Tweet Kimball
Born in 1914 to a wealthy Tennessee family, Mildred Montague Genevieve “Tweet” Kimball moved to Colorado in 1954 following her divorce from diplomat Merritt Ruddock. During their marriage, she spent seven years living in London. Through the American Embassy there, Tweet’s social circles expanded to include both royalty and aristocrats with whom she maintained lifelong friendships. Upon arriving in Colorado, Tweet purchased Charlford, a grand, castle-style home from Charles Alfred Johnson, and the neighboring Ray Blunt estate, bringing her landholdings to over 4,000 acres and renaming them Cherokee Ranch to honor the Cherokee people of Tennessee. For the remainder of her life, she called the property home.
In 1954, Tweet pursued her long-held dream to establish a Santa Gertrudis cattle ranch and persisted to overcome skepticism from local cattlemen and Texas breeders alike who thought the breed would not survive in a cold western climate. She proved that they not only could survive but also thrive. Tweet became an advocate for the breed nationwide and established the Rocky Mountain Santa Gertrudis Association in 1961, and five years later, lobbied the National Western Stock Show into exhibiting and promoting the Santa Gertrudis breed. Tweet would later become the National Western Stock Show’s first female member. Kimball’s bull, named Cherokee Little Governor, was the Stock Show’s 1980-81 Grand Champion and is buried with a headstone on the ranch. She exported cattle to Australia, Vietnam, and South Africa as a visionary, and today, Santa Gertrudis cattle are bred all over the world.
Cherokee Castle provided Tweet with space to display her treasures and entertain friends and dignitaries while supporting many causes. She was an early advocate for water and open space conservation; she served as a Director on the Denver Art Museum board, among others. Her extensive collections of fine art, antique furnishings, rare objects, rare books, such as two first-edition sets of Winston Churchill’s writings, and decorative wares were enjoyed by her guests then and continue to enthrall touring visitors today. Original paintings by masters: Rubens, Lawrence, Gainsborough, Constable, Sir Christopher Wren (drawings), Brueghel (elder), and several others highlight Tweet’s knowledge and art-collecting skills.
In the last years of her life, Kimball succeeded in having Cherokee Ranch & Castle listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. She ensured the property would be protected from development in perpetuity through a conservation easement with Douglas County in 1996. That same year, she established the Cherokee Castle & Ranch Foundation to enable the preservation of the land for its western heritage, and, as a wildlife sanctuary, to maintain the cattle ranch and create educational opportunities for the public through the arts. A significant forest of petrified wood logs is on the property where citizen scientists have compiled research, resulting in logs being dated 55 million years ago.
Tweet Kimball’s distinctive legacy is multi-pronged through her Foundation’s programming that touches nearly 20,000 lives each year across arts, science, ranching, and western heritage; and that she broke barriers for women in cattle ranching and international business; and that Cherokee Ranch is a part of contiguous open space along with the Highlands Ranch Backcountry Wilderness and Daniels Park allowing herds of elk and other wildlife to traverse over 12,000 acres.
In 1954, Tweet pursued her long-held dream to establish a Santa Gertrudis cattle ranch and persisted to overcome skepticism from local cattlemen and Texas breeders alike who thought the breed would not survive in a cold western climate. She proved that they not only could survive but also thrive. Tweet became an advocate for the breed nationwide and established the Rocky Mountain Santa Gertrudis Association in 1961, and five years later, lobbied the National Western Stock Show into exhibiting and promoting the Santa Gertrudis breed. Tweet would later become the National Western Stock Show’s first female member. Kimball’s bull, named Cherokee Little Governor, was the Stock Show’s 1980-81 Grand Champion and is buried with a headstone on the ranch. She exported cattle to Australia, Vietnam, and South Africa as a visionary, and today, Santa Gertrudis cattle are bred all over the world.
Cherokee Castle provided Tweet with space to display her treasures and entertain friends and dignitaries while supporting many causes. She was an early advocate for water and open space conservation; she served as a Director on the Denver Art Museum board, among others. Her extensive collections of fine art, antique furnishings, rare objects, rare books, such as two first-edition sets of Winston Churchill’s writings, and decorative wares were enjoyed by her guests then and continue to enthrall touring visitors today. Original paintings by masters: Rubens, Lawrence, Gainsborough, Constable, Sir Christopher Wren (drawings), Brueghel (elder), and several others highlight Tweet’s knowledge and art-collecting skills.
In the last years of her life, Kimball succeeded in having Cherokee Ranch & Castle listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. She ensured the property would be protected from development in perpetuity through a conservation easement with Douglas County in 1996. That same year, she established the Cherokee Castle & Ranch Foundation to enable the preservation of the land for its western heritage, and, as a wildlife sanctuary, to maintain the cattle ranch and create educational opportunities for the public through the arts. A significant forest of petrified wood logs is on the property where citizen scientists have compiled research, resulting in logs being dated 55 million years ago.
Tweet Kimball’s distinctive legacy is multi-pronged through her Foundation’s programming that touches nearly 20,000 lives each year across arts, science, ranching, and western heritage; and that she broke barriers for women in cattle ranching and international business; and that Cherokee Ranch is a part of contiguous open space along with the Highlands Ranch Backcountry Wilderness and Daniels Park allowing herds of elk and other wildlife to traverse over 12,000 acres.