QUARTERLY Autumn 2014
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QUARTERLY Autumn 2014 T 1914 A V: during their journey. These fi eld notes I T S were organized and published 48 years by James H. Pickering later, in 1962, by what is now the Rocky Mountain Conservancy under the tle About noon on Tuesday, July Arapaho Names and Trails. Thanks in 14, 1914, three Northern Arapaho large measure to this trip, some 36 Indians arrived by train at Longmont. Indian names were subsequently affi xed The oldest, age 73, was Gun Griswold, to mountains, trails, lakes, and other a rather taciturn re red judge. His local land features (as well as names younger, and much more animated in transla on—e.g. Gian rack, Lumpy companion, was Sherman Sage, age Ridge, and Never Summer). Oliver Toll 63, dressed for the occasion in his had no formal training as an ethnologist blue-cloth chief-of-police uniform. or linguist. Yet, as the late Jim Benedict Accompanying them was Tom Crispin, has observed, though not ethnography a much younger man of mixed blood. in the classic sense, his notes provide “a Crispin spoke fl uent Arapaho and deligh ul — o en humorous — account English and was there to serve as fi lled with informa on, much of which interpreter. Met at the sta on by has proven reliable.” automobiles, by late a ernoon the But what was, and is, the real three had been taken to Longs Peak Inn and las ng signifi cance of the visit of as guests of its owner, Enos Mills. the 1914 Arapaho? To be sure there The Arapaho had come from are those place-names, and, even the Wind River Reserva on in west more importantly, the legends and central Wyoming at the invita on stories that the two elderly Arapaho of the nomenclature commi ee a ached to them: the Apache Fort in of the Colorado Mountain Club, as Upper Beaver Meadows, Longs Peak, part of its campaign to gain support Thatchtop, and Specimen Mountain, for the crea on of Rocky Mountain the waters of Grand Lake, as well as the Na onal Park. Earlier that year CMC ancient trails that led up and over the members had come up with the idea tundra of Trail Ridge. These legends and of researching the original Na ve stories are, as Benedict notes, “all we American names of landmarks in have.” the Estes region. Unable to locate Un l 1914, there had been paid professional anthropologists, the CMC li le or no a en on to the region’s pre- turned to the Arapaho themselves, history. In fact, Enos Mills, the area’s issuing an invita on for a two-week fi rst historian, in his 105 page narra ve pack trip that July through the area, published in 1905, The Story of Estes ou i ed and led by veteran guide Park, dismissed that past in a single Shep Husted. Oliver Toll, a 23-year-old brief paragraph: “When Estes fi rst came lawyer, was recruited to take notes (1914 Arapaho con nued on page 2) I: MOUNTAIN VALLEY JOURNALS — NEW PUBLICATION! PAGE 3 2 Rocky Mountain Conservancy Newsle er Rocky Mountain Conservancy Newsle er 3 Rocky Mountain Conservancy’s Ask Nancy Newest Publication: Quarterly Editor Nancy Wilson a empts to unearth answers A Next Generation Fund Project to any ques ons asked by Conservancy members and park visitors. If you are curious about something in or about the park, email [email protected] or write: Mountain Nancy Wilson, Rocky Mountain Conservancy, PO Box 3100, ValleyV Journals Estes Park, CO 80517. How many vehicles, on average, go off Trail Ridge Road in a Sketches of year and how are the vehicles retrieved? Fortunately this is Larry Van Sickle Larry Van (1914 Arapaho con nued) shared their history, stories, legends, place in a given landscape over me. It MoraineM Park and an infrequent occurrence, par cularly above tree line where the consequences can be more dire. While I don’t have actual num- to the Park he saw new lodge poles and and culture, as well as their present- involves not only understanding our own Estes Park bers at hand, each year we see a small number of motor vehicle other recent Indian signs, but, so far as day concerns, with those who came cultural experience in that landscape but accidents that involve vehicles leaving the roadway and sliding, is known, there never was an Indian in by. The next day they were escorted something of the cultural experience Through Time rolling, or otherwise ending up somewhere “down there.” That the Park since the white man came.” across Trail Ridge to Grand Lake to of those who have gone before. And it “down there” is most o en below tree line and a fairly short Since there had been no fron er-like symbolically complete the pack trip of involves our ability to connect the two. The last great Ice Age was over and the climate was distance from the road. Accidents typically occur during the encounter between Na ve Americans their ancestors. Enos Mills, in describing the world warming when the fi rst paleo-hunters came to Moraine winter months when roads are slick and visitors are limited to and Europeans, their one- me presence That day in Bond Park the Arapaho that Joel Estes stumbled upon, saw Park and Estes Park, two scenic valleys in today’s Rocky lower eleva on motor touring. That said, on rare occasions had li le meaning for Mills. elders talked about those ancestors it only as an unpeopled wilderness Mountain Na onal Park area. Other Indian tribes, nota- we do have a vehicle go off Trail Ridge Road above tree line. In In 1914 the Arapaho were similarly for whom the Estes region was once a upon which the Estes family, without bly the Ute and Arapaho, followed in their footprints to either case, retrieval is typically achieved by contac ng a local dismissed with li le more than wry special place, and about the legends and challenge, could superimpose their own stalk the valleys’ abundant game. tow truck service; and collabora ve eff orts to move the vehicle humor. The Longmont Ledger set stories that grew out of their contact kind of civiliza on. Un l Mills populated Trappers, explorers and adventurers came and went from “down there” to “up here” are undertaken with the goal of the stage, telling its readers that the with the land itself. It was then that I that world with the pioneers who as America completed its westward expansion. Pioneer safety, effi ciency, and minimal impact to park resources. Arapaho’s arrival “suggested dream suddenly understood, in a moment of followed, Estes Park had no history, no se lers built ca le ranches. In the Estes Valley, a ny On the dire side of the ledger, I recall an incident during the land, fairy land and Leather Stocking personal epiphany, the real and las ng “sense of place.” se lement grew into a renowned na onal park gateway signifi cance of the Arapaho pack trip In 1914 Gun Griswold and Sherman early 1980s when a vehicle catapulted off Tundra Curves eject- Tales.” Oliver Toll recalled that “we resort. In Moraine Park, a diff erent story played out. a century ago. The gi of the Arapaho Sage told us about the myths, legends, ing driver, passenger, luggage, groceries and other property. became at once public characters to This book’s beau ful illustra ons by noted Denver to us was what historians, sociologists, and stories their ancestors a ached to (Accidents con nued on page 15) the ci zens of Longmont; and in fact ar st Thomas Haller Buchanan will take you on a trip and psychologists refer to as “a sense of the land — myths, legends, and stories throughout the trip were accorded a through 12,000 years of history in the Moraine Park My family o en stayed in Estes Park with our great aunt place in the es ma on of the public place,” a combina on of characteris cs which they in turn passed down among who was an in-law of the McCreery family. She lived in a and meanings that make a par cular their people and which Oliver Toll, in and Estes Park valleys. Ar st’s journal entries give voice somewhere between that of a governor to iconic characters represen ng key periods along the cabin along Lumpy Ridge that was built in 1915. During and a theatrical troupe.” For most, these piece of geography unique and special. turn, passed down to us. The Arapaho this me, no one ever referred to the mountains across the Human beings naturally wish to sense of place — the Estes Park-Rocky valleys’ historical meline and introduce readers to Na ve Americans returning home were north side of the Estes Valley as “Lumpy Ridge.” When did understand the places where they live. Mountain Na onal Park region — that important people and events that shaped the valleys — li le more than anachronisms of the the ridge become Lumpy Ridge and for what is it named? A fully developed sense of place involves they shared so willingly in 1914 was one past and present. So cover, $12.95 plus shipping. Old West, much like the vaudevillians According to High Country Names, by Arps and Kingery (pub- knowing and understanding the human that their descendants confi rmed for of Buff alo Bill’s Wild West Show, a lished by the Rocky Mountain Nature Associa on in 1977 with a cultural experience that has taken us in Bond Park a hundred years later.