# Bartruff homestead

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/bartruff-homestead/
- Also known as: Prairie Canyon Ranch
- Kind: Ranches and homesteads
- Status: Living today
- County: Douglas County, Colorado
- Point: 39.3077, -104.7192 (from a cited description (good to a few hundred feet))

- Updated: 2026-10-07

## What we know

Frederick Bartruff filed on this land in 1867, built a 14-by-18-foot log house and fenced 60 acres. After his death in 1875 his widow Barbara married John Bihlmeyer, who owned the adjoining land; the ranch stayed in the family until the 1930s. Now Douglas County open space (county map, S-0123, citing Appleby). The county's landmark page (2000) says the Bartruffs homesteaded here in 1873, not 1867 (S-0126); a GLO patent would settle it.

## Where it was

Pin on the Douglas County Historic Resource Map (DCHR-022; Douglas County and Douglas County Libraries, 2012, on the Larkspur Historical Society's Google map, S-0123). Where that map and ours place the same site, the pins mostly fall within about 300 feet. Good to a few hundred feet.

Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.

## Sources

- S-0045: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0045
- S-0046: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0046
- S-0080: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0080
- S-0123: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0123
- S-0126: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0126

## Nearby

- [Bartruff graves](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/bartruff-graves/): 0.2 mi southwest
- [Golddale School](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/golddale-school/): 1.6 mi east
- [Golddale post office](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/golddale-post-office/): 1.7 mi east
- [Larson grave](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/larson-grave/): 1.9 mi northeast
- [Engl ranch](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/engl-ranch/): 2.0 mi northwest
- [Moschel grave (1864)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/moschel-grave-1864/): 2.2 mi northwest

Source numbers (S-0000) refer to https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/. Compiled by Michael Christensen for Palmer Divide Research; CC BY 4.0.