Aspen Acres Fire
- Jonathon Jundt
- Aug 12
- 3 min read
A fire started from the Aspen Acres campground near Beulah, Colorado, in the midst of a drought, 6% ambient humidity, and 95 mph wind, and continued on an emboldened trajectory in most cardinal directions almost simultaneously. On a remote property known as Cuernoverde Ranch, located one hour west of Pueblo, Colorado, the possibility of the fire reaching the property seemed remote at best. Few anticipated, however, this fire would consume up to 25,000 acres in a single day. What follows below is a survey of the fire damages, and some interesting insights into how massive wildland fires appear to have a personality of curiosity at times and vengeance in other.
Historically, the area is rich in history both contemporary and historical. The ranch lies in a remarkable corner of southern Colorado where geology, frontier history, Native American history, Civil War intrigue, and even twentieth-century crime lore converge. Rising above the valley is Greenhorn Mountain, named for the Comanche leader Cuerno Verde (“Green Horn”), killed during Juan Bautista de Anza’s 1779 campaign; his distinctive green-horned war headdress was reportedly taken from the battlefield, passed through Spanish authorities, and, according to longstanding tradition, ultimately presented to the Pope in Rome and preserved at the Vatican. Beulah itself was once the notorious Mace’s Hole, named for the outlaw Juan Maes, or “Mace,” and prized as a secluded refuge for bandits; during the Civil War, hundreds of Confederate sympathizers reportedly rallied there near the vital Denver–Fort Union military road, plotting to disrupt federal communications and raid Fort Garland before Union forces broke up the encampment and captured forty-four men, who were taken to Denver. The wider region also sits near lands shaped by the Spanish and Mexican land-grant tradition and some extraordinary court battles: Tameling v. United States Freehold & Emigration Co., 93 U.S. 644 (1876) arose directly from Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Land Grant; the Maxwell Land-Grant Cases, 121 U.S. 325 and 122 U.S. 365 (1887) concerned the enormous Beaubien-Miranda grant extending into southern Colorado; and generations later the Colorado Supreme Court revisited traditional settler rights in Rael v. Taylor (1994) and Lobato v. Taylor (2002), ultimately recognizing historic rights to enter portions of the former Sangre de Cristo grant for grazing, firewood, and timber. Add Pueblo’s documented Prohibition-era bootlegging and Mafia history, with speakeasies and concealed underground locations, along with tales of reputed criminal hideouts in the surrounding country, and the area acquires an almost cinematic past. Today that history shares the landscape with Lake Pueblo, the hand-built wonder of Bishop Castle, and the nearby ADX Florence “Supermax”, all set among the Wet Mountains, fossil-bearing and layered rock around Lake Pueblo, ancient uplifts, canyons, and some of southern Colorado’s most dramatic geology.
This tree on the ranch features a fibrous, deeply twisted bark, tiny scale-like evergreen foliage, extensive dead limbs, and the characteristic gnarled growth form on exposed rocky ground. Those features match the National Park Service description of Utah juniper very closely.
Estimated age: roughly 500–900 years
I would not be surprised if this individual were around 700 years old, with a plausible range of 500–1,000+ years. That estimate is based on its massive twisted trunk, extensive weathered deadwood, partial live growth, and harsh rocky site—not simply its diameter.
Utah junipers are exceptionally slow-growing. NPS notes that they commonly live 350–700 years, with some exceeding 1,000 years; at Colorado National Monument, known individuals reach about 900 years.
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