McIntire Ranch and Mansion is a historic archaeological site near Sanford in Conejos County that preserves the visible remains of one of the San Luis Valley’s most distinctive nineteenth-century ranch complexes. Established by Albert and Florence McIntire in 1880 near the Conejos River and the abundant water of McIntire Spring, the property was originally known as Los Ojos Ranch, a name referring to the nearby spring. The ranch occupies a low bench overlooking ponds, marshland, and riparian habitat, and its setting helps explain both its early success and its continuing significance. The warm springs and surrounding wetlands supported ranching, wildlife, and settlement, and today they still shape the character of the site.
The history of McIntire Ranch is closely tied to both Albert McIntire’s public career and Florence McIntire’s extraordinary role as a ranch manager and landowner. Albert McIntire was a Yale-educated lawyer who became a Conejos County judge, later served as judge of the 12th Judicial District, and was elected Governor of Colorado in 1894, serving from 1895 to 1897. His political career took him away from the ranch for long periods, while Florence managed the day-to-day operation of the property. After their divorce in 1898, Florence was deeded the ranch and continued to expand and successfully manage it until her death in 1912. Locally remembered as the “Lady of Los Ojos,” Florence McIntire stands out as an important figure in Colorado women’s history and agricultural history, making the ranch significant not only for its architecture and archaeology but also for the story of female leadership and self-sufficiency in a rural setting.
Architecturally, the ranch headquarters is remarkable. The main house, often referred to as the McIntire Mansion because of its scale and refinement, is a Territorial Adobe residence with Italianate elements and an unusually sophisticated plan. The roofless structure still conveys a great deal about its original appearance and construction. The surviving walls reveal molded adobe blocks comparable in size to standard fired bricks rather than oversized adobe units, laid in a bond pattern more typical of Euro-American masonry traditions. Italianate influence survives in the tall narrow window openings, decorative red-brick hood molds, and evidence of a formal front porch. The house also had an irregular massed plan rather than the more typical linear adobe plan, further distinguishing it from many other rural adobe dwellings in Colorado. These unusual materials and design choices make the house one of the most distinctive adobe residences in the region.
The current condition of McIntire Ranch remains fragile. The main house has no roof, and the surviving adobe walls are exposed to weathering and long-term erosion. Exterior walls on the north, west, and portions of the south side still stand, though in varying stages of deterioration, while the east elevation and much of the eastern half of the house have collapsed into linear mounds of adobe melt. Interior walls in the western half survive in part because surrounding cottonwood trees provide some shade and protection from wind and precipitation. Wood bracing has been installed in places to help prevent additional wall collapse. Beyond the house itself, the site includes the remains of several outbuilding foundations, a masonry spring enclosure, a livestock pen, other associated features, and seven artifact concentrations. Together, these elements preserve valuable information about ranch life, labor, domestic activity, and the organization of the headquarters complex.
McIntire Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 for its significance in social history, especially women’s history and agriculture, and for its architectural importance as a rare and highly intact example of Territorial Adobe construction. The Bureau of Land Management acquired the site in 1993, with assistance from The Nature Conservancy, primarily to protect the surrounding wildlife habitat, and the property remains under BLM management today. There is strong support for preserving the site from descendants of the McIntire family and from regional partners including the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area, the Rio Grande del Norte Center at Adams State University, the Mortenson family, the Western Rivers Conservancy, and the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust. The site has also become a destination for bird watching and waterfowl hunting because of the warm-water spring and wetland habitat around the ranch.
CPI has already helped advance preservation planning for McIntire Ranch. Working with stakeholders, CPI completed an initial site orientation and met with technical staff from the State Historical Fund to determine next steps for stabilization. Rather than a full Historic Structure Assessment, a mini-grant was recommended as the more appropriate first step to help fund a protective coating over the ruins and stabilize the surviving adobe walls. That grant approach will still need to be reconfigured in the future, but the preservation goals remain clear. CPI, the BLM, and local partners continue to seek funding opportunities, record information from living descendants of the McIntire family, explore interpretive signage, and improve controlled access to the site.
Today, McIntire Ranch remains both an endangered historic resource and an exceptionally important place for understanding ranching, architecture, women’s history, and the broader cultural landscape of the San Luis Valley. Its significance lies not only in the dramatic ruins of the McIntire Mansion, but also in the larger archaeological landscape that surrounds it and the story of Florence McIntire’s leadership on the frontier. Preserving the site will help protect a rare surviving ranch headquarters while also ensuring that its architectural, agricultural, and social history remains visible to future generations.