Father and I Were Ranchers

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses violence against Indigenous people. 

Set against the backdrop of rural Colorado in the early 20th century, Father and I Were Ranchers explores frontier life, the American Dream, and the transformation of the West through the eyes of young Ralph Moody and his Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age genre that follows a character’s development from childhood to adulthood. The story follows Ralph’s family as they relocate from industrialized New England to Bear Creek Valley, Colorado, joining a wave of settlers pursuing opportunities on the Western frontier. This migration mirrors broader patterns of American expansionism and homesteading during the era, driven by the promise of land and economic prosperity.

In the early 19th century, settlers began exploring westward, and Colorado became a key location for fur trading posts and military bases. By 1858, gold deposits were found close to present-day downtown Denver, which instigated the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Soon after, settlement camps emerged in various regions throughout the state. Because news of gold in the Rockies spread fast, roughly 5,000 prospectors came to Colorado every week. Deposits were soon exhausted, with the gold rush peaking around 1900. Although many former mining camps became desolate, the arrival of railroad lines in the late 19th century brought more individuals to the region seeking opportunity (“Colorado.” History. 23 Aug. 2024). 

This influx of settlers coincided with The Homesteading Act of 1862 when the federal government granted that any adult citizen who had never borne arms against the United States government could claim 160 acres of surveyed public land. This was done to promote the settlement of the West. These individuals lived on the land, using it for agricultural use to aid improvements to the region. As a practice, homesteading was a crucial part of Colorado’s settlement. Between 1864 and 1934, settlers claimed over 100,000 homesteads statewide; 22 million acres—33 percent of the state— was settled under homesteading acts. (“A Home on the Range.” Colorado Preservation). Politicians thought that the efforts of settlers would achieve Manifest Destiny, a belief that the United States was destined by God to spread democracy and capitalism across the North American continent, an ideology that settlers used to justify the forced removal of Indigenous Americans from their homes and native lands. 

Migration to Colorado led to increased conflicts between Indigenous Americans and settlers. The deadliest expulsion of Indigenous populations occurred in 1864 when American soldiers and Colorado militia killed 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people in the peaceful Sand Creek camp in southeastern Colorado (“Colorado”). The United States government further forcibly removed Indigenous populations through violent and oppressive means, including failed attempts to assimilate the Ute people and later expelling them from their native land on Colorado’s Western Slope in the 1880s. This forced them onto a new reservation in northeast Utah, removing them from the lands they lived on for hundreds of years, which was done intentionally to open a large portion of the mineral-rich Rocky Mountains for development by settlers (“Ute Treaty of 1868,” Colorado Encyclopedia). Settler development relied on forcing Indigenous populations to cede their land, often by deadly means.  

Agriculture was integral to homesteaders’ way of life in the 20th century, but it was not without complications. As Father and I Were Ranchers shows, homesteaders like the Moodys had to confront the challenges of subsistence farming, where survival often hinged on natural resources, physical labor, and cooperation with neighbors. At the turn of the century, traditional agrarian practices began to shift toward early modernization, with innovations such as bull stackers and mowing machines becoming a part of daily life. This period was marked by a clash and coexistence between modernization and the enduring frontier ethos.

Ralph’s father’s efforts to secure water rights, negotiate with neighbors, and develop the homestead underscores the hallmarks of life on the frontier, which demanded resilience among settlers and led to tensions between self-reliance and community cooperation. The ongoing disputes over irrigation, as shown in the novel, emphasize the communal nature of frontier survival, where resource allocation became a collective endeavor. Ralph’s encounters at cattle auctions and dealings with local businessmen further reflect the evolving economic landscape as frontier towns like Fort Logan emerged as centers of trade and commerce. These shifts mark the gradual integration of traditional ranching into a growing capitalist economy.