As most of you know, we cancelled all but one of our 2020 Summer Programs at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, due to covid concerns. However, we still encouraged people to explore the ranch and river, and had several safe volunteer workdays.
With social distancing as a prerequisite, we also launched our first Buffalo Peaks Ranch Photo Contest. Sixty photographers visited the ranch over the summer, and submitted so many wonderful images. Thanks to everyone who took part!
Picking just three winners was nearly impossible, but here they are!
First Place Winner: Drain by Mark Bellncula/Lume Machina Project.
Mark Bellncula uses a combination of pre-programmed drones with LED lights to create massive 3-D sculptures in the sky. For more on Mark’s work, and the Lume Machina Project, be sure to visit his website!
Second Place Winner: The Essence by Vince Matthews.
We have never seen Buffalo Peaks Ranch from this perspective, especially how Vince Matthews’ photograph takes in the Middle Fork of the South Platte River, and the Mosquito Range on the horizon. Vince Matthews is Colorado’s former State Geologist, and has taught Field Geology classes at the ranch in the past!
Third Place Winner: Milky Way by Kirsty Saalfrank
Kirsty Saalfrank has taken taken part in Ranch Workshops in the past, and was excited to return this summer with her camera. Like many, Kirsty camped out to catch the best light. We’re so glad the Milky Way was so visible the night she was there!
Thanks again to everyone who took part in our first Buffalo Peaks Ranch Photo Contest, with special thanks to our Judges: artist & filmmaker Eileen Roscina Richardson, photographer Ben Sherrill, and Krista Hanley of Coors Western Art/National Western Stock Show.
Buffalo Peaks Ranch, the headwaters home of the Rocky Mountain Land Library. photo by Val Burnside, 2020.
We have some very good news to share! As most of you know, the Rocky Mountain Land Library has been an all-volunteer team since our very first days. But, we’ve always felt if we had a full-time staff, we could do so much more!
Well, that day has come! Thanks to the generosity and vision of a Land Library friend and donor we have received a grant to support the salaries of two full-time staff members for what promises to be the Land Library’s BIG year ahead.
Jeff Lee will serve as the Land Library’s Executive Director, and Ann Marie Martin will be our Assistant Director. Ann and Jeff are the co-founders of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, and both are so excited to have the gift of time to help move the RMLL forward!
Assuming their staff positions also means that Ann and Jeff have left the RMLL’s Board of Directors. The Board will now be led by:
Ben Sherrill & Mark Wren – Co-Chairmen
Eileen Roscina Richardson – Secretary
Dan Mitchell – Treasurer
We are so happy to share this news!
“We find our place in the world through land and stories, and the Rocky Mountain Land Library unites our passion for both.” — Mark Fiege, author and historian.
The Rocky Mountain Land Library’s mission is to help connect people to nature and the land. The need for places of quiet thought, creative pursuits, and active community involvement will only grow in the years ahead. The residential library we are establishing will give everyone access not only to the books, but also to the surrounding lands — a learning landscape for generations to come.
Along the South Platte River at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, Summer 2020. photo by Val Burnside.
The Rocky Mountain Land Library & the National Western Center
presents a new
Book Club Series
dedicated to
FOOD AND LAND
From seed and soil, to food traditions across the globe, food has always been a remarkable intersection between people and the land. That creative intersection has also inspired many great books!
The Rocky Mountain Land Library, and the National Western Center will be co-hosting four book discussions this spring and summer. Each book explores a different connection between food and land: indigenous perspectives, innovations in farming practices, preservation movements, and community stewardship.
For our first three meetings in Globeville, you’ll have plenty of time to browse the Land Library’s shelves, and explore our adjacent warehouse where we continue to unpack over 40,000 Land Library books. We’ll also hear more about the National Western Center plans that are emerging across the South Platte River!
There is a $10 registration fee for each Book Club meeting.
If the cost of participation is a barrier for you, please reach out to Grace Hanover at g.hanover@nationalwesterncenter.com for information on scholarships and grants for book purchases.
Your local bookstore should be able to order any of the books below, and don’t forget to check your local library! For Denver residents here’s a link to the Denver Public Library’s website.
Join us for one Book Club session, or sign up for all four!
Weaving Indigenous Wisdom with the World of Science
Sunday, March 29th, 1-3pm at the Land Library’s Globeville branch:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a book to help set the tone for all the books and discussions to come!
Buffalo Peaks Ranch lies on the banks of the South Platte River – a perfect setting to discuss many topics that Mayordomo raises, such as water, rivers, food and rural communities.
South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch, on the banks of the South Platte River. photo by Carl Young.
We’ll also have time to explore this historic ranch, including the Cooks House, where we will have the ranch’s first permanent library – one dedicated to Food and Land. A perfect finale for the Book Club Series!
Buffalo Peaks Ranch’s Cooks House (with Mt. Silverheels on the horizon). This building will soon house the Land Library’s collection of books on Food & Land. photo by Samuel Bell.
We’re thrilled to be partnering with the National Western Center for the Food & Land Book Club Series!
The National Western Center is a year-round, global destination for ag and food innovation, western heritage and culture that will open in Denver in 2024, across the South Platte River from the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Globeville branch. Between now and when the campus opens, the National Western Center is working with partners like the RMLL to kick-start program offerings that relate to our mission and support our local communities. Grounded in food and land, this book club is a deeply personal way to connect us to each other and to the diverse places we call home. Learn more at www.nationalwesterncenter.com.
A photo montage of the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Headwaters to Plains Network, from South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch to Denver’s Globeville neighborhood. Both sites lie on the banks of the South Platte River.
Our year-end Fundraising Campaign has just two weeks to go. The funds we raise this month will fuel our ongoing efforts to establish a Headwaters to Plains Network – a network of library/learning centers focused on people and the land. Each library spans the urban/rural divide, and both are designed to encourage discovery, quiet thought, creative pursuits, and active community involvement.
This past spring we hosted our first Land Library programs in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood. Thanks to volunteers, Globeville’s Library Room has become an inspiring space for classes and book clubs. We’ve already hosted several meetings & visits from groups such as Outdoor Afro and the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists.
Our adjacent warehouse/sorting room regularly gathers a busy hive of volunteers who are getting over 40,000 books ready for the shelves at Globeville, and at Buffalo Peaks Ranch.
Our past summer at Buffalo Peaks Ranch was our best season yet. We had a very successful fifth summer of Ranch programs, including ten artists & writers workshops, natural history field classes, a Star Night, and our annual Ranch Book Club. We can’t wait for even more progress in 2020. Stay tuned for our Summer Ranch Schedule!
The Land Library has exciting plans for 2020, but we need your help!
Feel free to click on our PayPal donation button below, or it you prefer to donate by check, our best address is:
Rocky Mountain Land Library, 2550 W. 39th Avenue, Denver, CO 80211.
For more on the Rocky Mountain Land Library, we hope you enjoy this 3-minute video. In 2019, Colorado Preservation Inc awarded the Land Library their Preservation Edge Award, recognizing a historic preservation project that utilizes unique & creative means (for the ongoing renovation of South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch). CPI also produced this short film, filmed at Denver’s Globeville branch, with footage of the ranch. You’ll also meet a few of the people behind the Rocky Mountain Land Library!
“We find our place in the world through land and stories, and the Rocky Mountain Land Library unites our passion for both.” — Mark Fiege, author of The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States
The Bunkhouse & Cooks House at South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch, the headwaters home of the Rocky Mountain Land Library.
“The Rocky Mountain Land Library is like a gene bank for words, it’s our way of saving the past for the future.” — David Mas Masumoto, farmer and author.
Books are the tools we love best. They have a way of connecting people across the globe, and over the centuries. Books help us discover and celebrate the beauty of our improbable blue world. And books provide us with the tools we all need to live lighter on the land.
Our year-end Fundraising Campaign has officially launched. The funds we raise in December will fuel our ongoing efforts to establish aHeadwaters to Plains Network — a network of library/learning centers focused on people and the land. Each library spans the urban/rural divide, and both are designed to encourage discovery, quiet thought, creative pursuits, and active community involvement.
The Denver chapter of Outdoor Afro held their annual summer meeting at the Land Library’s Globeville branch in Denver.
This past spring we hosted our first Land Library programs in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood. Thanks to volunteers, Globeville’s Library Room is an inspiring book-lined space. We’ve already hosted several meetings & visits from groups such as Outdoor Afro and the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists.
Our adjacent warehouse/sorting room regularly houses a busy hive of volunteers who are getting over 40,000 books ready for the shelves at Globeville, and at Buffalo Peaks Ranch.
Amazingly enough, our Globeville site lies along the banks of the South Platte River, just like our headwaters site in South Park.
This past summer Ashley Rust led a spirited Stream Ecology class along the ranch’s stretch of the South Platte River.
This past summer at the headwaters was our best season yet. We had a very successful fifth summer of Ranch programs, including ten artists & writers workshops, natural history field classes, a Star Night, and our annual Ranch Book Club.
The Land Library has ambitious goals for 2020, but we’ll need your support. We are excited about what we all can accomplish in the year ahead!
Step by step, book by book!
Feel free to click on our PayPal donation button below, or it you prefer to donate by check, our best address is:
Rocky Mountain Land Library, 2550 W. 39th Avenue, Denver, CO 80211.
For more on the Rocky Mountain Land Library, we hope you enjoy this 3-minute video. In 2019, Colorado Preservation Inc awarded the Land Library their Preservation Edge Award, recognizing a historic preservation project that utilizes unique & creative means (for the ongoing renovation of South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch). CPI also produced this short film, filmed at Denver’s Globeville branch, with footage of the ranch. You’ll also meet a few of the people behind the Rocky Mountain Land Library!
“We find our place in the world through land and stories, and the Rocky Mountain Land Library unites our passion for both.” — Mark Fiege, author of The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States
Buffalo Peaks Ranch’s summer season comes to a close on September 14th, in a very quiet way, perfect for the changing seasons. Jaime Kopke, a certified forest therapy guide, will lead a day-long workshop combining ephemeral art making with the Japanese practice of forest bathing.
In the morning, we’ll start with a two and a half hour forest bathing walk. Forest bathing, known as Shinrin-yoku in Japan, is the practice of opening up the senses to connect with nature. Jaime Kopke will offer a series of invitations to help everyone connect more deeply with the land. These mindful wanders are slow paced and accessible to all fitness levels.
After lunch, we will explore the ranch and river in a more playful way by creating ephemeral art. Having tapped into our senses, new possibilities and inspirations may emerge. Using only the natural materials we find, we’ll work within the constraints and freedoms we discover, forming a new partnership with the more than human world. This session is meant to be accessible to all – it is a creative practice everyone can participate in.
Join artists Sarah Wallace Scott and Eileen Roscina Richardson at Buffalo Peaks Ranch on Saturday August 31st, for a day of immersive learning about the local land in an intimate and sensory way.
Inspired by Australian Aboriginal songlines, or dream tracks, we will explore Buffalo Peaks Ranch by foot, listening to the languages of the other animals, noticing the rhythm of the topography, and the various traits of the landscape.
Can we become attuned to the shifting sounds and gestures surrounding us, and inform our own lives through the life of the land?
Through careful observations and further research utilizing the printed resources of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, we will create stories, songs, poetry and dance that describe and celebrate the land, landmarks, animals, insects, plant life, and other natural phenomena of the area.
Headdresses by Sarah Wallace Scott, for an earlier iteration of Songlines at Buffalo Peaks Ranch.
Our day will conclude with a performance of our creations under the wide skies of Buffalo Peaks Ranch.
The Songlines workshop fee is $50, plus a $4.67 ticketing fee. More details and directions will follow. Feel free to send any questions to jeff@landlibrary.org.
“Her prose watches now from the point of view of the eagle, now from that of the walker, now from that of the creeping juniper. In this way we are brought – in her memorable phrase – to see the earth ‘as the earth must see itself’. – Robert Macfarlane on the Scottish writer Nan Shepherd, author of The Living Mountain.
Our Summer Ranch schedule is coming to a close – but not yet! We have three more workshops that will help you experience the land in unique ways….
Join artists Sarah Wallace Scott and Eileen Roscina Richardson at the Rocky Mountain Land Library for a day of immersive learning about the local land in an intimate and sensory way. Inspired by Australian Aboriginal songlines, or dreaming tracks, we will explore Buffalo Peaks Ranch by foot, listening to the languages of other animals, and noticing the rhythm of the topography, and the various traits of the area. Can we become attuned to the shifting sounds and gestures of the local earth, and inform our own lives through the life of the land?
Through careful observations and further research utilizing the printed resources of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, we will create stories, songs, poetry and dance that celebrate and describe the land, landmarks, animals, insects, plant life, and other natural phenomena of the area. Our day will conclude with a performance of our creations under the open sky of Buffalo Peaks Ranch.
More about Sarah & Eileen:
Sarah Wallace Scottearned an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2009 and a BFA from The Academy of Art University in 2005. Motivated by a desire to maintain an environmentally sustainable practice, she has sought to adapt her materials and art practice to the age of human-made climate change. In her work she strives to learn more about the systems and creatures that inhabit our planet, to promote a greater understanding and appreciation for the interconnectivity between all living things, and the morality of how we choose to live with others. She is an alum of artist residencies at RedLine, Denver and the Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium. Her work has been exhibited internationally and locally at The Arvada Center, RedLine Denver, the Edinburgh College of Art, The Urban Institute of Contemporary Art Michigan, and the Emmanuel Gallery. Her work is also on permanent display at the University of Denver. She is a founding and current member of Tank Studios, LLC.
Eileen Roscina Richardson is an artist, experimental filmmaker and naturalist from Denver, Colorado. She earned a BFA from Emerson College in Boston, MA and trained at the School of Botanical Art and Illustration in Denver. Through biomimicry and the study of biophilia, her work examines human’s spiritual and social (dis)connection with nature, and seeks to raise questions about realizing a radically different metaphoric mapping of time, space and our place in the world. She has exhibited film internationally, was the 2019 Resident Artist for the National Western Stock Show, and is a current resident at RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver.
The workshop fee is $50, plus a $4.67 ticketing fee. More details and directions will follow. Feel free to send any questions to jeff@landlibrary.org
Join us as we use an extraordinary mountain and historic ranching landscape to inspire the design of a stranded hat or cowl. First we’ll explore, sketch, take photos and make notes. A brief experiential overview of color theory will follow. After that you will choose colors and yarns, and practice combining colors.There will be lots of time to revise the swatches to see what combinations of colors produce the desired effect. You will end the day having started a hat or cowl, and have notes to knit an even larger garment.
This will be a one-day intermediate knitting class for students with some stranding color work experience.
More about Celeste Nossiter:
Celeste Nossiter loves color and experimenting within the traditional stranded knitting technique (one version of which is Fair Isle, but it’s a technique practiced in many cultures). Celeste has taught at the Taos Wool Festival, Estes Park Wool Festival, and at several yarn shops in Albuquerque, Taos, Santa Fe, Flagstaff, and Sedona. A lifelong study of color and an MFA in Painting sparks Celeste’s curiosity to keep learning, and to share that enthusiasm with knitters. Be sure to visit Celeste’s very informative website, www.CelesteNossiter.com !
Materials List:
– 16″ circular needles, size 2 or 3
– graph paper, pencil & eraser
-digital camera or phone camera
-stitch markers
-During class you will choose 5 skeins of Shetland Spindrift wool (Celeste will be providing the yarn, and the cost is included in the $95 class fee).
The workshop fee is $95. More details and directions will follow. Feel free to send any questions to jeff@landlibrary.org
Slow down and immerse yourself in nature. This day long workshop combines the Japanese practice of forest bathing with ephemeral art making. In the morning, we’ll start with a two and a half hour forest bathing walk. Forest bathing, known as Shinrin-yoku in Japan, is the practice of opening up the senses to connect with nature. Jaime Kopke, a certified forest therapy guide, will offer you a series of invitations to help you more deeply connect with the land. These mindful wanders are slow paced and accessible to all fitness levels.
After lunch, we will explore the land of the ranch in a more playful way by creating ephemeral art. Having tapped into our senses, new possibilities and inspirations may emerge. Using only the natural materials we find, we’ll work within the constraints and freedoms we discover, forming a new partnership with the more than human world. This session is meant to be accessible to all – it is a creative practice anyone can participate in.
More about Jaime Kopke:
Jaime Kopke is a certified Forest Therapy Guide, trained by the Association of Forest and Nature Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT). She has worked designing public programs at museums and libraries for almost a decade, and is also a practicing artist, focusing on work that intertwines the boundaries between people and the natural world. In her years spent producing public programs, she has seen a deep desire from people to re-connect – with one another, their passions, but also with something bigger than themselves. Forest therapy provides a doorway for people to tap into a greater sense of being – through nature connection emerges cultural repair. For more on Forest Bathing, be sure to visit Jaime’s website!
The workshop fee is $50, plus a $4.67 ticketing fee. More details and directions will follow. Feel free to send any questions to jeff@landlibrary.org
With the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11’s successful landing on the Moon, we know we’ll be reaching for our binoculars often this summer. It’s amazing the details of the Moon that you can see with a simple pair of binoculars. You can spend a minute, or an hour, exploring the lunar landscape. And maybe dream a bit about what it would be like to be there, and to look back at our Earth.
Of course, we’ve been looking through the Land Library’s books on the Moon, and the historic journeys mankind took more than fifty years ago. Here’s some of our favorite books:
— Exploring the Moon Through Binoculars and Small Telescopes by Ernest Cherrington
— 21st Century Atlas of the Moon by Charles A. Wood
— The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor by Maggie Aderin-Pocock
— Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars & Planets by E.C. Krupp
— American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley
— A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaiken
— Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America into the Space Age by Robert Stone
— Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys by Michael Collins
— The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan
PLUS, one of our favorite space travel books for kids!
One of the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s largest book collections is on bees & beekeeping. Over the years the collection has expanded to books on all pollinators, such as mason bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and many others.
So here’s the idea: with the help of inspired partners, let’s build a simple structure (a hive) to house a small library full of books on bees, beekeeping, honey, pollination and pollinators. Place the library alongside (or in the middle of) a pollinator garden complete with pollinator-friendly plants, mason bee hotels, and a variety of different bee hives.
Then provide classes and gatherings for learners of all ages!
Denver’s little hive library will feature hundreds of books like these:
Rocky Mountain Land Library 