Postcard from the Past: Silver Fox Farming New Venture Here

By: Dick Perue

A news article in the Dec. 16, 1937 issue of The Saratoga Sun reported a new business venture had been launched in the Upper North Platte River Valley. The fox farm was located between Saratoga and Encampment in south-central Carbon County. 

As with many of these types of ventures during the depression, they weren’t very successful and didn’t last long.

A new type of business in the Platte Valley will soon get underway, when three pairs of highly-bred silver foxes will be brought in from Rawlins and established in the Upper Spring Creek country as the nucleus of a farm.

Joe and Neal Harden this week purchased three pairs of the animals. They were purchased from Joe Garry of Denver and are being cared for at a fox farm near Rawlins. 

The local farm will be established on Harden’s ranch on Heather Creek, the former Heather Creek Ranger Station.

The ranch is ideally located for a venture of this sort, and a load of building materials were taken out today to be used in the construction of proper pens and quarters for the foxes. As soon as the pens are completed, the foxes will be moved from Rawlins to the ranch, probably within the next 10 days or two weeks.

Harden also plans to raise fish on his ranch and has recently completed the construction of one large pond near his house. Two or three other ponds will be built along the creek. The completed pond has been stocked with brook trout.