Still Home on the Range

The scene was colorful and idle and quiet, in keeping with the lonely, beautiful valley… Ridge after ridge sloped up to the hills, and these in turn raised their bleak, dark heads toward the mountains, looking pale and gray, with caps of snow, in the distance… The sun moved on its course until it tipped the peaks with rose… An eagle, lord of all he surveyed, sailed round and round in the sky.

That wistful portrait of almost any typically staggering Western landscape, verbalized by immortal author Zane Grey, America’s premier fictionist of the Old West, was penned more than 80 years ago, in 1918.

The odd but magnificent thing is that Grey could be describing much of the pristine West as it exists today.

A visit to Colorado cattle country as the world enters the third millennium reveals that at least somewhere, an excitement for doing things the old way still exists. Here, generation after generation still finds unswerving purpose, in doing an American job with 150 years of history of cattle raising, herding by horseback, and rich family life.

In the northwestern elevations of Colorado known as the Roan Plateau, just up from Rifle (pop. 5,411) and slightly down from Meeker (pop. 2,146), running west of Piceance Creek, lies the LOV Ranch, home of the Brennans.

Not one set of Brennans, but four.

In 1947, Bill Brennan married Nancy Love to begin his stay on the LOV. Nancy represented the third generation of Loves to work the ranch in Piceance (pronounced “PEE-antz,” American Indian for “tall grass”), which was founded by her grandparents in 1910.

“That’s when they got started,” says Bill, now 75. “Nancy has spent her whole life here. She was just a child when they had to go by horse and wagon to town for supplies and groceries, enough to last through the winter.”

“Things are pretty much the same,” adds Nancy, now 73, “but we have better roads today.”

If great change has not been prevalent throughout the ranch’s 90-year history, it doubtless has been due in part to the family’s steadfast commitment to maintain many of the old ways. The Brennans share the ranch with daughter Kay; son Jim and his wife, Bev; and their two sons, Matt and Neil—the fourth and fifth generations of Love-Brennan ranching lineage.

“My dad would have been thrilled at all these great-grandsons,” says Nancy of the head count that includes Kay’s son, C.L., a construction worker.

High Country Happiness

A typical winter day on the ranch in winter begins around 6 a.m. Morning chores include dishing the hay to the calves and, if the weather is exceptionally cold, chopping “water gaps” in the ice on the

creeks so the cows can drink. Odd jobs and fill-ins are accomplished in the afternoon before they “grain” the calves—the afternoon feeding.

“That’s where the money goes,” says Bill, referring to a 12-ton load of grain that costs $2,200 and will last about 10 days. There also is a pellet feed supplement called a cake doled out to the cattle at a cost of $5,000 for a 24-ton truckload. “Getting through the winter,” he says, “that’s what kills us.”

What the Brennans all live for is cow camp—a late spring turnout of the cattle to the summer grazing lands up on “the divide,” which separates the White and Colorado river drainage. A good reason for the anticipation is quality family time in the high country.

“They are really special times,” says Bill, reflectively. “There’s no telephone, no electricity; we use gas lights, gravity-flow water, the outhouse, and all. It’s pretty up there, with the aspens.”

At cow camp, each cow is paired with its calf then checked by a veterinarian. “We let ’em set there awhile, and then we start scattering ’em,” Bill adds. Bulls are introduced into the mix on May 23, with newborns expected the following March. At any given time, the Brennans care for 1,200 head of cattle.

Nancy is a true veteran of the family cow camps, having journeyed to the mountain elevation since she was a 2-year-old.

“My folks took us up there when we were babies,” she recalls. “By 1929, we were already working.”

And a lot of that work is still done the old-fashioned way.

“As far as moving the cattle proper, we do all that by horseback,” says Bill, who at one time blended terms as county commissioner and Colorado state highway commissioner into his busy ranching life. “We just can’t get around the country the way we need to like we can with a horse. Actually, we need both. We fix the fences with pickups. There’s a lot of it (more than 75 miles), and you have to go over it all. People don’t tend to think of ranching as fixin’ fences and sprayin’ weeds.”

Jim Brennan, 48, who now handles most of the daily work, concurs but adds, “If there was any way economically feasible to do it, I’d go back to doing everything with the horses as opposed to machinery.”

At the center of the LOV Ranch is the original hand-hewn log cabin inhabited by Jim, Bev, and their boys, Neil and Matt. The cabin was homesteaded in 1889, just two years after legendary gunslinger Doc Holliday died in Glenwood Springs (pop. 7,625), 70 miles away.

Inside, Brennan home values bubble everywhere. On this day, 20-year-old Neil, in his final year at Laramie County Community College and heir apparent to the LOV Ranch, has spared his mom the toil of preparing lunch. Also home for vacation is younger brother Matt, 18, the 2000 Colorado Class 3A state wrestling champion (145 pounds) who hopes to be a commercial airline pilot and now attends flight school at Colorado Northwestern Community College.

Laughter bursts when the question is asked what is done for excitement way out in the lonely spaces of Piceance, 45 miles from the nearest town. Without missing a beat, C.L. deadpans, “We’re doing it!”

The Next Generation

Neil, the only fifth-generation family member who will continue the work of pioneers Charles T. and Nancy D. Love, contemplates his future with the ranch.

“There’s always stuff changing, no matter what line of work you’re in,” he says. “You’ve got to keep building. I love ranching. I really do. It’s a unique experience to get to work with your whole family on a day-to-day basis. When I was little, my mom or somebody else would lead a horse and all I’d do is sit there, but I was pretty sure I was helping even then.”

Reflecting on the magnificence of the ranch that he helped develop, and which thrives today alongside even greater associations with loved ones, Bill Brennan pauses and cuts his glance to the ground before looking you in the eye:

“I couldn’t have done it without my family.”

Alan Ross is a freelance writer living in Monteagle, Tenn.

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