Every building and every place has a story, a history. The history evolves as buildings and places are built, transformed, lived in, sold, bought, torn down, rebuilt, and everything that happens in between. Buttercup Ranch is one of those places whose history Jane and I, and our family, are thrilled to be part of.Buttercup Ranch is down the road from Rosebud Ranch—our current Colorado home in Old Snowmass. It belonged to Pulitzer Prize journalist, war correspondent, and my personal friend Loren Jenkins (who also happens to be full of great stories). Jenkins made history as a foreign correspondent, spending 25 years overseas reporting for UPI, Newsweek, and The Washington Post. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting of the 1982 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon. After serving as Editor for The Aspen Times, he joined NPR, tripling the number of foreign desk offices around the world and helping NPR’s foreign coverage win nearly every award possible.
My favorite of all his stories is the one he recounts about being the last American, along with the Ambassador, his secretary, and the Ambassador’s toy poodle, to be helicoptered out of Saigon when the U.S. finally pulled the plug on its presence in Vietnam. He was even in the last photograph out of Vietnam! The next chapter in the life of Buttercup Ranch is to be transformed as we turn it into our new family ranch. We have plans to expand the property and to relocate and restore historical log cabins, each with their own story, onto the property. Stay tuned for a video cam and regular updates on the progress of Buttercup Ranch that we will post here!
