In 1891 Edward J. Currier purchased, site unseen, land in the Grand Junction area of Mesa County. By 1892 he had purchased 200 acres near Molina, and moved his family there from Iowa. Originally a dairy  concern, the operation was soon expanded to include beef cattle, summering them in the Plateau Valley and on Grand Mesa. Four of Edwards five sons continued ranching in the area, retaining original grazing permits on the Grand Mesa National Forest.

The original 160 acres of Gunderson Ranch were homesteaded by Ole and Mary Gunderson in 1888. They ran cattle and raised feed and potatoes on this ranch in Mesa County near Collbran. The Journal of the Western Slope for Winter, 1994 had a great article on the history of this family and their homesteading experiences. They held one of the first cattle grazing permits issued in Colorado. The ranch has continued to grow with the years, to more than 6,000 acres. It is now operated by Edwin and Norva Gunderson, and by the fourth generation of the family, Ed and Shayne Gunderson.

Daniel and Mary Bradbury homesteaded the 80 acre Bradbury Ranch near Whitewater in Mesa County in 1895. Their son, Frank, added 120 more acres through homesteading in 1910. Today Michael Bradbury,  son of Walter and Phyllis, farms the land. The Bradbury's are also recipients of the National Trust's historic structures award.

The ZF Ranch dates back to 1885 when Nels Johnson came to Colorado from Mt. Pleasant, Utah to homestead 160 acres just east of Mesa. Nels passed the ranch to his son, Arthur, who, in turn, passed it to his daughter,  Bertha A. Lloyd. The ranch is now owned and operated by Bertha's son William R. Stoddard and his wife Heather, where they raise beef cattle and horses and a crop of hay.

The Johnson Reaphook Ranch was originally purchased in 1900. The original farm had 160 acres where sheep and cattle were raised. The main crops were hay, oats, and apples. The farmhouse was an 1882 log schoolhouse that was disassembled and moved to the farm.

In 1904, Glade Park residents Joseph and Minna Bieser purchased the Perry place near Mesa. The couple raised seven sons on the ranch—Ernest, Fred, William, Otto, Harry, Joe and Richard. In 1923, William married Pauline Brown, daughter of John Parker Brown, one of the first homesteaders to arrive in Mesa County. The couple’s son Robert, known as Bill, was born in 1926. Except for the years he served the country during World War II, Bill spent his entire life on the ranch—66 of those years with his wife Patsy Clay.

The Plaza Urrutia Fronton is a pelota (handball) court constructed of a simple concrete open structure (no roof, no front wall) with five tilt-up concrete walls that are tied together with steel plates and surround a poured concrete floor or deck.

Completed in 1922 to accommodate the expanding influence and reach of the Roman Catholic Church within the Lower Grand Valley, the ministry of St. Malachy’s Church sought to "build the prettiest church in the valley."

Established on Forest Service land in ca. 1938, the Claybaugh Cow Camp served as seasonal housing for the ranching family of J.B. (Bruce) Claybaugh, owner of the Cross Bar Cross Ranch in the Grand Valley, and their cowpunchers as they grazed over 2,000 head of cattle on the Grand Mesa during the summer months.

Demolished February 1989