Catamount Ranch Club Steamboat Colorado golf and waterfront community

The 3,296-acre property now known as Lake Catamount was first settled in much smaller parcels by several homesteaders more than a century ago. As part of its ongoing commitment to historic preservation, Catamount Ranch & Club has lovingly restored the only remaining homestead on the property, an early 1900s home and barn on the southeast side of Lake Catamount. Over the years the barn has become a symbol of Lake Catamount. Now known collectively as the Heritage Center, the cabin and barn will be used to host historic and wildlife education programs and a myriad of other club events.

The Harold family arrived in Pleasant Valley in a covered wagon in 1910. They put up the barn first, and father and son slept in it without heat that first winter while they were building the cabin. When they hauled logs off the mountain their pants used to get pretty wet. They'd hang them up to dry overnight and awake to find them frozen solid. Mrs. Harold and her three daughters wintered with the Bonard family (homesteaders of what's now the Gay family's Green Creek Ranch to the south). The Harold's didn't stay long. Besides the deep snow and long winters, it was tough to eek out a living sandwiched between two larger very productive cattle ranches, the Rehder property to the north, and the Bonard ranch to the south. A succession of owners followed, from the Danvers to the Lugons. Through it all, the basic structures have remained relatively intact.

In the early 1970s, the Lake Catamount area was first proposed as a site for the downhill portions of the Colorado Winter Olympics bid. Preliminary county approval was obtained for a vast new ski area, a base village with more than 3,000 residential units, 1,000 hotel rooms and 250,000 square feet of retail space. In 1996 Tim Mueller of Okemo Ski Area in Vermont purchased the land at Lake Catamount with local businessmen Lyman Orton and Nick Schoewe as partners. In 1997, Cordillera purchased what was then known as the Jobe Ranch, 4 miles to the north. Cordillera is known for developing a 7,000-acre high alpine community with three golf courses outside of Beaver Creek and Vail. After discussing their mutual desire for land preservation and limited development, the Catamount partners (known as Okemo Partners) and Cordillera decided to join projects, with Cordillera managing the development. After seeking a wealth of community input, the Catamount Principals determined that a ski area was not in the project's best interests.

In January of 1999 the Catamount partnership donated conservation easements to the Yampa Valley Land Trust on virtually all of the land around Lake Catamount. The easements ensure that the only development that can ever happen on the land is 40 homes, 44 duplex cottages and the Lake Clubhouse and Lake Outfitter's Center, as well as two wilderness cabins high above the lake. The Land Preservation Subdivision agreement at Catamount Ranch states that only 25 homes can ever be built around on the golf course site. The 300 acres around the golf course were dedicated as wildlife habitat or working hay meadows. Construction began in the Spring of 1999 on the Tom Weiskopf-designed Championship 18-hole golf course at Catamount Ranch & Club. Warm dry weather into November kept construction on track for a projected opening date of July 31,2000. In February, Catamount Ranch & Club management and members celebrated the opening of its Lake Outfitter's Center, the first new building at Lake Catamount in decades. It will be the year-round activity center for club members. This winter that includes cross-country skiing on a trail system still under design, snow shoeing, sleigh rides ice skating on Lake Catamount and even winter fly-fishing. This summer, activity will turn to water sports such as sailing, kayaking, canoeing, and sculling, as well as hiking and mountain biking. The Catamount Club unifies both sites--in that property owners at each neighborhood will have the opportunity to join the club, and in so doing enjoy privileges at the championship Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course at Catamount Ranch, as well as at the extensive club facilities at Lake Catamount.