The Mountains Have Seen it All

The Mountains Have Seen it All
By Sybil Barnes

There’s a saying you might have heard - “The only thing constant is change.”  Sometimes I wonder how true that is.  When I look up at Longs Peak or Twin Owls or the thumb on Prospect,  I can imagine that I’m Patsey Estes or Isabella Bird or Esther Burnell seeing them for the first time.  There are many other places in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park about which I can’t say the same. But aside from a radical change in population of both visitors and residents and the associated buildings, roads, and services that go along with that increase, what changes have truly happened here? 

Let’s start with some of the history we know. Perhaps as a way to escape from the turmoil of the approaching Civil War, Patsey Estes and her family chose to live a hardscrabble life of subsistence ranching in a place with no neighbors.  She had followed her husband from a relatively comfortable life in Missouri to this place he had discovered on a hunting trip and thought was beautiful.  As far as we know, none of her letters or other writings exist so it’s impossible to say if she shared that feeling. 
This open space offered sweeping views with no neighbors. Though there was an abundance of wild game and fish to eat, it was a lonely life. The Estes family only had each other and the rare visitor for entertainment. Joel and his sons made trips to Denver to sell meat and skins but Patsey was home with the other children and a million chores. They eventually moved on to New Mexico after selling their “improved” property with its panoramic views from Longs Peak to Eagle Rock.

Isabella Bird shared a lot of her feelings when she arrived as one of the first tourists to enjoy the hospitality of Grif Evans and his family.  Evans had only moved up the hill from Lyons to take over the Estes holdings and was one of the first to recognize the potential of entertaining visitors as a revenue source.  Ms Bird had a horse and was interested in exploring the area both on horseback and on foot.  As a visitor, she had few of the responsibilities of providing a home or entertainment. Her writings may have encouraged an Irish nobleman to explore this part of Colorado while he was on a hunting trip to Wyoming.

Unfortunately, no known record exists of the guests at Lord Dunraven’s hotel on Fish Creek.  There are a few photographs which show women “taking the air” in front of the hotel.  And it is known that the Irish Earl was not accompanied by his wife or daughters on most of his American trips. He spent his days riding and hunting and his evenings with food and drink. His visits were mostly made in the summer or fall but he left a land manager here year round.

By the beginning of the 20th century, there was a town forming in the open space that had been named Estes’ Park by the newspaper editor, William Byers.  Ranchers like the MacGregors and the McCreerys and the James and Hondius families arrived in the later 1880s and had become used to the conveniences of a general store and weekly mail delivery. More and more dudes were discovering the delights of a summer spent in the cool mountains. Shops selling souvenir photographs were opening at the confluence of the Big Thompson and Fall River in the space between Elkhorn Lodge and the MacGregor holdings.  Horses and hiking were the main means of transportation and a pleasant way to explore the area.
Other families, including the Spragues and Chapmans had ventured further west and  created another small community in what they called Willow Park.  Private cabins were built on the eastern hillside with sweeping views of the meadow between the moraines. Fish were abundant in the Thompson River and Frank Bartholf grazed his cattle further to the south on what would become the Bear Lake Road.

Flora Stanley first came to Estes Park with her husband in 1909.  He saw the potential for growth and development as a summer tourist destination.  He  had the discretionary income to build a fine hotel and create an infrastructure of utilities for the town that had been platted by Abner Sprague and was being marketed by Loveland businessman C.H. Bond and others. The hotel needed electric lights and indoor plumbing, so Stanley funded a power plant and a sewage system which would serve the entire village.  He donated some of his property for public use as a community park and gathering place.  Flora had vision problems so she was unable to comment on the view.  She was probably delighted that her husband’s respiratory problems were solved by spending summers in the mountains but possibly just as happy to return to Maine for nine months of the year.

When Esther Burnell and her sister Elizabeth came west on a summer vacation they discovered another settlement in the Tahosa Valley at the base of Longs Peak.  The young women were hired to be nature guides at Enos Mills’ lodge.  After a summer spent climbing mountains and identifying wildflowers, Elizabeth went to California to continue her education and Esther stayed to homestead property on the Fall River Road.  She married Enos and became the mother of Enda Mills Kiley.  After Enos’ untimely death, Esther and Enda carried on his legacy by running the Longs Peak Inn and making sure that his nature writings stayed in print and his ecological philosophy was brought forward through the 20th century.

Growth of the town of Estes Park has always been limited by the topography of the area.  Many people wanted to visit in the summer but not that many wanted to spend a windy and cold winter here.  That changed with the construction of the Adams Tunnel to bring water from the wetter west side to the plains of eastern Colorado.  When Bertha Ramey’s family moved from Lyons to start providing insurance and related services to the businesses and homeowners, the land where the Estes family had settled was still a meadow with the Big Thompson River meandering through it.  By 1950, that property had been flooded by a reservoir called Lake Estes.  Now when visitors make the last turn down Park Hill, they see water reflecting the mountain ranges beyond. 

Also by the 1950s, a few hundred people had decided to spend the winter months in Estes Park.  Many of them worked for the National Park Service.  Others spent the slower months getting their tourist accommodations ready for the next season.  By the 1970s, young business people were seeing the potential for attracting visitors all year round. Though the main business district of the town was still only three blocks long, development had reached across all the flat spaces and was beginning to creep up the sides of the surrounding mountains.

Geologic time outlasts any kind of human time.  And the mountains can withstand climate change more easily than any animal or plant life form. In a hundred years or a thousand years, the approaches to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park will still be up from the lower elevations with a last drop to a valley surrounded by mountains. Whether your view is of Twin Sisters or Lumpy Ridge or Ypsilon or our favorite fourteener, Longs Peak, and your family has been here for four generations or you are one of the four million who visited during the last year, remember these words from a song by Cowboy Brad, who we also know as Longs Peak Ranger Brad Fitch, “We live in Paradise.” 

(This article appeared in a slightly different form in the Rocky Mountain Conservancy newsletter.  Are you a member of the Conservancy?)