Alpenglow Magazine | Devil’s Thumb Ranch

Devil’s Thumb Ranch…
A Dream in the Making
By Martin F. Curry

When cable entrepreneur Bob Fanch walked onto the grounds of his Devil’s Thumb Ranch late one morning, the first thing he noticed was that the night lights were still on around the new, creatively-shaped swimming pool that runs inside to a cedar- walled spa. He quickly strolled into a nearby utility building and flipped them off.

“You really have to watch those electric bills,” he explained.

Looking around at the massive, first-class rebuilding at this well-known ranch and cross-country center in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, you wouldn’t think that any expense had been spared. And while this is a project he refers to as his “baby,” there’s no question but that he knows his business He’s a self-styled contrarian who likes to think outside the box, he doesn’t jump on bandwagons and people who work with him describe him as “intense.”

With a master’s degree in hand from the University of Denver, his business career started in the mid-1970’s when he landed a position with ATC, a company that eventually became Time-Warner. “It was the start of the cable business and I got in on the ground floor,” he explained.

Ten years later he started his own company and by the time he sold it in 1999 to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, it was already the twelfth-largest cable company in the nation servicing more than a half-million subscribers.

“I think it was being in the right place at the right time and the right business,” he said. “I could have gone into another business that wasn’t so good. So, there was a little luck involved.” He still owns Fanch Communications, Inc. which today owns two integrated communication providers: Conversant, located in New England, and FiberNet, with offices in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

But Devil’s Thumb is a far cry from the high-tech world of the cable industry.

Originally homesteaded as a dairy farm in the 1930’s, the 3,900-acre ranch sits cozily in the Ranch Creek Valley 90-miles-distant — and a galaxy apart — from Denver. Looming high overhead, atop the imposing Continental Divide, protrudes a craggy rock outcropping called the Devil’s Thumb. It is along this stretch of rocky terrain, the story goes, that Ute and Arapahoe tribes buried the devil and left his thumb exposed to remind them of the evils of war.

Over the years, the place has operated as both a dude ranch and world-renowned cross-country center that’s attracted some of the world’s best Nordic competitors.

But it wasn’t until Fanch and his wife, Suzanne, acquired both the Diamond Bar-T Ranch and the adjacent Devil’s Thumb Ranch in 1999 and 2001 respectively that massive improvements and additions began.

These include 16 new deluxe cabins that look down on the valley from a ridge top. Each accommodates two to 12 guests who can cross-country ski right out their door. Amenities include woodburning fireplaces, heated floors, antique furniture, Adirondack-style white birch cabinets, and kitchens. Each cabin is personally decorated by the Fanches, who wanted to pay tribute to the colorful history of the ranch. The result is individually-themed cabins: fly-fishing, Nordic, Western ranch, Native American, and more. Each décor is tailored to its theme with handcrafted pieces and authentic, Nineteenth Century antiques from Scandinavian countries, England, Czechoslovakia and Russia.

There was also an expansion of the on-site Ranch House Restaurant, which was enlarged to accommodate 85 guests per seating, and a new expansive kitchen that any chef would give his or her secret recipe for.

The Ranch Creek Spa was a new addition for the ranch. It features seven treatment rooms, private reception and relaxation areas and an outdoor terrace and hot tub. It offers a nature-based spa experience that includes customized massage, facials, soaks and reflexology treatments.

The stunning, barrel-shaped John L.’s Wine Cellar and Uncorking Room is constructed with rich-looking cherry wood from the Adirondacks in upstate New York where Fanch grew up. Plus there’s the impressive Zach’s Mercantile, an upscale shop offering everything from cross-country skis in winter to hiking boots and sportswear in the summer.

As Fanch spoke with Alpenglow Magazine on the outside deck made of Ipe wood from the Brazilian rain forest, construction work had already begun on a new, 53-room main lodge which will have the look and feel of an Adirondack Mountains national park lodge. Earlier, amidst dust and construction debris, the existing Elk Creek Lodge, which housed a retail shop and activity center, was moved out on a flat bed truck.

But the centerpiece for all this is the Broad Axe Barn.

After he purchased the ranch, Fanch would turn to the classified ads in the Denver Post for anything from wagons to furniture. “One day I was looking under ranch equipment and I found the littlest ad that said: “Relocate, deconstruct, and reconstruct early American structures,” he explained. “I thought: ‘This looks interesting.’”

A phone call later, and a trip the next day to check out two barns from the Midwest that were being reconstructed in Montrose, Colorado — the Fanches were sold.

“So, he found us a barn and we built the whole thing around it,” said Fanch. “I really liked the look and I thought it would be consistent with what we’re doing up here.”

The barn was originally built when Abraham Lincoln was president some 150 years ago.

Adds Fanch, “Nothing about what we’re doing is cookie cutter.”

Right in line with this philosophy is the development of a geothermal heating system — one of the largest in Colorado — that is used in a majority of the new buildings, including the cabins. The system consists of glycol-filled pipes that were installed in the ranch’s on-site lake. Heat is transferred from the water to the glycol which is then heated to approximately 105 degrees by compressors in each building. Pipes are located in the flooring to provide radiant heat.

In 2004, the ranch received an Environmental Protection Agency Award for “Environmentally Sensitive Remodeling and Expansion of the Historic Devil’s Thumb Ranch.” Improvements and practices that were lauded by the EPA included the Fanch’s consistent efforts to find a green solution first, then designing their own geothermal radiant heating and water and sand filtration systems.

“The only electricity we’re consuming other than our lights is the power to run the compressors. All of our hot water, and all of our heat over there, and in all these buildings is generated by geothermal,” said Fanch.

The new lodge will be on a second method: wells that are some 175-feet-deep. “If you hit water, that’s a good thing,” he said. “But the earth is 55 degrees and you can extract that heat.”

With rising energy costs, Fanch is looking like a pretty savvy businessman, although he did come under criticism from some local residents when he installed wood-burning fireplaces in the ridge top cabins.

“I wanted to put wood-burning fireplaces in all the cabins because I felt that it was a little inconsistent to have people come up here and sit in front of the fire
place and push a remote and have the fireplace pop on.” he laughed. “Part of the experience of coming up and having a cabin in the woods is building a fire. It’s a thing you pass on to your kids. It’s part of the experience.”

And, since the new fireplaces meet current EPA standards, there’s actually less pollution than before.

“Our goal is to keep this place like it was before — the away-from-it-all feel,” he said. “We’ll have all the technology, but it won’t be in your face like other places.”

There’s no question about it: Bob and Suzanne Fanch have transformed Devil’s Thumb Ranch from a great place to a world-class, Colorado Shangri-la.

But all the impressive new additions and rebuilding beg the question: Exactly how much money has this astute businessman sunk into his baby?

“I don’t talk about that; people would think I’m crazy if I did,” the soft spoken prefectionist smiled. “Let’s just say it’s the biggest financial commitment I have.”

“And,” he added, “It’s a labor of love.”