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The History of the Rocky Mountain National Park
by Cheyenne Cartwright
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Overview
Rocky Mountain National Park is in Colorado, about 66 miles northwest of Denver and adjacent to the small resort town of Estes Park. Encompassing 415 square miles of pristine mountain habitat, the park played host to more than three million visitors in 2000.
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Early Inhabitants
The area that eventually became Rocky Mountain National Park was long the home of the Ute Indians. For years, they controlled the mountainous terrain, until the invading Arapahos drove them out and over the Continental Divide. After Europeans came to North America, fur traders and mountain men roamed the area in search of their livelihoods.
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The Louisiana Purchase
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon. The purchase of this vast area, which stretched northwest from the Mississippi River at New Orleans all the way across modern-day Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, added a huge amount of real estate to the country and immediately opened up the prospect of that white Americans might settle beyond the Mississippi.
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Early Settlement
The region around Rocky Mountain National Park, however, was never heavily settled, because the terrain was difficult and the weather was harsh. In 1820, Major Stephen Long led his expeditionary force around the mountains, rather than over them. Joel Estes came to the area in the late 1850s and attempted to homestead, but he and his family moved away in just a few years.
Eventually the area became mostly a tourist attraction that people visited when the weather was nice and left when winter started to set in. The Colorado Gold Rush of the late 1870s brought in a torrent of miners, followed by homesteaders. Both groups left nearly as quickly as they arrived, but they took word of "America's Switzerland" along with them. Soon entrepreneurs began building dude ranches and hotels in the Estes Park area in earnest, eager to cash in on the burgeoning tourist trade.
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Birth of the Park
The inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, F.O. Stanley, came to Estes Park in 1903 for his health. He was so taken with the grandeur of the surroundings that he decided to settle there. Thus he built the Stanley Hotel, which still welcomes patrons today. Stanley was instrumental in efforts to preserve and protect the natural beauty of his new home. He helped found the Estes Park Protective and Improvement Association, which spearheaded efforts to protect the flora and fauna of the area while improving access via roads and trails.
A visitor who had come to the area before Stanley and also had gotten into the hotel business there was Enos Mills. He began agitating in 1909 to have the area declared a national park. He persisted in this despite opposition from representatives of extractive industries, like farming, mining and logging. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation creating Rocky Mountain National Park, the nation's 10th, into law.
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The Park Today
When it was created, Rocky Mountain National Park included 358 square miles of territory. The park expanded in 1990 to include an additional 465 acres, which took its boundaries to Lily Lake. Visitors to the park can experience the wonders of its scenery and wildlife.
