Ranching is in Vaughn Johnson’s blood.
The 2025 La Plata County Cattleman of the Year grew up in the San Luis Valley raising cattle, sheep, hogs and horses on a ranch near Sanford before attending medical school at the University of Colorado.
He returned to the San Luis Valley and served as the primary care physician for the Sanford community, where he rekindled his desire to ranch.
Johnson’s father had died several years earlier, leaving his mother the family brand, all their livestock and a summer mountain pasture north of Chama, New Mexico.
She had sold most of the livestock and leased much of the land, leaving a few cattle for Johnson to buy.
“I just had this urge to get some cattle and maybe eventually to buy a ranch,” Johnson said. “… I bought those five or six cows from her and that was the start of my herd in 1972.”
Along with the cattle and the summer pasture, he bought the brand first registered by his father in 1938, which he still uses today and calls the Smiling J.
Over the next year, Johnson steadily acquired more cattle, reaching about 75 head by spring 1973.
In 1975, Johnson, his wife, Karen, and their seven children moved to La Plata County, where he became a partner in a local radiology practice. He began ranching on the Florida Mesa in the winter and moving his herd south for the summer.
“There wasn’t much time to do the ranching because the medical practice was very busy,” Johnson said.
He rose early and tended to his herd before heading into the hospital for a full day of treating patients.
“In the evening, (I) made rounds and finally got home late at night and got up early the next morning – started all over again,” he said.
Balancing ranching and medicine became easier as his children grew older and began to help out around the ranch. Two of his sons still live in Durango, Jay Johnson is a radiologist at his father’s former practice, and Vaughn Johnson Jr. is an orthodontist with offices in Durango, Bayfield and Pagosa Springs.
Johnson’s other five children are scattered throughout the West, several of them with medical practices of their own.
While none of his children are ranchers themselves, they still come by to help their father with his herd when they can and appreciate the hard work and skill that goes into managing a ranch.
All four of Johnson’s sons have a few head in the herd, keeping them connected to their heritage.
Winning the Cattleman of the Year award was a surprise to Johnson, who doesn’t consider himself the same caliber of rancher as many of his neighbors.
“There are a lot of ranchers around here who are multigenerational ranchers, and I think of them as the real ranchers, the real cattlemen and cattle women,” he said. “And I think of myself as a kind of a gentleman rancher … but I felt really grateful to them, to think that I was worthy as a cattleman to receive this award.”
Wayne Jefferies, president of the Cattleman’s Association, was less surprised.
He said Johnson embodies the values of the association.
While many ranchers attend meeting through the winter and return to their herds, Johnson is always there to lend a helping hand or a thoughtful ear as his fellow ranchers navigate the challenges of raising cattle in this remote corner of the state.
“It just seems like he’s always there and always helping,” Jefferies said. “He tries to keep a low profile for the most part; he’s very humble about it.”
The Cattleman’s Association was formed in 1950. At the time, its purpose was to prevent livestock theft. Now in its 75th year, its mission has evolved to encompass modern problems ranchers face, such as water rights and wolf attacks.
The organization is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its members. It routinely brings in specialists to help the ranchers learn and improve, and it holds events to educate the public on how to interact with private land and livestock they may encounter.
In addition to the Cattleman of the Year award, they award annual scholarships to local students interested in pursuing agriculture.
