{"id":797612,"date":"2019-07-14T11:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-14T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=368812"},"modified":"2019-07-15T07:49:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T13:49:54","slug":"could-a-massive-southern-colorado-ranch-become-a-state-park-its-an-idea-just-crazy-enough-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/could-a-massive-southern-colorado-ranch-become-a-state-park-its-an-idea-just-crazy-enough-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a massive southern Colorado ranch become a state park? It\u2019s an idea just \u201ccrazy\u201d enough to work."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Fisher Peak is Just east of Interstate 25, a few miles north of the New Mexico border. At 9,600-foot-tall Fisher Peak looms over Trinidad, just five miles away. It will soon be open to the public.<\/strong>
Nina Riggio, Special to The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

TRINIDAD \u2014<\/strong> Fisher\u2019s Peak looms over every block of this city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many views you can get of that peak in town. Like when the clouds are low and it looks like it\u2019s just dangling in midair. That view is part of every day in Trinidad,\u201d Mayor Phil Rico says. <\/p>\n

Despite the everyday shadow the basalt-flumed summit casts on the historic town, Fisher\u2019s Peak is privately owned and has never been accessible. Students can\u2019t study its geology. Climbers don\u2019t scale its crags. Hikers aren\u2019t taking in the panoramic views from the highest point in the Raton Mesa and the highest point of any U.S. land to the east.<\/p>\n

But the prominent landmark soon could be part of Colorado\u2019s newest state park, welcoming Trinidad residents and all comers. Whether it becomes a state park or not, the 9,360-foot apex of the wildlife-rich, 30-square-mile Crazy French Ranch will open to the public in the next five years, thanks to a one-of-a-kind public-private partnership that promises to recast the economic future of boom-bust Trinidad. <\/p>\n

Mapping a new economic future<\/h2>\n

The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land earlier this year acquired the Crazy French Ranch for $25.4 million. They quickly harvested a $7.5 million pledge from Great Outdoors Colorado and $7 million from Colorado Parks and Wildlife toward the $29 million plan that likely will become a new model for building a modern-day state park that offers both recreation and biologically diverse wilderness. The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land \u2014 the two largest conservation organizations in the country \u2014 have raised another $5 million and are soliciting foundations and donors to support the project. <\/p>\n

Cy Michaels, a longtime Trinidad hotelier and chair of the city\u2019s tourism board, says residents are starting to realize that the land that towers above their town doesn\u2019t belong to someone else anymore. <\/p>\n

Read the full story on The Colorado Sun website.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at ColoradoSun.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fisher Peak is Just east of Interstate 25, a few miles north of the New Mexico border. At 9,600-foot-tall Fisher Peak looms over Trinidad, just five miles away. It will soon be open to the public.Nina Riggio, Special to The Colorado Sun TRINIDAD \u2014 Fisher\u2019s Peak looms over every block of this city. \u201cThere are so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-797612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 23:06:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797627,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797612\/revisions\/797627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}