Slice Of History: Colorado Ranch Tied to Converse Sneakers Family Hits Market For $9M

A historic Colorado property with ties to the Converse family is on the market for $8.995 million.

According to Mansion Global, Anderson Camps Ranch, a 165-acre private compound, was a beloved children's summer camp for over five decades.

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Situated at the confluence of Sweetwater Creek and the Colorado River, the property offers stunning natural beauty and privacy. Protected on three sides by federal lands, it's located in Gypsum, a short drive from popular mountain destinations like Vail and Aspen.

D. Scott Stuart, a former camper who took over the camp in 1979, is the current owner. He and his wife, Tamara, ran the camp with their three sons for 50 years, welcoming hundreds of children each summer.

"It's a unique property because of the water frontage and it's ideally located between Vail and Aspen," Cody Lujan of Hall and Hall told Mansion Global.

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Lujan co-listed the property earlier this month with colleague Jeff Buerger, who attended the camp when he was a kid.

"It was an amazing opportunity for youth to work on outdoor skills," Buerger said. "They have done a good job of making young people good people."

The riverfront location is what truly sets the property apart.

"This is a recreational ranch house tethered to the surface water," Buerger said. "There's not a lot of supply of properties with this amount of water access."

Beyond the 5,353-square-foot main house – a Craftsman bungalow with six bedrooms, four bathrooms and a backyard pool – the property boasts a variety of additional buildings. There are guest cabins, a house with a studio and fitness room and a 3,600-square-foot lodge equipped with a commercial kitchen, dining area, two bedrooms and one bathroom.

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The property includes an office, an eight-bedroom, six-bathroom multipurpose building, a caretaker's cottage, a recreational hall, stables and other outbuildings. Outdoor amenities range from a 46-acre irrigated hay meadow, a guest pool, a climbing wall to a private pond, an amphitheater and a pistol range.

The historic property, homesteaded in the 1800s, has a rich and varied past. In the early 1920s, Mary Converse, a member of the Converse sneaker family, constructed the main house as a wedding gift for her daughter and son-in-law.

The Craftsman-bungalow style house, popular during that era, features fireplaces built with river rocks. Most materials were transported across the mountains by horse and wagon.

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The main house was recently renovated.

"I researched the Craftsman style," Tamara Stuart told Mansion Global. "It's remodeled in a period-correct way but for modern practicalities. When you walk into the home you feel like it's that time period."

The house had made a significant mark in the area even before the summer camp was created. It was the first to have electricity, an indoor plumbing system and a telephone line.

The house served as a community hub, functioning as a polling place and meeting space. Later, three ex-World War II Women's Army Corps members purchased it and transformed it into the Lucky GJ Ranch, where city dwellers could escape to enjoy square dancing, fly fishing, horseback riding and hunting.

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