LONGMONT — From her days as a young bride through the death of two husbands and the challenges of raising a family, Carol Oswald Yoakum drew strength from the majestic Longs Peak visible from her Longmont picture window.
“The first thing I did every morning when I got up was to look to the west,” she said.
“The views were always different. The sunrises and sunsets would take your breath away,” added Yoakum’s son, Alan Oswald.
Through the years, Yoakum acquired 900 acres of farmland north of Longmont where she raised her four children, welcomed the neighbor kids to play in their lake and ran a thoroughbred training center. After the death of her first husband, Carl, Yoakum (then Oswald) gave up the thoroughbred business and sold the horses. “It wasn’t fun anymore.”
She married Harvey Yoakum several years later and slowly subdivided some of the land: A couple hundred acres went for a 20-home subdivision, 575 acres was put into a conservation easement with Boulder County so the views she lived with for 57 years would always be protected. She retained 175 acres where she and Harvey grew hay and raised cattle up until his health began to fail.