ECHOES
OF THE WILD
In the 19th century American west, on the northern plains of Colorado, the Crow Indians, or Apsáalooke, were moving with the seasons to follow the buffalo herds and other game animals. They were skilled horsemen and traders, and maintained extensive trade networks with other tribes in the region. Teepees skinned with buffalo hides dotted the plains one season and were gone the next.
Trappers would periodically move through the area; and in 1862, the United States Congress would pass the Homestead Act, providing up to 160 acres of public land to any adult who was a U.S. citizen and who had not taken up arms against the U.S. government. To claim the land, homesteaders had to live on it for five years, build a dwelling, and make other improvements to the land, such as farming or ranching.
Homesteaders faced harsh weather, limited access to water, and conflicts with Native American tribes like the Apsáalooke who had been displaced from their ancestral lands.
Promise…
and failure.
In 1916, the world was in the midst of World War I and the effects of the conflict were felt in every aspect of daily life. Technology was advancing rapidly, with innovations like the assembly line and the first commercial flight making their debut. Still, this was an age before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and before Route 66 helped shape the population of the western United States.
Life was still largely agrarian, with many people living in rural areas and relying on farming, hunting, and fishing for their livelihoods. Harry and Blanche Quaintance, along with their son Richard were among them.
After leaving Illinois, the three settled on on a hillside not far from the banks of the North Platte River in the wild of Colorado. They would make an audacious attempt to build a life for themselves in the mountains. They would work (with the help of those they could afford to hire) to erect the Pioneer cabin; a two room cabin smaller than even the most modest modern-day apartments.
Harry and Blanche Quaintance, 1906
The Pioneer Cabin
“Come my tan-faced children, follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
have you your pistols? Have you your sharp-edged axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!
For we cannot tarry here, we must march my darlings,
we must bear the brunt of danger, we the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!”
~Walt Whitman, 1865
Richard Quaintance
As they ranched, fished and hunted, they would make strides to improve their circumstance little by little. In the mid 1920’s, they would break ground on what is now the most beloved structure in the whole of the Ginger Quill Ranch: The Big House.
Dragging forty-foot lodgepole pine logs, stones and other natural materials from the surrounding area, they constructed what was, at the time, a handsome dwelling - with details, hand-hewn timber and romantic design to boot. Over the coming decades, as they hosted hunters, fishermen and other tenants alike, they would add on to the structure a kitchen and more bedrooms - carefully shaping it into the building that exists today.
The Big House - West Wing Construction, 1930
Having set out across the country to make a life in the wild during a World War, and forming a successful guest ranch while the country went bankrupt, the grit of those who forged ahead cannot be overstated.
Harry Quaintance died in 1951. In the decade that followed,
the Quaintance family would try to keep their ranch going,
but it was too much for the surviving family members.
In 1964, the Wisdom family bought the property, making a similar attempt to capitalize upon what had then become a guest ranch. Tragically, the patriarch of the Wisdom family passed away only a short time thereafter; leaving another family with a home and a business that they could not sustain.
Over the forty years this story was unfolding, another was being written.
In 1911, Archie Davilla Hess II was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1915, at age 4, Archie would witness the home that his father built being swept away by flood waters. The family, milk cow in tow, escaped in a buckboard wagon; causing the family to head west to Pueblo, Colorado to start anew. While his father ranched and built homes to support the family, young Archie would attend school in town.
Archie was an exceptional student, graduating as valedictorian at the age of 16 and attending Colorado College during the height of the Great Depression. Because economic conditions were so dire, his father would run traplines to further supplement his son’s educational scholarships.
He would study aquatic biology and entomology at Colorado College, eventually earning his master's degree. His research on the migration of dragonflies caught the attention of Cornell University, where he went on to specialize in medical entomology and vector-borne diseases. It was there that he met Wilbur (Wil) Downs. These experiences were the foundations on which a life-long friendship was built.
Both Archie and Wil served in World War II. Archie spent World War II as a commissioned officer in Panama, training pilots in the use of pesticides to control the spread of insect-borne diseases. Wil was inducted into the U.S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant and conducted an epidemiological survey of malaria in Trinidad and Tobago in 1941-1943 that became one of the classic works in the field. After the war, Archie joined the Tennessee Valley Authority to aid in ecological management, water levels, and shoreline modification; while Wil continued service in the army until 1946 when he began working in malaria control for the Rockefeller Foundation in South America. Both he and Archie worked at the Foundation together for several years.
Archie went on to pursue a career in public health with the Centers for Disease Control and became a consultant to the World Health Organization. Wil continued his work with the Rockefeller Foundation until the 1970s when he became a professor at Yale University. Over the years, Wil and Archie kept in touch and often vacationed with their families in Wyoming and Colorado, pursing a common passion in fly fishing. In the early 1960s, they leased fishing rights from Ryan’s Ranch in South-central Wyoming. Later they formed a fishing club on Richard’s Ranch on the west side of North Park.
In 1966, while Archie was running a Centers for Disease Control Lab in Fort Collins, Colorado, an opportunity arose. An 1,100-acre ranch in North Park on the Platte River became available for sale due to the misfortune of the Wisdom family. Archie summoned all the capital he could and called his longtime friend Wil Downs for the rest. In 1967, the Ginger Quill Ranch was born. So named for their favorite fishing flies that imitated the mayflies that would hatch over the North Platte River to attract wild rainbow and brown trout.
The Ginger Quill Ranch Corporation was created in August of 1967, and shares of the corporation were offered and sold to their friends and family. Soon the ranch cabins would be filled with laughter and storytelling.
Founded on Archie and Wil’s friendship and love of fishing and family, the ranch has become a cherished legacy.
Archie Hess
Wilbur Downs
Early 1970’s - Formation of the dam, the lakes, and trout stocking.
Now, over 100 years after the Quaintance family settled on the side of a hill in North Park, the Ginger Quill Ranch has become a treasure for dozens of families across multiple generations. Shareholders come great distances from all across the country to enjoy the pristine beauty the ranch has to offer. What we have together is so exceptionally rare that it demands we be faithful stewards for the benefit of generations to come. For the Ranch is not merely a piece of property, but a historical institution that has been built over five decades by a community of people who share common threads of an enormous story.
May we continue writing that story together, and in peace.
