In 2018, Caleb Fletcher, a 34 year old man from Silver Ridge, Colorado, dreamed of escaping poverty by raising pigs. For years he had worked construction jobs that barely paid enough to support his family, and every winter the layoffs returned like a bad season that never truly ended, so when he heard that a piece of unused mountain land outside the town of Pine Valley was available for rent he believed he had finally found the chance to change his life.
The land belonged to an elderly rancher named Walter Grayson, who rarely climbed the steep road anymore because of his age, and he agreed to rent the remote property to Caleb for a small yearly fee as long as Caleb maintained the land and respected the forest around it.
The place sat high above the valley where pine trees covered the hills and a narrow dirt road twisted up the mountain like a long brown ribbon. To Caleb the view alone felt like a promise of a better future.
He poured every dollar he had into the project. He used his savings, borrowed money from relatives, and even took a loan from Frontier Agricultural Credit Union, a small lender in nearby Summit City that supported local farmers.