By Kathleen M. Bush

To Vince Kontny—former COO and president of the Fluor Corporation, one of the world’s largest engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services companies, which is a Fortune 500 company that has been ranked No. 1 four times on Fortune Magazine’s “America’s Most Admired Companies” list in the engineering and construction category—preserving the Old West and its culture is not only a passion, but vital as he sees it. Presently, the state of Colorado is loosing 10 acres per hour to development, and most of the developments don’t pay tribute to America’s only true culture—the Old West, in which ranching, farming, railroading, blacksmithing, mining, hurly-burly girls and so much more made up its many varied traditions; most of which are dead, dying or barely hanging on by their handhewn reins. Historians Allan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager contend that America’s Wild West culture is in fact the only tried and true, home-grown American culture—spurred into existence through immigrants who had the grit and tenacity to venture into uncharted wilderness areas to carve out new lives. From their efforts bloomed a collective-consciousness of rugged individualism and hearty folk who found their “promised land.” Rather inadvertently these pioneers created a revered tapestry of life, which is woven into the fabric of today’s dilapidated barns, cabins and even the old fences of the West. Yet, much of the deeply rooted and deeply respected craftsmanship is physically dying and being replaced with double-wide and single-wide trailer houses, cookie-cutter track homes and other off-shoots. Clearly, some aspects of today’s mass-manufactured, “fast cooked” environment of the New West isn’t as romantic as the “slow cooked” days of yore. The parable is a tough one: cheaper product, less time, virtually instant satisfaction, or more expensive product, more time and a patient-as-can-be attitude is needed for more quality, historically significant edifices. The beauty of American capitalism melded with the freedoms of our democracy is that we have choices, loads of them in fact.

Resident of the San Juans, Vince Kontny, has made the choice to honor and value the resilience of our forbearers by paying tribute to their pioneering spirit, resurrecting their lifestyle and values and by restoring the structures on his ranches, Last Dollar and Centennial, which are situated on Hastings Mesa and between Ridgway and Montrose respectively. Kontny’s talent for bringing structures back to life is further enhanced with his efforts of preserving the surrounding wildlife habitat, land and the ranching tradition, Colorado-style. Obviously, Kontny’s choice wasn’t about the money, but that the ranches’ history spoke sweet somethings to him and his family. He always knew it was his calling to preserve the ranching heritage in some way or another. Ranching has been an intricate part of his soul since his boyhood days in northeastern Colorado, where he, nine siblings and his mother and father once nested. After retirement, he’s basically gone back to his roots, where, in his words, his dreams of “crystal-clear water rushing over rocks in a setting of aspen and blue spruce; where majestic mountains rise to the clouds and Hereford cows and calves graze in the meadows and horses stand in the corrals next to a large log-and-stone barn,” have come true. “My philosophy was simple from the beginning: I wanted to find a historic ranch where my family could live the ranch lifestyle and preserve the Western heritage. So many ranchers were forced to sell out to developers because of estate taxes, high overhead costs and offers too good to refuse. I didn’t want to see the heritage lost.”

Riding the real estate line, so to speak, Kontny, his wife Joan, and their right-hand man, Duane Beamer, visited many ranches throughout the San Juans in 1988. Amidst the foothills of Hayden Peak and Mount Sneffels, they found the old Collins’ homestead, which bespoke rich volumes of the fiery hell-bent-to-leather years to them. Situated off Last Dollar Road in a alpine meadow bequeath with a shimmering pond laden with duck, Canadian geese and coyote dens, the Collins’ homestead was a beautiful child in need of some major nurturing. When Vince bought the ranch, the ranch house and nine log out-buildings were depraved, neglected, weathered and then given new functions and names with the restoration: Uncle John’s cabin became the bunkhouse; the garage became the carpenter’s shop; the cow barn and milking shed remain as a cow barn though they don’t milk the cows today; the hog barn became the equipment shed; the bunk house became the generator shed; the wood shed became the guest house; and the horse and mule barn remained the horse barn, sans the mules. The buildings had taken 70 years of harsh winter beatings and intense sun-batterings during the summer months. Fences were downed, irrigation ditches were chocked full of weeds and other debris and, more than anything, the stone foundations of each building had crumbled away, causing the buildings to sink into the earth and tilt to the southwesterly winds.

Being in the construction business for some 40 years, Kontny was undoubtedly in his element while restoring the Last Dollar Ranch; doing basically what he knows and does best—building. Further, Kontny was recognized for his contribution to the engineering profession with an honorary doctorate of science degree from the University of Colorado; and for his global leadership in the construction industry, he is an officer of the recently constituted National Academy of Construction. From his early days as a son of a rancher to being a gandy dancer on the Alaskan Railroad, to working with the Navy Seabees garnering leadership skills and then finally to Fluor Corporation, where he was instrumental in building some of the globe’s most complex construction projects on all seven continents, Kontny is no stranger to what many would consider daunting tasks. But breathing new life into this child—the Collins’ 400-acre, 1901 homestead—was one of the most rewarding projects for him as it was for his family: Joan, Natascha, Michael and Amber. It was all of their dreams to live the pure life, in the mountains with wildlife thriving about them. Thus, with Duane Beamer’s nonrelenting talents and epic work-ethic, the two, in Kontny’s words, “scrupulously planned and designed everything on this ranch. We emphasized quality restoration, so we didn’t have to redo things. We wanted to restore the buildings into functional structures that retained the look from when they were constructed, but would last another century.” Beamer put together a crew of artisans and craftsmen for the three-year restoration project. They salvaged the dilapidated buildings, which were built eight to 10 decades ago. Removing sunken foundations and pouring new ones was the first major undertaking. Next came repairing structures with salvaged timbers, followed by roofing, chinking and adding eaves for sun and run-off protection. Though native or original materials were used as often as possible, some modern-day conveniences like synthetic chinking, plumbing and electricity (provided by generators, since Last Dollar is not on the grid) were installed. In the old days, homesteaders used horse and cow manure mixed with straw to chink their structures and, of course, had to use privies many, many yards away from their homes, wherefore proving most trying on blistery cold winter nights. The final touches included traditional hand-forged wrought-iron hardware often with an arrowhead motif; cedar-shake roofing shingles; handhewn saddle racks; native fieldstone adorning the exterior, which was collected from the property and skillfully, nearly poetically applied to several out buildings; and, a massive headgate built the Amish way of securing timbers with oak pegs. The end product is nothing shy of a functional work-of-art on a very grand scale.

Kontny regularly states that the crew who resurrected Last Dollar Ranch, and later the Centennial Ranch, are some of the finest artisans, craftsmen, leather men, blacksmiths and stewards around. Ted Moews, artist and log builder who lives on Hastings mesa, impeccably designed the new log-and-stone barn for aesthetics and functionality to replace the collapsed original, as well as conceptualized the wrought-iron hardware designs, which were installed throughout both ranches. These designs were mostly forged by Kontny’s long-time friend, Howard McCall, out of Greenville, South Carolina. McCall’s and other iron workers’ work is duly celebrated in the lovely coffee-table book Kontny spearheaded, titled A Heritage In Iron. Winner of three prestigious awards—2004 PubWest Regional Book Design and Productions Awards, ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year award finalist and Independent Publisher’s award finalist—A Heritage In Iron is a classic presentation of the rich and fascinating history of blacksmithing, which has left an indelible thumbprint on society as we know it, and further enhanced the bucolic nuances of Kontny’s ranches; which together use the name Double Shoe Cattle Company; so named from the brand, bar-double horse shoe, turned skyward for good luck. Kontny further extols the restoration of his ranches, along with the integrity and workmanship of the people who helped complete them, in his latest top-drawer, show-piece-of-a-book, A Ranching Legacy. To date, the Southwest has not seen such a splendid visual and verbal depiction about the national legacy of ranching. Writer Rafael Routson; designer Larry Lindahl; administrator Barbara Parker; photographers Chris Marona, Roger Wade, Larry Lindahl, Rafael Rouston and others; ranch manager Duane Beamer and his cowboys, Benito Fernandez and Jason Middleton; wildlife artist Edward Aldrich, all breathe their talents and reverence of the old-fashioned way of life into A Ranching Legacy. Their unpretentious synergy can be lifted from the pages of this fine book as they commemorate the ranching lifestyle. Earthy, yet sophisticated and real as they come, A Ranching Legacy clearly has analogous traits as its visionary, Vince Kontny. In author Rafael Routson’s words, “Vince is forever courteous, thoughtful and chivalrous.” And when you really observe, read and assimilate the messages of A Ranching Legacy, you may come to realize as ranch manager Duane Beamer has, that Kontny, “inspires the best in everyone.” This, in my humble opinion, is the mark of a great leader and good person.

Ranching and the ways of the Old West formulate a culture into and of itself. The glorious, tried and true spirit of the pioneers who ventured West from the mid-1800s to a few decades after the turn-of-the-century, created an American legacy that Kontny refuses to let become dust in the wind. The Wild West captured the world’s imagination, often creating greater-than-life tales of gamblers, gunmen, cowboys, harlots, gold seekers, outlaws, fur traders, mountain men, pioneer women and homesteaders. Mostly, however, the romance of ranching life, as Kontny sees it, was about family, land, work, integrity, inspiration and dependence on community. Neighbors helping neighbors was an intrical part of the ranching community, then and now. And, in spite of the extraordinary effort it takes to preserve the West to its glory days, Kontny and his entourage find refuge, utter luxuriousness and peace in the open spaces and countryside of Last Dollar and Centennial ranches and other expanses of the great American West. Working with their hands and minds, going on cattle drives and all that goes along with working cattle ranches, puts them in sync with the basic cycles of nature. (Primally speaking, we are all nomads in our hearts and minds, who have an innate need to move with the tides of changing seasons.) Calving, branding, wood chopping, mending fences, caring for the cattle, doctoring horses, canning, sewing and everything else that makes up the ranch life are cherished at the modern-day, old-time ranches that lay at the base of the mineral-rich San Juan Mountains.

Communing with nature is a huge part of the philosophy behind the ranches, too. Some 10 years ago, Kontny donated conservation easements on both ranches (American Farmland Trust for Last Dollar and The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust for Centennial) thereby restricting any development whatsoever and ensuring the ranchland would continue as working cattle ranches providing open space and wildlife habitat in perpetuity. “Both organizations are responsible for monitoring the ranch and holding all current and future landholders to the terms of the easements,” states Kontny. This translates into the promoting and securing an undisturbed landscape for all living plants and animals within those corridors. Allowing wild open spaces to thrive in their natural states further enhances the health of the area’s soil, air and water, while attracting a menagerie of Rocky Mountain wildlife. Elk and deer give birth, rut and graze on the Kontny’s ranchlands, while bear, coyote, mountain lion, fox and bobcat forge Leopard Creek and the Uncompahgre River with their eagle-eyes scouting for fodder and, often times, simply whimsically playing with their young, butterflies, fish and other frisky critters. Kills are seen as often as birthing beds; the life cycle is ever present in ranchlife. The “survival of the fittest” rings in the loins of its inhabitants, including its humans. Yet, oddly enough, ranch life is seemingly a panacea for those with worldly woes as well as those filled with worldly delights. Easily, many-a-person, could call Last Dollar and Centennial ranches their slice of paradise, but the reality is that only Vince Kontny, his family and his ranch-hands are the ones who hear the voices of the Old West resonate with clarity, despite the fact that the words are indecipherable. From whence we came, they hear and appreciate because they and, particularly Vince Kontny, ride the line that fuses the old ways and days with great contemporary forethought. Life should be about respecting our heritage as much about appreciating each other.