Tweet Kimball had always been a history buff. When she realized her birthday coincided with the Battle of Waterloo, she began referring to her birthday party as a Waterloo — a tradition that has lived on for decades after her death.
This year, the Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation will carry on Kimball’s legacy, celebrating what would be her 111th birthday — and the castle’s 99th anniversary — with Waterloo: The Grand Gatsby Gala on June 14.
Kimball — an heiress, art collector and eventually rancher — grew up in Tennessee. She spent a few years in England during World War II to support her husband, who worked as an intelligence officer. When Kimball and her husband moved back to the U.S., they divorced, meaning she had to find a new home.
When Kimball went looking for a house, she had one condition. Her former husband would buy her any home she liked, as long as it was west of the Mississippi. He wanted the river to separate them so they could forge their own lives, independently.
Kimball, however, was looking for one thing: a castle. She searched California and Arizona to no avail. Then, she heard of a castle for sale in Colorado. Known then as Chalford Castle, the home was designed by architect Burnham Hoyt — who also designed Red Rocks Amphitheatre — and it was meant to replicate a Scottish castle.
In 1954, she and her two sons moved to the home, renaming it Cherokee Castle, with a goal: bring Santa Gertrudis cattle to Colorado. Kimball had seen the cattle previously at King Ranch in Texas, and wanted to establish a herd herself. Her goal was met with pushback — many ranchers believed that the Santa Gertrudis would not thrive in Colorado’s climate, making Kimball’s goal a fool’s errand. However, she proved them wrong.
“You had this single woman from the South coming into the Western Colorado male culture of the Colorado cattle community,” said Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation’s Executive Director James Holmes. “So she really overcame a lot of early resistance to her presence in order to become really successful and to create this thriving cattle operation.”
King Ranch wouldn’t sell Kimball the cattle, so she tracked down farms the ranch had sold to until she found one that would sell cattle to her. Not only was Kimball’s Santa Gertrudis cattle herd successful, it was so successful that she was able to spread the cattle breed throughout the Rocky Mountains, establishing the Rocky Mountain Santa Gertrudis Association. Eventually, she spread them beyond the region, even exporting cattle to Australia and South Africa.
“Kimball later became very close to the King Ranch family because she had actually expanded the breed, and they loved that she was able to prove them wrong,” Holmes added. “She was really a major player, and she faced the same resistance when she tried to enter the National Western Stock Show.”
With her herd established, Kimball wanted to show them off at the National Western Stock Show. But when she tried to enter them, the show wouldn’t let her in, claiming the cattle were “exotic,” so there was no category for them. Kimball, persistent as ever, lobbied for her cattle, becoming one of the first women to join the National Western Stock Show Association, and eventually convinced them to add a Santa Gertrudis category. With the category established, Kimball could display her own cattle, and invite her community of ranchers from across the Rocky Mountains to join her.
“She created a place for herself, basically, to exhibit the cattle,” said Holmes. “She was that good of a person, her sense of purpose, her unwillingness to take no for an answer.”
Kimball’s legacy lives on at Cherokee Castle, with a herd of Santa Gertrudis still thriving on the land. In 1996, she established the nonprofit Cherokee Castle & Ranch Foundation to preserve the castle and the natural landscape around it.
“Tweet kept overcoming the objections of people along the way as she did what she set out to do, which I really admire as part of her character,” Holmes said.
To keep Kimball’s legacy alive, the foundation celebrates her birthday every year, with a Waterloo.
“It’s just a way of honoring Tweet, her own tradition, but also something that’s very much part of her personality,” Holmes said. “She was a student of history, and recognized anniversaries and the significance of them.”
This year marks another momentous anniversary, 100 years since the publication of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This year’s Waterloo honors the book with a Grand Gatsby Gala. The gala, on June 14, will be a night full of festivity. Attendees are encouraged to dress to the theme, with Gatsby-inspired attire, though Holmes said that attendees should be comfortable and dress as they wish.
At the beginning of the night, bagpiper Scott Beach will greet guests as they enter the gala. There will then be a cocktail hour, during which attendees can explore the castle and learn a bit about the building’s history, followed by dinner and a live auction.
“Tweet had this really precious jewel of wildlife conservation, cattle operations, historic structures and contents that are valuable, and she basically gave it as a gift to the community,” Holmes said. “We feel like her legacy is so important and so generous that it makes perfect sense for us every year to honor her and to honor her legacy.”
More information and tickets can be found on Cherokee Ranch and Castle’s website at https://cherokeeranch.org/.