This Blue Hollow: Estes Park the Early Years 1859-1915

About this book

"This Blue Hollow" is the first comprehensive account of the early history of Estes Park Colorado the "gem of the Rockies." In this enthralling narrative James H. Pickering traces the development of Estes Park as a mountain resort community from the time of its first recorded discovery by Joel Estes in 1859 to the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915. Though Estes and his family stayed only briefly others quickly followed: hunters homesteading settlers lumbermen mountaineers artists writers and vacationers. They came for many reasons: first for settlement exploration and exploitation and later for escape health recreation and renewal. Their collective experiences and accomplishments--their successes as well as their failures--are chronicled in this book. Based on Pickerings extensive use of primary sources "This Blue Hollow" details the lives of such characters as Joel Estes and Griffith J. Evans the valleys first residents; the "notorious" James Nugent ("Rocky Mountain Jim") and his short but tempestuous relationship with the celebrated English traveler Isabella Lucy Bird; and the Earl of Dunraven a wealthy Irishman who was successful in his (illegal) attempt to secure control of as much of the park as possible for his own uses. The book also explores such significant events as the coming of the first pioneer families and permanent settlers as well as their development of Estes Park as a place to farm ranch and entertain tourists; the conquest of Longs Peak and the first explorations of other high and remote places; and the people and circumstances that led to the establishment of the town of Estes Park in 1905 and Rocky Mountain National Park a decade later. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Colorado. James H. Pickering a summer resident of Estes Park is a professor of English at the University of Houston where he has also served as dean provost and president. Over the past dozen years he has written or edited ten books on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Colorado history.