He operated the Longs Peak House as a summer place of respite for writers, publicists, and other intelligentsia.

Enos Mills was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement and the Rocky Mountain and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2016.

The Mills were unsuccessful gold miners, but they later shared their stories of adventure in Colorado with their children.

[1] Physicians had a hard time diagnosing Mills illness and when he was age 13, his parents were told he had just 6 months to live.

[3] Mills had ten brothers and sisters, who are listed in order of birth: Augustus, Elkhanah, Mary, Naomi Victoria, Ruth, Sarah, Ellen, Sabina Isabelle (Belle), Horace, and Enoch Joe.

[1] He went to Fort Collins, Colorado and worked for Elkanah Lamb, his cousin,[9] who operated a cattle ranch.

He was enthralled by the bright blue skies, the high peaks, the little beavers felling trees and building their homes, the friendly bluebirds and the primeval forests.

The boy from Kansas stood awed among the tall and lovely firs and the rainbow of flowers .... What kinds of trees grew on the mountains, what animals lived there, and would they be friendly?

[11] He built his homestead near Longs Peak of the Rocky Mountains, 8 miles (13 km) from the town of Estes Park, Colorado[10] completing it at 16.

British lady Isabella Bird, artist Albert Bierstadt, and mountain climber and author Frederick H. Chapin were noted visitors.

[11][12] Mills spent some of his summers traveling the West Coast of the United States, Alaska, and Europe.

In 1889, he had a chance encounter with famed naturalist John Muir on a San Francisco beach, and from that point on Mills dedicated his life to conservation activism, lecturing, and writing.

[11] Enos filed his homestead application on February 3, 1893, and received his patent on November 16, 1898, for 160 acres in Larimer County, Colorado.

Like Lamb and his son Carlyle, Mills was as a professional guide who led increasing numbers of people up the mountain.

[11] Mills authored several articles and books on nature and Estes Park area, beginning in the first decade of the 20th century.

[11] Inspired by his trips in the wilderness, he wrote books, like Story of a Thousand Year Pine (1909).

[3] Some state that he died of a broken heart, discouraged by the plans for a monopoly to control the transportation of freight and passengers through the park.