(MONUMENT, Colo.) — Just a couple miles from Monument, there is a little piece of the Wild West filled with cattle and an original homestead.

“We’ve been here for well, I’ve been in Colorado for 50 some years, although my family is from Pueblo and Cripple Creek, and we’ve been ranching here since mid-eighties,” said Stan Searle, Owner of Searle Ranch.

The traditional cabin on the property was built four years after the Civil War and was a part of downtown Gwillimville.

“The cabin is the last remaining structure from the town of Gwillimville, founded in 1869 by a guy named Gwilym,” Publisher of Monument Living, Charlie Searle, said. “So, he came here and founded this town, just built buildings. A bunch of family members then came over from Wales and in its prime, Gwillimville had probably 30 families here. There’s a little town in this valley went that way.”

Charlie lived in the cabin for three years and shared it was an enjoyable experience living in the 360-square-foot homestead.

“About 360 square feet, a little bedroom, a great room, you know, had coffee, had actually really good Internet, which is important,” Charlie said. “Coffee maker, refrigerator, a little kitchenette. And we’re going to actually be turning it into an Airbnb, hopefully rolling it out in May or so. But yeah, a little piece of history.”

While looking out on the horizons of the ranch you will see the ranchers on horseback roping in the longhorns.

“We raised Texas longhorns and there’s a demand for them all over the country by people that want to have smaller ranches and want especially interesting cattle that have big horns,” Stan said. “And they live up to their name with 60, 80, or even 100 inches horned measurement tip to tip.”

The longhorns are able to roam all over the property and if you look out on the intersection of Highway 105 and 83 you might just see a couple of longhorns.

“They worked their way up through Mexico into what’s now Texas on their own,” said Charlie. “You know, the survival of the fittest thing. They were not domesticated animals. They got loose and reproduced and flourished under some really rough conditions.”

While the land around the ranch has changed and developed, the traditions on the ground have remained the same.

“We’re trying to keep this intact,” Charlie said. “We’ve got community coming in all around us – neighborhoods, some of which we created ourselves, developing some of the property, but hopefully preserving a big enough chunk of this with pasture and the cattle that it will be like it is for a long time.”

The Searle Ranch is more than 200 acres where the cattle can roam freely. Stan shared that he does run other ranches in the area where he takes care of even more cattle.

“We have another ranch, Silverado Ranch, east of the Springs on High Plains, and we’ll have a hundred and some cattle out there most of the time,” said Stan. “And fewer than half that maybe here in the summertime because this is just a couple of hundred acres here. And Colorado land is no longer suitable for raising cattle.”

When it comes to his favorite part of running the ranch, Stan said it is taking care of the longhorn.

“The most enjoyable aspect of raising Texas longhorn cattle or any kind of cattle is when you see what your calf crop looks like that when the babies are born and seeing what you got,” said Stan.

Ranchers at Searle Ranch are devoted to keeping this piece of history afloat and running for many more years to come.

“And sometimes people have to sell off because of whatever reason,” Charlie said. “But as long as we can keep this here and the cattle are an important part of it.”

Keeping their hands on the reigns and their boots in their stirrups to keep the ranching life alive in Southern Colorado.

“It’s kind of interesting and gratifying to be able to keep some vestiges of the Old West still alive and production raising beef cattle,” said Stan.