Howard H. Cooper established the Three Crown Ranch when he purchased the storied property in 2001. Howard visited the area for the first time in 1960 & camped in a four wall tent with his father, Henry, who helped build the first cabin on the land.
Howard & his wife Anya have three daughters who they have raised both at the ranch & Steamboat Springs, CO.
HOWARD & ANYA met for the first time on live television when Anya worked as a reporter for Channel 4 Denver. Anya interviewed Howard about his bike trip across Russia, one of the several international expeditions he organized. After marrying they settled down in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and began to spend summers at the Three Crown Ranch, which they named after their three daughters Julia, Kate, and Paula. Collectively the Coopers all share a deep love for skiing, scuba diving, traveling, and nature. Each family member has a wide range of unique interests all derived from the extraordinary passion Howard and Anya have for parenthood, adventure, and life.
JAY is the oldest sister and she graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a focus in comparative literature. Currently Jay works as V.P. of Land at Three Crown Petroleum LLC. She is a certified Level II Professional Ski Instructor, an EMT and WFR (Wilderness First Responder), and has her Professional Level 1 Avalanche certification and her SSI Diver Stress and Rescue card.
KATE is the middle sister and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies. She runs a successful photography business that specializes in portraits and can speak six languages. She lives in New York City where she is pursuing a career in fashion.
PAULA the youngest sister attends the University of Wyoming on a rodeo scholarship and is majoring in English with a double minor in equine science and honors. While at school in addition to competing in college rodeo she cowgirls for the Y Cross Ranch. Paula spends her summers at the 3 Crown and works for a neighboring ranch working horses, irrigating, and haying. She writes a column about her rodeo team for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup newspaper and weekly articles for the Team Roping Journal magazine.
HOWARD was born and raised in Aurora, Colorado and began visiting the White River Valley early in his childhood with his father to hunt and fish. As a young adult Howard spent his summers working at the Sun Ranch in Wyoming, which at the time ran 5,000 cattle on nearly 1,000,000 acres. In the winters he was an avid skier and often traveled to Vail with his parents and sister. He went on to organize several skiing and biking expeditions around the globe in his early 20s. One of the most successful being a fully sponsored 7,000-mile bike trip he led across Russia following the Trans-Siberian Railway. You can read about this expedition in “Between the Hammer and the Sickle”, a book written by a member of the expedition GoodReads.com/book. Howard earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance from University of Colorado, Boulder and a master’s from the Columbia University School of International Studies in New York City. Howard has successfully owned and managed several cattle and hunting ranches in Northwest Colorado, alongside a successful career in oil and gas. He has a twenty-five-year track record of developing oil and gas projects in the Rockies and internationally. In 2005 Howard founded Three Crown Petroleum LLC, a private oil and gas exploration and exploitation company. ThreeCrownPetroleum.com Howard enjoys fly fishing, riding horses, skiing, swimming, and biking.
ANYA grew up in Moscow during the Soviet Union and spent her childhood figure skating, cross country skiing, and traveling as much as possible. She graduated from Moscow State University with a BA in Arts and immigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1990. She went on to graduate from the University of Denver two years later with a master’s degree in International Studies. She had a successful career as a journalist working for Channel 4 Denver. In addition to reporting regular news, Anya covered stories about her own life in Moscow, her Russian/American wedding, and the ranch. Anya was awarded a Regional Emmy for her work in journalism. She is the only member of her family to immigrate to the United States, however, her relatives have visited several times. Traditionally Russians spend summers at their family дача (Russian for “cabin”, pronounced da-cha ), so the Cooper’s often refer to the ranch as the dacha. Anya enjoys playing tennis, skiing, biking, and reading.
