Amidst the hustle and bustle of early Colorado’s mining boomtown lifestyle, Thornton and Margaret "Madge" Brown craved a simpler life. Their dream was fulfilled when the bank assayer and his wife, a school teacher, decided to leave Cripple Creek and purchased their ranch near Steamboat Springs in 1915. However, in 1918, tragedy struck. Thornton died in the Spanish flu epidemic, leaving Madge a widow.

Joseph Lee Wertz moved from Kansas to McClave, Colorado in 1919 then purchased the family farm. On it, he proceeded to cultivate milo, alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat, corn and cattle on roughly 150 acres. A beet dump and corrals existed on the southeast corner of the plot next to a train right of way. Six children were raised on the farm by J.L. Wertz and his wife, Rhoda. The family donated land in 1933 to establish the Dunkard Brethren Church on a corner of their land. The farm was passed down through cousins and eventually to W.

In 1882, 16-year-old Casper Boerner emigrated from Westphalia, Germany to St. Louis Missouri. He worked as a carpenter and took the opportunity to homestead in western Kansas, marrying Anna Naber before moving his family to Colorado in 1915. Casper and Anna had 13 children.  In 1916, the family began farming on 160 acres purchased in Logan County. A barn and house were already built on the land. Two years later the family purchased another plot of land.

The Baker Farm has been a continuously operating farm and ranch since 1906. The land was originally homesteaded by George Valentine Baker and his wife, Anna. The Bakers originally came from Alsace-Lorraine, France. George Valentine Baker and son, George Adam Baker, each filed a homestead 16 miles south and 11 miles east of Akron. Wheat, corn, and cattle have been primary sources of income for the farm.

Bagley Hills Ranch is a livestock operation located in Yuma county owned by Donald and Deborah Godsey. Don’s grandmother, Alice Bagley, came to Colorado from Missouri in 1910. She applied for a homestead patent for 160 acres near her parents’ homestead south of Eckley. Arthur Bagley graduated from college in Kirkland, Missouri in 1910 when he then moved to Colorado and married Alice. In 1919 they bought a ½ section where they made their home for many years.

The Aspaas Ranch, located near Hesperus in LaPlata County,was deeded to Annette Johnsen Aspaas, a Norwegian immigrant, in 1913. Annette passed in 1920, dividing the ranch among her four children and it has remained in the family since then. Historically and today, Aspaas Ranch raises cattle and allows grazing in the autumn. By 2010, Helen Ruth Aspaas finished purchasing shares from cousins and became sole owner of the property. In 2010, Helen Ruth placed a conservation easement on the ranch, held by La Plata Open Space Conservancy.

Windy Ridge Land was settled by members of the Hasser family, who arrived in Prowers County, Colorado from Indiana by way of Texas, settling in 1918. That same year, four of the Hasser siblings, Elizabeth, Aaron, Leo, and Otto, claimed homesteads in the area.  Aaron would eventually purchase Leo’s land, followed by Elizabeth’s land in 1962, where he raised wheat and feed for cattle. Their nephew, Bob Emick (son of sister Laura) married Helen in 1952 and shortly after was drafted into the Army for the Korean War.

John and Della Whitney came from farm families with deep roots in Ohio that reached back to before the Civil War. During the early 1900s the couple lived close to the Poplar Ridge Church of the Brethren in Defiance, Ohio, and served as custodians of the church building and grounds. In 1910, they followed other Brethren families west, purchasing a farm near Portis, Kansas. In 1918, they purchased 160 acres of farmland near Haxtun and began growing alfalfa, sorgum, and grass for pasture.

Raman and Jennie Miller purchased this farm from the Strasburg Lincoln Land Company in 1918, where they raised small grains and hogs and built a home. Raman operated the farm while also serving as an Arapahoe County Commissioner and on the State Board of Agriculture; in the 1940s Raman was instrumental in bringing rural electrification to the area. Upon their deaths, Raman and Jennie’s daughter Ruth and her husband Frank Vannoy took over the farm where they continued to raise small grains.

Around 1876, when Colorado was in the process of becoming a state, Maximo Vigil acquired approximately 200 acres under the 1862 Homestead Act and established a farm near Capulin. During this time the water was also registered. The farmland has been worked by six generations of the Vigil family. Maximo worked the land for many years until his son Venancio Vigil took over in the late 1930s. Venancio worked the farm with his children growing peas, alfalfa, and barley.