The Owl Farm

Owl Farm. Hunter Thompson's "fortified compound" as it were and self-proclaimed. A part of a larger ranch that had been sub-divided into smaller parcels. Owl Farm was still a rather large property. Nestled in the mountains of Colorado and as Hunter liked to refer to it at "8000 feet".

The original ranch was some rather large piece of land and owned by a lady named Margaret Arlian. She made cheese, wine and, brandy. Sometime in the later '40's or early '50's she sold the ranch to Otis Smallwood and his family. After some period of time they were gone and Al and Alma Barbier moved in. During the time the Barbier's owned the ranch, the main house burned down. This gave them the opportunity to build a home in the style they wanted...a log cabin as it were. As well as a dairy barn. That same house is the one still there today with the famous Kitchen where Hunter would hold court until all hours of the night. They sold eggs and milk and then became the first to subdivide property, before zoning was even heard of in rural Colorado. In the early '60's they sold what was left of the ranch to the Sandersens. The Sandersen's son Billy, who was killed in Vietnam, was buried on the ranch property.

The ranch was divided up some more and Hunter ended up with the parcel containing the main house and dairy barn (since turned into a guest house) on Woody Creek Rd. He then named the site Owl Farm.

Owl Farm is in the Aspen area and considered part of Pitkin County, Woody Creek, CO. This is all near the highly popular Snowmass ski resort community. John Denver's home as well as the home of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Arabian ambassador to the US, are located in the gated community of Starwood Residential Estate. And across the road from Owl Farm is John Oate's house.

Hunter used the Owl Farm setting in many of his letters, papers, and stories as well as referencing the raising of peacocks, the terrorizing neighborhood owls, the casual walking out the door to fire off a few rounds and generally enjoying the peace and quite of this solitude. Friends and local officials were always stopping by to gather in the Kitchen and gamble on sports events, or even plan Hunter's run for Sheriff of Aspen. He did most of his serious writing here.

Entrance to Owl Farm in the winter

At some of these gatherings he would grab one of his books or papers and have one of the people attending read a passage he indicated. If they were not reading with the right tone or emotion, he would stop them and have them start over. Apparently this would be the highlight of the evening and great fun was had by all.

As mentioned in a previous post, Hunter took his own life at age 67 in the study of  Owl Farm while he was working on his latest column for ESPN called "Hey Rube". Johnny Depp saw to Hunter's greatest wish, that his ashes be shot into the sky from a tower 153' tall that was to be built on the property. At the top of the tower was Hunter's symbol that he used at least since the run for Sheriff, the double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button. The event took place in August of 2005, right where Hunter wanted it to be... in his "big backyard".

 

Anita Thompson, his wife of two years before his death, still lives on the property. He is also survived by his first wife Sandy and their son Juan.

Hunter and Anita in happier times

Selah