Story by Carol McDermott; Photos by Jeannine Linroth

High country living in the twenty-first century provides ample opportunity to explore life spaces and styles and to experiment with materials and innovations. From basic tepees to elegant log homes, modulars to stick builts, rammed earth to straw bale, western Coloradoans find numerous solutions to designs for personal living space.

A tepee, the Sioux word meaning “for living in,” was the first mobile home. Still used today, these conical tents are tilted into the prevailing winds, making them slightly asymmetrical and nearly vertical in back, strengthening the structure while providing more headroom and useable interior space.

“We substitute treated canvas for ancient skins, but we have found no way to improve the original design,” said Dan Kigar, local tepee manufacturer. His company, Advance Canvas Design, Montrose, still uses waxed buffalo hide to reinforce the door opening, smoke flaps, lacing pin holes and the lifting tongue. 

The company also manufactures yurts. Similar to the tepee, the yurt is home to the nomadic people of Central Asia and the Far East. Yurts are cylindrical, rather than conical, and can be seen throughout the high country of Colorado, including in several state parks. Those in Ridgway, Mancos, and Steamboat Springs use yurts as cross country ski-in huts. They work in any natural setting, whether desert or mountain, beach or bay. “We have shipped yurts all over the world,” Kigar said, “to Japan, England and Belize, as well as to Canada.”

Pioneers who settled the west came to stay, and built their dwellings with whatever nature provided. Some used sod or sticks. Where trees were few, some used straw, baled and plastered. It was cheap and available.

If kept dry, straw can last for centuries. Since it has little nutritional value, rodents and other pests are not a problem. Once the straw bales are encased in plaster, there is little opportunity for molds and toxins to transfer into the home. Straw bale construction is ideal for the low humidity of western Colorado and is finding a niche in the high country today.

Faraway Ranch on Miller Mesa near Ridgway is a good example. The owner loves “the thickness of the walls which give the warm feel of home. The home is also a bio-region for all products.” Beams are recycled fir. Floors came from Saguache dead wood, all of which helps the economy by keeping money in the area and decreasing the amount of transportation needed.

Another alternative home style is earth-sheltered construction, such as one Montrose home built of concrete and sheltered with three feet of dirt over the roof. Earth-sheltered homes are energy efficient, ecologically sound and aesthetically pleasing. They resist fire, decay, and burglars, and they are storm, termite, leak and rodent proof. 

Rammed earth and recycled tire homes also incorporate passive solar technology and are popular in sunny western Colorado. One local homeowner used two thousand tires to provide forms for his house. “Some of our pack-the-tires sessions turned into parties,” he said. “We even had a mudder’s day on Mother’s Day.”

Homes utilizing traditional passive solar construction include double the normal insulation, six to eight inch thick walls, a southern orientation for windows and lots of heat-holding mass, such as stone, concrete or tile. The key is having enough mass to absorb heat and then give it out.

Factory-built housing can feature passive solar designs, too. Affordable manufactured homes come in a variety of sizes and shapes and go up quickly. The house is built in about ten to fifteen days, then installed by crane on the homeowner’s site. “They are constructed like stick-built homes, but in a controlled environment, under a roof, on an assembly line,” said Gale Smith of Tanner Creek. The company builds custom structures conforming to Uniform Building Code standards.

The charm of a mountain cabin combined with modern energy efficiency has made the log home a popular choice for high country living. Standing dead wood pine and conifer logs are often used because they grow straight and are easy to harvest. Log homes average 2,000 square feet of living space, although some may be much larger. The strength, durability and stability of log homes makes them attractive to financial institutions and insurance companies, as well as to potential buyers. 

Whether portable or permanent, alternative homes in the high country mirror their homeowners. Life spaces are traditional, modern and eclectic; affordable, eccentric and efficient. They reflect the people who enjoy high country living.
 

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