What we know
Dave Gibbs's own fox and mink ranch. David Elmer Gibbs (1895-1952) came from Laramie, where he began selling silver foxes for a Laramie company in 1927; he was foreman of G. Frank Shelby's Black Forest fox farm by 1929 and later 'entered the fox farming business in Black Forest, east of Monument' (S-0140). The fur growers' advertisement of Dec. 7, 1938 lists 'D. E. Gibbs—Gibbs Fox and Mink Ranch, Monument,' and in 1941 the Friendly Larks club met at Mrs. Gibbs's home 'three miles directly east of Monument' for 'a visit to the Fox Farm' (S-0140). Von Ahlefeldt calls it 'Dave Gibbs' large farm east of Monument' (S-0009, p. 92). Gibbs later worked for the Rural Electrification Administration at Monument and was a past master of Mount Herman Grange; he died in 1952 after a fall in Colorado Springs (S-0140). In January 1941 the Record Journal carried an advertisement, 'WANTED—Killer Horses.—Gibbs Fox Farm, Monument, Colorado,' and that February its Spring Valley column reported that a Mr. and Mrs. William Brown 'have charge of the ranch at the present time' (S-0228). By early 1942 Dave Gibbs and his wife were working a fox farm on Genesee Mountain in Jefferson County: Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Brown 'of Gibbs Fox Farm' visited them there in January, and in March the Gibbses, 'of the Genessee Mt Fox Farm,' 'also visited their fox ranch at Monument' (S-0228, S-0140).
Where it was
'Three miles directly east of Monument' (Mrs. Dave Gibbs's home, Record Journal, July 4, 1941, S-0140), and 'east of Monument on Highway 105' (Lavelett, as quoted, S-0034): three miles east of the Monument town center along the line of Highway 105. 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-0009: Judy von Ahlefeldt, Thunder, Sun and Snow: The History of Colorado's Black Forest (Colorado Springs: Century One Press, a division of Graphic Services, Inc., 1979)
- S-0011: Lucille Lavelett, Through the Years at Monument, Colorado: The Story of Monument, Colorado, 5th printing (Palmer Lake: Palmer Lake Historical Society, 2004); first published Colorado Springs: Valliant Press, 1975
- S-0016: Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (coloradohistoricnewspapers.org)
- S-0034: Rob Carrigan's history posts on Colorado Restless Native (part of S-0001), read in full 2026-10-05
- S-0140: The Black Forest Fox Ranch in the Colorado newspapers, 1929–1952 (CHNC, 23 items)
- S-0228: Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection: Tri-Lakes fox farms, second sweep, 2026-10-14 (1927-1952) (via S-0016)
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.