About Us

Lloyd & Esther Swartz…Our Story

I first came to Colorado at age 12, and rode the train to Silverton. I was obsessed about living in the 4 corners after that. I then spent a number of years living in the high country before settling in Albuquerque to run businesses, knowing some day I would return to the high country. Esther was born and raised in Colorado. While she lives in New Mexico and currently calls it home, her heart has always been and will always be in Colorado. We have  8 and 10 year old boys and enjoy any form of outdoor recreation.

As long as 25 years ago, I began looking at land in the San Juan’s, mostly for vacation cabin purposes. Eventually, we decided we should retire in Silverton one day. This shifted what we were looking for quite a bit. While we wanted to live in the back country, we soon realized as we aged and in retirement we would be limited to how far out would be reasonable.

We first purchased the Dayton, with no legal access and plans to remedy that. Then last year the neighboring properties came up for sale with legal access to HWY 550 and a rough road. At the same time, someone else, who owned other property without legal access, but with additional roads across their property came up for sale. While visiting the site to decide on purchasing, two raven’s flew overhead and continued to circle over us as we walked through the trees into the clearing on the Prince Edward Claim to see the train and Animas river beneath us. We knew this would be our home and Ravens Nest was born. We came up with the vision to connect all the parcels and roads together for one, legal access for all these great properties as well as creating boundary adjustments to improve build sites for 8 Amazing parcels with fantastic features, one of which (The Prince Edward) that we will be building our vacation cabin and future retirement home. The remaining parcels will be sold and we hope to find buyers who love the outdoors and the San Juan’s to join The Raven’s Nest Estates. Creating great building spots in the San Juan’s takes vision, creativity and persistence along with a bit of a labor of love and we welcome buyers with similar visions and goals as ours; the love for Colorado’s high country, and the peace and serenity of living in an neighborhood of explorers and adventures no matter their differences.

“Two animals dwell within me; The Raven imagines the path; The Wolf discovers the way; The Raven lives in my head; The Wolf owns my heart”

David L. Stancel