History of Rocky Mountain National Park
History of Rocky Mountain National Park began when Paleo-Indians traveled along what is now Trail Ridge Road to hunt and forage for food.
[10] The railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881 and the Big Thompson Canyon Road—a section of U.S. Route 34 from Loveland to Estes Park—was completed in 1904.
[14] People have been visiting the area near Rocky Mountain National Park for at least 11,000 years, including the Lindenmeier and Dent sites where projectile points were found that were used to hunt Mammoth[15] and Bison antiquus.
[2] The Paleo-Indians began hunting smaller, modern bison and looked for many sources of food in nature when they adopted the lifestyle of the Archaic period about eight thousand years ago.
[18] 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.
[15] Between 1000 and 1300 AD, Ute people moved into the Rocky Mountain and western slope areas of Colorado, perhaps from the Great Basin of Utah.
[22] There are hundreds of sites with evidence of Native American visits,[23] including Tepee rings found along the Thompson River[24] and other signs of summer camps.
[26] Additionally, Native Americans carried river boulders to the top of Oldman Mountain, the site of their ceremonial vision quests.
[7] A couple of French trappers called Longs Peak and Mount Meeker Les Deux Oreilles ("two ears") in 1799.
[27] Don Pedro de Villasur led a group of one hundred men from New Spain up the South Platte River into Nebraska and may have seen the Front Range of Colorado.
[5] The expeditionary team[a] moved westward from the plains,[28] following the South Fork of the Platte River towards the mountains[6] and on the western horizon saw what Long identified the "highest peak" on June 30, 1820.
[30] 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."
[31] 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.
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.
"[34] 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.
[38] William Byers, 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.
[39][c] Joseph Wescott moved to Grand Lake in the late 1860s after visiting Hot Sulphur Springs in Middle Park in the hopes of curing his crippling rheumatism.
[42] Frederick H. Chapin explored the area and published the book, Mountaineering in Colorado: The Peaks about Estes Park in 1889.
[44] 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.
Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, a famous sportsman, visited the area for the first time in 1872[45][d] to hunt elk.
[45] 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 rights.
The two men also looked for a suitable site, with a great view of Longs Peak, to construct an English hotel for the earl.
[49] 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".
[50] The Denver, Utah and Pacific Railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881; and the Big Thompson Canyon Road was completed in 1904.
[11] 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.
[51] Prominent individuals in the effort included Enos Mills from the Estes Park area, James Grafton Rogers from Denver, and J. Horace McFarland of Pennsylvania.
[55][56] 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.
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").
[12] The Civilian Conservation Corps handled several building projects during the Great Depression and remnants of their camps can be found in the park today.
Her climbing partner, professional mountaineering guide Walter Kiener, went for help; but when rescuers arrived, Vaille had died of fatigue and hypothermia.
