Bartley Marie Scott

Bartley Marie Scott
Rancher, Conservationist
1896 - 1979
INDUCTED 2010

Bartley Marie Scott was a cattle rancher in Ouray County. Although tiny in stature, she was a legendary woman on the Western Slopes. At the time of her death, she had amassed and redistributed more than 100,000 acres, much of which is preserved ranchland.

Bartley Marie Scott mastered frontiers, both as a single woman in a man’s world and as a pioneer of ranchland management and natural resource stewardship. Born in 1896 on her family’s homestead near Ridgway, she grew up working on the ranch. She quit school after the 8th grade, bought her first homestead at the foot of Dallas Divide at age 16 and built her first herd from unwanted calves. Scott was among the first in her region to diversify by grazing cattle with sheep, planting native grasses for erosion protection and leasing pasture and cropland.

“The more I know of people, the more I like my dog.”— Bartley Marie Scott