Rocky Mountain Conservancy releases new RMNP history

ESTES PARK — The Rocky Mountain Conservancy has released a new book that captures the history of Rocky Mountain National Park’s early years.

“When the Park Was Young: Chapters in the Early History of Rocky Mountain National Park,” is the newest work of James H. Pickering, Estes Park’s historian laureate. The book is available in two editions: a signed and numbered hardcover collector’s edition and paperback.

“When Charles Russell Trowbridge arrived in Estes Park on July 1, 1915, to open the new national park, he faced an extraordinary challenge: With only three full-time rangers and a $10,000 budget, he was charged with overseeing 358 square miles of newly designated public land. In “When the Park Was Young,” Pickering explores how Trowbridge and his early successors met those challenges — laying the foundation for what would become one of America’s most beloved national parks,” the conservancy noted in a press release detailing the release of the book.

Pickering’s book examines how early park superintendents navigated the task of building infrastructure, managing concessions, and welcoming visitors to a new national park, the eighth national park to be created. The author “brings to life the conflicts, characters, and controversies that shaped the park’s formative years — including the furor that erupted in 1919 over the concession awarded transportation pioneer Roe Emery, a decade-long dispute that involved both park advocate Enos Mills and, ultimately, the sitting Secretary of the Interior.”Pickering has served as Estes Park’s historian laureate since 2006 and is a longtime board member and past president of the Rocky Mountain Conservancy. The book is available from RMConservancy.org/shop. The collector’s hardcover is available for $65.95 and the paperback at $26.95.

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