Caribou Ranch

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Caribou Ranch was a recording studio built by producer James William Guercio in 1972 in a converted barn on ranch property in the Rocky Mountains near Nederland, Colorado, on the road that leads to the ghost town of Caribou. The popular studio was in operation until it was damaged in a March 1985 fire.

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[edit] History

Guercio purchased Caribou Ranch, more than 4,000 acres (16 km²) in the Rocky Mountains, in 1971.

In 1972, Joe Walsh and Bill Szymczyk were starting work on Barnstorm at Walsh's home in Colorado when a mixer blew out on the first day. Szymczyk knew Guercio was building a new studio, visited the in-progress barn conversion at the ranch, and concluded that it would work for their project. They used the new studio to finish Barnstorm. Szymczyk next made Rick Derringer's All American Boy and the hit single "Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo" there. Elton John's 1974 album Caribou was named after the ranch where it was recorded. The group Chicago, managed by Guercio, recorded five studio albums there; Chicago VI, VII, VIII, X, and XI.

The studio complex was shut down and never used again after a March 1985 fire destroyed the control room and caused about US$3 million in damage. According to the Nederland Fire Chief, while the fire department was doing overhaul on the fire to make sure it was out, several Gold Record plaques awarded to Guercio's group Chicago that were hanging on the wall of the studio, were damaged by a chain saw.

Guercio's interests had shifted away from music. In 1996 and 2001 transactions he sold 2,180 acres (8.8 km²) of the ranch to Boulder County and the City of Boulder, and another 1,489 acres (6 km²) were placed under conservation easement. A housing development by Guercio's Caribou Companies takes up much of the remainder.

[edit] Artists

Some of the artists known to have recorded at Caribou:

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