How a Talbott set out to expand the family business and ended up building a community near New Castle | Western Colorado

At first glance, it’s easy to assume that Ross Talbott chose to pursue a different direction in life than being part of the family fruit-growing business in Palisade.

After all, Talbott moved in 1959 as a young man to the New Castle area, where he ended up building Apple Tree Park, a trailer park that became home to more than 1,200 people, making it, at one time, about twice the population of New Castle was then.

But if you stop to think more closely about the community’s name, it hints at the fact that it was very much rooted in the Talbott family enterprise.

“I came back from college to work with the family company,” Talbott, 85, said in a recent interview at his home across a county road from Apple Tree Park, as his daughter, Renee Miller, joined him in reminiscing about Talbott’s eventful life.

When it came to apples, the New Castle…

Read more…