It’s been called “the quintessential Colorado homestead.”

The 900-acre Schmid Family Ranch has been in operation by the same family, about 10 miles west of Telluride, since 1882.

It’s been designated a Centennial Ranch by the state’s governor, meaning it has been in existence more than 100 years.

It’s on San Miguel County’s list of historic landmark properties, and is a state historic landmark building.

Locally, the ranch is famous as a sublime setting for weddings, with 14,023-foot Wilson Peak — the highest point in San Miguel County — rising sharply above. It’s known for sleigh rides and family holiday events each winter; and as the setting for Quentin Tarantino’s fearsome 2012 drama, filmed in deepest winter, “The Hateful Eight.”

Yet this place was equally vital in the past.

“Telluride’s early mining industry could not have flourished without the provisions of livestock, hay, dairy and vegetables produced nearby on Wilson Mesa at the Schmid Family Ranch,” Mark Shambaugh wrote in Telluride Magazine.

“It’s a living piece of history,” Shambaugh said.

As chairman of Telluride’s Historic Architectural Review Commission, “Our job is to save history,” Shambaugh added. “And we’ve parlayed that love to help save the oldest, continuously operating ranch on the Western Slope.”

There were originally 44 buildings on this 900-acre property; of those, 27 remain standing. Unfortunately, as Shambaugh put it in his essay, “many of those remaining buildings are succumbing to the elements; some are in peril of being lost forever.”

Last year, four of “the most iconic” of them, including the ranch’s historic barn — “the most photographed barn in the state,” Shambaugh said — the granary, the forge and the “old shop,” were restored with the help of funds raised by the local community. (The ranch has been placed in a conservation easement by the family, which preserves it from being developed.)

“None of these buildings had foundations,” Shambaugh said. “We raised them up and fixed the structure. We had to hold these buildings together with cables and wires — otherwise, they would’ve collapsed in the process. Now these buildings have been repaired. We’ve added flooring. The Schmid family donated all the lumber” for the project with trees from the ranch, and “cut it in their own 100-year-old sawmill.”

Yet the work is not done.

“That was phase one,” Shambaugh said. It is critical that two more buildings — the horse barn and the cow barn on the upper ranch, which were built around 1910 — receive help soon.

“There’s no way they’ll survive another winter,” Shambaugh said of the buildings. And if they don’t, “A couple of pieces of history will crumble into the ground forever.”

It’s rather incredible that they are still standing at all. Shambaugh is more than a lover of history; he’s a family friend of the Schmids who has resided on Wilson Mesa himself for 30 years, and so has witnessed the slow deterioration of these buildings over the decades. He’s volunteered to be project manager on the project to conserve them. 

“I’ve seen the crumbling firsthand,” he said. “We never knew we’d have a record winter” this past year.

Urgent preservation work is needed this year, Shambaugh told the Planet, before next winter sets in.

“The cow barn is almost beyond hope,” he said. “We cabled both the cow barn and the horse barn last winter, to hold them together, but it’s now or never. They’ll never make it through another winter.”

What is more, the window to complete the restoration of these buildings is narrow. “We can’t start the work until June 10, because there’s still snow up there,” Shambaugh explained. “And we’re pinched on the other end, because by September and October, we’ll probably have enough snow that we’ll have to be done.”

The San Miguel Conservation Foundation, which helped the family place a conservation easement on the property, is overseeing a drive to raise funds to conserve these two buildings.

“Three weeks ago, we received a $20,000 donation from San Miguel County” toward the restoration work, Shambaugh said. “We have $111,000 more to go. We need to raise $28,000 for the horse barn, and $83,000 for the cow barn.”

On Saturday, June 10, there will be a fundraiser at the Schmid Ranch — in its beloved, lofty, much-photographed barn — to help preserve the cow barn and the horse barn before they disappear entirely.

The “Boot Stomping" begins at 5 p.m. and includes “a ranch dinner, games for the kids — calf roping, catching chickens, real ranch games,” and live music by Ghost Ranch.

“It will be an unusual evening,” Shambaugh said, featuring historically accurate food and games on a Centennial Ranch setting in an effort to conserve two pieces of the past on this very property which will, without the assistance of the community, no longer be standing a year from now.

The weight of history is closing in.

“It will be such a fun night,” Shambaugh added. “Kids under 12 will be admitted free. I feel like we have a gun to our head.”

A contractor will begin some restoration work on June 12, he said.

“We’ve got enough money for one building. We’re gambling we can raise the rest while the contractor is still on site,” working to conserve these buildings for future generations. 

Tickets for the Boot Stomping will be available at the Telluride Historical Museum until June 8.

If you can’t attend on Saturday, you can still make a tax free donation to the San Miguel Conservation Foundation, a 501c3 entity, by using the QR code in the ad in today’s newspaper or phoning 970-728-1539. Reference Schmid Ranch Buildings when you make a donation.