Ranch Room

Ouray boomed as a mining town, filled with miners who needed to be fed. Soon dairy farms and ranches sprang up to fill this need as well as that of feeding and caring for the burros and mules and horses used in the mining business. Some of the tools, equipment and other farm and ranch artifacts previously owned and used by local families are displayed in the Ranch Room and the Tack Room adjacent to it. There is an old rocking butter churn, a whiskey still, and a pair of calf weaning masks and much, much more for you to see in this exhibit. Here you can discover a fascinating frontier story about the Marlow's. Can you imagine being accused falsely of a crime, being one of four brothers, each shackled by the leg to another brother after being jailed, escaping from the jail and a lynch mob only to be hunted down by a posse? Can you imagine having to amputate the leg of the brother you were shackled to because he had been killed by the pursuing posse and was hindering your escape? Be sure to read the story of these brothers who fled Texas and became ranchers and lawmen in the Ridgway, Colorado area. If you haven't seen the movie, "The Sons of Katie Elder", you may want to. It is part of the story of this family who lived many places in our frontier west before settling permanently in Colorado.