John Otto (December 30, 1870 - June 19, 1952) was the first park custodian at

Colorado National Monument Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado ...

, and had been a key advocate for its creation and its later inclusion in the National Park System. A self-professed trailbuilder described as a "benign but enthusiastic eccentric", Otto arrived in

Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mos ...

in 1906, helped construct a municipal waterline between Piñon Mesa and Fruita, Colorado, and acquainted himself with the neighboring topography. In 1907, Otto wrote, "I came here last year and found these canyons, and they felt like the heart of the world to me. I'm going to stay and promote this place, because it should be a national park." Because of his efforts to promote and protect the area, others took notice, and by 1909 the local newspaper was lobbying to make the area a national park. On May 24, 1911, the area was designated

. Otto was hired as the Monument's first custodian, in which capacity he earned one dollar per month until leaving the post in 1929. According to

Horace Albright Horace Marden Albright (January 6, 1890 – March 28, 1987) was an American conservationist. Horace Albright was born in 1890 in Bishop, California, the son of George Albright, a miner. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley ...

, "Otto was a marvelous guide and knew every inch of his monument, which he tended like a personal kingdom." Among his accomplishments was carving a steep stairway up the near-vertical ascent of Independence Monument, the largest such feature in the park, which after the park's designation he used to summit the monolith and raise an American flag. He was often dubbed "The Trail Builder" or "The Hermit of Monument Park" in newspaper and magazine stories, and was rarely seen without his two burros (named Foxie and Cookie) laden with camping equipment and provisions. Born in Marthasville, Missouri, he married

Beatrice Farnham Beatrice Farnham (February 5, 1876 – February 19, 1979) was a 20th-century American artist and entrepreneur who was notable for her native-American-inspired fashion and handicrafts, her impassioned defense of tribal culture in newspap ...

on June 20, 1911, at a rustic altar near the base of Independence Monument in what is known today as Wedding Canyon. They divorced in 1912. Otto lived his final twenty years on a mining claim near

Yreka, California Yreka ( ) is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,807, reflecting a meager increase fro ...

, where he was buried in a pauper's grave. In 2002, the Colorado National Monument Association erected a gravestone carved using a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

rock resembling Independence Monument.John Otto
Colorado National Monument, National Park Service, 2013, accessed July 7, 2013

References

1870 births 1952 deaths American conservationists American mountain climbers Explorers of North America People from Grand Junction, Colorado People from Yreka, California Colorado National Monument Explorers of the United States Activists from California {{explorer-stub