With an ancestry of Roaring Fork Valley pioneers, Stephen Bershenyi was born into a ranching family in Glenwood Springs and stewards the family property, the Lazy V Quarter Circle Ranch, a 640-acre high-mountain parcel protected by a conservation easement. An English literature and German language double major, Bershenyi also earned his journeyman card as a control instrument and refrigeration pipefitter. He has worked in facilities management, construction and, since 2005, as an artist blacksmith.

A perfectly formed flint knapped projectile point. There it lay in the road as my best friend from high school, his wife and six-year-old son and I hiked the road out of our camp along Three Mile Creek. It had rained the day before we came to camp and the rivulet of water running down the road had unearthed this beautiful gift from an unknown White River Ute tribal hunter seeking game to feed his people. As I gifted that object to my friend’s son, I felt the presence of that Ute hunter and a feeling of reverence and responsibility to the land.
That unknown Ute hunter and I seemed connected by a thread of history, woven of his and my love for this piece of land which my family now owned and which his family used freely without the need of “ownership.” This complex and beautiful 662 acre property has been in my family since 1941.
For over half of my life it was viewed as simply a utilitarian necessity as summer range for our cattle herd. That all changed when, in 1990, our family sold our ranch on Dry Park Road to a family whose vision was for it to grow homes instead of alfalfa. That left us with this parcel along Three Mile Creek, which became a summer and fall camping and hunting destination for the family. My hunting became another thread connecting that Ute hunter and me.
A few years after the discovery of that projectile point, we discovered on our neighbor’s property to the north and along the east side of the meadow that now holds Three Mile Reservoir, the very site where a White River Ute flint knapper had set up his workplace to make projectile points for the hunters in the tribe. The site is large, about 30 feet in diameter showing perhaps a thousand years of activity by generations of tribal armorers.
It is easy to sit at that place and envision the hunting party camped in the meadow along the creek, watching as they came and went and the women butchered game and fletched and tanned the hides for clothing.
That singular projectile point became the inspiration for me to begin the family conversation about conserving this special place. It had opened my mind to the awesome responsibility that I felt to preserve this place for all time. A family conversation that spanned 15 years culminated in our entire family committing to the idea of conserving the land.
It is now, and will always be, as it has always been. My gift to that unknown Ute hunter is simply that were he to reappear, he would know this place as he knew it in his lifetime. 

“The two most important days of your life are the day you were born, and the day you know why.” - Mark Twain

VOICES Summertime Stories & Music presents “Our Land, Our Voices” in collaboration with Aspen Valley Land Trust (AVLT) on Aug. 10 at Coffman Ranch: 1837 County Road 100, Carbondale. This program amplifies local voices from conservationists, artists, educators, youth, farmers and ranchers. Guided ranch tours are at 6pm, and the performance will follow at 7pm. Please RSVP at voicesrfv.org