(COLORADO SPRINGS) — As ‘We Are Colorado Springs’ week begins, FOX21 Live and Local Morning Reporter Julie Baker explained how Banning Lewis Ranch became the key to expansion in the City and the woman behind it.
“It’s Banning Lewis. Her name is first,” said Matt Mayberry of the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum. “Do you think they realize it was a woman who pioneered this land?” Baker asked Mayberry. “Probably not. Most people don’t know the story. It deserves to be remembered. She deserves to be remembered; she was a trailblazer.”
Ruth Banning was born in 1892 in Colorado Springs. It was on the land of what’s now known as Banning Lewis Ranch that she had a foundational herd of cattle, which would be sold across the country.
Mayberry detailed the efforts Banning and her husband made, to ensure the land was properly maintained and fit for a large cattle herd. “Not only having a ranch,” he said, “But having what we would call today, sustainable management. And making improvements to the land so they could have this made it possible so they could carry the responsibility of having a herd.”
Banning came about the land of which we know it today after selling land she inherited after the death of her brother in WWI. In 1921, she would marry Raymond Pinky Lewis and the two would combine their land.
Banning was a District 11 School Board member, ushered in the Girl Scouts to Southern Colorado, and aided in the Red Cross. In the 1940’s, she was voted to the City Council, during a time when Colorado Springs was transforming into a military town.
“A critical moment of transition happens when she’s an elected leader,” explained Mayberry.
Banning would maintain the land with her husband until she died in the 1960s. After Lewis’ death in the 1970s, the land would exchange hands several times. Today, part of the land is owned and maintained by the City of Colorado Springs. The rest is under private ownership, slated for development.
“The growth that we will see in Colorado Springs, as we get Space Force, as we continue to develop our city, is really made possible because of this land east of us. So her name is remembered on almost a daily basis,” said Mayberry.
