From Mountain Homeland to National Playground: A History of Perceptions of Landscape in Estes Park, Colorado

Cravens examines conceptions of the Estes Park valley from the perspectives of native people, Anglo-American travelers, white settlers, and the American public, up to 1915. In 1915, the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park privileged one perception, legally and culturally. Cravens contrasts views of sacredness and the role of nature, arguing that native conceptions of the valley—particularly the Ute and Arapaho tribes’—were ultimately erased from cultural memory by its legislation as a national park and replaced with the mythology of untouched wilderness. Cravens draws on local history collections in Colorado, in addition to published primary accounts and secondary sources.