Cherokee Ranch & Castle, a landmark in Colorado's Douglas County, is looking for funding help to keep mission going

The Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation is looking for some funding help to keep its mission going. The foundation manages a Colorado landmark in Douglas County.

Nestled on a 3,400-acre cattle ranch in Sedalia sits a Scottish-inspired castle. Through the grand front doors you'll find an old-world castle with a touch of Western flare.

"It's really a magical place," said James Holmes, executive director, Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation.

One hundred years ago, the architect behind Red Rocks built Cherokee Castle from locally sourced rhyolite.

In 1954 it was purchased by Tweet Kimball, an eccentric firebrand who would make the castle her legacy.

"This, you know, southern Tennessee single mother of two small children, divorcée in 1954, coming with these exotic cattle to move into this ranch and have this castle. All those things I think were really challenging for a lot of people just to accept," said Holmes.

Tweet brought with her a herd of Santa Gertrudis cattle from Texas, but her ranch manager refused to unload them.

"She terminated him and had her kids come down. She had two small boys and helped her unload the cattle with some friends. So she was the type of person that just never took no as the final answer," said Holmes.

Undeterred, Tweet turned the property into a successful cattle ranch, helping to bring the cattle breed to the world stage.

For decades, she filled the castle with art, culture, and at least one royal.

"Probably the most notable is her inviting Princess Anne to the castle for lunch," said Holmes. "I always think it's audacious of Tweet to be sitting down inside of her little castle in Sedalia, Colorado, and writing a letter that she addressed to Windsor to extend an invitation to Princess Anne that she fully expected she would accept. And in fact, she did."

Before her death in 1999, Tweet created the foundation to preserve the castle and everything in it.

"Our mission basically is to, in her words, create a world-class education center based on all the things that she curated in her life over 45 years," said Holmes.

She also established a conservation easement for the land.

"She knew that she needed to find a way to protect the land because of the future threat of development," said Holmes. "It was visionary at the time. It was the first that the county had ever done. And it's led to really a countywide program now of open space."

The castle boasts views from Longs to Pikes peaks, and of the downtown Denver skyline.

Today the castle offers educational and cultural programming, hosting teas, tours, concerts, weddings and other events.

The nonprofit foundation is funded largely through grants and private donors.

Earlier this year, they received $575,000 in historic preservation funds from Douglas County, but a difference of opinion led them to give that money back.

"We were very grateful to receive funding. Have a funding request accepted and approved and receive that funding. And then, as some may know, we just ran into some differences of opinion maybe in the best way for the ranch to go forward in relationship to those projects and those funds. And so we made a decision to return those funds, to be able to allow the commissioners to put them to work maybe in other projects. Just to remain true to Tweet's legacy as purely as we can," said Holmes.

Holmes added that the foundation is grateful for all the county has done to help.

Projects like creating a sculpture garden and needed castle repairs are on pause until the foundation can secure funds elsewhere.

"We're really trying to close a gap, and that gap that we're trying to close is $575,000," said Holmes. "What we're looking at in this season of giving is how can we replace the funds that we ended up then giving back to the county for all the right reasons."

You can learn more about Colorado Gives Day or donate to the Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation here.