The Rocky Mountain Conservancy is proud to announce the publication of “When the Park Was Young: Chapters in the Early History of Rocky Mountain National Park,” the newest work by James H. Pickering, PhD, Estes Park’s historian laureate and one of the foremost chroniclers of the region’s past. The book is available now 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 modest $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 and laid the foundation for what would become one of America’s most beloved national parks.
In five engaging and meticulously researched chapters, Pickering examines how early park superintendents navigated the monumental task of building infrastructure, managing concessions and welcoming visitors to a fledgling national treasure. He 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.
Richly illustrated and thoroughly documented, “When the Park was Young” sheds light on the formative years of Rocky Mountain National Park, revealing patterns that continue to shape its story to this day. As Rich Fedorchak, the park’s former chief of interpretation, notes in his foreword, “Park histories like Jim Pickering’s demonstrate, and remind us, that national parks like Rocky Mountain do not exist, and never have existed, as worlds apart. They exist in time, continually subject to, and shaped by, the human history that takes place in and around them.”
Dr. 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. His latest work continues his decades-long dedication to preserving and interpreting the intertwined histories of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.
“When the Park Was Young: Chapters in the Early History of Rocky Mountain National Park” is published by the Rocky Mountain Conservancy and is available now at rmconservancy.org/shop.
- Collector’s hardcover edition: $65.95
- Members’ price: $59.46
- Paperback edition: $26.95
- Members’ price: $22.91
