Moraine Park

Abner E. Sprague was a man who lived through the decades of change after 1875 and took the time to record his memories before his death in 1943. A dark, handsome fellow then aged twenty-four, Sprague climbed Longs Peak for the first time in 1874. He returned in May of 1875 with his partner, Clarence Chubbuckand, and proceeded to become a squatter on the public domain, building a cabin in today's Moraine Park (then called Willow Park). Only a month later, however, Chubbuck was murdered during a cattle roundup out on the plains. That left Sprague and his sixteen-year-old brother Fred to develop their homestead in the heart of the Rockies. On September 22nd, 1875, snow fell to a depth of two feet. Although some nice weather followed, periodic blizzards kept the brothers confined to their cabin, once for a solid two weeks.

Sprague's Moraine Park ranch gradually proved to be more profitable as it catered to summer visitors. Eventually its thousand acres became one of the best-known guest ranches in the central Rockies. In 1904, Abner Sprague sold his Moraine Park homestead to J. D. Stead. Sprague then developed a smaller resort in Glacier Basin and remained a pioneer in both ranching and the resort industry. Sprague took pride in the progress of the area as a popular resort; in the 1930s he considered it an honor to be one of the first to purchase an entrance permit for Rocky Mountain National Park. In 1936, Sprague's old homestead was sold to Will and Myra Lewis, and in 1950 Edgar and Dorothy Stopher took over the ranch. In 1962, the National Park Service acquired the land. Eventually, all the buildings were destroyed and Abner Sprague's Moraine Park ranch land was returned to the way he first found it.

Credits and Sources:

“Rocky Mountain National Park: A History. Chapter 4: Dreams with Silver Lining.” National Park Service. Park History Program. Accessed June 12, 2015. http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/romo/buchholtz/chap4.htm