8-foot-tall fence violates Costilla County rules, raises environmental concerns, hinders access for land rights holders and wildlife
Cielo Vista Ranch
Posted inNews
In the San Luis Valley, a community fights for its land, water and way of life
Every summer in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, a long, high desert valley ringed by mountains, Jose Martinez watches in admiration as water flows from an irrigation pipe across the contours of his land, feeding the 8 acres of alfalfa he grows near his home in San Francisco, a town of fewer than 90 people. The […]
Posted inColoradans, Culture, Environment, Equity, News
New fence at the edge of Cielo Vista Ranch interrupts 150-year-old religious pilgrimage
By Kate Perdoni, Rocky Mountain PBS A religious ceremony—the last of its kind in Colorado—stands threatened by private property rights. Each spring during Lent, a community gathers in a small village at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, as is has since the 1870s, for Via Crucis, or Stations of the Cross. The […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News, Outdoors
The 38-year war over access to a San Luis Valley ranch, called Cielo Vista, could be nearing its end
The longest running civil litigation in Colorado could be ending as the owner of an historic San Luis Valley ranch has promised to end his legal battle to limit access to his property by the heirs to an 1844 land grant. William Harrison, who acquired the 83,000-acre Cielo Vista Ranch in 2017 after it was […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Outdoors
New owner fighting to restrict access to private Cielo Vista Ranch by 5,000 descendants of the San Luis Valley’s earliest settlers
Colorado’s longest-running civil litigation is back in court as the latest billionaire owner of the storied Cielo Vista Ranch fights to restrict historic access claimed by heirs of the San Luis Valley’s original settlers. Houston’s William Bruce Harrison, a 31-year-old scion to one of Texas’ biggest oil fortunes, bought the 83,000-acre Cielo Vista Ranch a […]