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PHOTOS OF SPRING, 2006 IN COSTILLA COUNTY
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| After snowing and clouds for two days-- this! |
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All photos are copyrighted and not to be reproduced without permission |
CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR A LARGER VERSION IN A NEW WINDOW
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Some photos taken in February and March of 2006 What did you think about this new format for our Colorado Mountain Land Newsletter? |
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Field of May Flowers-- last
Memorial Day
SPRING !!!!
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Fort Garland - middle of the page
where HWY 160 goes through and Hwy 159 goes south.
PHOTO IS FROM GOOGLE EARTH
| FUN SHOT-- Google Earth- Southern Colorado |
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| Click for a larger version |
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| Red Cactus Blooming in Unit 14 - SLVR |
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| SLVR Unit 10 - 12 acres |
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NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBER DISCOUNT ON THIS PROPERTY
You can see this property in Unit 10 on our SLVR For Sale Page. We think it is a super place for permanent
residents (solar and alternative power) to have a bigger parcel with a small stream running on the property all year.
Let us know if you are a subscriber to the newsletter as of April 1, 2006 and I'll tell you the discount.
It will be a flat amount (in hundreds of dollars) off the listed price. Email jmswas@comcast.net for the details.
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SLVR Unit 10, Block 4, Lots 8 & 10 as a package - 14 Acres total with small stream.
Perfect horse property.
Priced at $14,500 Cash only
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ALL PHOTOS ARE THUMBNAILS Add your content here
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CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR A FULL SIZE IMAGE
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Sangre De Cristo Ranch Owners Website
Fourteener World - Fabulous photos including many Mt. Blanca and surrounding area
Colorado's Newest Scenic Train Ride Alamosa, CO to LaVeta - route just starting
Intersting account of San Luis Valley from a Visitor
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Some new links for you to check out and a reminder of some of the REALLY GOOD ones
on our links page. From time to time we go looking for other stuff and enjoy what other people have put together too!
<<<<<----------------------------------------
MY LINKS PAGE
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If you plan to visit Costilla County in the next few months-- this
is what you can expect to see in Springtime as the land greens up and the mountains always surround you with their majesty.
STRICTLY NEWS:
The Park Model type cabin from Cavco for Wolfgang's brother is ordered and we expect
it to be set up on his parcel in Unit X this spring. It had an April expected delivery date. We are
really pleased with the process so far and will continue to report on it as it happens. Rodger Johnson has installed
the septic system and water storage tank complete with county permits and the electricity is in progress also through the
local Xcel people in Alamosa. We haven't managed to become dealers for Cavco yet, but we are working with a dealership
in Arizona that is giving us some special concessions.
There is a lot of building going on in our area, including we just learned of a couple
from the Denver area that are moving permanently to SDCR and are going to live in tent while they build a solar
efficient home completely off the grid. His parents are following onto a lot we sold him several years ago and later,
his sister is also coming to live.
Snow News:
We try to keep track of the precipitation data for our area with two major sources.
One source is Wolfgang's ski condition newsletter subscription to the 3 nearby ski area, Wolf Creek in Colorado
west of us and , Red River, and Angel Fire, south of us in New Mexico. The other source of information is the official
Snow pack sites aka Snowtel which can be gotten from our website from clicking our weather icon on page:
Culebra 1, Culebra 2, Trinchera, and Ute Creek are the measurable places in our area.
Precipitation in our area is substantially below normal for the year. However,
early and mid-March storms came and we know there was a lot more snow and some with some water content which was welcomed. We
were at about one-third of normal, but thanks to a storm in mid-March, the area improved and was at one-half of
normal snowpack or better.
The skiing has been good at Wolf Creek but is still only 20 feet depth
and is usally 40 feet at this time of year. The Medano Pass area is registering 8.8" for the year which is the
way less than normal. Medano Creek flows through the San Dunes National Park, especially in the early summer.
These factors all increases our fire danger for the coming summer and fall, which
is a concern. The Costilla County Sheriff had posted a NO FIRE BAN already in the area during the winter months, but
in a recent edition of "La Sierra" it was lifted.
Lack of snow in the area has been good for the snow-removal budgets and roads, especially
the Forbes Park area which really struggled last year paying for clearing the main roads into the park and this year they
have not had that challenge.
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Some History of our
Area -- written by Wolfgang and Jane Sattler
Costilla County is overdeveloped. It has close to 80 thousand parcels of land on the county tax rolls.
Because of its beautiful mountain setting, it caught the imagination of developers going all the way back to the 19th
century.
During
the late 1700 and early 1800’s the Spanish crown rewarded some of their subjects with huge land grants. One of these was the Sangre De Cristo land grant which was over 1 million acres in size and mostly located
in Costilla County. This was originally deeded to a fur trapper named Beaubien who was killed by Indians
shortly thereafter and the land passed to his son Charles. In 1863 Charles sold
these 1.04 million acres to then Colorado governor William
Gilpin for 4 cents per acre. Gilpin
later started subdividing the land and several land development schemes followed. In the early 1900's a big land auction
and lottery was held in Blanca and as many as 5,000 people from all over the US
and some foreign countries attended.
In
the early 1960’s some major land developers bought almost a million acres for less than $5.00 per acre and started subdividing
and selling it in 5 acre parcels. The Forbes Family was included in this group. Costilla County
is approximately 32 miles wide by 40 miles long (800,000 acres) . Interestingly
enough – while one-third of the land in the State of Colorado is federal or BLM land-
there is NONE in Costilla County. This is due to the way it was developed – starting as a Spanish
Land Grant, and now ownership is by indeviduals.
In
1965 there were 25,000 parcels of land on the Costilla County tax rolls. By 1985 that increased
by 50,000 to 75,000. Today those numbers are approximately 80,000. Fity thousand parcels were bought between 1965 and 1985.
If the average age of the buyers then was 45 (1975), they are now approaching 80 years of age. Most of the people that bought then thought of eventually retiring in our beautiful mountains, but few
did. In the 2000 census, there were 3,660 people living in 1,300 permanent residences
in our county. With an additional 900 cabins, less than 3 of our land is occupied. 97% is vacant and most is owned by out of state owners.
As
the owners of these new developments grew older they often decided to sell and that has provided the steady supply of low
cost land for the last 10 years. In these last 10 years, an estimated 40,000
parcels of land have changed hands and these new owner are not selling. This
is the reason in our opinion that prices of Costilla County land are finally going up and this should continue for many years,
since our prices today are still only 5% to 20% of similar
parcels in this country.
Another
interesting sub-chapter on the area’s history developed in the courts in the early 2000’s and went all the way
to the Supreme Court of Colorado. After many years in court – the case
of Eugene Lobato vs. Taylor Ranch involved a group of landowners who were successors
of the original land owners on the Sangre de Cristo land grant claiming that they should be granted permanent usage of a large
area formerly called the Taylor Ranch – which is near San Luis,
CO. The landowners claimed that
they had the right to graze livestock, gather firewood and timber, hunt, fish, and recreate—as given to their ancestors
in the 1844 land grant. The Supreme Court agreed with them, and 2004 the names
of heirs of the original owners and settlers of this portion of the land grant were being researched in order that the families
could receive keys to the gates of this 77,500 acre area.
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We are happy to report a new business in Fort Garland - All-Gon Restaurant
-- serving Italian food and Pizza on the south side of Highway 160 just a block west of the main intersection.
We had a great meal there Saturday night March 11th and enjoyed the food, consisting of pastas and salads, along with some
sandwiches and pizza. We wish the families involved with this venture good luck and hope that if you are in the area
you will look for them and give them a try. Their hours are 11-9, so join them for lunch and dinner.
We continue to eat breakfast from time to time at The Old West Cafe on the northwest
corner of the main intersection and enjoy visiting with the friendly proprietors and locals when we stop there. When
you really want a good hamburger-- why not try Del's Diner - southeast of the main intersection outside of Fort Garland.
In Blanca-- you can't beat Lu's Cafe. We love her food and enjoy good service
there any time of day. A lot of big rig truckers must agree as the parking lot is generally full. There are other
places to eat in the area and if you have a favorite or want to share something else with us-- please email me with information
and I'll mention it another time.
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Letter to A Thief:
In Mid-March, Wolfgang and I checked
out a cabin site in the SDCR area in Unit Y for some folks
that live out of state. These people loved the parcel of land
that they purchased from us over a year ago and have made
several great trips out to S outhern Colorado building a cabin with their
own hands from their own plans. Our visit this time was
so sad for me as we found the door standing
open and t he door jam busted up. We don't know if anything
was stolen from inside the structure (which is an unfinished shell at this point
) but we noted there was lumber and some tar-paper inside, some rope-- not
much else.
With the only payoff being
possession of some odd-ball construcution material, and the damage being a
broken door jam and lack of security -- why would somebody crush
a dream?
It has always been a mystery
to me why certain folks choose to break the law and impinge on
others . But -- to shatter a dream and the hopes, love, and
spirit of honest folks - merely trying to make something out of nothing for
themselves and their children -- that is truly despicable.!
Another friend of ours had his
freshly cut lumber and firewood stolen off his property.
We recommend in some cases to just leave your place open, because the curious thieves
cause more damage trying to see what is inside by breaking up windows and doors, than if they can easily gain access - see
there is nothing there of value and leave.
We are so sad when we
hear of these occurences. They happen from time to time and
we can't pretend they don't, but I am always hopeful that
it won't happen to me or to you -- and like Karma -- we can only
hope - that "what goes around
comes around."
Jane Sattler
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BUYERS BEWARE---
This seller on ebay glosses over utility information which is non-existent.
Misstates the distance from the area to
Denver by 75 miles.
On several auctions -- each property shows the SAME PHOTOS but say "they are taken from the
property." Also - this seller appears to be living in Australia which would be the reason why they don't know
much about Colorado in general.
dennis7736 at ebay was a seller on them at one time.. just for your reference.
A contact told us yesterday that they purchased 5 acres from an online auction site and wondered what our opinion was
of the parcel. We thought it was a $2,500-$3,500 parcel since it is way south of Hwy 160-sagebrush/dessert area and
the area is such that the county commissioners won't permit you to get a water well permit there. That is limiting.
Anyway -- the person then told me that they paid $100 for the privilege of getting this lot and with finance charges, they
agreed to pay over $13,000 for the next few years to complete their purchase. I do not want to bad-mouth the competition,
but if you want to know who this was and what their web-presence is, email me privately and I'll tell you.
Just not sure what these people are trying to do-- but they have been super agressive in trying to buy property in our
area lately so we feel they are positioning themselves to be Big Sellers in the future.
Don't even go there- There have been recent exposes in the local San Luis "La Sierra" newspaper. My recommendation
is also based on some conversations I've had with people who listed property with them and got no buyers and never had
any activity from their listing. They are trying to buy very cheap -- then when they list property for sale it is 4-5
times the going value, and of course - they are not making very many sales at those prices. A customer of our recently
told us that they charged him a large fee TWICE and he never had one contact as a result of their "web presence." The
local realtors in Costilla and Alamosa County are also offering warnings and remind people.. if you want to sell your property,
you should NEVER have to pay a fee up front to list it.
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