OUTLAW TRAIL RANCH
pRESERVE

Protected in 2025
 

Acreage: 70

Garfield County, UT

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The Outlaw Trail Ranch is a classic gem of Utah's agricultural heartland. Its 70 acres connect the town of Escalante to the huge and interconnected forestlands of Escalante State Park, Dixie National Forest, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It is a testament to how essential working lands are to any vision of a timeless Utah. 

 

Crockett Dumas, the grantor of this conservation easement, has lived a fascinating life. Born in Asheville, NC, he cut his teeth in the wilderness wandering the 20 miles of Bent Creek between his home and Pisgah National Forest, known as the “cradle” of American Forestry. He attended the University of Montana, eventually becoming one of the first horseback wilderness ranger with the US Forest Service, supervising Glacier National Park, Bridger National Forest, Dixie National Forest, St Joe’s National Forest, Boise National Forest, and the Taos Penasco and Camino Real Ranger Districts of New Mexico. In 1969 he was drafted into the US Army to serve in Vietnam where he served as a forestry and range adviser in the Quang Tri province. He was among the first certified silviculturists in the Forest Service. 

 

During his tenure as regional director of various districts in the US forest service, he found most success and fulfillment in managing with the local stakeholders of the land. He said in 2002 “I have always cracked heads with the bureaucracy. I think there is too much paperwork and not enough time spent out on the ground…. I think developing relationships is the most important part of my job. The forest belongs to the people and it is our job to manage it.” He takes pride in his success in changing the forest service from “authoritative and autocratic management” to one that is open – ensuring that the people who cared about the forest felt they had a voice and a representative in its governing body. 

 

During his second term serving as district ranger for the Dixie National Forest Ranger District, he purchased the Outlaw Trail Ranch to live and work on. In addition to growing alfalfa on the ranch, he has raised and ridden Arabian Horses on endurance races, many of which he continues to win despite being in his eighth decade of life. The placement of the Property in conservation easement is the conclusion a long process that speaks to Crockett’s lifelong dedication to the preservation of open spaces, protection of wildlife habitat and forest ecology, and the perpetuation of agriculture, silviculture, rangeland and forest management, and the rural cultural way of life.