Joseph C. Burns

Joseph (Joey) Burns was born in Phoenix, Arizona and grew up on the family farm, which his Grandfather had established after migrating west from Kentucky in 1917. His family were large producers of alfalfa hay, cotton and other crops. His boyhood days were spent working side by side with his dad in all aspects of the farm.

Close friends of the family had a cute daughter, Michelle, who was a couple years younger than Joey who was always special in Joey’s eyes. The families had a lot in common and were together often since the Fathers had been friends since boyhood. After attending college in different areas of the country and not having much contact for a few years, Joey and Michelle returned to Arizona and rediscovered what they had known for years – they were really good friends – and that made a wonderful basis for the love and marriage they have enjoyed for many years now.

The Burns have five wonderful children - Brayden, Brittany, Bryce, Landen & Luke - who are the central forces of their life.

During his high school and college years Joey enjoyed many athletic sports. Football was his favorite and he played successfully through high school and college. He still enjoys playing on community baseball leagues and coaching his children and others in the Little League programs.

After graduating from Olivet Nazarene University with a degree in Business, Joey returned to the family agricultural operation where he was in charge of commercial hay marketing, both wholesale and retail.

Joey had given serious thought to the idea of a real estate sales career as early as his high school years so when he met Ralph Walchle at a family reunion (yep, their wives are cousins) it didn’t take much arm twisting to get Joey to give serious thought to embarking on a new career and moving from Arizona to Colorado.

Leaving behind home, family and a business he really enjoyed, he embarked on a journey joining a one-horse real estate firm in a remote location of the Colorado mountains. It sure didn't seem to be an intelligent move according to many people, but the working relationship between he and Ralph was an immediate success. That successful relationship continues over more than ten years as they partner to build Lone Eagle Land Brokerage.

Joey’s family is very active in their church and they enjoy the opportunity God has given them to serve in and out of the country. Joey works extensively with the youth of his church and community and most recently Joey was privileged to spend two weeks in Somoto, Nicaragua where a team from Colorado constructed a Nazarene Church.

Bryan W. Walchle

Bryan Walchle was born in Montrose, Colorado and grew up on the family ranch at Ridgway. He attended elementary and high school at the small town of Ridgway with his mother being his Third Grade teacher.

During the growing up years part of most every day was spent “on the mountain” – on foot, horseback or on the four-wheeler hunting or just checking out the wildlife. At age four he began spending nights at the hunting camp with his Dad.

After graduation he attended Mesa State College where he majored in Business. Also during this time he was privileged to spend some summer time working as an apprentice gunsmith with Oglesby & Oglesby Custom Gun Makers in Springfield, Illinois.

While in college Bryan met his wife, Jennifer. They were married soon after college and within a few months moved to Anchorage, Alaska where Bryan worked as a gunsmith for a well-known custom gun maker.

It was there that daughter Emmalee was born and soon there-after the family moved back to Colorado. In April 2000, Bryan began working as an assistant for Lone Eagle Land Brokerage before becoming a Broker. The first son, Keegan, joined the family in 2002 followed by the second son, Bohdan, in 2005. Their second daughter, Summer, came along in 2008 and she's been thrilled to become big sister to Asher born in September 2010. Bryan enjoys spending time with his family and most things he enjoys doing involves them.

Bryan is an avid hunter and shooter and enjoys any opportunity surrounding those sports. He and father Ralph also operate a hunting operation where hunters are guided on Elk and Mule Deer hunts. Bryan also enjoys participating in competition shooting sports.

Growing up on the family ranch and following along as his father worked on ranch sales was an ideal background for Bryan to enter the real estate sales field. He has become a successful member of the Lone Eagle Land Brokerage team.

About Lone Eagle Land Brokerage

Ralph Walchle obtained a real-estate broker's license in the 1980's for the express purpose of trying to find a way to keep from losing the ranch during those years of high interest rates and low cattle prices. After a period of time selling for another firm and doing some real estate development work, he decided that his interest and experiences were mainly in the field of ranch real estate.

In April of 1994 Ralph cleaned out the ranch bunkhouse and moved his office to the ranch to open LELB. Two months later Joey Burns agreed to join the newly established firm.

At the outset, Ralph & Joey made the decision to do things a bit unorthodox. With an office in a two-room ranch bunk house located four miles from a town of 500 people you have to do things a bit differently.

The early years were a struggle while the wives taught school to pay the bills and the temptation to give up surfaced on several occasions. The partners stopped only long enough to ask each other if they should consider doing something more conventional. The decision was always the same and they never gave up.

Lone Eagle Land Brokerage was established with the very simple philosophy. Create a Real Estate company that focuses on buying and selling ranch and recreational properties in the Rocky Mountain West; Provide the best possible information, service and experience the ranch market had ever seen.

This philosophy hasn’t changed and today we believe we do it much better than before.

Oh, it took a while to get established but in the last few years this obscure, ranch real estate office has been responsible for some of the largest land transactions in the region. Our closed sales have now exceeded $300 Million. A lot of brokers claim to be ranch specialists - our numbers prove it.