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A Friendly Update: We’ve Moved!

Cabin in the Pines has a new home! We’re excited to share that the blog has officially moved to a new, dedicated website—designed to make it even easier to explore the history, stories, and resources of the Pinehaven Cabin Community in Cuchara, Colorado.

While the content on this site will remain available, all new posts, updates, revisions, and future additions will now be published exclusively on our new website.

We warmly invite you to visit us at www.cabininthepines.org and continue the journey with us there.

Thank you for being part of the Cabin in the Pines community—we look forward to welcoming you to our new home.

Thanks and Invitation to Participate

Our love for the Pinehaven community led to a desire to better understand its general history.  Three years ago, we began a deep dive into the 500-year history of the land that is now Pinehaven. Now we invite you join us on this journey.

Journal 1: Why We Created This Blog

When singing about his discovery of the Rocky Mountains, John Denver claimed to have "come home to a place he had never been before".(1) That’s how we felt when we stumbled upon Cuchara, Colorado. While traveling west on Highway 160, we saw a scenic highway sign pointing south called Highway of Legends (Highway 12). We turned around and decided to explore the unknown. 

Journal 2: Flags Over the Forest

What if you stood in the Cuchara Valley centuries ago? The air would still smell of pine, but no cabins or roads would break the silence. You’d see Ute hunters on horseback, Spanish explorers pushing north, or maybe hear the distant clink of miners' tools. It all depends on which flag was flying that decade. If the mountains could talk, they’d tell stories no textbook ever could.

Journal 3: Cuchara Camps, Catalyst for Growth

You step off a dusty wagon, the scent of pine and woodsmoke thick in the air. Around you, canvas tents flap gently along the Cuchara River, children chasing each other on narrow trails, and George Mayes waves from the porch of a rustic lodge, offering a hand and a promise: “You’ll sleep better here than you have in years.”

Journal 4: From Battlefield to Backwoods: Homesteader John L. Powell

The wind tugged at John Powell’s coat as he surveyed the land just north of Cuchara. It wasn’t much, just forest, rock, and possibility. But to a Civil War veteran with nothing but grit and a government promise, it looked like the future. 

Journal 5: John Vories and the Beginnings of Pinehaven

John Vories had big dreams.(1) He envisioned turning the rugged land into a peaceful resort, but lacked the funds to bring it to life. However, he began planning and working with what little he had. His first project? Designing a cabin area on a scenic hill overlooking what was then just a dirt road, now known as Highway 12. 

Journal 6: Steve Pierotti: Architect of Pinehaven

In the 1940s, amid the rugged peaks and whispering pines of the Cuchara Valley, a bold dream began to take root, and right at its center stood Steve Pierotti. A son of Huerfano County and a trusted friend of John C. Vories, Pierotti possessed a boundless energy and a vision that reached far beyond the valley floor. He could see what Pinehaven might one day become, and he had the grit to make it happen.

 

Journal 7: Lower Slopes Development and Filing #1

By the early 1950s, John C. Vories had decided to move on from Huerfano County. He offered to sell the resort land he had begun developing to his longtime friend, Steve Pierotti, for $3,700. Pierotti would become the most influential person to shape Pinehaven’s future.

Journal 8: Mid-Mountain Development and Filing #2

By the 1970s, Steve Pierotti was ready to take Pinehaven to the next level. With the success of Filing #1 behind him, he began planning Filing #2, a brand-new phase of development that would stretch across Roads 405, 406, 407, and extending portion of Road 401.(1) 

Journal 9: Country Road Take Me Home

How did a wilderness mountainside with narrow trails for roads evolve into a thriving cabin community?  This is the remarkable story of Pinehaven’s transformation from an untamed wilderness to a modern mountain cabin community. But it all started with a dirt road we now call Highway 12. 

Journal 10: From Lanterns to Lighbulbs

Long before porch lights flickered in Pinehaven, the cabins nestled on Raspberry Mountain were truly off the grid. Off-grid and deep in the forest, night falls like a velvet curtain. Life gets so dark you can’t see your own hand in front of your face, only feel the wilderness breathing around you. And then, at last, Pinehaven saw the light—literally.

Journal 11: From Mountain Stream to Cabin Tap

Pinehaven didn’t always have access to a public water and sewage system. As the cabin community grew, patchwork solutions just couldn’t keep up. But everything changed when Pinehaven was annexed into the Cucharas Sanitation and Water District. It was a game changer for everyone.

Journal 12: Cabins, Covenants, and Community

As a community grows, so does the need for reasonable structure, collaboration, and shared expectations. Pinehaven's HOA provides a framework for collaboration, ensuring decisions reflect the collective good rather than individual convenience. With clear governing documents in place, neighbors can protect what they love while planning wisely for the future.

Journal 13: Pierotti Pavilion

Another meaningful contribution to Pinehaven’s sense of community came from the construction of a large open-air pavilion near the intersection of Roads 401 and 406.(1) 

Journal 14: Close as It Gets: Pinehaven and the Spring Creek Fire

It came like a monster in the mountains—fast, fierce, and fueled by drought. In the summer of 2018, the Spring Creek Fire roared to life in southern Colorado, becoming one of the most destructive wildfires in state history. 

Journal 15: Pinehaven’s Historic Timeline

The development of Pinehaven spans over a century, beginning with John L. Powell’s 1905 homestead claim under the Homestead Act of 1862. Over the decades, the land passed through the hands of family heirs and visionaries like John C. Vories and Steve Pierotti, who transformed rugged forest terrain into a planned mountain retreat. 

Journal 16: Poem - John L. Powell: Union Veteran of the West

A poetic tribute to John L. Powell, a Civil War veteran, original pioneer, homesteader, and owner of the land that is now Pinehaven. 

Journal 17: Poem - A Touch of Heaven in the Pines

A poetic reflection upon the moment Gene and Rhonda knew the cabin at 80 County Road 406 was the perfect place for them. 

Journal 18: Poem - Steve Pierotti A Pioneer of Pinehaven

A poetic tribute to Steve Pierotti, the chief visionary, architect, and pioneer of the Pinehaven cabin community.