The National Park Service in Washington announced that the Gas Creek School has been listed November 26th in the National Register of Historic Places under the Rural School Buildings in Colorado Multiple Property Submission. The 1909 one-room country school, which served children of farm and ranch families of School District Number 20, is located near Nathrop in central Chaffee County, Colorado. Consolidation resulted in its closure in 1958. The project was undertaken for the Greater Arkansas Nature Association and the  Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board under a State Historical Fund grant.

In November 2017 the National Park Service announced the listing in the National Register of the nearly 28,000-acre Tarryall Rural Historic District in Park County in central Colorado. The recognition culminated work that started with a 1996 survey of the road. The high altitude scenic rural district embraces land along Tarryall Creek and Tarryall Road (County Road 77) bounded by the Tarryall Mountains to the north and the Puma Hills to the south. The district extends from south of Jefferson approximately 39 miles to U.S. Highway 24 northwest of Lake George. The nominated area is part of the drainage of meandering Tarryall, Michigan, and Jefferson creeks and a stretch of the South Platte River. In 1862 wagon road was constructed through the area extending from Colorado City on Fountain Creek in the Pikes Peak region to the 1859 mining camps of Tarryall and Hamilton. Pioneer settlers established homesteads along the original road, which became County Road 77.

The area’s outstanding landscape qualities make the lands along the road in fact, if not by formal designation, a scenic byway. Views within the district provide vistas of distant mountain peaks and ranges; forested hillsides of pine, spruce, and aspen; prominent rock outcroppings; the lively waters of Michigan, Jefferson, and Tarryall creeks and the South Platte River; widely separated clusters of ranch headquarters buildings; bottomlands with lush, level hay meadows; herds of grazing beef cattle and bison; and occasional sightings of a resident band of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and other wildlife. The valley alternately narrows and opens within the district. A trip through the valley offers a constantly changing juxtaposition of the natural setting and the legacy of historic human activities as the road descends from 9,350’ elevation on the north to 7,940’ at the south end.

​The district contains still-active historic ranches with more than a dozen buildings and hundreds of acres of land, as well as vacant and weathered buildings reflecting historic habitation of long ago. The district embraces the full range of historic activities along the Tarryall, including twenty-five historic livestock ranch headquarters and several individual buildings associated with the area’s ranching history. Other resources representing the area’s historic development and community life include two one-room schools, three old road segments, three cemeteries, two timber bridges, and buildings associated with the community of Tarryall/Puma City. Marilyn Martorano of Martorano Consultants LLC contributed to the nomination.

Yesterday, the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission found that the proposed Packard's Historic District in northwest Denver met historical and architectural criteria for designation as a Denver Landmark. The unanimous vote supported the 173-building residential area lying northwest of West 32nd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard.  More than two-thirds of the primary buildings were erected prior to 1920. The area includes the 1892 Cox Gargoyle House (below), which is already an individual Denver Landmark. Consideration by Denver City Council is expected in September.  

Last Sunday, June 11th, dozens of property owners and residents gathered at Bryce and Suzy Kelly's ranch southwest of Buena Vista to celebrate the listing of twelve Chaffee County, Colorado, properties in the National Register of Historic Places. Front Range prepared the nominations for the Greater Arkansas Nature Association and the Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board under two State Historical Fund grant projects. The nominated properties included historic ranches, a drive in theater, hotel, livestock auction complex, rodeo grounds constructed by the WPA, and dwellings. Melanie Roth emceed the festivities. History Colorado staff members Erika Warzel and Amy Unger were present, as well as Alison Ramsey of GARNA and Laurie and Tom Simmons of Front Range.

On May 16th the Lakewood Historic Preservation Commission unanimously recommended that the O'Kane Farm met the requirements for listing as a local landmark. The application will now move on to consideration by the City Council. The farm was long associated with Irish immigrants Bernard "Barney" and Elizabeth O'Kane, who operated the Harp Dairy at the farm. Front Range undertook the project for the City with funding from a Certified Local Government grant from History Colorado.

In April 2017 the National Park Service announced the approval of the Park County, Colorado, Historic Cemeteries Multiple Property Documentation Form. Como Cemetery, an 1887 burial ground serving the railroad town of Como, was listed under the cover document. Park County funded the project.

Three Chaffee County, Colorado, properties were listed in the National Register on 27 March, including Cleora Cemetery near Salida and the Nachtrieb/Kelly  and Smith/Friskey ranches in the vicinity of Buena Vista. The project was conducted by Front Range for the Greater Arkansas Nature Association (GARNA) under a grant from the State Historical Fund.

Today, the Painted Desert Community Complex became one of 24 new National Historic Landmarks announced by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. She remarked that "the new designations depict different threads of the American story that have been told through activism, architecture, music, and religious observance. Their designation ensures future generations have the ability to learn from the past as we preserve and protect the historic value of these properties and the more than 2,500 other landmarks nationwide.”

Front Range prepared the nomination for the 20.3-acre complex in northeast Arizona, which serves as the headquarters for Petrified Forest National Park. The 1961-65 multi-building Mission 66-complex was designed in the International style by architects Richard J. Neutra and Robert E. Alexander of Los Angeles.

The National Park Service announced on November 18, 2016 that Pine Hall (top) in Granite, Colorado, and the Head Lettuce Day/Collegiate Peaks Stampede Rodeo Grounds (bottom) in Buena Vista had been listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7. The nominations were prepared under a project sponsored by the Greater Arkansas Nature Association with funding from the State Historical Fund. The nominations were approved by the State Review Board in September; three additional project nominations will be considered by the board in January.