Mountain View Ranch

Mountain View - Home   Mountain View - Contact Merideth   Mountain View - Links Page   Mountain View - Meet Merideth   Mountain View - Order Book   Mountain View - Privacy Policies

Leaning Pine
     Home Page
Drawing Mountain View Ranch
1915 - 1945

         A history by Merideth A. Hmura

   
      The mountains hold a magical power for all who enter them, drawing people from every walk of life to their majesty and beauty.  Many visitors travel a great distance to vacation high above the world, while others choose to live and work in the mountain splendor.

    George Alfred Viles operated a fashionable dude ranch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains from 1915 to 1945.  Mountain View Ranch at Cowles, New Mexico was a wonderful place for its guests to enjoy the tranquility of the mountains.  George and Matie Viles were hosts to many vacationers during the thirty years they were associated with Mountain View Ranch.  Through the Viles, guests were given the opportunity to enjoy ranch and outdoor life.

    Dude ranches of this time period were the forerunners of today's mountain resorts.  Mountain View Ranch did not try to impress guests with modern conveniences or fancy cabins.  It's charm lay in the rustic surrounding, beautiful streams and glorious mountain peaks.  Mountain View Ranch was operated as a cattle ranch and a dude ranch.


    The author has brought life to historical documents and photographs and created a vision of life during the peaceful times of the first half of the 20th century.  A must read history for those interested in the Upper Pecos River Valley in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico.

    Very well annotated and footnoted with many photographs.  290 pages filled with comments by historical figures culled from diaries and never before published documents.  Both enlightening and entertaining, you'll lose yourself in the life and times of George and Matie Viles and the history of this scenic and remote mountain valley.

Map to Cowles, New Mexico, the location of Mountain View Ranch

   
   

Turn this page for samples of photographs and comments.......  Go to page 2

 
 


Copyright Merideth A. Hmura 2000 - 2015.  All rights reserved.