On June 8, 1892, Jesse F. Hurst received a patent for 160 acres on which our home now sets. Homesteaders were here several years before the United 
States Government granted their patents. A homesteader had to build a home, a barn, fence the outside of their lands and had years worth of income produced for the land.
Our hayfield was patent on March 31, 1911 by Archie P. Rogers. His application was dated March 10, 1909. He had a ferry on the Colorado River. He built his home of rocks which is still partially standing. It was known by the old timers as the butter bowl because the field was yellowish and set down in a little bowl.
Frank A. Benton came to the Burns, Colorado area around 1908 and the first ranch he bought was the Keiner Ranch. He started buying up ranches and water rights in the area. On February 26, 1910 the Hurst Ranch was bought for $1,050 and on April 15, 1911 the Rogers Ranch was also acquired for $3,300. 
On July 31, 1912, Frank A. Benton incorporated to Frank Benton Land and Livestock. This represents on of the first large corporate merges in the ranching industries in the early 1900’s. He amassed the Edge, Breen, Newcomer and the Twenty-one, Roberts and many more ranches totaling over 30,000 acres of deeded and government ground. Many of the ranches still carry the homesteaders or whom they bought from last name. Then in 1911 or 1912, he had delivered by rail to McCoy, Colorado, six mail order homes from Sears catalog. They were brought the rest of the way by team and freight wagon to Burns. He situated the homes on the various ranches. One of the mail order homes ended up on the Luark Ranch. On May 31, 1918, Frank deeded over to his son, George Benton, both 160-acre homesteads to raise his family. George married Bertha and had three children. They were Ida, George and Ina. Ina was the youngest, was small for her age and ready to start school. The horseback ride to the log cabin schoolhouse, at the bottom of our drive was about three miles. She had to open three gates. If she got off her horse, she couldn’t get back on. Ina said this is the main reason they moved away to Cedar Ridge. On January 15, 1923, George sold to Thomas Meyers. Ina turned 80 this year and lives in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Dr. Meyers was a doctor in Kansas. They had a caretaker named Lester Devore. He was a bachelor. Living with him in the Sears homes were goats, 
chickens, and bull snakes. It was said he slept with an ax under his bed because the house swayed and rocked with the wind. This way if the house blew in, he could chop his way out. When the Luarks bought it, the house was cabled together.
On September 8, 1898, William Samuel Luark and Rosetta Ann Salter were married. They lived in eastern Colorado. He worked as a custom thrasher until his death in 1919. They had four sons. After her husband’s death Rosetta moved three of her boys to Portland, Oregon where her family lived. Alvin Victor remained in Colorado to work in the mines. Then in 1926, as a widow, Rosetta Luark and her two sons, James Edward, age 24, and Wilbur Sidney, age 12, moved back to Colorado looking to homestead land. They packed what few belongings they could fit in their car and headed west. They camped out along the way. Everette stayed in Oregon to become a professional golfer. They went to an area called Sunnyside where homestead sites were still available. The elevation was 9,260 feet above sea level and the snow depth could reach five to six feet. Their first patent was granted on December 11, 1931 by James E. Luark and another section was patent on March 2, 1932 by Rosetta A. Luark. A section is 640 acres. They also received a section from a Mr. Stafford that he gave them upon his death. This totaled over three square miles. They built a barn and lived in it for the first year. Their main source of income was raising head lettuce. Later they built a two-story home. They named it Sunnyside Divide Ranch. Wilbur S. Luark patent his 640 acres on September 9, 1941. This was one of the last sections to be homesteaded. This section lays two miles north of the current Luark home and is part of the ranch. Because of the severe winter conditions, the Luarks were in search of milder conditions and on June 27, 1942 they bought the 320 acres from the Meyers for around $9,000. They moved in and put a bathroom and electricity in the house. This is the same mail order home from Sears delivered by rail to Burns, Colorado and then by team and wagon around 1911 or 1912. The brothers called themselves that Luark Brothers, which they operated under. In 1944 they bought one band of sheep and later bought another band. A band is 1,000 sheep. They had land and permits from here to Green River, Utah.
On July 3, 1948 Wilbur married Jessie Winiferd Luark. They moved to Rifle, Colorado for several years and then returned to the ranch. They had four children; Susan, Mike, Pat and Orbit.
Jessie’s brother, Wesley Schlegel, still owns and operates the ranch that their father homesteaded around 1914. Their parents were Clyde Clark Schlegel and Ida Katherine Schlegel.
In 1952, the brothers build their mother, Rosetta, a beautiful flat roofed home. They put in four 4x8 windows to look out on Castle Peak. An article was written in the Denver Post upon completion of the home. She lived there until her death on June 20, 1976. Rosetta and her son, James, are both buried at McCoy Cemetery.
In 1962, the death of James E. Luark resulted in the dispersal of the sheep and much of the land they had acquired under Luark Brothers. After the dispersal, Wilbur and his family started running a few cows. After the depression, he was taking people to the Flat Top Mountains. This was the start of his outfittingbusiness. The first elk that was killed on King Mountain was by Charlie Antel in 1972. Operation Respect patrolled the private property, which was the beginning of the hunting operations on King Mountain.
Wilbur "the Mountain Man" past away on December 16, 1989 and Jessie "the Woman of the Mountain" on June 11, 2004 and are buried together on his homestead on King Mountain. Their oldest son, Mike, owns and operates the Foster Place and one of the sections at the Sunnyside Divide Ranch, as an outfitter and runs cattle. Pat Luark owns and operates two sections at the Sunnyside Divide Ranch in Toponas, Colorado homesteaded by Rosetta Luark and her sons and the Luark Ranch in Burns, Colorado. This is the patent issued to Archie Rogers, Jesse Hurst and Wilbur Luark. Currently the Ranches are raising cattle and horses. They also continue the outfitting business on King Mountain. Some of the hunters have hunted with us for over 23 years. Pat and his wife, Niki hope that their two sons will take over the ranch in the future. This would then be a family operated ranch for four generations.
