Cougar Mountain Ranch
Lincoln and Torrance Counties, New Mexico
6,160 +/- Deeded Land, 1,950 +/- Free Use Grassland, 480 +/- State Leased Land, and 20,300 US Forest Service Leased Land
This scenic ranch is located at Corona, New Mexico, contains 6,160 acres +/- Deeded land, approx. 1950 acres free use grassland , 480 acres State Lease land, 20,300 acres U.S. Forest Service Leased land and is accessed by US Highway 54 and State Roads 42 and 247.
This is a good, useable, working ranch with well-cared for, and very adequate, improvements. The terrain is generally smooth, rolling hills. The elevation ranges between 6,000 and 7,000 feet. Parts of the forest land are rough with steep rocky slopes. There are some washouts, but overall, the ranch has been well managed, thus few erosion problems are evident.
According to the owner the ranch has consistently run 425 cows year round.
Approx...
Approximately 2,000 acres of the ranch have been developed into 40 acre tracts. The owner has retained the grazing rights to the developed acres without rent. The owners of the developed tracts have perpetual right to use the ranch for recreational purposes, i.e. horseback riding, hiking, bird watching, non-motorized biking, and sport game hunting. Interference with livestock operations is strictly prohibited. The remaining unsold lots in the "Corona Ranch" and "Pinon Village" subdivisions could be purchased with or separately from the ranch.
The ranch headquarters is located approximately three miles southwest of Corona off of US Highway 54. The headquarters has a large residence containing 2,231 sq ft under the metal roof. This includes a large porch, seven rooms, (four bedrooms, and one bath). It is frame stucco and native stone construction. The actual age is unknown.
The bunk house contains 732 sq ft. It has four rooms (two bedrooms and one bath). The construction is wood frame, with cinderblock walls and stucco exterior.
The shop is a metal building with a slab floor. It contains 2,430 sq.ft. with a 400 sq. ft. lean-to shed and also has two rooms and a bath which is heated.
The tack room is L-shaped. It contains 600 sq. ft. The construction is wood frame with rough sawn board and batten exterior.
A storage barn and hay shed are wood frame construction with wood siding. The storage room contains 400 sq. ft. The hay shed contains 560 sq. ft. and is open on one side.
The shearing shed is wood frame with sheet iron exterior. The center portion has a concrete floor. The shed contains 2,736 sq. ft.
There is a 1,000 bushel grain storage bin by the shearing shed.
The corrals at headquarters are large, steel construction.
In addition to the improvements mentioned in above, there are also steel working pens at the mills in sections 13 and 21 on the north end of the ranch and east of the highway down on the south end of the ranch there is a set of working pens at the storage tank in section 18. There are catch pens (one or two steel pens) at each of the other mills.
The ranch is well watered by pipelines from wells with submersible electric motors and pumps or windmills located on the deeded land that are also piped into the forest allotments in several places and into the state lease as well as dirt ponds.
The ranch is located at the edge of the Basin & Range Ecosystem and the Great Plains. Conservation efforts are centered on elk and wild turkeys which have been reintroduced into the forest. Once present in significant numbers, in years past these species disappeared from the Gallinas Mountains under heaving hunting pressure in the early 1900's. The owner is working to bring other indigenous species back on ranch as the rehabilitation of the watershed.