Estes Park Convention & Visitors Bureau

Description

Estes, a Kentucky-born adventurer who had struck it rich in California a decade earlier, "discovered" the Estes Valley in 1859. A year later, he moved his wife and 13 children along with a herd of cattle to a beautiful meadow area along the east side of the mountains where they lived from 1860 to 1866. In 1864, William Byers, the owner and editor of the Rocky Mountain News, visited the area and named it Estes Park in honor of his host. However, Estes found the high altitude and short growing season made cattle ranching impractical, so he sold his homestead to Griff Evans who established a dude ranch. One of Evans' guests, the Earl of Dunraven, was so enamored of the area he decided to buy the entire valley for his own resort and hunting preserve. Dunraven's questionable actions to achieve that goal eventually were thwarted by area ranchers and mountain men. Colorful characters like Mountain Jim and Isabella Bird (a Victorian lady from Great Britain who chronicled her visit to the area in A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains) dot the area's history. Large cattle ranches were established in the 1870s by individuals like Alexander Q. MacGregor, who brought in prized herds of Aberdeen Angus. The MacGregor Ranch and Museum occupy the site of the founder's operation and is still a working ranch. Another settler, W. E. James, built the Elkhorn Lodge and supplemented his income with a "fish ranch." James and his sons would catch 500 to 800 trout a day for restaurants in Denver. F...

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