# George Ratcliff ranch (the T-Ranch)

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/george-ratcliff-ranch-the-t-ranch/
- Also known as: T-Ranch
- Kind: Ranches and homesteads
- Status: Historic or vanished
- County: Douglas County, Colorado
- Point: 39.3164, -104.9739 (from a cited description (good to half a mile))

- Updated: 2026-10-17

## What we know

George Ratcliff, from Derbyshire, England, rode for the pony express before coming to the Divide in 1860 (McGrath's Real Pioneers of Colorado, vol. 3, and a Dillon family history, in the Larkspur Historical Society's files, S-0199). In July 1863 he sold two claims on Spring Creek, 'the Ratcliff claims,' to Sarah Coberly (S-0199). In the late 1860s he lived at what became part of the Perry Park Ranch; the Dillon history says he first homesteaded there and later sold those holdings and moved to the T-Ranch (S-0199), and the county map credits him with starting the ranch at the Sinclaire House (S-0123). By September 1874, a county commissioner living near the Bear Canon post office, he had 720 acres here at the mouth of Spring Creek, 200 cows and a new two-story frame house, 22 by 32 feet. He patented more land nearby from 1872 to 1904; about 1882 he and William Dillon, who married his daughter Elizabeth in 1885, bought Mrs. Crull's Spring Creek ranch, later the upper or Meadow Ranch; and in 1887 Newton Grout put up 'very substantial buildings' for him. The T-Ranch, apparently named for its T brand, grew to 5,000 acres. Ratcliff died at the family home on West Plum Creek on Sept. 20, 1909 (S-0199). Clara Turner, whose family lived on the T Ranch in the 1910s, named its owners as 'Dillon, Ratcliffe and Dillon' and confirmed 'Their brand was a T'; the way from the ranch to the Lone Tree school went 'by the Camel Rock' (DCL oral histories doh/663, 1993, and doh/1067, 1995, S-0213).

## Where it was

Placed at the mouth of Spring Creek on Plum Creek (USGS GNIS, S-0007), from a September 1874 description of the farm 'lying on Spring creek where it empties into Plum Creek' (Larkspur Historical Society files, S-0199). Ratcliff's 1872 patent for the SW1/4 SE1/4 of Sec. 26, T8S R68W lies 0.4 mile northeast (BLM GLO record, S-0199), and GNIS's Ratcliff Plum Creek Ditch is 0.33 mile south (S-0007); the 1874 distances (ten miles from Castle Rock, eight from Larkspur) and a later '10 miles from Sedalia' fit. The house site is not known. Good to about half a mile.

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

## Sources

- S-0006: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0006
- S-0007: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0007
- 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-0199: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0199
- S-0213: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0213

## Nearby

- [Upton T. Smith farm](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/upton-t-smith-farm/): 0.4 mi north
- [Lone Tree School](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/lone-tree-school/): 0.8 mi north
- [Jackson Creek Ranch (Newton S. Grout)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/jackson-creek-ranch-newton-s-grout/): 1.7 mi northwest
- [Coberly-Crull Spring Creek ranch (1863-about 1882)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/coberly-crull-spring-creek-ranch-1863-about-1882/): 1.9 mi southwest
- [Peter Brennan ranch (later the Ford Ranch)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/peter-brennan-ranch-later-the-ford-ranch/): 2.0 mi southwest
- [Vera Burton homestead (1940)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/vera-burton-homestead-1940/): 2.2 mi east

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