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Welcome
The Nature Center at Butler Corner is a place where children and adults can come, walk, listen to birds and pine trees sing, breathe in the fresh air, and discover all that nature has to offer in the outdoors of Southwest Colorado. With a least three bio-regions, from semi-desert with sage brush, foothills with gamble oak, and mountains with Ponderosa pine, and a combination of all three, there is a diverse amount of animals and vegetation to come discover and learn to conserve and enjoy without disturbing habitats.
The ranch, located just outside the town of Dolores in Southwest Colorado, is just an hour away from Mesa VerdeNationalPark.The Nature Center at Butler Corner, has been in the Butler family for more than 90 years. W.L. and Mary Butler raised twelve children on the land, then after World War II, Paul and Marjorie Butler raised four children in the same place -a wonderful place for children to grow, to discover wildlife, to respect and care for nature, and become stewards of the land.
We offer yearly memberships for individuals or families. Otherwise, the entrance fee is $5 per person or $10 per family. We also have Nature Center memorabilia for sale. You can visit the Weaver's Studio where we offer weaving and felting lessons and sell yarn, fiber, and woven items.
The Nature Center at Butler Corner has hosted more than 2000 visitors, from as far away as France, Finland, Japan, the Philippines, Canada, and from 21 states in the USA. Our visitors have represented groups includ-ing the Farmington Writers Group, Sleeping Ute Mountain Chapter of the NSDAR, Cortez Garden Club, Family Reunions, Senior Citizen Artists, Summit Ridge Womens Club, several Boy Scout Troops, and many
classrooms from local school districts.
After teaching school for 31 years and being a children's librarian at the Dolores Public Library for twelve years, Miss Kathie founded The Nature Center at Butler Corner.
We have a beautiful, brand new Welcome Center where classes, organizations, and clubs are welcome to come use our meeting room. We also have computers for patrons to use, and a library filled with books to satisfy everyone. There is even a reading loft above the children's section!
The NCBC Welcome Center is available for groups or organizations to rent.
The NCBC park is available for rent for birthday parties and other functions.
Please call 970-882-4593 for prices and availability.
The Nature Center at Butler Corner is in its third year of the Homeschool Outdoor Education Program sponsored by The Alpine International Preparatory Academy (AIPA).
This year we have twenty students enrolled from Kindergarten through 7th grade. We began our year studying the native grasses of our area. We collected many different grass seeds, making sure to avoid any noxious weeds. Our plan is to plant these seeds around our new Old Fashioned School House after construction left nothing but dirt. Of course, we’ll wait till the first snowfall to spread the seeds.
We next studied about the native wild bees and ants, learned about their habitats, and spent time looking for possible places to find each species. We learned there were more than 16 different bees common to Southwest Colorado. We also learned about worms and what they, bees, and ants do to help our environment.
Our next focus was on the large mammals that live in and around the Nature Center – bears, mountain lions, bobcats, lynx, foxes, coyotes, wolves, deer, and elk. The children have learned facts about each animal family, drew life-like pictures of them and wrote poems about each animal.
We will be learning about the middles-sized mammals and the small mammals in the weeks ahead.