Caribou Ranch

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Caribou Ranch was a recording studio that the American music producer James William Guercio set up in 1972 on the property of a ranch in a converted barn. The area was located in the Rocky Mountains near the city of Nederland (Colorado) . A nearby road led to an abandoned town called Caribou. The studio was in operation until it was destroyed by fire in March 1985.

history

In 1971, Guercio bought the 16 km 2 Caribou Ranch and started converting it into a recording studio. In 1972 Joe Walsh and Bill Szymczyk began work on the music album Barnstorm in Walsh's home in Colorado . A mixer failed on the very first day. Szymczyk knew that Guercio was building a new studio and visited the studio under construction on the ranch. Although the renovation was not yet completed, he decided to continue his project there. The album Barnstorm was therefore probably the first to be completed on Caribou. Following this, Szymczyk tackled his next project there: Rick Derringer's All American Boy with the accompanying hit single Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo .

In the following years, a large number of well-known artists booked on the Caribou Ranch for the recording of individual tracks or entire albums. A long-playing record by Elton John was even named after the ranch with the name Caribou .

In the mid-1980s there were the first rumors that the recording studio's bookings had declined and that business would only be sluggish. The Colorado-based band First Born took this opportunity to record their debut album there at a low price at the end of October 1984.

In March 1985, Amy Grant was about to record another album and was on her way from Nashville to the Caribou Ranch when news reached her that the studio was on fire.

After the fire destroyed the control room, the studio complex was closed and never used again. The damage amounted to around $ 3 million. According to the Nederland Fire Brigade Command, several gold records from the Chicago group hanging on a wall were destroyed when the fire brigade tried to use a chainsaw to check whether the fire had been completely extinguished.

As a result, Guercio shifted his interests away from music. In 1996 and 2001 he sold approximately 8 km 2 of the ranch to Boulder County and the City of Boulder . Another 1.5 km 2 was subjected to the Conservation Easement , a US conservation program.

In a 2008 interview on an episode of Denver PBS's Studio 12 ("Caribou Ranch", aired February 13, 2008), Guercio said the studio's control room had been repaired after the fire. However, this only concerned the roof structure and the elements of static safety. The interior of the room itself, however, was not replaced. The part of the studio in which the musicians played their instruments remained intact anyway. However, Guercio added that he had no plans to reopen the recording studio for business purposes.

A mixing console, type 8016, still available at the Caribou Ranch, made by the manufacturer Neve Electronics, was overhauled by Vintage King Audio in 2009 and sold to Prime Studio based in Austria.

In 2014, Indian Peaks Holdings LLC bought the remaining 6.5 km 2 for $ 32.5 million .

Finally, in January 2015, memorabilia owned by the Caribou Ranch in Denver, Colorado were auctioned. 1,500 prospective buyers raised more than $ 800,000, including the following pieces:

  • Baby Grand Piano used by Elton John, Frank Zappa, Michael Jackson - Sold for $ 52,500
  • President Grover Cleveland's bed, used by a range of artists including Elton John, Michael Jackson, and Jerry Lee Lewis - Sold for $ 11,250
  • 1985 Corvette, black, with specially made 'CARIBU' registration plates that could be used by visitors to the Caribou Ranch. Val Kilmer drove the Corvette while filming Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. - Sold for $ 10,625
  • A Victorian Animal Horn Chair - Sold for $ 2,215

Artist

More than 150 different artists came to the Caribou Ranch to record music.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26071845/caribou-ranch-will-close-its-gates-guericos-focus
  2. ↑ http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/articles/szymczyk.htm
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / morphosonus.com
  4. ↑ http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26064500/fabled-caribou-ranch-above-nederland-sells-32-5
  5. ↑ http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27391121/caribou-ranch-auction-reaps-800-000-draws-1
  6. ↑ http://www.9news.com/story/news/features/2015/01/24/caribou-ranch-auction-michael-jackson-elton-john/22297073/  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info : The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.9news.com  
  7. ↑ http://catalogues.lesliehindman.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=356++++++122+&refno=10256979&saletype=
  8. ↑ http://catalogues.lesliehindman.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=356++++++171+&refno=10238828&saletype=
  9. ↑ http://catalogues.lesliehindman.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=356+++++++34+&refno=10258799&image=2
  10. ↑ http://catalogues.lesliehindman.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=356+++++++70+&refno=10256783&saletype=
  11. ↑ http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-business/ci_23790361/caribou-ranch-music-central-part-nederland-propertys-future
  12. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.181275913785.126795.181182328785
  13. ↑ http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/articles/szymczyk.htm
  14. ↑ http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-business/ci_23790361/caribou-ranch-music-central-part-nederland-propertys-future

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