A History Study of Log Hill Mesa 

THE OURAY COUNTY CUESTA

 A Late Developing Slice of Americana

by Jack and Barbara Rairden

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one least traveled by,

And that made all the difference.

        Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

    Log Hill Mesa (LHM) lies in the northern region of Ouray County, Colorado.  It is not only fly-over country; it is drive-by country.  It has played an important role in the development of the County since the removal of the Ute Indians in 1881.  This event has recently been excellently chronicled by Peter R. Decker.  Ref.: “The Utes Must Go”, Fulcrum Publishing, 2004.  This was not one our great nation's finest hours.

    LHM early on was a valuable source of timber for the mines and cities of southern Ouray Co.  It also was being homesteaded starting at about the beginning of the 20th century.  The early homesteads were eventually consolidated into a few large ranches, many of which are still active.

    Starting in the late 1960s, there was a movement towards establishing home sites by subdividing some of the old ranch and farm land.  That trend continues to this day.

    LHM is not a well-defined geographical entity - it is the southeastern limit of the Uncompahgre Plateau which extends from south of Grand Junction, Colorado to just north of the town of Ridgway, Colorado.  Perhaps the boundary of the Log Hill Mesa Fire Protection District is a reasonably good definition of the LHM.  Most of the population is located in the eastern half of the District. 

    The topography of LHM is mostly delineated by the Dakota Sandstone formation which slopes northeast from Horsefly Peak to the Billy Creek region at which point it goes underground.  The escarpment on the south end of LHM is due to the Ridgway Fault which runs east and west - one is standing on the Dakota Sandstone at the bottom and at the top of the escarpment.  This area is more accurately described as a Dakota Sandstone Cuesta.  Ref: "Roadside Geology of Colorado", Halka Chronic, Mountain Press Publishing Co. 1980.  Cuesta is defined as: a hill with a long gentle slope formed by a resistant cap rock and a short steep slope on cut edges of underlying weaker rock.

    There are three main drainages on LHM: Horsefly Creek and Canyon which forms a mesa-like barrier to the west; McKenzie Creek and Canyon and Fisher Creek and Canyon which run nominally west to east at mid-mesa.  The most productive agricultural areas of LHM have been along McKenzie and Fisher Creeks.  The northwest quadrant of LHM has been and still is dominated by several large private ranches.

    Since 1996, we have been accumulating historical information about LHM with the hope of compiling a sufficiently complete and accurate documentation as to be worthy of publication in some form.  Our primary approach has been and still is to seek information from people who have lived here for many years which includes oral interviews and searches of newspapers and library records.  We have asked interviewees for artifacts such as old photos or other memorabilia that they could donate or let us copy or photograph.

    We started conducting tape recorded interviews in 2003 and continue doing them to this day.  The usual approach taken is to meet at the home of the interviewees to record their recollections, after which, the interviews are transcribed word-for-word insofar as possible.  The transcriptions are given to the interviewees for editing, and, where appropriate, modified and corrected.  This process is continued until the interviewees are completely satisfied that the transcripts accurately reflect their remembrances.