And how it shaped his interest in nature. He talked about the legislative houses and opposition to establishing the 10th National Park. Hosted by history colorado, this event marking the centennial of the park is a little over one hour. On genuine 26, 1915, Woodrow Wilson created rocky Mount National park. Five days earlier on january 20, the enabling legislation, a cartoon on the screen behind me appeared in the denver post. It shows enos mills shaking hands with the goddess colorado, who was saying, enos, i am proud of you. In the background, to mountains speaking. Further complements followed, and within months enos mills was being hailed as the father of Rocky MountainNational Park. The title that mills himself would appropriate in his own writings. That title has followed mills from his time to our own. To cite the most obvious public example, that title graces the pedestal of the bronze lifesize statue of mills and his border collie, scotch. It has stood in the corner of a park in downtown espen. The instruction reads, the father of Rocky MountainNational Park, homesteader nature guide naturalist, writer lecturer, photographer, and citizen of nature. The instruction continues as follows, he brought the love for nature and the wilderness to all that he touched. His legacy is in the scenery and wild gardens of the nature that we continue to enjoy. However pithy and memorable, the title father is both unfortunate and misleading. It all too easily lent itself to an allencompassing statement of fact. It implies that enos mills was somehow singlehandedly responsible for the establishment of the nations 12 National Park. He was not. Though important, his role was a time crucial but others helped in major ways over the course of an exhausting campaign that lasted nearly seven years. It is the story of that campaign , the campaign that created Rocky MountainNational Park and the role that enos mills and others played that i want to share with you this evening. Lets do something a bit unusual. Lets start at the end of things , rather than at the beginning. Here is a picture of the dedication site, both then and now, and Horseshoe Park. The afternoon of september 4, 1915 the saturday was great and glowering, not at all the kind of weather that one expect to encounter in colorado before the aspen begin to turn. Those braving the uncertain whether the crowd and Horseshoe Park scarcely seem to mind. It was all new, a very special day. Indeed, a historic one. Rocky Mountain National park was at long last to reality. After much anticipation, the day had come to dedicate the new park, a watershed moment certainly in the history of colorado and the nation. The dedication was a festive affair as existing photographs clearly demonstrate. Many of the attendees arrived early in order to visited picnic, and take full advantage of what the day had to offer. Park residents and those staying at local ranches and hotels came on foot and on horseback, as well as by bicycle, carriage where can, motorcycle, and by automobile. By midmorning, a steady stream of cars from the towns had begun to arrive, the road coming up from the village past the Fish Hatchery and powerplant with steep and narrow, creating something of a logistical problem, but by that time the official ceremonies began at 2 00 p. M. Some 267 automobiles and a large and enthusiastic gathering of spectators and guests by one count numbering as many as 2000 had managed to crowd onto the dedication site. As the denver times noted the day after, and i quote the horizon was a fast collection of automobiles closely parked to crate the effect of a bit of scenery all their own. A reporter for the Rocky Mountain news, the greatest automobile demonstration ever seen in colorado. [laughter] not surprisingly, the largest contingent of outside visitors came from denver, but the other towns across the range were represented. The people of denver, the day had begun early with a 7 30 a. M. Rendezvous at the Majestic Building at 16th and broadway, not far from here, the headquarters of the Denver Motor Club and a city landmark. There the club members queued up for an automobile procession to the park, shiny new package caring governor carlson constant taylor, assistant secretary of the interior, the young deputy albright and other notables. Additional automobiles adjoined along the way, including a number of big red Stanley Mountain wagons, whose introduction on the mountain roads of colorado seven years earlier in 1908 had done much to improve the transportation of tourists to and from the park and other mountain towns. The vehicle attracting the most attention however was a car belonging to George E Turner of the turner moving and Storage Company here in denver. It had eight builtin organ that regaled spectators with music along the way. [laughter] though the speakers of the day would talk of colorado and the nation local competition in the air, not wanting to be outdone by others poised to declare themselves to the gateway of Rocky MountainNational Park. They urged readers to put banners on their automobiles and get an early start. It is evident to denver that fort collins is on the job and that the National Park is not owned by denver. [laughter] fort collins needed little encouragement. Despite the fact the dedication ceremonies conflicted with the closing of the county fair some 400 people, including top city officials made the trip. 200 more came up by automobile caravan from loveland. To the knowledgeable observer, the presence of so many automobiles in Horseshoe Park was an instructive reminder of the way in which the automobile and automobile and had revolutionized tourism and would in the years that followed to find the experience of many if not most park visitors. Once a place for the rich plaything for the rich, automobiles had decreased in costs and improved in size and comfort, making possible a new kind of leisurely and flexible travel experience. Automobiles encouraged individualize relationships with place, introduced in National Parks has early as 1908, automobiles not only quickly democratized park access, that became the chief means by which Many Americans would come to experience and understand nature and the wilderness. By 1915, motorists in their clubs were well on their way to becoming a powerful force in National Park affairs, including Rocky Mountain. In the years that followed these motorist and their automobiles would influence the way in which the nations parks always struggled to reconcile use and privatization, develop their infrastructures. Rocky Mountain National park was a carpark from the very beginning. It has significantly impacted the way to gateway town has contacted the business of tourism ever sense. The newly arrived were greeted by ladies from the womens club, whose members to distribute buttons as souvenirs and provided picnic style boxed lunches and hot coffee. Their husbands, members of the protective and improvement association, a group of local boosters, handed out ice cream cones to the children. The coffee was particularly welcome as the day was cool. Serenading close by was the 25 piece fort collins concert band. It had arrived in the park the day before and spent the night in the village. Robert sterling yard who had been persuaded to give up his editorship of the newark held to publicize the park circulated frequently among the crowd. Remember those photographs you just saw. Particular visible with a newsreel cameramen from cafe studios pathe studios who would film so they could be shown throughout the nation. I have looked throughout for those films. They are not here in denver. They are not in the National Park archives in maryland. I suspect that because they were fragile, they have long since disintegrated unfortunately. Some visitors that day before and after the ceremonies strolled further up the road, past the newly opened large, to inspect progress on the road built up and over the continental divide, the grand lake, and middle park. Begun by convict labor, the road is only covered three miles and five switchbacks. Progress approved slow and its completion would take another five years. It was well worth the wait. Early drivers pronounced the expense breathtaking and perhaps a bit harrowing. A trip over this wonderful highway remarked one will bring many closer to heaven than most mortals ever get here on earth. [laughter] here is an early photograph of a car descending fall river road. It is still open and it is every bit as harrowing, scary, and breathtaking as it was in the early 1920s. At the appointed hour of 2 00 p. M. , the band from fort collins struck up the battle hymn of the republic and the ceremonies began on a small knoll that is now the long lake trailhead. As you have seen, suspended the between too tall pines was a banner proclaiming the occasion and the date. A fortunate few were able to find seats on the platform reserved for dignitaries and special guests, but most people start. Enos mills presided over the days event. Here is one of the few photographs we have of enos mills in that role. The crowd patriotically joined and in the second and third verses that had been conveniently printed in the days program. Followed, congratulatory letters including one from president wilson regretting his absence, and the number of speeches focusing on parks. Secretary mather who within a year would become the first director of the newly created National Park service, congratulated the people of colorado on a work well begun, and briefly outlined the government cost plans the governments plans for the new part. He also expressed hope that Rocky MountainNational Park would help increase the number of tourists in a realization of the wonders of their own land. As he spoke, there was a deluge of rain. Fortune, however, smiled because he was colorado, and why the time the next speaker, the colorado governor, had finished his five minutes, the rain had stopped, the clouds had parted. A reporter for the Rocky Mountains news put it the splendor across the newly laid snow on longs peak. The program of the day made available in advance listed the names of nine speakers, each to be limited strictly to five minutes. Of the nine, only one declined, 64yearold leland oscar stanley, steam car pioneer and builder owner of estes parks largest and most fashionable hotel, a man who during the previous decade had built an expanded the infrastructure of the New Buildings of estes park. When his turn arrived, the selfeffacing mr. Stanley quietly told mills to take a bow for him, and mills did as he was told and received a round of applause. Stanley would later be captured in what became one of the iconic photographs of the day clutching a small american flag. Mr. Stanley was always impeccably dressed, but the day and hour belonged to enos mills. Standing at the very apex of his career was his finest hour standing at the very epoch of his career, it was his finest hour. He told the crowd he lived to see the realization of a great dream come true. It means great things for colorado and the nation. Achieving that dream had been exhausting. It was, mills would later admit, the most strenuous and gross but telling occupation he ever followed. There was great satisfaction, too, and as he stood there and listened to others talk about the new park and promise, his thoughts must have wondered back wandered back on the long and difficult journey that has brought him to this time and this place. That journey began in a plain, white farmhouse, amid the rolling countryside of eastern kansas where enos a. Mills was born on april 20 2, 1870. His childhood was a difficult one, marred by a weak constitution and digestive problems. The Family Doctor was consulted. His suggestion for a restorative was a regimen of mountain air. This brought mills at the tender age of 14 to estes park and the home of his fathers cousin, and itinerant preacher for the united regimen united brethren who ran a small resort at the foot of the great peak. The reverend lamb and his wife provided stability and oversight. From the time of his arrival on, young mills was pretty much on his own. Whatever he would achieve in the way of education and career would be largely up to him. Here is a photograph of the farmhouse as it looked five or six years ago when i visited close up as opposed to from a distance. Here is a picture of enos mills and his family. Enos is at the left of the top row. It was taken about the time he left to come to colorado and break up the family circle. Here is a photograph of the longs peak house. The Main Building was very small. Finally, a photo of lamb and his wife. To a teenage boy, particularly one with an active imagination and an inclination toward nature and the outofdoors, the mountain world of the lambs was all that one wished. The next year, 1885, at the age of 15, mills made his first attempt of longs peak, a feat he would attempt every season of the year both on his own and guiding for others. Here is a wonderful photograph of mills taking that first climb of longs peak. Look how young he was. Look also at the period garb of people going up. He is probably going up the home stretch, and he is poised there with his stick. Here is a winter photograph of mills as a guide. Notice he is standing right at the edge. The people he is guiding our clutching the side of the wall. I dont blame them for that a bit. Heres a picture of his homestead cabin. You can see how small that was. One with mills in the doorway and another showing a closeup of that cabin. Finding summer employment in estes park then, as now, was easy. In winter, however, it was another story. By 1887, at 17 mills was spending winter months in butte, montana, working at the famous anaconda copper mine. Determined to make a go of it despite his age and size, mills quickly rose through the ranks from tool boy to minor compressor, night foreman, and finally to plant engineer. Youd also offered in its Carnegie Library the opportunity for self education and mills made the most of it butte also offered. He read widely and well. He began with the classics. Over the years mills reading would become more specialized. Mills valued books greatly and in time would amass in his cabinet at longs peak inn a personal library worthy of any collegian. The winner of winter of 1889 proved a turning point. Having made his way to San Francisco because an underground fire had closed down the anaconda mind, mills was aimlessly wandering the beach at golden state park when he came upon a group of people huddled around a small, graybearded man who was explaining the significance of the plants that he held in his hand. Mills joined them and listen. After the others had left, mills stayed behind to post some questions of his own to the stranger. That man, it turned out, was Scottish American naturalist john muir. At 51, the patron saint of american conservation who had recently launched his campaign to preserve the magnificent valley of yosemite river with a National Park. Here is a photograph of your of muir. Muir challenged mills on the subject of vocation. His questions and observations had the effect over time of transforming mills somewhat aimless and undirected appreciation of nature into a passion and commitment of wilderness preservation. You have helped me more than all the others, mills would write muir in january 1913 in the midst of the campaign for rocky mount to National Park. But for you, i might never have done anything. Later, mills would go even further. I own everything to muir. If it had not been for him, i would have been a mere gypsy. Muir became mills role model. What he had done for yosemite and valleys of california, mills planned to do for his beloved rockies of colorado. The meeting with muir ushered in a decade of travel that sent mills not only to california but nevada alaska, and the midwest and also led to other new initiatives. In the fall of 1893, mills made his first speech on forestry in kansas city and somewhat later began writing articles for newspapers and magazines about estes park and the scenery of colorado, often illustrated with his own autographs. He also wrote out among local managers and results, talking to oldtimers, collecting bits of local history that he would weave into his first book, the story of estes park. Heres a photograph of mills at the age of 25, teen of years after that first speech on your street in kansas city. The winter of 1901, 1902 was the last in butte. The following summer mills fulfilled a lifelong dream by purchasing longs peak house from the lambs, changing the name to longs peak inn. He set about expanding and enlarging the small resort. The main lodge and its recently enlarged dining room burned to the ground in 1906, mills was back a month later using the opportunity to rebuild the inn to his own unique specifications. Mills gave the new longs peak inn a unique appearance and atmosphere. Within a few short years, thanks to mills parents and its innkeeper, longs peak inn became known throughout the nation. The values and beliefs of enos mills would in time a tract is paying guests some of the bestknown and most influential men and women of the day. Here are some early photographs. This one has up easily been hand colored. This is what arose in place of longs peak house after that fire. Heres an example of mills use of natural woods to rebuild the hotel. A p