Nottingham Ranch sale marks last stand for ranching clan that homesteaded Vail

BURNS — As rain clouds cast a chromatic hue across her lush pastures, rolling as far as the eye can see, Susan Nottingham shrugs her shoulders and sighs.

“Absolutely gut-wrenching. So anguishing. Just a very, very difficult decision,” she says, kicking the dirt with a well-worn boot.

Ranching is in Nottingham’s blood. The Nottingham clan homesteaded the Vail Valley, shepherding sheep along the banks of the Eagle River long before the pastures would sprout resort mega-mansions in Beaver Creek and superstores in Avon.

Now, it’s time for the last of her brood to cede their ranching roots. She is selling the family’s 20,000-acre spread along the Colorado River.

Nottingham isn’t sure what kind of buyer — beyond a billionaire or group of millionaires — might be interested in her ranch, which includes a whopping 100 cubic feet per second of senior water rights, an amount that could serve several thousand homes for a year. (The senior water rights likely are more valuable than the land, Nottingham says, but delivering them anywhere other than the property would require serious legal maneuvering.)