Marie Scott: Colorado’s Legendary Cattle Queen

Marie “Bartley” Scott (1896–1979) holds a legendary status in the history of Colorado ranching as one of the state’s most influential landowners and cattlewomen. By the mid-20th century, she controlled an estimated 100,000 acres of ranchland in Ouray, San Miguel, and Montrose counties – with properties reaching from her hometown Ridgway well into southeastern Utah. She was recalled by locals as “a land baron, a force of nature, and a shrewd dealmaker.” While ranching was a man’s business during her time, Scott built a cattle empire almost single-handedly, earning the nickname of “Ridgway’s ranching royalty.” Her legacy transcends the sheer scale of her landholdings and cattle, however, to the record of perseverance and resourcefulness she left in the Western Slope ranching tradition of Colorado.

Marie Scott’s life spanned a transformative period for the American West. She was born in the 19th century but lived to see modern innovations and hardships of the 20th century, from the introduction of automobiles to the ravages of the Great Depression. Through it all, she maintained an old-school devotion to the land and a progressive attitude toward ranch management. Today, she is celebrated as a pioneer who “convinced men that she could do their work better than they could,” elevating the status of women in Western ranching. The Western Folklife Center and Colorado historians often point to Scott’s story as the epitome of frontier grit – a “cattle queen” who mastered both the prairie and the boardroom, leaving an indelible mark on Colorado’s ranching heritage.

Marie Scott was born March 28, 1896, on her family’s homestead in the Dallas Creek valley near Ridgway, Colorado. Her father, Bartley T. Scott, had settled in Ouray County in the late 19th century, planting the roots of a ranching tradition that Marie would dramatically expand. Tragically, her father died in 1904, when Marie was just eight years old. Growing up without her father’s guidance in a rugged ranch environment may have steeled her for the challenges to come. By her mid-teens, Marie was already determined to stake her own claim in the cattle business. She quit school after the eighth grade – unwilling to be confined to domestic life – and at age 16 boldly purchased her first homestead claim, an alpine meadow at the foot of Dallas Divide.

Starting with that initial piece of high mountain pastureland, Marie pieced together what became a vast patchwork of ranchland. She started small: cultivating her original cattle herd out of orphaned, unwanted calves other ranchmen wouldn’t accept. During the 1910s and 1920s, she added acreage in Ouray County and beyond, sometimes buying out surrounding leases or homesteads. The Scott name became known in the Ridgway area, but it was Marie’s sharp business sense and tireless work ethic that actually built the empire. Neighbors recalled how she might ride the range in the morning and close a land deal the same afternoon. “Ranchmen don’t sell, they acquire,” became a motto in her life, and Marie lived it. By the 1930s, she was the sole builder of an expanding ranching kingdom – one of the largest female landholders the Western Slope had ever known.

By the late 1920s, Marie Scott was running a sizeable cattle operation headquartered in Ridgway, with grazing lands spreading into the neighboring counties. She owned over a thousand Hereford cattle (the classic “white-faced” breed) and even diversified into sheep herding. But her true genius shone during hard times – especially the Great Depression. When the stock market crashed in 1929 and drought hit the West, many ranchers went bankrupt. Marie, however, saw opportunity amid adversity.

There is a famous anecdote regarding her business sense: in 1929, she was purportedly driving to deposit a substantial amount of cash earned through the sale of cattle at the Bank of Ridgway when word was received that the bank suddenly failed. Instead of letting her profits go up in the bank collapse, Marie drove back home with one account referring to it as having “a small fortune in cash.” She used the money at hand to buy 3,000 acres of ranchland outside Norwood at fire-sale prices. This risky purchase in the midst of the Depression served as the groundwork for her subsequently-built fortune. “Marie was on her way,” said one biographer of this turning point in 1929.

While others struggled in the 1930s, Scott quietly went about buying, trading, and selling parcels of land to expand her acreage. She was a genius at timing: when land costs plummeted through the floor, she purchased foreclosed land; when cattle costs were high, she sold for a profit. One auctioneer in the cattle business said Marie Scott became southern Colorado's largest landowner by the mid-20th century. Her operations later branched out beyond county lines – from the Sneffels Range west of Ridgway to the Paradox Valley near the Utah border.

Marie Scott passed away in November of 1979 at the age of 83, having made provisions for her ranchland in the hands of friends and proteges. That was just the start of the Ridgway ranches for her beloved properties, though. A few years later, in the wake of Marie’s death, a new chapter began when fashion designer Ralph Lauren came to the area in search of a large ranch to purchase.

In the early 1980s, the Old West aficionado Lauren bought the central part of the former estate of Marie Scott as the site for his family’s Colorado retreat. In fact, “the heart of [Marie Scott’s] ranch empire is now the headquarters of the 14,000-acre Double RL Ranch, owned by Ralph Lauren.” The Double RL Ranch, which is named for Ralph and his wife Ricky Lauren, was developed into a private retreat with working cattle ranching in conjunction with Western tradition. The old ranch structures were restored by Lauren and supplemented with him maintaining the property in its raw state.

In a twist of fate, country music legend Michael Martin Murphey was a part of the transition. A friend of Ralph Lauren's and a big supporter of cowboy culture, Murphey introduced the Ridgway ranch to the attention of Lauren. Murphey was a frequent visitor after the Laurens purchased the property, using the ranch as a retreat and inspiration for his songwriting. Full circle came when Murphey was the headlining performer at the high-society wedding of David Lauren (son of Ralph) and Lauren Bush, which was held at the Double RL Ranch. Marie Scott’s former ranch properties have been synonymous with old-fashioned images of the American West for years, including their use in Marlboro cigarette commercials. During the 1970s and the 1980s, Marlboro television commercials and print advertisements were filmed in the Ridgway area, its broad landscapes substituting for the mythical “Marlboro Country.” An old barn at the Double RL Ranch served as a backdrop for Marlboro television commercials, solidifying the ranch’s role in the popular image of the American cowboy.

Today, when people think of the tough, mythical West, they are probably picturing scenery such as the landscapes which Marie Scott rode each day. Her legacy is part of the very fabric of the land – a testament to the fact she was a true pioneer of the Colorado cattle industry.