Coal Creek Ranch

Farm Description

Located just a short 30 minute drive east of Fort Collins, Colorado sits Coal Creek Ranch. It is truly one of the most extraordinary properties available on the front range market today. Featuring a one of a kind luxury home and 655+/- acres this one will offer plenty of room for horses, cattle, bison or an ambitious recreation minded buyer to roam. Once you visit this extremely private prairie estate. You will never want to leave.

Land

Surrounded on three sides by the Pawnee National Grasslands, this 655+/- acre ranch will ensure that you will never be over run by the expansion of the front range sprawl. A dominant feature of Coal Creek Ranch is the large arroyo that runs the length of the property. Coal Creek is an intermittent, seasonal creek that along with an underground spring keeps the large pond that is centrally located on the property full. Along the creek banks are large bluffs from years of rushing water working away at the soil. The ranch is a mix of native prairie grass, dominated by buffalo grass and blue grama grass. As well, a variety of associated prairie vegetation such as, needle and thread grass, western wheat grass, thread-leaf sedge, ring muhly and small barrel prickly pear dot the landscape. There are large quantities of lithic material utilized by the indigenous people of the area scattered along the banks of the creek as well.

Improvements

The true keystone feature of the Coal Creek Ranch is the 4513 square foot luxury home. Thoughtfully designed to look like an old homestead and barn from a long distance. It is readily apparent as you wind your way up the driveway, that you are arriving at a very special place. No detail was left to chance, the excellent vision of the owners and architect have created a one of a kind luxury home that blends into the landscape as if it were a homestead built by early settlers.

The finishes of the home are all high-end, top quality and uniquely fit to the designed. Featuring exquisite granite counter tops throughout, beautiful hickory wood plank flooring and rustic cedar post and beam cathedral ceilings in the great room, kitchen dining room and owners suite. A truly magnificent gourmet kitchen, loaded with beautiful commercial grade Monogram stainless steel appliances including a large 6- burner gas range and large refrigerator/freezer. Just of the kitchen is oversized walk in pantry. There is a full bar with a wine chiller and dishwasher located between the dining are and kitchen. The dining area is spectacular with the wide open cupola rising above the table and accented by the dramatic turnbuckle and rods crisscrossing from the oversized beams.

The focal point of the home is the large great room with oversized stone gas fireplace and huge windows overlooking Coal Creek and the front range mountains to the west. The view is breathtaking when the sun is going down of the mountains and the peaceful prairie view is second to none. Custom lighting creates the mood and there are gas lanterns located around on the main posts in the great room and on the front porch going along with the rustic homestead feel.

The sunscreen style patio is truly set up for relaxing or entertaining. Features include a built in grill and exhaust hood. With the unique walls in the patio this is a true 4 season room. Walking out the patio you access the incredible fully fenced flagstone exterior patio with rod iron fencing and a big gas firepit. The large bison bronze that is the inspiration to Coal Creek Ranch sits in the center of the patio and will remain with the property.

The bunkhouse is located over the three car garage and offers a kitchenette, bathroom and sitting area. This unique structure looks like a red barn with a silo and is another element to the vision of the homestead feel of the property.

Coal Creek Ranch is set up with 1 gig Fiber Optic cable service directly to the house. This allows you to stay fully connected in this new age work from home era. Other conveniences include three A/C units, hot water baseboard heat, full house backup generator, wired in home sound system and much, much more.

Recreation

Coal Creek Ranch is well suited for the recreation minded buyer who enjoys the outdoors and big views. Area wildlife includes mule deer, whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope, coyote, swift fox, badger, and many other small mammals. Bird watchers from near and far frequent the area to see many types of resident and migratory birds. Each spring more than 200 species of birds have been identified in the area including Lark Bunting, Horned Lark, Burrowing Owl, Besper Sparrow, Mountain Plover, Chestnut-collared Longspurs and many others. The ranch is eligible for landowner deer tags and rifle pronghorn tags each year. Archery pronghorn are OTC. There is plenty of room to ride horses, Atv's and Utv's as well as just wonder and look at all the natural beauty that surrounds the area. The pond on the ranch holds a pool that is currently 12 feet deep with a nice floating dock and picnic area on the bank. Waterfowl often frequent the pond as is the only water for a few miles around.

Agriculture

Coal Creek Ranch offer the opportunity to raise livestock and would be well suited for cattle, bison, horses, sheep or goats. There are two windmills on the property that offer year round water for livestock as well as the large pond located along Coal Creek also provides good water. Fences are barbed wire with a mix of steel and wood posts and have been well maintained for the cattle that have been grazing the property. There has been a short term grazing lease in place with the neighbor as he moves cattle from one pasture to another close by and has been well managed for limited weed problems.

Water/Mineral Rights & Natural Resources

The ranch has three good producing wells with the main well at the house site being a permitted well that was rated at 12.5 Gpm. There was a new pump motor installed in the main well in 2018 that supplies the house and bunkhouse. There are two windmills on the property. Windmill one is located just northeast of the main house and supplies a 5000 gallon plastic water tank that has been wrapped in wood plank to look like an old historic wood water tank to go along with the Homestead theme. It has historically pumped approximately 6.25 Gpm. The third well serviced by windmill is located on the west side of the property and supplies water to a large tank utilized by the livestock and wildlife.

House well permit 266357, East windmill well permit 266358

Region & Climate

Eastern Colorado has a moderately arid climate with annual rainfall in the area averaging 12-15 inches. The monsoon season can be particularly active in the are with large thunder heads producing heavy rains sweeping across the plains. The native vegetation is well suited to produce ample cover with limited rainfall and does extremely well in years of excess. The area has very mild winter temps and averages well over 320 days of sunshine annually.

History

Coal Creek is rich with history and the ranch features multiple locations that show evidence of native American inhabitation. There are multiple unrecorded sites along the creek where you can find stone tools and piles of lithic material used to produce stone tools.

The Pawnee National Grasslands show archaeological data of human history dating back 12,000 years. Prehistoric people and indigenous groups such as the Arapahoe, Pawnee, Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne lived on the prairie where Coal Creek Ranch is located, following the bison herds as they moved across the plains. For years after the Louisiana purchase the tribes controlled the lands but with the diminishing buffalo herds and arrival of French, American and British trappers things began to change. Bison herds began to dwindle with increased hunting pressure and years of drought pushing the numbers to unsustainable levels. As the push from settlers increased and the tribes were displaced by treaties and placement on reservations the area began to be settled by cattle ranches and the introduction of the railroad to the area began the period of large scale grazing and free grazing cattle drives. This practice continued until the mid 1880S when an unforgiving and extremely harsh winter killed off many of the cattle and drove the ranchers to bankruptcy. Now the area has been preserved as the Pawnee National Grasslands and is primarily utilized for recreation, cattle ranching and oil/gas exploration.

Location

On of the best things about Coal Creek Ranch is the fact that it is in the country but just a short drive to many metropolitan areas. The ranch is very conveniently located just off Hwy 14, 30 miles east of Fort Collins/Loveland area. Accessed by a well maintained county road, very private but easy to get to. Denver International Airport is 60 miles south, Downtown Denver is just under an hour away and Cheyenne, Wyoming is a short 50 mile drive.

This is truly a one of a kind property with to many features to list. Come for your own showing and appreciate it for yourself. Call Clay Owens or Dax Hayden today.