BlockFrom the record
One of 46 National Register listings published here for Chaffee County · listed in 2015 · category: District.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Rock Ledge Ranch-Franzel Ranch
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The listing
- Address. 17975 Cty. Rd. 338, Buena Vista, 81211
- When was it listed? July 2015
- Category. district
- Census division. Buena Vista
- National Register reference number. 15000464 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
92 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 92 fires within 5 miles of Rock Ledge Ranch-Franzel Ranch between 1992 and 2020, burning about 64 acres in total. 16 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 44 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 16 |
| Natural | 16 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | ELECTRIC |
| 4 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | MIDLAND |
| 3 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 25 September 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 24 September 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | BALD MTN |
| 18 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | OLD MILWAUKEE |
| 11 September 1993 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | TUNNEL |
| 8 August 1992 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 26 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 26 workings within 5 miles of Rock Ledge Ranch-Franzel Ranch: 14 past producers, 9 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, Silver, Copper, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Be True | Uranium, Vanadium | Past Producer | ||
| Buena Vista | Gold, Platinum | Occurrence | Stream Placer | |
| Cottonwood Hot Springs | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Josephine | Marble, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Little Annie | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Mary A Claims | Gold, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Quaker | Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Clay | Occurrence | ||
| Yukon Placer | Gold, Silver | Occurrence | ||
| Eureka Mountain | Gold, Lead, Silver | Past Producer |
Storms near this property
10 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buena Vista, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2021: 7 flash flood, 2 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | 2 hurt, $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Lightning | Buena Vista | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | $20,000 | Flash flooding occurred, which brought 2 to 3 feet of standing water and mud in low lying residental areas of Buena Vista. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | Heavy rainfall washed out County road 371, from a small drainage which flows across the road. Two cars were stuck in the mud. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | County road 304 was washed out. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | A flash flood and mud flow on US Highway 285 near Johnson Village made the road impassible for a time. |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | The ongoing mudslides occurred on Cottonwood Pass road, causing a threat to motorists, campers, and nearby homeowners. |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | In total, five mudslides occurred on Cottonwood Pass Road (CR 306) about one mile west of the hot springs pool. The mud on the road ranged from two to 14 feet deep. Cottonwood Hot Springs and several residences needed to be evacuated as a precaution. |
| July 2004 | Lightning | Buena Vista | - | While no humans were affected, a pig was struck by lightning and killed. The pig was a prized swine, scheduled to be entered in the 4-H competition at the Chaffee County Fair. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buena Vista | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Comanche Drive-In | 0.8 miles | 2015 |
| Smith-Friskey Ranch | 2.0 miles | 2017 | |
 | Head Lettuce Day-Collegiate Peaks Stampede Rodeo Grounds | 2.4 miles | 2016 |
 | Maxwell Park School | 3.2 miles | 2020 |
 | Kelley-McDonald House | 3.5 miles | 2015 |
 | J. M. Bonney House | 3.6 miles | 1994 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 15000464 in Record Group 79. |
| Chaffee County | All 46 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.