This volume is the consequence of dissecting all previous editions and selecting the essence of the very early times spent in Estes Park. Enos A. Mills' first book, "The Story of Early Estes Park and a Guide Book" is, as always, a glorious experience to explore the Estes Park of the past. Enos did not include the "Guide" section in his second edition "The Story of Estes Park." Nor did the subsequent editions "The Story of Estes Park and Grand Lake," "The Rocky Mountain National Park Memorial Edition," "Early Estes Park," and "The Story of Early Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Lake." We have tried to remain faithful to the original "paleface" names of areas, rock formations and canyons of this time period, simply because we cannot keep up with the recent explosion of confusing name changes. We have added a few new goodies we hope you will enjoy. We thank the Stanley Museum of Estes Park, Colorado and Kingfield, Maine, for graciously allowing us to include a portion of Flora's personal perspective of Estes Park.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Rocky Mountain National Park: A History is more than just the story of Rocky Mountain in its brief tenure as a national park. Its scope includes the earliest traces of human activity in the region and outlines the major events of exploration, settlement, and exploitation. Origins of the national park ideas are followed into the recent decades of the Park's overwhelming popularity. It is a story of change, of mountains reflecting the tenor of the times. From being a hunting ground to becoming ranchland, from being a region of resorts to becoming a national park, this small segment of the Rocky Mountains displays a record of human activities that helps explain the present and may guide us toward the future.

Brochure includes information on Rocky Mountain Parks Transportation Company tours through the Park.

Historic photographs paired with contemporary photographs taken from the exact same locations illuminate the evolution that has occurred in the Estes Park area, as well as in Rocky Mountain National Park, over more than a century. From the Stanley Hotel to Lake Estes, see whether the landmarks and landscape of Estes Park have been completely transformed or if they remain almost unchanged.

Letters to her sister about the author's travel in Colorado, autumn and early winter 1873.

Following the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915, promotional campaigns generated by the railroads lured wealthy travelers to the park with images of the great outdoors and the many luxuries offered by the finest hotels. Postcards were circulated proclaiming the park as the "Playground of the World." The gateway communities of Estes Park and Grand Lake became vibrant hospitality centers, and in 1920, when the two towns were connected with the opening of Fall River Road, a new era of tourism was introduced that continues today. More than 200 postcards are used in this book to provide a chronology of the early hotels, ranches, and other settings that have shaped the park's history for more than a century.

Rocky Mountain National Park owes its existence to the tenacity and vision of Enos Mills. The straightforward stories Mills told of his wilderness adventures with snowslides, wild beasts, and even wilder weather are exciting and fun. James Pickering, a foremost expert on the life and writing on Enos Mills, has collected the stories that truly express Mills' experiences in Colorado. The reader is transported to the turn of the 19th century as Enos Mills guides them through the Rocky Mountain wilderness.For the first quarter of the twentieth century, the names Enos Mills and Estes Park were virtually synonymous. Together with annotations to aid in locating places and identifying Mills' references and allusions, James Pickering presents Enos Mills to a current generation of readers through Mills' own essays.James H. Pickering, a longtime summer resident of Estes Park, is a professor of English at the University of Houston, where he has also served as dean, provost, and president. He has published seventeen books on Colorado and the West, including This Blue Hollow: Estes Park, the Early Years, 1859-1915.

America's Switzerland, a companion volume to This Blue Hollow, is the first comprehensive history of Rocky Mountain National Park and its neighboring town, Estes Park, during the decades when travel became a middle-class rite of summer. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources and extensive archival research, James H. Pickering reveals how the evolution of tourism and America's fascination with the "western experience" shaped the park and town from 1903 to 1945. America's Switzerland provides extensive information, much of it new to historical literature, on how Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park - the most visited national park west of the Mississippi - developed to welcome ever-growing crowds. Pickering profiles the individuals behind the development and details the challenges park and town confronted during decades that included two world wars and the Great Depression.