KREX, September 21, 2026- – The Vogelaar family has donated the approximately 1,360-acre Horsefly Mesa Ranch in Montrose County to the Colorado West Land Trust.

The property has simultaneously been placed under a permanent conservation easement with Colorado Open Lands to protect its natural landscape from future development.

Under the arrangement, the permanent conservation easement protects the property’s natural values while allowing Colorado West Land Trust to eventually sell the land. Proceeds from the future sale will be used by the trust to fund additional land protection projects across western Colorado.

Horsefly Mesa Ranch includes meadows, woodlands, ponds, springs and riparian areas. The property serves as working ranchland and provides water and wildlife habitat, including summer and calving range for mule deer and elk.

The property’s history with the family spans multiple generations, starting with Cecil “Skinny” Vogelaar and his wife, Dorothy Vogelaar. Cecil was a local rancher known for his work ethic and irrigation knowledge. Following his death in 1973, his daughter, Anita Vogelaar, took over management of the ranch.

Anita raised her children with deep ties to Horsefly Mesa, spending childhood summers at the ranch without electricity or running water. In the early 1970s, Anita successfully fought a proposal by a power company to run power lines across the ranch to preserve its open spaces.

Slade Sowle, Anita’s son, said those early experiences shaped his family’s perspective on the land. “Those experiences shaped us and the ranch became much more than a piece of property. It was part of our family’s story and a connection to the generations who came before us,” Sowle said.

Sowle explained that his mother maintained a lifelong commitment to keeping the ranch intact. “She understood how easily wide-open spaces can disappear. She loved the beauty, history and wildness of the ranch and never wanted to see it divided up or developed. For her, stewardship meant leaving the land as intact as possible for the generations that came after her,” Sowle said.

The family chose to donate the ranch to carry out Anita’s long-term vision for the property.

“It gives us a way to honor what we believe was our mother’s greatest wish for the ranch: that it remain undeveloped and a place where wildlife can continue to thrive,” Sowle said. “Our family’s relationship with the property has spanned generations, so knowing that its future is now protected is incredibly meaningful. We may have let go of ownership, but we are preserving what mattered most to our mother—the land itself.”