{"id":802984,"date":"2020-01-12T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377156"},"modified":"2020-01-12T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T19:30:00","slug":"summit-county-pioneers-karl-and-jean-knorr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-county-pioneers-karl-and-jean-knorr\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County pioneers: Karl and Jean Knorr"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Jean and Karl Knorr on their ranch.<\/strong>
Courtesy Bob Winsett<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A ranch in the valley of the Lower Blue, halfway between Silverthorne and Kremmling, is perhaps the last place on earth anyone would expect to find a zebra, lion, gazelle or 16-foot, striped blue marlin. Nevertheless, these exotic creatures were gathered in the den of Karl and Jean Knorr\u2019s ranch home as if to share the tales of adventurous travel in faraway lands. The Knorr\u2019s collected a vast number of wild game trophies as testimony to their passion for hunting and fishing and their many trips to places like Alaska, Africa, Costa Rica, Canada and Mexico. <\/p>\n

Jean killed her first deer with her grandfather in Boulder when she was 18, turning one of life\u2019s necessities into a sport that she and her husband long enjoed. Despite their apparent wanderlust and restless spirit, the Knorrs said there was nothing better than coming home \u2014 home to the Colorado ranch that was always the stable arm to their life\u2019s ever-swiveling protractor.<\/p>\n

After
\ngrowing up in Boulder and Longmont, Jean moved to the mountains and was teaching
\nat Lakeside School when she met Karl. A photography buff, he had come to
\npresent a color slideshow to the children. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen
\na young schoolmarm showed up in the county, she usually didn\u2019t get away,\u201d Karl
\nsaid while laughing.<\/p>\n

The
\ncommunity hall of the Lakeside precinct was often the setting for all sorts of
\ncommunity purposes, such as elections, funerals and dances. It was at one of
\nthose dances when Karl and Jean began the courtship that resulted in their
\neventual marriage. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe
\ngot together quite a bit in the winter with a piano and a fiddle and have
\nourselves a pretty good stomp,\u201d Karl said.<\/p>\n

Karl
\nfondly remembered that he and other part-time musicians would end up traveling
\nfrom Grand Lake to Fairplay to play for the dances that were held almost every
\nSaturday night. Jean explained that the women would make all the sandwiches,
\ncakes and coffee for these social occasions and all the children would end up
\nfalling asleep on the benches in the cookhouse.<\/p>\n

The
\nKnorrs would attest that being \u201chome on the range\u201d involves an abundance of
\nvigor, self-reliance and common sense. It was a lot of hard work, sweat and
\ndetermination with little financial return. Nevertheless, Karl said he liked
\nevery aspect of growing up on a ranch. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
Left: Karl Knorr at age 21. Right: Jean Knorr at Lakeside school in Heeney.<\/strong>
Courtesy the Knorr family<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI
\ngrew up in a community of hunters, trappers and cowboys,\u201d he said. \u201cI liked it
\nall.\u201d <\/p>\n

Karl\u2019s
\nmaternal grandfather, Judge William Guyselman, arrived in Breckenridge around
\n1880 and soon after acquired land along the Blue River. Karl\u2019s father came from
\nGermany when he was 18 rather than complete his two years of required military
\nservice. He and his brother mined around Montezuma and Breckenridge. He built
\nthe building that later became the Knorr House outdoor recreation store in
\nBreckenridge as a place for them to live. After awhile, they opened a saloon
\ncalled the Knorr Brothers\u2019 Pioneer Saloon and operated it in the 1880s and
\n1890s until Karl\u2019s dad sold his portion to his brother in order to pursue
\nranching. He then married Judge Guyselman\u2019s daughter and moved to the current
\nranch in 1902. <\/p>\n

In
\nthe early part of the century, there were many ranches up and down the river
\nuntil the Green Mountain Reservoir came along. The town of Heeney first emerged
\nas a construction camp for all the Reservoir workers, then turned into a town
\nin the mid-1940s. Much of the Knorrs\u2019 original ranch was displaced by the reservoir,
\nwhich was built over three summers from 1940 to 1942. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe
\nmoved as many buildings as we could,\u201d Karl said, but the Green Mountain
\nReservoir provided no benefit that he could see to the cattle or ranching
\nbusiness. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ranch people kept on ranching, but it was quite a
\ndisruption,\u201d Karl explained. \u201cWe had to get out of there and start over. It was
\nlike a gopher scrambling to high ground when you try to drown him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
George, left, and Karl Knorr circa 1916. <\/strong>
Courtesy the Knorr family<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Karl had two brothers: Ted, who was 10 years older, and
\nGeorge, just a year and a half older. He and George were inseparable. They went
\nto grade school at Lakeside in the summertime for the first eight grades in the
\nmid-1920s because traveling in the winter months was so difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the country kids skied because that was a good
\nway to get around,\u201d Karl said. \u201cEither you got around on skis or webs
\n(snowshoes), or on horses, but it was pretty tough to travel on foot in the
\nsnow.\u201d<\/p>\n

After
\nKarl and George graduated high school in 1930, they returned to the ranch. Karl
\nsaid they both expected to return only to earn enough money for college, but
\nthen their father died, and the opportunity arose to purchase Mount Powell Ranch
\n\u201cdirt cheap.\u201d It was during the Great Depression, and both of them knew the
\nranch was worth much more than they paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe
\nwere fortunate to start when we did,\u201d Karl said.<\/p>\n

 The ranch started small, but after adding to
\nthe land through various acquisitions, it eventually became so large that it
\nwas too much work for Karl and his brother to handle alone. At one time, the
\nKnorr brothers had about 10,000 acres and wintered as many as 700-800 cows. Karl
\nexplained that when he was a child, they would ship their cattle to Denver
\nafter a \u201cgood ol\u2019 cattle drive\u201d to either Kremmling or Dillon, where they would
\nload them on a train. They also had about 35-40 draft horses and a few saddle
\nhorses. Karl recalls one time when his brother injured his ankle while they
\nwere breaking fouls and couldn\u2019t work for a few days. <\/p>\n

\u201cI
\nhad more than 500 head of cattle to feed with just a pitchfork \u2014 just a team of
\nhorses, a sled and a pitchfork,\u201d Karl said. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
Left: Karl Knorr and his early Northland touring skis. Right: Jean Knorr and old cook stove.<\/strong>
Left: Courtesy the Knorr family. Right: Courtesy Bob Winsett.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Karl
\nexplained how Dillon Reservoir had as much to do with tourism as anything else.
\nAbout this time, Alpine skiing began to emerge in the county, as well, but the
\neffects of the ski business were gradual. Karl grew up skiing. He was
\ninfluenced by the old Norwegian jumpers such as Carl Howelsen, the Haugen
\nbrothers and the Prestruds. He and his friends would jump at Slate Creek Ranch
\nand Dillon. They also did plenty of cross-country skiing, as much for sport as
\nfor transportation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen
\nwe were kids, one guy would get up on the saddle horse and throw the end of the
\nrope to the other guy, who would be pulled from behind on skis,\u201d Karl
\nremembered. He stopped skiing at age 82 but only because he injured himself
\nwhen he didn\u2019t make a turn skijouring on sheer ice. <\/p>\n

Into
\nthe early 2000s, Karl and Jean still owned 2,200 acres. Looking back, even in
\nthe shadow of their many travel souvenirs, it is life in Summit County that
\nseemed to hold the fondest memories for Karl. <\/p>\n

\u201cI
\nhad a happy childhood,\u201d he said. \u201cKids nowadays, they get all sorts of toys. We
\nhad very few. But we didn\u2019t need many. We had a good time with the stuff we
\nhad. We had skis, horses, cattle, dogs and cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Karl Knorr<\/a> died in November 2007. Jean Knorr<\/a> died five weeks later in December.<\/em><\/p>\n

This story previously published in the book \u201cSummit Pioneers,\u201d which was printed in 1999. The book was written by Alison (Grabau) Pomerantz with photos by Bob Winsett in partnership with Wilson-Lass Creative Communications. It was published to raise money for The Summit Foundation. Read more about the history of Summit County at summitdaily.com\/news\/history<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Jean and Karl Knorr on their ranch.Courtesy Bob Winsett A ranch in the valley of the Lower Blue, halfway between Silverthorne and Kremmling, is perhaps the last place on earth anyone would expect to find a zebra, lion, gazelle or 16-foot, striped blue marlin. Nevertheless, these exotic creatures were gathered in the den of Karl […]<\/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-802984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-28 19:31:39","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\/802984","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=802984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}