Meet Us - Marble Mountain Ranch

Personally Managed and Operated by Ranch Owners and their Family

Family dude ranches and Western guest ranches typically have some level of direct involvement by the ranch owners and their family. But few American dude ranches can duplicate the Cole family’s personalized operations at Marble Mountain Ranch. By placing family ranch owners and partners at all the strategic front-line staffing positions, we guarantee that your visit is all you hope for. Lets meet your hosts, the Cole family!

Guest Ranch Owners Doug and Heidi Cole – Decades In The Outfitting Industry

Doug Cole, the family patriarch and ranch owner: riding since 1962, rafting since 1968, outfitting since 1981, ranch owner since 1994. “I followed my passions into my career path. Ranch specialties include wrangling, fly fishing, rafting, marketing, maintenance, and distributor of his quirky and dry American ranch humor. Proud founder and director of the “Somes Bar Liar’s Club” and Patron to the “Somes Bar Department of Redundancy Located In Somes Bar”.

Heidi Cole, family matriarch and ranch owner: life long outdoor enthusiast, horse rider, class V river guide, and executive chef of Marble Mountain Ranch. Heidi is a master organizer and shows an indomitable spirit in service to family and ranch guests. As an added bonus, she backs the boat trailer, guides and wrangles, drives the tractor, tends the gardens, sews the quilts, defends the cause, and looks stunning at the theater! Sorry, she has no sisters.

Adam Cole, head wrangler and co-kitchen manager: Adam lives on property with his wife Rowan and their new baby Meadow. Adam has worked and managed all corners of the guest ranch business and he currently focuses his energy on managing the horseback riding program and the ranch kitchen alongside Heidi. Adam and his wife are both full time artists and fill their days at the ranch creating art and raising their newborn daughter.

Peter Cole, rafting manager and lead river guide: Peter and his wife Karen live locally in the small town of Orleans, CA. They are both school teachers and in the summer vacation months Peter steps in to manage the river rafting program at Marble Mountain Ranch.

About Somes Bar

Like much of the American West, the rapid economic and cultural evolution of Somes Bar began with the onset of gold mining and homestead ranching beginning in the 1850s. After the peak of the mining industry, logging gained prominence as the leading resource consumptive industry. While mining, logging, and other consumptive industries still exist here, most area businesses now are more service based and emphasize sustainability in their nature. Recreation, tourism, resource management, lower impact farming and cottage businesses now are the prevalent industries of the area. Somes Bar and the Middle Klamath River corridor provide a globally recognized resource for Western American outdoor adventures of almost all types.

Somes Bar – the Middle Klamath Geography And Resources

Somes Bar is centered at the confluence of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers at Latitude: 41.45 Longitude: -123.48 with an indeterminate altitude due to largely vertical terrain. This is a strikingly beautiful, rugged and remote section of the middle Klamath River with grid provided electrical power remaining entirely unavailable except at the Salmon River confluence near the Humboldt county line. Private land is limited to isolated parcels surrounded by larger U.S. government land holdings that are managed in a more primitive and natural state. The climate of the Middle Klamath is temperate and relatively wet, with annual rainfalls exceeding 60 inches. The weather and river conditions vary seasonally and should be monitored by those visiting the area.

The Somes Bar population fluctuates around 200 permanent residents but this small number seriously understates the importance of this area. A reality check for the relevancy of Somes Bar can be viewed by surveying the number of community and governmental agencies that have an assigned oversight or otherwise vested interest in monitoring and managing the area resources. A partial list includes: the U.S. Forest Service, California Fish and Game, The California Department Of Forestry, U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service, California State Water Resources Control Board, NOAA Fisheries, The Klamath Forest Alliance, The Salmon River Restoration Council, The Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, etc. It would be an interesting calculation to determine the ratio of persons employed to manage and watch the Somes Bar Area resources to the number of persons actually living in the area.

“The Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion of Northwest California is one of the most diverse temperate forest regions on earth. To the locals, the ecoregion goes by many names: the Klamath Knot for it’s rugged mountain ranges: State of Jefferson, for a local secession movement popularized in 1941; and Bigfoot Country, for the reputed sightings and mythical connection this creature inspires in indigenous communities. To biogeographers and conservationists, however, this area has many accolades, including designation as a World Conservation Union global center of plant diversity, a World Wildlife Fund Global 2000 ecoregion and proposed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designation as a biosphere reserve.” -Dominick A. Dellasala, Ph.D

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