Bar-K Evolved from Several Mountain Ranches

By Silvia Pettem
www.silviapettem.com

Bar-K Ranch residents often are asked about the history of their land. The name of the subdivision came from its developer, but our properties evolved from several mountain ranches that date back for more than a century.

The land was first surveyed in 1861, at the time of the creation of Colorado Territory. Gold attracted the early prospectors, and our nearby communities of Jamestown and Ward were, and still are, criss-crossed by historic mining claims. Although we are very close to these gold properties, no major mineral discoveries were made on our land. Instead, it was settled on and patented (similar to homesteading on the plains) as acreage by mountain ranchers.

Most of our subdivision lies in sections 22 and 27 (of Township 2 North, Range 72 West) with the dividing line approximately at Wapiti Road. The northern portion (section 22) was patented in 1906 by John Joy and Lizzie Omer, with another patent in 1913 by Martin Mosher. In order to receive their patents (allowing the claimants to own and sell the property as real estate) from the U.S. government, these settlers had to have previously lived on and made improvements to their land for a certain number of years.

Similarly, the first settlers in section 27 were Simon Hill, Charles Johnson, and Alonzo Imel. Most, if not all, of these people, had families. Their children attended a one-room frame school called the Stony Lake School. This needs more research, but it was either on the east side of Rock Lake or Overland Lake. The Imel children outnumbered all others and often boarded the school teacher. Alonzo “Lon” Imel raised cattle, but he also walked every day to work in the Golden Age Mine above Jamestown.

Throughout the years, most of these original land owners sold off their properties. Today, Imel family members are the only descendants of the original settlers who have kept at least part of their original holdings. The Joy, Omer, and Mosher properties were combined and then sold at a tax sale in the 1920s. After several more owners, the properties were combined with additional acreage and purchased by Jamestown miner and champion hard-rock driller, Archie Walker. In 1951, Walker sold his property to L. E. “Bud” Cushman.

By 1953, Cushman owned 552 acres, a portion of them within today’s Bar-K boundaries and the rest adjacent. Ray Imel and new property owner Marie Brewster each held 160 acres.

Developer Wallis Kinney incorporated the Bar-K subdivision in 1962. As president, he platted the northern portion with land that he purchased from the Cushman family. (The Cushman ranch, on top of Overland Mountain and outside of the Bar-K, remains in the Cushman family.) Most of the southern portion of the subdivision is on the former Imel and Brewster properties.

Kinney’s wife, and Bar-K, Inc.’s secretary, was Barbara. The “Bar-K” was named for her, with the addition of “Ranch” in honor of the homesteads of our predecessors.