Cherokee Ranch, Historic ranch in Douglas County, US.
Cherokee Ranch is a 4,185-acre property in Douglas County, Colorado, near Sedalia, with land on both sides of U.S. Highway 85. North of the highway, the National Register listing covers 3,280 acres containing four historic building groups: the Ranch Headquarters (John Blunt Homestead, later Amnicola), Cherokee Castle, the Flower Homestead (Chickamauga), and the Johnson ranch buildings. The ranch also overlaps part of the Cherokee Ranch petrified forest.
John E. Blunt, a Union veteran from Maine, homesteaded 160 acres along East Plum Creek in 1868, arriving from Kansas by covered wagon with apple tree slips. After cold winters by the creek, the family moved to higher ground in 1873 and built a wood-frame house at today's ranch headquarters. Blunt bought neighbouring homesteads, and his Sunflower Ranch grew to 1,550 acres of wheat, sorghum and steers. In 1954 Ray Blunt sold it to Tweet Kimball, who named it Amnicola.
Mildred "Tweet" Kimball, who bought the ranch in 1954, renamed it Amnicola after her property on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga. The ranch has raised purebred Santa Gertrudis cattle since then, and the Wauhatchie Barn of the former Johnson Dairy Farm has been restored.
The ranch is private property, so visits happen only through its scheduled public and private tours and events. The historic listing covers only the land north of U.S. Highway 85, between the highway and Daniels Park Road; the ranch also holds acreage south of the highway. The Flower Homestead sits on the edge of a high plateau with views of the Front Range.
Cherokee Castle was designed by Denver architect Burnham F. Hoyt, who later drew the plans for the Red Rocks Park Amphitheater. The castle was first called Charlford Castle and was built in 1926–28 as the ranch's main residence.
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