By Steve Plutt . Copyright May 15, 2021. All Rights Reserved
The BBB was located 3 miles north of Woodland Park on the Deckers Road and was a typical 1950s Dude Ranch. It offered plenty of activities or you could just loaf and enjoy the Colorado sunshine. The ranch could accommodate about 35 guests in the cabins and lodges on its 90 acres. When Bud and Alverta “Al” Burns first bought the place in 1945 it consisted of 160 acres but in 1973 about 66 acres were sold to the United States Forest Service. Those 66 acres were known as a miniature Garden of the Gods because of its collection of red, sheer and tall monoliths that included Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and aspen stands.
Bernard B. “Bud” Burns was born in Jingo, Tennessee on September 28, 1919 and grew up in California. In 1941 he enlisted in the Army and was sent to Pearl Harbor where he served as a veterinary assistant. The day during the Japanese attack and bombing, Bud was outside tending to the mules. He witnessed the initial attack and escaped injury and then went on to serve in the Pacific Theater where he was a wrangler on a pack train of mules that carried ammunition and supplies to the troops.
After the war, Bud moved to Woodland Park and bought a ranch which he named the Triple "B" Guest Ranch for Bernard Bud Burns. During the off season when the ranch was closed, Bud lived and worked in Denver as a union pressman for the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Bud at one time served as Under-Sheriff for Teller County for many years, as well as County Chair for the Teller County Democratic Party. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and the Lions Club for more than 60 years.
Alverta “Al” Burns was born August 13, 1913 in Garrett, Indiana and was known throughout the state of Colorado as the “Shepherd of the Hills”. While living in Fort Wayne, Ind she took her nursing training at Chicago’s Wesley-Memorial Hospital. She served in Chicago hospitals for 16 years before moving to Woodland Park, Colorado. Al had a tireless devotion to treating the ills of Teller County that at the time had no resident doctor. For 20 years, Al was always ready at all hours to help whenever the phone rang. She would travel through all weather conditions to isolated spots miles from her home. There were few people living here at that time who hadn’t been helped by Al Burns and she never requested nor accepted payment from anyone. She even became a national figure in the summer of 1956 when the Saturday Evening Post ran an article on her “missions of mercy”. Bud and Alverta had three children, Barbara, Jay and Boo and raised foster kids as well. A lot of us older Woodland Park residents will remember Al as our school nurse in the early 1960s. Al died two months prior to her 51st birthday following heart surgery in Colorado Springs. Bud and Al Burns.
After Al’s death in 1964, Bud met Janis von Trotha who worked as a desk clerk at a Denver hotel. Janice was born to Joseph and Geneva Davis of Sedgwick, Colorado in a Denver hospital on January 14, 1921. She lived in Sedgwick until the age of 9 when the family moved to the San Francisco Bay area due to her father’s work. Joseph was an engineer who helped build the now world famous Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco is also where Janice graduated from high school but then moved back to Colorado and attended the University of Colorado. Jan and Bud were married in Albuquerque and for the next 42 years they continued to operate the BBB Guest Ranch. Starting with its inaugural opening in 1945 it quickly became recognized worldwide as a premier guest ranch.
Bud and Jan continued to make improvements all the time as it kept gaining in popularity year after year. Activities at BBB were scheduled according to the guests’ wishes and ranged from fast-run horseback riding to leisure time loafing. However the horses were the primary attraction with three guided trips leaving each day. One was for experienced riders that left the ranch at 09:30 for a day long trip into the Pike National Forest. Another very popular ride was the early morning rides into the forest with a stop for a campfire breakfast. The ranch also had a nice arena available for the use of everyone. Gymkhana’s were also held there. During the day all sorts of activities were available. Table tennis, horseshoes, games etcetera. Square dancing was another huge favorite with the guests and was held every Friday evening.
Bud sold the BBB in January of 1987 and their finial day at the ranch was on February 4th, which was the day of Bud’s grandson Derek Burns’ birthday.
Bernard B. “Bud” Burns died on October 19, 2006. Jan Burns died on April 16, 2019, she was 98 years old. She had said that she was not interested in living to 100 but she thought 99 was a good number but was 9 months short of that.
After the Burns Family sold, for several years the ranch operated on and off and was sold and resold several times. The size of the ranch was reduced and sold off and most of the acreage is now gone. The large barn that I and others helped Boo Burns build was destroyed by fire in December of 2010. As of this writing, the Ranch is again in operation and has been renamed the “Historic Triple B Ranch” but is merely a shadow of Bud Burns’ BBB.
