Welcome to the Clubhouse!

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Year End Campaign. Our campaign goal is two fold; sharing more about our 2021 plans and programs, plus asking for your support as we continue to create a network of place-based libraries along Colorado’s South Platte River.

Please consider making a contribution today!

 

This past summer, thanks to the Land Library’s amazing volunteers, we converted Buffalo Peaks Ranch’s old Scale House into a Young Readers Library. The library is full of great books, rocks, skulls, fossils, feathers, and a full array of exploration tools: binoculars, microscopes, a weather station, and telescope. The Young Readers Library has a clubhouse feel, where next summer young naturalists are sure to gather.The ranch’s newest library would never have happened if it wasn’t for the support of the Friends of the Fairplay Community. Their grant allowed us to clean out the old shed. Our volunteer Steve Harris added new windows, a dutch door, and many, many bookcases. 
Having the Young Readers Library will inspire new kids programs in 2021. It’s our hope that the combination of great books, the river, and the ranch, will inspire the next generation of young people who love and care for our planet. Please lend us your support!

Here’s what we’ll be talking about for the rest of the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Year End Campaign!

DECEMBER 20-26, Nature In The City: We have lots to share about what’s being planned in Globeville, our Denver branch located on the banks of the South Platte River. The Rocky Mountain Land Library is so excited to have an inner-city location. We’ll talk more about this incredible opportunity to help tell the story of nature and the land from an urban and rural perspective — along the same river no less!

Please make a contribution today

The Cooks House Brings the Sizzle in 2021

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Year End Campaign. Our campaign goal is two fold; sharing more about our 2021 plans and programs, plus asking for your support as we continue to create a network of place-based libraries along Colorado’s South Platte River.

Please consider making a contribution today!

Our early plans for Buffalo Peaks Ranch called for establishing a hearth feel for a ranch that has been dark and abandoned for the past twenty five years. That general notion led us to a strong food and land focus for the Cooks House.
So, thanks to over 1,000 Kickstarter supporters, and countless volunteers, we will complete renovation on the Cooks House next summer. That accomplishment will give us:

• Two new lodgings, a classroom space, a terrific kitchen, and a new library for the ranch.
• The Cooks House Library will be devoted to Food and Land – from seed and soil, to food traditions across the globe. Our books are ready to be shelved!
• Our new kitchen will also host cooking classes and demonstrations.
• The completion of the Cooks House will provide an indoor space for classes and workshops, always a helpful option if South Park’s weather takes a turn.
• And lastly, next summer we’ll be able to launch the ranch’s first Residency Program, giving writers, artists, and other creatives the time and space to pursue their passion. The Cooks House will supply creature comforts and great books, while the ranch’s landscape will provide quiet and inspiration.

Stay tuned for more, and please consider being part of this one-of-a-kind project focused on books, land, and lifelong learning. Donation information is below.

Here’s what we’ll be talking about for the rest of the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Year End Campaign!

DECEMBER 13-19, The ranch’s new Young Readers Library: We’ll explore the shelves of the ranch’s new library, and describe some of the kids programming that’s being planned for Buffalo Peaks Ranch. 

DECEMBER 20-26, Nature In The City: We have lots to share about what’s being planned in Globeville, our Denver branch located on the banks of the South Platte River. The Rocky Mountain Land Library is so excited to have an inner-city location. We’ll talk more about this incredible opportunity to help tell the story of nature and the land from an urban and rural perspective — along the same river no less!

Make a contribution today

Strap Yourself in for a Flyover of Buffalo Peaks Ranch

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Year End Campaign. Our campaign goal is two fold; sharing more about our 2021 plans and programs, plus asking for your support as we continue to create a network of place-based libraries along Colorado’s South Platte River.

Please consider making a contribution today!

Thanks to photographer Matthew Staver for this inspiring video of the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s headwaters home!

This past week we have been featuring Buffalo Peaks Ranch, established in 1861, and recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. After more than a century as a successful high mountain sheep and cattle operation, the ranch has begun its next chapter. South Park’s landscape (captured in the video above), along with the Land Library’s 50,000+ volumes, will soon help tell the story of the American West, along with the intimate ties between people and the land across the globe. 

Set on the banks of the South Platte River, this historic ranch has already been the inspiring site for classes, workshops, field studies, teacher training, and a three-day art exhibition. Alongside those gatherings, volunteers have been renovating ranch structures to usher in the day when Buffalo Peaks Ranch will become a residential library dedicated to nature and the land. Readers, writers, artists, students, and many others will have the opportunity to “live” at the library, gaining inspiration from the books, and from the surrounding landscape of South Park.

Here’s a few 2021 goals that we are all excited about:

• Resuming Ranch Classes and Programs, after our covid-caused pause in 2020.
• Completing renovation of the Cooks House (more on that next week!).
• Transforming the Lambing Barn into an indoor/outdoor Event Center for Land Library programs, classes, music, dance, celebrations, dinners, and for the use of the South Park community.
• Expand Children’s programming at the ranch. With the completion of the new Young Readers Library last summer, we’re excited to add more kids activities, and special Kids/Family days at the ranch.

Next week we’ll explore the ranch’s most exciting renovation project to date — the Cooks House, which will soon feature lodgings, a kitchen, classroom space, and one of the ranch’s first permanent libraries.
Stay tuned for more, and please consider being part of this one-of-a-kind project focused on books, land, and lifelong learning. Donation information is below. 

Here’s what we’ll be talking about for the rest of the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s Year End Campaign!

DECEMBER 6-12, Renovating the Cooks House (thanks to over a thousand Kickstarter donors), and creating a special library devoted to food and land, from seed and soil, to global food traditions across the world. We’ll talk about the renovation process and progress, and feature many amazing volunteers that are getting the work done!

DECEMBER 13-19, The ranch’s new Young Readers Library: We’ll explore the shelves of the ranch’s new library, and describe some of the kids programming that’s being planned for Buffalo Peaks Ranch. 

DECEMBER 20-26, Nature In The City: We have lots to share about what’s being planned in Globeville, our Denver branch located on the banks of the South Platte River. The Rocky Mountain Land Library is so excited to have an inner-city location. We’ll talk more about this incredible opportunity to help tell the story of nature and the land from an urban and rural perspective — along the same river no less!

Make a contribution today

Buffalo Peaks Ranch Photo Contest Looks to the Skies

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.

Land Library’s Big Year Ahead

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.

Food, Farms, and Stories on the Land

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!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 

Saving Seeds, Saving Stories

Sunday, April 19th, 1-3pm at the Land Library’s Globeville branch:

The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food by Janisse Ray.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 

A Regenerative Farming Road Trip, from New Mexico to South Dakota, and Beyond

Sunday, May 17th, 1-3pm at the Land Library’s Globeville branch:

One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture by Stephanie Anderson.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Life-Giving Water in the Arid West

Sunday, July 12th, 11am – 1pm at South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch:

Mayordomo: A Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico by Stanley Crawford, with lunch provided!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

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.

The Best is Yet to Come in 2020

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.

THANKS SO MUCH for your Support!

Click Here for PayPal.

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

Building a Headwaters to Plains Network

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 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.

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.

THANKS SO MUCH for your Support!

Click Here for PayPal.

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

Mindful Wanders across Buffalo Peaks Ranch

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.

For more about Jaime Kopke and Forest Bathing, be sure to visit Jaime’s website!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION & HOW TO REGISTER!

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

Songlines & the Rhythms of the Ranch

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.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO REGISTER!