Banning-Lewis Ranches was a successful cattle-ranching operation located east of Colorado Springs, managed by Raymond W. Lewis and Ruth Banning Lewis. The Lewises eventually acquired more than 30,000 acres on which Colorado Domino Type Herefords were raised. They won the Colorado Soil Conservation program award in 1948.
The city limits of Colorado Springs were extended to encompass Banning Lewis Ranch in 1988. Efforts to develop the ranch into a residential community that could house up to 175,000 residents, and/or perform oil and gas exploration, have had limited success. 300 homes have been built on the northwest corner of the property, but the owners filed for bankruptcy in 2010. This lack of development has been used as an argument against spending at least $2.1 billion to build the "Southern Delivery System" water pipeline.