History of Rocky Mountain National Park
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Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...
began when Paleo-Indians traveled along what is now
Trail Ridge Road Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 that traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. Together with the connecting Beaver Meadow Road (U.S. Highw ...
to hunt and forage for food.
Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute (band), an Australian jazz group * Ute (given name) * ''Ute'' (sponge), a sponge genus * Ute (vehicle), an Australian and New Zealand term for certain utility vehicles * Ute, Iowa, a city in Monona County along ...
and Arapaho people subsequently hunted and camped in the area. In 1820, the Long Expedition, led by
Stephen H. Long Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...
for whom Longs Peak was named, approached the Rockies via the Platte River. Settlers began arriving in the mid-1800s, displacing the Native Americans who mostly left the area voluntarily by 1860, while others were removed to reservations by 1878. Lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains were established in the 1870s when prospectors came in search of gold and silver. The boom ended by 1883 with miners deserting their claims. The railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881 and the Big Thompson Canyon Road—a section of
U.S. Route 34 U.S. Route 34 (US 34) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from north-central Colorado to the western suburbs of Chicago. Through Rocky Mountain National Park it is known as the Trail Ridge Road where it reaches elevation ...
from Loveland to
Estes Park Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corr ...
—was completed in 1904. The 1920s saw a boom in building lodges and roads in the park, culminating with the construction of Trail Ridge Road to Fall River Pass between 1929 and 1932, then to Grand Lake by 1938. Prominent individuals in the effort to create a national park included
Enos Mills Enos Abijah Mills (April 22, 1870 – September 21, 1922) was an American naturalist, author and homesteader. He was the main figure behind the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Enos Mills was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of ...
from the Estes Park area,
James Grafton Rogers James Grafton Rogers (January 13, 1883 - April 23, 1971) was the Assistant Secretary of State for the United States. Biography Rogers was born on January 13, 1883 in Denver, Colorado to Edmund James Armstrong Rogers (1852-1922) and Maria Georgina ...
from Denver, and
J. Horace McFarland J. Horace McFarland (1859–1948) from McAlisterville, Pennsylvania was a leading proponent of the "City Beautiful Movement" in the United States. Life McFarland was the son of Union Civil War colonel George F. McFarland. He lived and worked mo ...
of Pennsylvania. The national park was established on January 26, 1915.


Early history


Paleo-Indians

People have been visiting the area near Rocky Mountain National Park for at least 11,000 years, including the Lindenmeier and
Dent site The Dent site is a Clovis culture (about 11,000 years before present) site located in Weld County, Colorado, near Milliken, Colorado. It provided evidence that humans and mammoths co-existed in the Americas. The site is located on an alluvial fa ...
s where projectile points were found that were used to hunt Mammoth and '' Bison antiquus''. Both
Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...
and Folsom projectile points have been found in the park, some near Trail Ridge. This indicates that there were early hunters, or Paleo-Indians, of large and now
extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
mammals, like mastodons and ''bison antiquus'', that traveled through the park. Their shelters were animal hide tents, brush huts, or rock shelters. They traveled into the Rocky Mountain National Park area using a trail that is now
Trail Ridge Road Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 that traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. Together with the connecting Beaver Meadow Road (U.S. Highw ...
. The Paleo-Indians began hunting smaller, modern
bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
and looked for many sources of food in nature when they adopted the lifestyle of the Archaic period about eight thousand years ago. Projectile points have been found at Fall River Pass, on Flattop Mountain, at Forest Canyon Pass, on a slope above Chapin Pass, near Oldman Mountain, and other places in the park. Archeologist Wilfred M. Husted said, "Evidence indicates intermittent occupation of the Park rather than continuous occupation. Travel back and forth across the Continental Divide was the primary reason why Indians entered the mountains. Small camps indicate seasonal hunting in the valleys and on the mountains." Within the park there are archeological remains from about 3,850 to 3,400 B.C. of 42 low-walled stone structures or cairns, up to hundreds of feet in length, built for game drive systems. Remains of such structures were found on Mount Ida, Tombstone Ridge, and on Trail Ridge Road. These slight walls served as devices that permitted hunters to direct or herd game animals—like bison, sheep, deer, or elk— toward men waiting with weapons. Up to twenty-five people may have been needed to execute the game drive. Hunters may have killed the animals using darts, atlatl, spear throwers, or spears tipped with stone projectile points. A game drive sites was used in this timeframe in an alpine area south of the park (like
Mount Albion complex The Mount Albion complex was an early Archaic culture from about 4050 to 3050 BC, particularly distinguished by the Mount Albion side-notched projectile. It was called by James Gunnerson, the best known early Archaic culture in Colorado. It is re ...
). Since they were temporary camping sites, it was assumed that people still came to the area to hunt and did not live in the mountainous region during the winter. Bows and arrows were used to hunt animals by 400 to 650
A.D. The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...
, and pottery pieces have been found in the park that are dated to this period of time. The Paleo-Indians also continued to use game drives to hunt for meat until about 1000 AD. As
hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
s, they also foraged for roots and berries for sustenance.


Native Americans

Between 1000 and 1300 AD, Ute people moved into the Rocky Mountain and western slope areas of Colorado, perhaps from the
Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...
of Utah. The Ute, who were hunter-gatherers, traveled along Ute trail. Their belongings were carried by the Utes or were pulled by dogs with travois, until they had horses. The Utes camped in bands or small family groupings and stayed in the park area during the summer months and in Estes Park for the winter. Their diet included bison, elk, bighorn sheep, jackrabbit, antelope, deer, berries and roots. When food was scarce, they ate tree bark. In the early 1800s, the Arapaho pushed the Utes out of Estes Park. In the early 1800s, the northern Arapaho entered into the Rocky Mountain regions of Colorado. At first, they sought lodgepole pines for their tepees from the Kawuneeche Valley. They then spent more time in the Estes Park and surrounding area. The Arapaho also pressed for access to the North Park, Middle Park, and
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
areas, which had been controlled by the Utes. There was a significant battle between the Arapaho and Ute at Grand Lake in which Ute women and children paddled a raft out to the middle of the lake for safety, but were drowned during a sudden storm. An old Arapaho camp was located at Marys Lake. They had names for many of the sites within the park, often based upon an event or residing animals, which was published in ''Arapaho Names and Trails''. The Arapaho left before 1860 when the area was settled by people of European descent. By 1878, the northern Arapaho were forced into a reservation at Wind River Indian Reservation. There were three main trails used by the Ute and Arapaho people to travel between Middle Park and Estes Park. One was called Dog Trail, because the Arapaho had dogs pull travois over the snowy trail, is now called Fall River trail. Child's trail has a spot where children had to get off their horses due to the steep terrain; that trail is now Ute Trail and Trail Ridge Road. Big Trail, which went over Flattop Mountain to the
Kawuneeche Valley Kawuneeche Valley, also known as Kawuneeche or Coyote Valley, is a marshy valley of the Colorado River near its beginning. It is located on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The axis of the valley runs almost directly no ...
, was used by fast-traveling warriors. Stone
cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...
s were used by the Arapahos and the Utes to mark the forest trails. There are hundreds of sites with evidence of Native American visits, including Tepee rings found along the Thompson River and other signs of summer camps. Stone and bone tools used for hunting, butchering, processing hides, and cooking have been found in the park. Additionally, Native Americans carried river boulders to the top of Oldman Mountain, the site of their ceremonial vision quests. The
Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
, Cheyenne,
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
, and
Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...
periodically hunted or raided the area.
Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
people may have also hunted in the Rocky Mountains for hundreds of years.


19th-century explorers and settlers

Little has been recorded of Europeans who might have seen or visited the Rocky Mountain National Park area before the 19th century. French fur trappers visited in 1700s and gave Native Americans firearms in trades. A couple of French trappers called Longs Peak and Mount Meeker ''Les Deux Oreilles'' ("two ears") in 1799. Don Pedro de Villasur led a group of one hundred men from
New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
up the South Platte River into Nebraska and may have seen the Front Range of Colorado. The Spaniards were attacked by unfriendly
Pawnees The Pawnee are a Central Plains Indian tribe that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. Today they are the federally recognized Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, who are headquartered in Pawnee, Oklahoma. T ...
, who killed 88 of the men, and the Spanish lost interest in traveling so far north again. American fur trappers came to Colorado in the early 19th century, but were seen as trespassers. James Pursley was trapping in the area, and he spotted gold in 1805.
Joseph Bijeau Joseph Bijeau (1778–after 1837), also known as Joseph Bijeau dit Bissonet and Joseph Bissonet, was among the earliest fur trappers of the Rocky Mountains. He was a guide for Stephen Harriman Long's expedition of the Great Plains in 1820. A fur ...
—who was later a guide for the Long expedition—lived, hunted and trapped in the Rockies for six years. There were other trappers who worked along the Front Range. A. P. Chouteau and Julius De Munn traded with Native Americans for furs from 1811 to 1817, but were subject to having the furs they had acquired confiscated by Spanish patrols. Besides the threat of running into Spanish military patrols, the men were also subject to hostile Native American tribes.


Long Expedition

Stephen Harriman Long of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was engaged by President James Madison in 1819 to lead an expedition into the western frontier to document the topography, fauna, and flora encountered on the voyage to the headwaters of the Arkansas, Red River, and Platte Rivers. The expeditionary team moved westward from the plains, following the South Fork of the Platte River towards the mountains and on the western horizon saw what Long identified the "highest peak" on June 30, 1820. By 1825, the name Longs Peak began appearing on maps.


Rufus B. Sage

Rufus B. Sage Rufus B. Sage (1817–1893) was an American writer, journalist and later mountain man. He is known as the author of ''Scenes in the Rocky Mountains'' published in 1846, depicting the life of fur trappers. Life Rufus B. Sage was born on March 1 ...
traveled to the mountains in September 1843 and is believed to be the first white man to enter Estes Park. For a month, he hunted the abundant wildlife. Sage described the area as a "concentration of beautiful lateral valleys, intersected by meandering watercourses, ridged by lofty ledges of precipitous rock, and hemmed in on the west by vast piles of mountains climbing beyond clouds." At the time of his visit, Ute and Arapaho lived in the area. Sage published the earliest known description in ''Rocky Mountain Life, or Startling Scenes and Perilous Adventures in the Far West During an Expedition of Three Years.'' He was one of the first people to write about the fur trapper's experiences in the vicinity. After the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and during the gold rush, more people began to travel westward to the Rockies.


Joel Estes

In October 1859, while on a hunting expedition, Joel Estes and his son Milton discovered land where "no signs that white men had ever been there before us." In 1860, Joel Estes moved his family—which had included his wife Patsey, six children, five Black slaves, and a few friends—into two cabins that he built at the eastern edge of the park where Fish Creek, Lyons, and Loveland Roads converge. Estes brought his herd of cattle, that were raised in the green pastures of the park. He hunted deer and elk and sold their meat and hides in Denver. The Civil War broke out in 1861. During a trip that year to Missouri, where he was from, he freed his slaves. In 1865, Charles F. Estes, son of Milton and Mary Flemming Estes, was the first white child born in the park. The winters were too harsh for Estes and he left the area in 1866. Griff Evans moved into the area and lived in the Estes cabin. Between 1868 and 1873, he added a gable and made improvements to the cabin. In 1926, the town of Estes Park erected a plaque in remembrance of the Estes family at the site of their cabin.


William Byers

William Byers William Newton Byers (February 22, 1831 in Madison County, OhioByers, William Ne ...
, editor of the ''Rocky Mountain News'', visited Estes in 1864 and climbed Mount Meeker when he was unable to find a route to the summit of Longs Peak. His newspaper articles about his visit led to the naming of Estes Valley. Byers, John Wesley Powell, and five other men made the first recorded ascent up Longs Peak in 1868.


Joseph Wescott

Joseph Wescott moved to Grand Lake in the late 1860s after visiting
Hot Sulphur Springs Hot Sulphur Springs is a statutory town and the county seat of Grand County, Colorado, United States. The town is located near Byers Canyon between Granby and Kremmling, northwest of Denver and northwest of Winter Park. The town population ...
in Middle Park in the hopes of curing his crippling rheumatism. He built a cabin and hunted and fished for food. In the winter of 1867, though, the deep snows made it difficult for him to get the food he needed. He boiled the leather from a chair and supposedly from a pair of shoes for sustenance. He was saved by a hunting party. Westcott was the first permanent resident of the area. Prior to Wescott, Philip Crenshaw built a cabin in 1858 and trapped animals for fur. In 1868, tourists began arriving at Grand Lake.


Growth

Estes Park became a tourist town beginning in the 1870s. Byers and other adventurous writers came to the area and their published accounts of the area encouraged others to visit for its hunting, fishing, and scenery.
Frederick H. Chapin Frederick Hastings Chapin (5 September 1852 – 25 January 1900) was an American businessman, mountaineer, photographer, amateur archaeologist and author. He is best known for his exploration of mesas and ancient Pueblo ruins found in the Mesa Ver ...
explored the area and published the book, ''Mountaineering in Colorado: The Peaks about Estes Park'' in 1889. A peak in the Mummy Range is named for Chapin and his wife named
Ypsilon Mountain Ypsilon Mountain, elevation , is in the Mummy Range of Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado. The mountain, along with Mount Chiquita, is most easily accessed from a trailhead on Fall River Road to the south. See also * List o ...
. People who moved to the area engaged in mining, ranching, and lodging. Some were also involved in the lumber industry. The Griffith Sawmill that operated near
Bierstadt Lake Bierstadt Lake is located in Larimer County, Colorado and within the Rocky Mountain National Park. Near McHenrys Peak and Longs Peak, there are "spectacular views" of the Continental Divide at the lake. The Bierstadt Lake Trailhead is located abo ...
and a sawmill was established near Hidden Valley.


Mining rush

Lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains were established in the 1870s when prospectors came to the area in search of gold and silver. Joe Shipler staked two silver claims on Shipler mountain in 1879 and built two cabins along the Colorado River and the Lulu City trail. The town of Lulu at one point had 40 houses and a hotel, but the low-yield ore was unprofitable. The boom had ended by December 1883 when miners deserted their claims. Dutchtown was abandoned by 1884.


Lord Dunraven

Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, a famous sportsman, visited the area for the first time in 1872 to hunt elk. Two years later, he decided to purchase 8,000 acres along streams, which gave him access to a total of 15,000 acres, for a private game reserve or cattle ranch. He implemented a fraudulent scheme in which drifters made claims for 160 acres each under the Homestead Acts and acquired additional land through
pre-emption right A pre-emption right, right of pre-emption, or first option to buy is a contractual right to acquire certain property newly coming into existence before it can be offered to any other person or entity. It comes from the Latin verb ''emo, emere, emi, ...
s. Dunraven then purchased the property from them for a nominal amount of money. Dunraven's land grab outraged locals. Realizing that the private game reserve in Estes Park was not going to be a viable effort, Dunraven established a game park and hunting lodge in what is now Dunraven Glade, north of Estes Park. He established a cattle ranch in Estes Park called the "English Dairy", which had Swiss cattle that he brought into the area. In July 1877, Dunraven opened the Estes Park Hotel, with a good view of the mountains. Dunraven visited the area for the last time in the mid-1880s and abandoned much of his vast Estes Park claims. In 1885, he was made Undersecretary for the Colonies, which created increasing responsibilities to Queen Victoria. He also may have lost interest in Estes Park for a number of personal reasons. Dunraven sold most of his lands and interests in the area in 1908 to F.O. Stanley and B.D. Sanborn.


Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt, who may have been the first European to visit the summit of
Mount Blue Sky Mount Blue Sky (formerly Mount Evans) is the highest peak in the Mount Evans Wilderness in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent fourteener is located southwest by south ( bearing 214°) of Idaho Springs in Cl ...
, Bierstadt was commissioned in 1876 by the Earl of Dunraven to make an exceptionally large canvas painting of Longs Peak and
Estes Park Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corr ...
for $15,000, . He traveled throughout the area with Theodore Whyte, the earl's associate, and created sketches and paintings. The two men also looked for a suitable site, with a great view of Longs Peak, to construct an English hotel for the earl. Bierstadt took a particular interest in a lake, now called
Bierstadt Lake Bierstadt Lake is located in Larimer County, Colorado and within the Rocky Mountain National Park. Near McHenrys Peak and Longs Peak, there are "spectacular views" of the Continental Divide at the lake. The Bierstadt Lake Trailhead is located abo ...
. Harold Marion Dunning, an early historian, said "that Bierstadt's favorite place for mountain sketches and material for some of his famous paintings was on the shore of the lake that now bears his name". Bierstadt's painting of the lake is now in the Denver Art Museum's collection.


Founding a national park

The Denver, Utah and Pacific Railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881; and the Big Thompson Canyon Road was completed in 1904. Automobile stage lines offered transportation to Estes Park from Loveland in 1907 and from Lyons in 1909. The movement to establish a national park in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado succeeded in 1915 because of the combined efforts of multiple groups of people over many years. Prominent individuals in the effort included Enos Mills from the Estes Park area,
James Grafton Rogers James Grafton Rogers (January 13, 1883 - April 23, 1971) was the Assistant Secretary of State for the United States. Biography Rogers was born on January 13, 1883 in Denver, Colorado to Edmund James Armstrong Rogers (1852-1922) and Maria Georgina ...
from Denver, and
J. Horace McFarland J. Horace McFarland (1859–1948) from McAlisterville, Pennsylvania was a leading proponent of the "City Beautiful Movement" in the United States. Life McFarland was the son of Union Civil War colonel George F. McFarland. He lived and worked mo ...
of Pennsylvania. Each of these men performed essential work for the cause.


Enos Mills

Enos Mills Enos Abijah Mills (April 22, 1870 – September 21, 1922) was an American naturalist, author and homesteader. He was the main figure behind the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Enos Mills was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of ...
, then a 14-year-old boy, moved to Estes Park in 1884. He explored the mountains of the area and wrote many books and articles describing the region. A resort owner, naturalist, and promoter of the conservation of nature, Mills pitched the idea of an "Estes National Park" in 1909, quickly earning the support of his fellow local businessmen in the form of the Estes Park Protective and Improvement Association. He wrote essays predominantly for popular national magazines like ''The Saturday Evening Post'', and these were published in book form during the more than five-year park campaign, promoting Colorado's Rocky Mountain region to the reading public: ''Wild Life on the Rockies'' (1909); ''The Spell of the Rockies'' (1911); ''In Beaver World'' (1913); and ''Rocky Mountain Wonderland'' (1915). Mills also toured the country speaking to audiences of the wonder and beauty of the Estes Park area, and gathered the support of influential friends as he went.


Arapaho place names

The Colorado Geographical Society arranged for two Arapaho elders to return to the park in 1914 and share their names of places before the U.S. Geological Society printed maps of the park. Some of the places in the park that bear Native American names are Nokhu Crags ("rocks where the eagles nest"), Kawuneechee ("coyote") Valley, and Mount Neota ("mountain sheep's heart").


Bill signed

The bill passed Congress and was signed by
President Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of P ...
on January 26, 1915. A formal dedication ceremony was held on September 4, 1915 in Horseshoe Park. The park has expanded over the years, with the largest parcel — the Never Summer Range — added in 1929.


Developing a national park

The 1920s saw a boom in building lodges and roads in the park, culminating with the construction of Trail Ridge Road to Fall River Pass between 1929 and 1932, then to Grand Lake by 1938. The Civilian Conservation Corps handled several building projects during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and remnants of their camps can be found in the park today. Rocky Mountain National Park was a place for
downhill skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping), w ...
. Hidden Valley (Ski Estes Park) operated between 1955 and 1991 along U.S. 34, west of Estes Park. The area had been skied by locals long before it opened as a ski area.


Agnes Vaille

Not all leave Longs Peak alive and safe. There is a stone gazebo at the Keyhole formation with a plaque memorializing Agnes Vaille, a well-known climber in the 1920s. In January 1925, Vaille fell while descending the North Face. Vaille survived the fall with minor injuries, but was unable to walk. Her climbing partner, professional mountaineering guide Walter Kiener, went for help; but when rescuers arrived, Vaille had died of fatigue and hypothermia. One of the rescuers, Herbert Sortland, froze to death after breaking his hip while trying to rescue her.


21st-century environmental events

On June 24, 2010, a wildfire burned over of the park in
Larimer County Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of Denver. ...
near
Estes Park Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corr ...
. Estes Park Fire Department believed that lightning may have started the fire. In September 2013, both the park and the town of Estes Park were heavily damaged by a significant 500-year rain event. The park was closed to visitors September 12–19, 2013, and all roads leading to the park entrance from the east were closed for several days to several weeks. At one point, the only way to leave the town of Estes Park was via Trail Ridge Road, the park's scenic byway leading to the town of Grand Lake on the western side of the Continental Divide. The most lasting impacts inside the park were in the Alluvial Fan area, where flood waters, rocks, and debris washed away parking areas, and much of Fall River Road. After repairs, the road reopened on July 2, 2015.


Notes


Citations


References

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External links


Rocky Mountain National Park: A History
(archive) {{Prehistoric technology History of the Rocky Mountains Archaeological sites in Colorado Civilian Conservation Corps in Colorado