The 83,000-acre Cielo Vista Ranch in Costilla County, Colorado stretches for more than 20 miles of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.
In 1863, a businessman from Taos promised the “benefits of pastures, water, firewood and timber” to settlers on a stretch of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range in present-day south-central Colorado.
In 2017, the son of a Texas oil billionaire purchased a portion of that same stretch of the Sangres – the 83,000-acre Cielo Vista Ranch – for an eye-popping $105 million.
On Wednesday, the Colorado Court of Appeals will hear arguments over who should be allowed access. It’s the latest chapter in what’s been called the longest-running civil legal dispute in the state, dating to a lawsuit filed in 1981.
Read the rest of the story at Colorado Public Radio.
