After more than 150 years in the Lake Fork and Cebolla Valleys, members of the pioneer Youmans family are retracing their ancestors’ route in reverse as they leave Colorado and return to the midwestern U.S.
Roughly segmenting their 60-year marriage into 25 years ranching near Cathedral on the upper Cebolla in Hinsdale County, followed by ten years on ranch lands at Ohio Creek in rural Gunnison County and, most recently, another quarter century raising cattle on the old Dick Bailey Wilson Ranch at Powderhorn, Joe and Wilma Youmans are on the move once again as they make a final move, this time to what they describe as more conducive farming and cattle-raising country near the Iowa border in northeastern Missouri.
Interviewed last month at their comfortable Powderhorn home in the midst of packing boxes and, outside, equipment flatbed trailers, Joe and Wilma are surrounded by family — son and daughter-in-law, Patrick and Jennifer Youmans, grandchildren Brittany, 33, and Vincent, 26 — as they explain the difficult decision to sell their Powderhorn ranch and move to Missouri, severing ties to both the Lake Fork and Cebolla Valleys which, for their grandchildren, remarkably date back six generations to the arrival of Joe’s mid-western grandparents and great grandparents, Harry Youmans and Francis and Emma Jane Mendenhall, in the 1870s
As viewed from Highway 149, the Youmans Ranch, now sold to Nate Richards, includes Joe and Wilma Youmans’ residence, near left, and — far left — Helen Hufty Wilson’s old Powderhorn Post Office.
While physically relocating from Colorado to Missouri, the Youmans are adamant — both fondly looking out on ranch lands from windows of their Powderhorn home — that despite the 900-mile distance, “this will always remain our true home.”
Sale of the Powderhorn ranch late last year and the move to Missouri was prompted by a variety of reasons, age — for one — as Joe prepares for his 90th birthday in 2026 — together with the complexities and expenses of modern ranch living which includes increasing government regulations impacting their summer grazing allotments and, in general, the transformation they see in the Cebolla Valley from historic agriculture to a seasonal recreation-based economy.
The three-generation move to Missouri — Joe and Wilma, Patrick and Jennifer, and offspring — is eased in part by the fact their immediate neighbors in Missouri — just five or six miles down the road — will be their former Powderhorn neighbors, Bailey and Jill Wilson, who have lived near Memphis, Scotland County, Missouri, the past quarter century.
During that time, and while Joe and Wilma remained in Powderhorn, Pat Youmans sampled the rural Missouri cattle-raising culture while living near Memphis for a decade before returning to Colorado.
Effective November last year, the Youmans have sold their 300-acre Powderhorn ranch to a Pennsylvania farmer, Nate Richards, the sale includes the Youmans’ home and expansive metal equipment barn which Joe erected shortly after buying the property in 2001. The sale also includes another, older residence, long the home of the late Helen (Hufty) Wilson and former location of the Powderhorn Post Office and, interestingly enough, a small gabled calving shed which, prior to being relocated down valley, served as the school at Cathedral, Hinsdale County, where Joe’s mother, Margaret Mendenhall, taught school prior to her marriage to Grant Youmans in 1931.
Sale of the ranch to Richards also includes 100-head of cattle, although the Youmans plan to continue cattle ranching at their new, more temperate Baring, Missouri, ranch, together with raising wheat, corn, and soy beans. Located in northeast Missouri Knox County, near 125-population Baring, the Youmans’ new ranch property is situated between the towns of Baring and Memphis (population 1,731), Scotland County — later the home of former Powderhornites Bailey and Jill Wilson.
Since marriage in Dumas, Texas, in February, 1966, Joe and Wilma Youmans’ trajectory has included 25 years on the 625-acre Couraud Ranch which was acquired by Joe’s grandfather, Gunnison and Hinsdale County pioneer Harry Youmans (1848-1932). During their time on the upper Cebolla ranch near Cathedral, Joe has happy memories of his multi-term tenure as a member of Hinsdale County School Board, fellow
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