Electric Fishwrap

Residents set to buy land at mouth of Big Thompson Canyon

By Kate Martin

Reporter-Herald staff writer

This time of year everything looks dead at the mouth of the Big Thompson Canyon. Brown needles litter the ground, and tree limbs chatter together in the spring wind.

But Terry Borger knows the green will come again, and with it the wildlife that has so enchanted him and his wife, Sandra.

The Borgers are adding onto their personal Eden by buying adjacent land that was condemned after the worst natural disaster in Colorado history.

He said they knew about the Big Thompson flood of 1976 before they moved into their cozy cabin on Hummingbird Lane eight years ago.

There used to be a home to the west of the Borgers’ place. But the waters that swept away 145 lives took that home as well. The Borgers weren’t sure what happened to the residents.

The floodwaters left a dirty brown line along the floorboards of the Borgers’ home. And while Sandra Borger’s friends tell her to remove the line, she can’t bear to wipe away that piece of Colorado history.

The Borgers could close on the land, nearly an acre, by Friday for the price of $15,600. County commissioners authorized the sale Tuesday.

“Who would buy it except nuts like us?” Terry Borger said.

The couple can’t build a structure there or camp on the land. But Terry Borger said he hopes to add to the couple’s multiple bird feeders and birdhouses already sprinkled throughout their property.

Like a proud papa, Terry Borger thumbed through pictures of the land in the summer. Foxes, wild turkeys, mountain blue jays and a wild burro grace the photographs. And there are so many bears on the property that their four grandkids call the place “The Bear Cabin.”

Chickadees flit around on platforms sprinkled with seeds. Binoculars sit close by on a windowsill in case the Borgers need a better view.

“It’s all part of why we’re here,” said Sandra Borger. “I can’t imagine not loving this.

Tracks from all-terrain vehicles cross the land that will soon be theirs. Revelers often hold loud bonfire parties on the parcel just two dozen feet from their home.

Terry Borger talked with excited gestures about the split-rail fence he would use to enclose the land. Protected from intruders and those who would defile it, the land would look like a park, he said.

“I sound like a tree hugger,” said Terry Borger.

“I guess we are what we are,” his wife responded.

The Big Thompson flood of July 31, 1976, roared through the canyon west of Loveland, killing 145 people, destroying 418 homes and causing $35.5 million in damage.

Many of those who lost their homes were not allowed to rebuild, and Larimer County bought 153 pieces of land with a federal flood grant. The grant required the county to maintain the properties for public and recreational use.

In 2004, the county transferred the stipulations on that land to a piece on the Poudre River, allowing the county to sell the properties.

About 60 properties are eligible for sale, said Gary Buffington, Parks and Open Lands director. Priority is given to former landowners and their descendants, and then to adjacent landowners.

Terry and Sandra Borger are the first to buy Big Thompson flood land from the county.

— Kate Martin

Originally published Feb. 28, 2007.