History
Broken Arrow Ranch has its origins as a summer camp for children. At one time the ranch encompassed 320 acres in the foothills west of Boulder, Colorado.
Previous owner Dirk Arnold spent summers growing up at the camp. Dirk’s father was a teacher from the suburbs of Chicago and started Arnold Western Ranch in the 1970s. Long before then it operated as a Dude Ranch and was even advertised in early 1950s Union Pacific Railroad literature.
At the turn of the 20th century, the property was a productive hay ranch (1907-1915). In the 1930s Anna T and Martin J Lally, immigrants from Ireland, had their name on the property deed. We believe it was a potato farm during this time.
The geodesic dome which still serves as the Ranch Foreman Quarters was built in the early 1970s. It is one of the largest known geodesic domes affiliated with the pioneering work of Buckminster Fuller. For a brief period in the 1970s while owned by Charles Arnold, the property was registered under the name Mountain Institute For Mankind.
The 1980s and 90s saw much of the original 320 acres subdivided and sold. In 1997 Kevin Tone purchased a 35 acre parcel that had been part of the original Broken Arrow Ranch. It was here Kevin raised his children in the solar home he built out of straw bales and love.
In 2011 Kevin and Clare Tone, along with Dirk and Carole Arnold created AT Broken Arrow Ranch, LLC with the mission to preserve the land according to its historic use as a high-country horse ranch.
Fun fact: the initials AT in our website stand for Arnold and Tone, the two families that came together to save Broken Arrow Ranch.
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