Phantom Valley Ranch

In 1907, Squeaky Bob Wheeler opened the Hotel de Hardscrabble (later known as the Phantom Valley Ranch) in the Kawuneeche Valley for tourists. As in the past, Colorado's established and more fashionable resorts catered to these new seasonal vacationers. ...

Gaskill

Added to the good news of the Utes' departure was the knowledge that mines in Colorado's Leadville region contained an enormous amount of silver. As one historian noted: "Wherever the ore resembled the Leadville product there was excitement." The rousing ...

Ouzel Lake

On August 9, 1978, a bolt of lightning struck near Ouzel Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park and started a fire in a subalpine spruce-fir forest. In accord with a new philosophy that recognized the ecological significance of natural ...

Moraine Park Lodge

Born Mary Imogene Bates of Indiana, Imogene Green MacPhearson lived an entrepreneurial life. During the Civil War she bravely crossed into the Confederate South to rescue her husband when he was ill in a Union Camp. MacPhearson set out ...

Grand Lake

In the late 1860s, suffering from rhuematism, Joseph Wescott became the first resident of Grand Lake looking to use the Hot Sulphur Springs of Middle Park as a cure and relief.

By 1868, pioneers began settling in Grand Lake ...

Bear Lake

Many fires swept through what is now the national park between 1850 and the early 1900's. A walk around Bear Lake passes through forests that regenerated after large fires at the turn of the century. In 1956, Climber Patrick ...

Lulu City

The Pikes Peak gold rush of 1859 drew hopeful miners and speculators. Their settlements at places like Lulu City, in what is now the northwest part of the park, were ephemeral.

From 1874-1883, there was mining on the west ...

Ute Trail

Between A.D. 400 and 650, the Ute people finally laid claim to these mountains through occasional summer visits, and to the hunting grounds on either side. And for a while at least, between A.D. 650 and 1000, game-drive systems ...

Andrews Glacier and Tarn

Today, the park’s small glaciers are restricted to high elevations above 11,000 feet (3,350 m) and north- and east- facing cirques, where they are sheltered from the Sun’s direct rays. Local topography helps to shelter the glaciers and directs wind- ...

Longs Peak Inn

A native of Fort Scott, Kansas, Enos Abijah Mills first came to Estes Park at the age of fourteen. In 1901, he negotiated with Carlyle Lamb for the purchase of Longs Peak Inn. Finally in 1902, Mills bought the ...