# Ben Lomond Ranch

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/ben-lomond-ranch/
- Also known as: the Bennet ranch
- Kind: Ranches and homesteads
- Status: Historic or vanished
- County: El Paso County, Colorado
- Point: 39.1262, -104.9125 (from a cited description (good to a quarter mile))

- Updated: 2026-10-07

## What we know

The first settlement at Palmer Lake: a cabin near the north end of the lake about 1869, with a barn and a corn mill whose timbers were cut '1869'. Owned by Judge Hiram P. Bennet, Hiram Jr., Joseph F. Bennet, Daniel C. Oakes and Alvin B. Daniels; Joseph Bennet's family lived in the cabin and he carried mail on the Divide before the trains (recollection). Sold in 1885 to Frank D. McClure; T. A. Hanks ran his livery here until 1899; the Higginsons bought part in 1907; the ranch house was razed in August 1958 (Sabin, S-0019, pp. 15, 21, 49, 56, 64, 113). The Bennet brothers built a barn with a grist mill in 1871; Thomas A. Hanks built the 1909 barn, which came down on July 4, 2008 (PLHS newsletter, 2008; S-0002).

## Where it was

'Near the north end of the lake'; 'the tilled fields, the log cabin, the later frame house and other buildings lay a quarter of a mile over the line in El Paso' (Sabin, S-0019, pp. 15, 21). Placed a quarter mile south of the county line (the north line of Sec. 5, T11S R67W, BLM PLSS) above the lake's north end. Good to about a quarter mile.

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

## Sources

- S-0002: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0002
- S-0019: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0019
- S-0120: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0120

## Nearby

- [D&RG icehouses, Palmer Lake](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/d-and-rg-icehouses-palmer-lake/): 0.3 mi south
- [Palmer Lake](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/palmer-lake/): 0.4 mi southwest
- [Santa Fe section foreman's house](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/santa-fe-section-foremans-house/): 0.5 mi southwest
- [Little Log Church](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/little-log-church/): 0.5 mi southwest
- [Katrina Murat cottage](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/katrina-murat-cottage/): 0.5 mi southwest
- [Palmer Lake Town Hall (1914)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/palmer-lake-town-hall-1914/): 0.5 mi southwest

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