MEET THE TEAM

Arapaho Valley Ranch has a rich and wonderful history in Colorado and knowing the story makes the visit even more special.

As history shows, Colorado was a huge mining community. When the mines were exhausted in the late 1800s, some of the locals turned to ranching. In the Upper Grand area of Colorado, Henry Lehman was one of those ranchers. He was a homesteader and built a ranch on the South Fork of the river where the family took in guests, travelers, and fishermen. Henry built his Lodge along the South Fork of the Colorado River, which ran through the valley where Lake Granby sits now.

Henry passed in 1919 and the ranch was purchased by the Knight family of St. Louis. Harry Knight’s most important place in local history was his friendship with Charles Lindbergh. When Harry Knight was president of the St. Louis Flying Club he developed a great respect for the “ace pilot”. Lindbergh had pioneered the airmail route between St Louis and Chicago. Because of his skills, Knight chose Lindbergh as his personal flight instructor. Harry convinced the head of the St Louis Chamber of Commerce to have them help Charles by sponsoring his famous flight with a check for $15,000.

Upon completion of the New York to Paris flight in 1927, Knight built an airport on the ranch. Writings of the period indicate that Harry built the airport just for Lindbergh. However, Harry also was a pilot in his own right. Lindbergh would fly over the divide and onto the ranch mostly for weekend visits.

Years passed and Lindbergh became involved with other activities that did not involve the Knights. Water storage became the most important problem facing them. The Granby dam was proposed for construction. After completion of the dam, the Knight family auctioned off their house, bunkhouse, and all the town buildings on July 27, 1946. These buildings were moved onto our property by rolling them on logs. The property at that time was called Murray’s Camp, providing camping and cabins to guests and travelers. The Lodge that Henry Lehman built and the Knights called their home is the same Lodge where we welcome all of you today. We are also grateful to have the town’s Dance Hall at AVR, which we are in the middle of renovating.

The lodge and cabins at Arapaho Valley Ranch were moved from Murray Camp, The Knight Ranch and KaRose to their current locations by Bob and Harriet Woolfolk in 1945. Harriet died in 1950 and Bob Woolfolk sold the ranch to Bob and Carol Wild in 1962. They turned the ranch into a dude ranch and joined The Colorado Dude and Guest Ranch Association. They operated their thriving business from 1962 to 1980, raising their two daughters and living there full time. Bob and Carol cleaned up and restored the lodge and cabins. At the height of their time in Arapaho Bay they had nineteen cabins and could accommodate 100 guests. They managed a crew of 20 employees, mostly college aged, many of whom returned summer after summer. Guests also became regulars every summer. During the winters the ranch was closed. The business thrived through the 1970’s when dude ranches were a popular destination vacation. The Wilds employed Frank Wright as their stable and horse manager. He brought his own horses, a herd of fifty to sixty each summer to the ranch. These gentle creatures carried guests from all over the United States around Monarch Lake and up into the Indian Peaks Wilderness area. Visitors of the ranch participated in songfests, square dances, breakfast rides and cook-outs while on their stay. 

Matt and Barb Gold purchased the ranch from the Wilds in 1980 and continued to operate AVR as a dude ranch, raising their family there, and spending the next 20 years providing a wonderful and special mountain vacation for people. To this day we receive comments about how special their time at AVR was and how the memories will forever live on.

The Golds decided to close the doors in the 90s after a huge snowstorm took out powerlines and damaged many of the cabins. The property was used strictly as a private residence until 2010 when Todd Gold, Matt and Barb’s youngest son, met his soulmate, Emily.

Emily and Todd were married on the ranch in 2012 and decided to re-open the property as a camping and glamping facility so that people could once again enjoy this special property.

In 2021 Emily and Todd sold the ranch to a group of several families that had been guests of the ranch for many years and who wanted to carry on the legacy of the previous owners. The new owners, the Tiehen Group, spent the 1^st year making some much needed upgrades to the facilities and infrastructure at the ranch and re-opened the ranch to guests in Winter of 2023. Winter 2023 marks the first time in 40 years that the ranch has been open to guests in the Winter and the ranch will now be a place that guests can enjoy year round.

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