in use. The outhouse is far enough from the cabin that Fred may have ran a rope from his back door to the door of the outhouse to avoid getting lost in the dark and in the snow during the winter.

Rowley Homestead Original Barn

The first floor and the second floor of this barn were built by two different people. Johnny Childs, another homesteader in the area, built the first floor of the barn as his cabin. Childs passed away and his widow decided to sell their cabin and move back down the mountain. Fred purchased the cabin from her, deconstructed it (like a Lincoln Log set), moved the logs to his own property, put them back together, and replaced the chinking before adding a hayloft on the second floor that he built himself.Chinking, or the material between the logs, helps not only to keep the logs together, but it insulates the structure too. Most of the buildings at the Rowley Homestead are chinked with a mixture of mud, hay, ash, horse manure, and water. People were also chinking with materials like plaster and concrete, but the material Fred used was free, since all of the ingredients were readily available around the homestead.Fred had large draft or work horses which he used to pull his haying equipment and as a method of transportation. For most of his life they were Fred’s only way to get to town. He used the sleigh near the barn door during both the snow and mud seasons because the roads were so bad. This is how he brought products into town to sell or travel into town to work on the railroad or at the lumber yards during the winter. Fred likely only had two or three horses, particularly given the small size of his barn. The hay loft was constructed with a hole in the floor where Fred could throw hay down into the manger for his horses.

This barn housed Fred’s horses, with the second story serving as a hay loft. The first and second floors of this barn are different: the coloring on each is unique, as is the construction and the way the logs fit together— the logs on the first story are rectangular while the second story are circular and notched. The floor of the lower story is lined with logs. Fred likely did this to protect his horses from hoof rot during the wintertime. When horses stand in mud, especially freezing mud, for too long, their hooves can get infected which prevents them from being able to work. Horses were an important source of power: they provided the power needed to pull the farm equipment. The outside also features a hay pulley which Fred may have used to move hay from the ground or hay wagon into the loft.

Rowley Homestead Horse and Hay Barn

The goat barn is the smallest of the connected barns Fred built after the cabin. To the right of the doorway is a small ramp and stanchion that Fred built to help milk his goats. To milk a goat, he had to bend down close to the ground which can become uncomfortable— especially when milking several goats. To remedy this problem, Fred built a ramp for his goats. The animals walked up the ramp, stuck their heads through the wooden slats, and had to stand still on top of the ramp (with plenty of hay to eat). This way, Fred could stand next to the ramp instead of bending down and kneeling in the mud. These milking tables are still in use today.Goat milk was important in this area during the early twentieth century. Dr. Susie Anderson, a well-known general practice doctor in Fraser, served the residents of several nearby towns. She traveled to Fraser in 1909 to help her tuberculosis symptoms, and she quickly became an important figure for local families, laborers, and homesteaders. Dr. Anderson, popularly known as Doc Susie, noticed that many children in the mountain area were undernourished. She determined this was partially because farmers only served their children skim milk. Skim milk is a by-product after farmers separate cream from whole milk, and because it has no cream, skim milk does not have the fat and nutrients that children need to grow. Farmers sold or bartered their cream to neighbors or in the towns, but needed to make sure their children were healthy too. Therefore, Dr. Anderson prescribed goat milk. When children drank goat milk instead of skim milk, they were significantly healthier and stronger. Demand for goat milk in the area increased, which helped farmers with goats, like Fred, make more money.Goats were also important to farming. They ate almost everything and helped farmers clear areas of unwanted plants for planting new crops, or clearing out old crops. Fred may have used them to clear land after he cut down the trees. We don’t know how many goats Fred had, but he had enough to create a separate milking barn. Goats, along with pigs, chickens, cows, and horses were important to his survival.

Fred milked and stabled his goats in the Goat Barn. It is the smallest of the three barns, since goats are small and likely spent most of their time in the fields. Inside the barn is a hay trough for the goats and a stanchion for milking. Goat milk was one of Fred’s sources of income—either as a bartered or sold product. He would sell or barter his animal products with neighbors or in the nearby towns of Tabernash, Fraser, or Granby.

Rowley Homestead Goat Barn

Cows were the source of many important products on a homestead or ranch during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Raw milk contains both milk and cream. These two products can be separated and sold or used to make other dairy products. Cream, for example, can be churned into butter and sold. Fred kept a small portion of his cows’ dairy products for himself, but the majority was sold or bartered in town. Fred’s cows were likely primarily dairy cows as milk is profitable, but it’s possible that when needed or when they stopped producing milk, the cows were slaughtered for beef.Although we cannot know the exact number of cattle Fred raised, we do know that he could not sustain a large herd or ranch as he lacked the water rights to the land. This meant that he could not divert Pole Creek (which is located down the hill from the Rowley Homestead) to water his crops or his animals. He also could not use the creek to irrigate his land or dig a well. The Just family owned the water rights to Pole Creek. Their ranch is also located at Snow Mountain Ranch near the craft shop building. They allowed Fred to have “bucket rights” to the water, meaning that he could pull water out in buckets and use it on his homestead. The windmill in the field behind the barns was donated to the YMCA after Fred’s time, as he could not legally use a machine like that to pull up water.The lives of Fred and the Just family demonstrate the differences between homesteaders without water rights and those with rights. Fred struggled every day to make ends meet, but without water rights he was never successful. In 1939 he fell behind on his taxes and sold his property to Della Just. She allowed him to stay as a tenant farmer until he left between 1953-1954. He died in 1957. The Just family, in contrast, was very successful. With water rights they created a profitable haying operation which Della and, later, her son Rudy operated until the early 1980s. For homesteaders in the West, it did not matter how hard they worked if they did not have water rights, success would always be elusive. They simply could not grow enough crops or raise enough stock to make ends meet.

Fred used this barn to milk and sometimes shelter his cows. Similar to the goat barn, this space was likely not occupied by cows unless they were being milked or it was cold or snowy outside. Fred built five stanchions out of wood planks and tree trunks to aid in the milking process. The cows stuck their heads through the wooden slats to reach the hay in the manger. Then Fred closed the slats around them, ensuring that the cows could not move around while being milked. Based on the number of stanchions, Fred had at least five milking cows.

Rowley Homestead Milking Barn

The Mormon Hay Stacker (image 1), was a tall structure used to create large stacks of hay and functioned like a claw machine in an arcade. The claw picked hay up off of a wagon (the claw for this machine is currently sitting on the wagon; image 2), then horses or oxen pulled a rope to lift the hay and turn the machine to set it down in a stack. There is a functional model of a Mormon Hay Stacker located behind the real one, feel free to try it out.The blue and yellow machine (image 3) with the slanted wheel is a plow. The blade under the seat of the machine digs rows along a field for a farmer to plant seeds in. The right wheel is intentionally slanted, as it is meant to roll in the last row the farmer dug, creating straight, evenly spaced lines.The two metal and wooden contraptions are similar what Fred used. The bladed machine is another example of a plow (image 4) and the other is called a drag scraper (image 5). The plow is used to dig rows for planting and the drag scraper is used for digging up large obstacles, such as a tree stump or a rock. Both of these machines still require the help of a work animal, but the farmer walks along behind and directs the route using the wooden handles.The green and yellow John Deere machine is called a mower (image 6). After the hay is fully grown, the farmer drives this through the field to cut the hay down. The long bar running along the ground has sharp triangles of metal (that are now covered with wood) that run along the bottom of the hay to slice it— like a scissor.The blue and light-yellow machine with tines underneath the seat is called a dump rake (image 7). A team of oxen or horses pull this along after the hay has been cut down. The tines in the back of the machine create large piles of hay in rows throughout the field.The green machine is called a bucker (image 8). This is used to lift and move the piles of hay created by the rake. Depending on what other machinery a farmer has, the hay could be moved onto a wagon, up to the Beaver Slide (image 9), or directly into a haystack.The wooden ramp-like structure is a model of a Beaver Slide (image 9). A life-size Beaver Slide would be about the height of the tallest pole on the Mormon Hay Stacker. It is also used to create large haystacks: the hay is pulled using a system of ropes up the ramp and dumped over the tall side to create a tall, skinny stack of hay. This is the ideal shape for a haystack, as the top of a haystack will always rot, but if the stack is tall and skinny, the least amount of hay goes bad.

Like most of the objects at the Rowley Homestead today, none of these farming implements belonged to Fred. They may have been similar to the machinery he used to grow his crops, but not these exact machines. Additionally, many of these implements are too large and too expensive for a farm the size of Fred’s. Other farmers with more land in this area, like the nearby Just Ranch, likely used more of these machines because they were growing more hay and making more money. Aside from hay, Fred also had a small vegetable garden down the hill by Pole Creek. Keep an eye out for rhubarb in this area; the plants growing today are the descendants of the rhubarb Fred planted in his garden.

Rowley Homestead Farming Implements

In the underground room, the temperature stays consistent all year at about 38 degrees Fahrenheit. This cool temperature ensures that food stays preserved, like modern refrigerators. In the summer, the cooler temperatures prevent foods like dairy products, eggs, and vegetables from spoiling in the heat. In the winter, constant humidity and insulation underground prevented vegetables and canned goods from freezing. The room was used both for long-term storage and for keeping dinner cool throughout the day. This room was dug and constructed by hand, like every other building at the Homestead. Fred used a shovel or a tool like the drag scraper located next to the root cellar.The root cellar was particularly important for vegetable storage. Fred’s garden was located far from the house, on the side of Coyote Tooth, the mountain across the field. He likely chose that location so runoff from the mountainside would help keep the area lush. The growing season this high in the mountains is short, so Fred grew a lot of root vegetables like beets, potatoes, rutabagas, and carrots. These vegetables would stay good all winter in the root cellar.During his first few years at the homestead, Fred grew lettuce. Lettuce was a huge cash crop in the area during the 1920s. Fred and other farmers shipped their lettuce to Denver on the railroad. Unfortunately, in the later 1920s, a lettuce blight hit Grand County. Lettuce did not recover during Fred’s lifetime. After that, Fred’s income was closely linked to his animal products, though he may have bartered vegetables with neighbors or friends, and as laborer or ranch hand.

This is a reconstruction of Fred’s root cellar, which was also in this location. Due to animal activity, the root cellar collapsed in the mid-2010s. The original root cellar was a small dirt room with wooden shelves along the walls. Today our reconstruction includes a concrete vault with a wood-cladded interior and dirt to match Fred’s. Fred stored almost all of his food for the winter months in this room, including root vegetables, eggs, dairy, canned goods, and smoked meat.

Rowley Homestead Root Cellar

For the first three years after their arrival to homestead here in 1919, the Rowleys continued to return to their Denver home during the winter months. Homesteading was a difficult way of life all year round, but it was particularly difficult up in the mountains during the winter. After the third year, Fred decided to stay at the Homestead full time.Martha, Fred’s wife, came to the Homestead for the first three summers, but, in 1922, she decided to return to Denver for good. When the Rowleys arrived in 1919, Denver was a fairly modern-looking city. There was electricity in parts of the city, running water and indoor plumbing were becoming more accessible, and early cars like Model T Fords were starting to appear on the streets. Martha also had a job as a seamstress at the Denver Dry Goods department store. She likely decided that her dreams and those of her husband’s differed too much and she chose to leave the homesteading life behind. The couple’s three children spent the school year in Denver and the summers at the homestead.In the Homestead are several pieces of equipment which were essential for Fred to run his farm. In the kitchen, the large woodstove acted as both a source of heat in the winters and as Fred’s stove and oven. The stove was used throughout the year, even in the summer as it was a source of heat during the evenings and hot water during the day. Across the floor from the stove is a table with a reddish-brown barrel on top. This barrel was one of a kind butter churn. It had paddles inside and homesteaders placed fresh cream inside and spin the handle to make butter. To the left of the churn is a large blue and silver machine. This is a cream separator which Fred and other homesteaders used to separate cream from raw cow’s milk. They spun the handle on the other side of the machine to spin the silver bowl on top of it. The centrifugal force separated the cream from the milk. When they turned on the spigot the cream would flow into the small cannister and the milk into the larger one. The laundry equipment is also set up in this room.In the bedroom Fred had another stove to provide extra heat during cold winter nights. Unlike the kitchen stove, this stove likely only ran during the winter or especially cold spring or fall days. Note the chamber pot. This was used in the evenings when it was too dark or cold to use the outhouse. Across the room is a desk for his children to draw or practice schoolwork. When they were younger he also likely had a bed near the desk for them. In the corner there is a sled, sock puppet, and a checkers board on the desk. These are common toys kids in the era may have made and played with. Outside there are lasso ropes, stilts, and a tandem ski which are more toys Fred’s children may have enjoyed.The front porch is architecturally detailed. It demonstrates Fred’s love for his house and building, particularly the small stick details. This is reminiscent of the western stick architecture that was common throughout the area. Several of Fred’s family photos were taken on this porch indicating his pride in both his home and his children. Fred likely spent a lot of time repairing and creating his house and porch, even today, almost 80 years after he passed away, his house continues to exemplify homesteads in the early twentieth century.In 1967, YMCA of the Rockies acquired 3,000 acres from the Just family, which included the Rowley Homestead. In 1971, the YMCA began to repair the Rowley cabin and barns, replacing roofs, floors, and windows. The work stagnated soon after, but In 1981, Barbara S. King, then-Program Director at Snow Mountain Ranch, started the project of creating a living history site and nature center at the Rowley Homestead. She formed a group to research the history of the Rowley family and replace and repair the Homestead furnishings. Even though they worked through the winter and spring, the project proved time-consuming, so the Homestead did not open until July 1982. Historical research and preservation efforts continue today such as repairing fences, re-chinking the buildings, and developing new digital programming, such as this tour.

The Rowley family, Fred, Martha, Fred Jr., Clara, and Opal, began homesteading here in 1919. They lived in this cabin during the summer months, though Martha only spent a few summers here. Fred built the south half of this cabin after he finished the original barn. When he finished the cabin, it was considerably larger than most homesteaders’ cabins. Johnny Childs’ cabin, which forms the base of the horse barn, is more typical in size. If you look along the wall by the door, you can see that Fred kept the logs of the original room long because he planned to add another room in the future. After a few summers, Fred began living here year round. We cannot be certain exactly how the cabin was set up while he lived here, but we can make some inferences based on oral histories and evidence from other homesteaders of that era. The south half of the cabin is now set up as the kitchen, dining room, and, when needed, the laundry room. The other room was the bedroom for the entire family. Most spaces inside a homesteader’s cabin served more than one purpose because of the lack of space. To add more rooms meant cutting more logs and building the addition yourself, so most homesteaders made do with small homes.

Historic Site Tours at YMCA of the Rockies-Snow Mountain Ranch, Granby, CO

Rowley Homestead Smokehouse

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources