Caribou Ranch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caribou Ranch was a recording studio built by producer James William Guercio in 1972 in a converted barn on ranch property in the Rocky Mountains near Nederland, Colorado. The popular studio was in operation until it was damaged in a March 1985 fire.

1 History
2 Artists
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Guercio purchased Caribou Ranch, more than 4,000 acres (16 km²) in the Rocky Mountains, in 1971.

In 1972, Joe Walsh and Bill Szymczyk were starting work on Barnstorm at Walsh's home in Colorado when a mixer blew out on the first day. Szymczyk knew Guercio was building a new studio, visited the in-progress barn conversion at the ranch, and concluded that it would work for their project. They used the new studio to finish Barnstorm. Szymczyk next made Rick Derringer's All American Boy and the hit single "Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo" there.

The studio complex was shut down and never used again after a March 1985 fire destroyed the control room and caused about US$3 million in damage.

Guercio's interests had shifted away from music. In 1996 and 2001 transactions he sold 2,180 acres (8.8 km²) of the ranch to Boulder County and the City of Boulder, and another 1,489 acres (6 km²) were placed under conservation easement. A housing development by Guercio's Caribou Companies takes up much of the remainder.