Transcripts For CSPAN3 Rocky Mountain National Park Centenni

On january 26, 100 years ago president Woodrow Wilson signed into being the next park. Looking on from the background to mountains join man, you guess im proud of you, the other replies, i always knew you were all right. Further complements followed. Within a matter of month, he was being hailed as the father of document National Park. The title that he himself would soon appropriate in his own writings. The title has followed mills from his time to our own. Despite the most public of example, it raises the lifestyle statue of mills and his Border Collie that have stood in the corner of the park in downtown estes park. 1870, 2 1922, the father of rocky notional park Rocky Mountain National Park. The inscription 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, the title father is both unfortunate and misleading. That all too easily lends itself to an allencompassing statement of fact. It clearly implies that he was somehow singlehandedly responsible for the establishment of the nations 12 National Park. He was not. Though his role was important and at times crucial others held in major raise over helped in major ways over an exhausting campaign. It is the story of that campaign, the campaign the created rocky National Park and the role that others play that i want to share with you this evening. Lets do something a bit unusual. Lets start at the end of things rather than the beginning. Here is a picture of the dedication site both then and now in the park. The afternoon of september the fourth, 1915, saturday was gray. Not at all the whether someone expects to encounter in colorado before the aspens begin to turn. Those braving the insurgent whether would crowded worship park were crowded into the park. Rocky mountains National Park was a long last a reality. Now after much anticipation commend the day had come to dedicate the new park, a watershed moment in the history of estes park colorado, in the nation. The dedication was a festive affair that existing photographs clearly demonstrate. Many of the attendees arrived early, and order to visit and take it vantage of with the day had to offer. The park residents and those staying at local hotels came on foot and horseback as well as by bicycle, carriage, wagon motorcycle, and of course by automobile. By midmorning a steady stream of cars in the valley towns had begun to arrive in the roads coming up fall river from estes park village passed the fed treasury and the power plant was steep and narrow, creating something of a logistical problem. By the time the official ceremonies begin at 2 00 p. M. , some 267 automobiles and a large and enthusiastic during of spectators and guests by one count, remembering as many as 2000 and managed to ground and the dedication site. The denver times noted the day after the date was one vast rainbow of automobiles, the black cars the yellow, white red, brown, so closely marked to great scenery of parked to create a scenery of their own. It was the greatest automobile demonstration ever seen in colorado. [laughter] not surprisingly, the largest contingent of outside visitors came from denver. The denver rights had become early for a run to rhonda rendezvous at the headquarters of the denver motor club. There is a need for a worse there they took the drivers in an automobile for section to the park. Procession to the park. Other automobiles joined them on the way, including a big red video which had hopes the transportation of tourists from estes park and other mountain towns. The car belonging to the turn or Storage Company had a builtin bell oregon that regaled spectators with sprightly music along the way. [laughter] the speakers of the day would talk of colorado and the nation s local competition. Not wanting to be outdone by loveland and lyons, the fort collins express versions readers to put bennetts and banners on their automobiles and get an early start so that it is evident that fort collins is on the job, and that the National Park is not owned by denver. Fort collins needed little encouragement. Despite the fact that the dedication ceremonies conflicted with the closing of the fire some 400 fort collins people including top city officials made the trip. 200 more came by automobile caravan from loveland. 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 finally experience of many if not most visitors. Once a plaything for the rich, automobiles had improved in size and comfort and decreased in cost, making possible a new kind of leisurely and flexible travel experience. Automobiles encouraged a n individualized experience with place. Automobiles not only quickly broadened and democratized park access but became the chief means by which Many Americans would come to experience and understand nature and the wilderness. By 1915 motorists in the organized clubs and the associations they belong to were well on becoming a force in national affairs. The ofs motorists on the automobiles they drove with influence the way the parks always struggled to partner used with preservation. It was a carpark from the very beginning, and that fact in turn has significantly impacted the way in which gateway town of estes park has conducted the business of tourism or persons. The newly arrived were greeted i ladies from the womens club whose members related button souvenirs and provided picked expel box lunches and kathy. Their husbands lovers of the estes Park Improvement of Action Association and equally important the local boosters, had without ice cream comes to the children. The coffee was particularly will because the day was cool. Close by was the 25 east fort collins concert band that had arrived in astons park estes park the day before. Stephen mathur had persuaded robert to publicize the nations parks and circulated frequently among the crowd to capture it on film. Particularly visible worthy newsreel cameraman from the denver offices from the who had been arranged to fill the dedication ceremony so they could be shown to the nation. I have looked high and low for those films. They are not here in the estes park headquarters, they are not here in denver and they are not in the National Spark National Park headquarters. I suspect they have disintegrated. Some visitors strolled further up onto the road past the newly opened launch to inspect progress on the roads being built up and over the Continental Divide from the grand lake and middle work. Begun by convict labor two summers before, it covered only three miles and five switchbacks. Progress have proved agonizingly slow, and his completion would take another five years. It was well worth the wait. Early drivers pronounced the experience as brecht taking and perhaps a bit harrowing. A trip over this wonder how i wonderful highway will bring many a fine new closer to heaven than most mortals here on earth. [laughter] here is in early photograph of the car ascending fall river is road. It is still as scary as it was in the 1920s. At the appointed hour of 2 00 the young, the band from fort collins struck up battle hymn of the republic and ceremonies begin on the trailhead. Suspended between two tall pines was a banner proclaiming the occasion and the date. A fortunate few were able to find seats in front of the platform reserved for dignitaries and special guests but most people stood. Enos mills presided over the days event. Here is one of the very few photographs we have of enos mills in that role. That began with the chorus sung by the schoolchildren of estes park. The crowd patriotically joined in on the second and third verses that had been conveniently printed in the days program. Then follow the congratulatory letters including one from president wilson, regretting his absence. The introduction of special guests. And a number of speeches focusing on future prospects of parks in the region. Secretary mather, who within a year would become the first director of the newly created National Park service, congratulated the people of colorado upon a work well begun, and briefly outlined the governments plans for the new park. He also expressed hope that Rocky Mountain National Park would help increase the number of terrorists in the west and awaken americans to a realization of the wonders of their own land. As he spoke, there was a deluge of rain. Fortune, however, smiled because this was colorado, and by the time the next speaker governor carlson, had finished his five minutes, the rain had stopped, the clouds had parted. As a reporter for the Rocky Mountains news put it, the splendor of colorado broke out in colorado 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 which was 64yearold leland oscar stanley, steam car pioneer and builder owner of estes parks largest and most fashionable resort hotel. A man who invested heavily during the previous decade to build and expand the infrastructure of the new village 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 the hour belonged to enos mills. Standing at the very apex of his career was his finest hour. This was the proudest moment of my life, mills told the crowd. I have lived to see the realization of a great dream come true. It means great things for colorado and for the nation. Achieving that dream had been exhausting. It was, mills would later admit, the most strenuous and gross compelling occupation he ever followed. There was great satisfaction too, and as he stood there and listened to others talk about the new park and its promise his thoughts must have 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 22, 1870. Mills childhood was a difficult one. It was marred by a weak constitution and digestive problems, later said to be an allergy to starch. The Family Doctor was consulted. His suggestion for a restorative was a regimen of mountain air. This brought mills in 1884 at the tender age of 14, to estes park and the home of his fathers cousin and itinerant preacher for the united brethren, who not preaching in the rim and firestone manner 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 health, 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 seeing it 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 1884, about the time he left to come to colorado and break up the family circle. Here is a photograph of the lambs longs peak house. There were cabins to the left. The Main Building was very small. You can see how small a resort it was. 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 could wish. The next year, 1885, at the age of 15, mills made his first attempt of longs peak, a feat he would repeat 295 times in every season of the year, both on his own and guiding for others. That same year, mills began work on a small homestead cabin of his own across the road from longs peak house on the lower slopes of twin sisters mountain. Here is a wonderful photograph of mills making that first climb of longs peak. Look how young he was. In 1885. Look also at the period garb of people going up. This is probably going up the home stretch. He is poised there with his stick. A picture of the Boulder Field which then and now, one had to cross to get to the notch. Here is our winter photograph of mills as a guide along the narrows. Notice he is standing right at the edge. The people he is guiding are clutching the side of the wall. I dont blame them for that a bit. Here are two photographs 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 the 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 and from there to machine driller, compressor, night foreman, and finally to plant engineer. He was also offered in its Carnegie Library the opportunity for self education and mills made the most of it. A frequent brawler borrower mills read widely and well. Distilling his thoughts and essays he wrote in commonplace books to hone his writing skills. He began with the classics. Over the years, mills reading would become increasingly more specialized. Mills valued books greatly and in time would amass in his cabin at longs peak inn a personal library worthy of any collegian. The winter of 1889 proved a turning point. Having made his way to San Francisco because an underground fire had closed down the anaconda mine, 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 listened. After the others had left, mills stayed behind to pose some questions of his own to the stranger. That man, it turned out, was scottishamerican naturalist john muir. At 51, the patron saint of american conservation and preservation, who had recently launched his campaign to preserve the magnificent valley of the yosemite river as a National Park. Here is a photograph of muir, obviously older than 54. During the walk that followed, muir challenged mills on the subject of vocation. The impact was profound. Muirs questions and observations had the effect over time of transforming mills somewhat aimless and undirected appreciation of nature into a passionate commitment of wilderness preservation. You have helped me more than all the others, mills would write muir in january of 1913 in the midst of the campaign for Rocky Mountain National Park. But for you, i might never have done anything. Later, mills would go even further. I owe everything to muir, he wrote. If it hadnt been for him, i would have been a mere gypsy. Muir became mills role model. What john of the mountains as muir was called, had done for yosemite and valleys of california, enos 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 to nevada, alaska, and the midwest. It 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 photographs. He also wrote out among local ranches and resorts talking to , oldtimers, collecting bits of local history that he would weave into his first book, the story of estes park. Published in 1905. Heres a photograph of mills at the age of 25 in 1895, 2 years after that first speech 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. Mills then set about expanding and enlarging the small resort. The main lodge and its recently enlarged dining room burned to the ground in june of 1906. Mills was back a month later using the opportunity to rebuild the inn to his own unique specifications. By using when carved trees gnarled roots, and tree stumps, mills gave the new longs peak inn a unique appearance and atmosphere. Within a few short years, thanks to mills talents as an innkeeper, longs peak inn became known as one of the better Mountain Resorts in the nation. The values and beliefs of enos mills would expand its reputation and in time attract as paying guests some of the bestknown and most influential men and women of the day. Here are some photographs of early longs peak in. This one has obviously been hand colored. This is what arose in place of longs peak house after that fire of 1906. Heres an example of mills use of natural woods to rebuild the hotel. A picture of the rustic stairway, for which in later years, mills would use in the evening to come down and stand and give after dinner lectures to his guests. Another photograph of mills as mountaineer. Nicely posed. Enis mills and his colleague collie dog scotch, the famed duo but now say it in our part. A cabin at longs peak inn, a wonderful photograph with longs peak behind. At longs peak in, you will hear the call of the wild. This is the postcard mills published and gave to his guests. Here is mills and a friend, a chipmunk. Mills would probably have remained little more than a local and regional celebrity had it not been for two events, that together with his expanded writings, provided him with the audience, reputation, and influence needed to achieve larger goals. The first occurred in 1902 when he was appointed colorados official snow observer. For the next three winters mills traversed the high