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Ruby Lake Cabins

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1894–1935. 11 miles southwest of Antelope Park via Colorado 149 to Fern Creek Sheep Driveway

Nestled against the snowy white bosom of the Continental Divide, this resort began in 1894 as a homestead cabin. The land and lake were acquired by Clayton Wetherill in 1911. He ran it as a trout ranch where Teddy Roosevelt's son, Quentin, is said to have helped build the still existing “dugout cabin” in 1915. A cook shack (1934) and bunk cabin (1935) were added for summer guests of Eugenia Wetherill, Clayton's wife, whose neighboring Wetherill Ranch (1917) has typical single-story rustic rental cabins under green shingle roofs. Art dealer C. Bland Jameson traded two Charles Russell paintings for the land in 1959 and sold it to the U.S. Forest Service in 1970. At that time, the San Luis Valley Historical Society managed to save the buildings by fighting for a special use permit reversing the Forest Service policy of burning down buildings on newly acquired lands.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Spar City

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Ruby Lake Cabins", [Pagosa Springs, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-ML20.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 436-437.

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