She looks tired, worn out after being up most of the night, tending to a sick patient. She's walking home in deep snow on a very cold windy night with her medical bag and railroad lantern. In her younger years she joked about carrying a six gun, . . . — — Map (db m288395) HM
Soldier weather. Bone-jarring exposure to heat, rain, wind, dust, numbing cold, sleet, and snow. Day after day of mind-bending boredom, interspersed with moments of stark terror. These elements chipped away at an infantry soldier on foot or in the . . . — — Map (db m288399) HM
As the lead organization for the Eisenhower sculpture, the Fraser Valley Lions Club and sculptor Howard Neville are proud to tell you the story of the Western White House. Known as Ike, Dwight Eisenhower is one of America’s best-loved . . . — — Map (db m295385) HM
The Indian and Eagle are highly regarded symbols of Americana. Prized by the Indian, eagle feathers guided arrows to their targets, and feathers served in civil, military, and religious displays. To capture these noble rulers of the heavens, . . . — — Map (db m288498) HM
Jeremiah Johnson was a Mountain Man. Indians gave him the name “Dapiek Absaroka”, meaning Crow Killer. He carried on a one-man war with the Crow Indian Nation in retaliation for the death and scalping of his Flathead Indian wife, The Swan, and . . . — — Map (db m288398) HM
Scout, pathfinder, guide, mountain man, explorer, fur trader, blacksmith, and merchant; Jim Bridger was all of these. He is regarded as one of America's greatest frontiersmen, and overall, the Rocky Mountain West's most gifted scout. When it came . . . — — Map (db m288400) HM
A few hours after Sheriff Billy Cozen's wife had given birth to their first child, he apprehended two bank robbers. Gilpin County afforded no jail yet, so Billy took the suspects home and chained them — against his wife's protest — to the bed where . . . — — Map (db m288497) HM
Late spring blizzards — a virtual white-out. Calves born in the thick of it. Straight line winds smacking against wet newborn hide. A rancher struggles to recover a young calf, but sometimes it’s too late. Deliberate extinction of the buffalo on . . . — — Map (db m288397) HM
These figures were sculpted in the hope that they will prompt young people to read about America's frontier and our fascinating Western Heritage. The frontier was as much an attitude as a place. As settlers pushed the wilderness further and . . . — — Map (db m288199) HM
Against the Flow
Water is the most pivotal natural resource in the West. It dictates agricultural, industrial, and domestic use and growth. In 1890, the legislature funded a feasibility study for transporting western slope water to the . . . — — Map (db m311301) HM
During construction of the Windy Gap pipeline, workers uncovered prehistoric sites of national significance. This discovery temporarily halted construction so that evidence of past human culture could be studied. Before the Windy Gap findings, . . . — — Map (db m311360) HM
Vacationers driving wagons and Model T Ford's rumbled up this road in the 1920s to spend a week or more at Sophie and John Holzswarth's Trout Lodge. After each day's fishing, guests strolled to the "Mama" Cabin-the largest building to the left where . . . — — Map (db m162341) HM
One of the Kawuneeche Valley's first dude ranches once thrived here. In 1917, German immigrants Sophia and John G. Holzwarth built their homestead here, after wartime prohibition closed their saloon in Denver. Originally ranchers, they began hosting . . . — — Map (db m162343) HM
“Not Even Ghosts, But Rather Phantoms”
”It gave us a queer feeling to realize that substantial things like railroads and buildings that we helped build have vanished. Was it all a dream? Monarch and the railroad are not even ghosts, but . . . — — Map (db m311307) HM
The Nation’s Backbone
Jutting up from the valley floor, this rugged mountain range forms a section of the Continental Divide that is often called the “backbone of the nation.” The Divide runs the length of the continent. It parts the . . . — — Map (db m311305) HM
Automobiles Come to Grand Lake (panel 1)
The number of automobiles had become so large that in 1913 the State of Colorado began issuing its first license plates. The 1915 dedication of Rocky Mountain National Park drew 2000 people, . . . — — Map (db m129881) HM
In 1881 James Cairns built his first store here to serve the miners. In 1908 he replaced it with a better building, purchased by Matilda Humphrey in 1924. It survives as the central part of the Humphrey store. The small residence was Cairns interim . . . — — Map (db m129850) HM
Grand Lake was formed by glacial action, the ice gouged back into the mountains to the east. As the climate warmed, the glacier melted irregularly, leaving ridges of clay and rocks called moraines. Moraines edge the west and north shore, and are . . . — — Map (db m129855) HM
The largest natural lake in Colorado Formed by glaciation 30,000 years ago Long known as the headwaters of the Colorado River. It is included in the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. Water from here flows through the “Adams Tunnel” to Estes . . . — — Map (db m129892) HM
Grand Lake Lodge Built 1919
has been placed on the National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States Department of the Interior
— — Map (db m129878) HM
Ezra Kauffman first came to the area as a hunting guide and miner in 1877. After the mines closed, he raised his family in the community he loved. He completed this hotel in 1892 and operated it until his death in 1920. The Kauffman family . . . — — Map (db m129856) HM
The Kawuneeche Valley is prime moose habitat. Wetlands along the Colorado River support aquatic plants, willows, and Aspen that moose eat. Moose frequented here, then were hunted out of the area by the early 1900s. In the late 1970s, the Colorado . . . — — Map (db m164288) HM
When the town of Grand Lake was platted in 1881, Grand Avenue was designed to be 100 feet wide. Although traffic congestion was not a problem, extra space was allowed for rodeos and horse races.
The Public Square was often used for community . . . — — Map (db m129840) HM
Rapids Lodge is one of three tourist hotels built between 1900 and 1920. The other two burned. Laps Ish, the owner and builder, sawed all lumber of lodgepole pine. Until about 1935 the lights and some heat for the hotel came from his own water . . . — — Map (db m129852) HM
In 1882 P.H. Smith settled in Grand Lake. He built a hotel and also operated a sawmill, carpentry shop, and a large resort. Around 1915, along with the Alfred Eslick family, he built this Motor Court, designed to accommodate both visitors and their . . . — — Map (db m129857) HM
The Smith Eslick Bay Window Cottage was built by the Eslick's youngest child, Loren, in 1933 when he was 26 years old. It was intended to be a check-in and store for the guests staying at the Cottage Court and other Smith and Eslick family cabins . . . — — Map (db m129884) HM
The Rapid Growth
The second largest wildfire in Colorado history, the East Troublesome Fire, was first reported on October 14, 2020. Originating northeast of Kremmling, it continued to burn eastward for about two weeks. The peak spread . . . — — Map (db m242392) HM
The Smith Eslick Cottage Court (panel 1)The Smith-Eslick Cottage Court is believed to be the oldest original-condition motel in the United States. Built at about the same time as the 1915 opening of Rocky Mountain National Park and the . . . — — Map (db m129879) HM
Entrepreneur P.H. Smith brought his family to Grand County from Kansas. In 1893 he started a sawmill in Grand Lake and acquired several local properties.
A skillful craftsman, P.H. Smith built many significant structures, including the Grand . . . — — Map (db m129883) HM
The Smith Eslick Family (panel 1)
Entrepreneur P.H. Smith brought his family to Grand County from Kansas. In 1893 he started a sawmill in Grand Lake and acquired several local properties.
A skillful craftsman, P.H. Smith built many . . . — — Map (db m129880) HM
It's said that Grand Lake has always had tourists. Even the original visitors, the Ute and Arapaho for example, would come in the summer to hunt and fish in the largest natural lake in Colorado, but would leave when winter approached. Then, as now, . . . — — Map (db m129882) HM
The Blacksmith Shop was built in 1979 on this site with a combination of logs from shops on the Old Oaks Ranch at the mouth of Troublesome Creek in west Grand County and from the Kinney Ranch four miles east of Hot Sulphur Springs. The forge, . . . — — Map (db m289181) HM
The schoolhouse was built east of
Cottonwood Pass in 1920. After it was
discontinued as a school in 1942, the
building was occupied by lettuce growers
and later moved to a nearby ranch and used
for grain storage. It was moved to this . . . — — Map (db m246955) HM
This building was built in Sulphur on the northwest side of the town facing south. It was first used by C.H. Hook as a general store. After years of being used for many other purposes, it became the courthouse in 1888 through 1902. In 1937 it was . . . — — Map (db m288899) HM
This building was built specifically for law enforcement purposes and is the oldest incarceration building still existing in Grand County. Previous jails were “cells” constructed within buildings that were used for other purposes. It was first . . . — — Map (db m289066) HM
In 1869, a Civil War veteran turned college professor, Major John Wesley Powell, led nine men on the last great exploration of the continental United States. Powell and his men set out from Green River, Wyoming, on May 24, 1869, on a journey to map . . . — — Map (db m295381) HM
In the summer of 1861, Edward Berthoud camped by the hot springs near this bend in the Grand River (it would become the Colorado in the 20th century). Berthoud and his expedition formed the Middle Park Claim Club and made tentative plans for Grand . . . — — Map (db m295384) HM
This log building was built by the United States Forest Service on a site 15 miles south of Parshall sometime between 1906 and 1909. It was known as the Horseshoe Ranger Station and was the first ranger station on the Arapaho National Forest . . . — — Map (db m289098) HM
Auspiciously located at the junction of Muddy Creek and the Blue and Colorado Rivers, present-day Kremmling never lacked for through traffic, but it did lack for gold — and, thus, for settlers. Hopeful town builders laid out a plat here as early as . . . — — Map (db m291387) HM
For early settlers in these isolated mountains, medicine was generally a do-it-yourself business. The nearest doctor often lived a day's travel or more away, leaving patients to depend on folk treatments, Indian herbal cures, and the unsure . . . — — Map (db m291296) HM
With the faith and courage of their forefathers who made possible the freedom of these United States The Boy Scouts of America dedicate this copy of the Statue of Liberty as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty The Crusade to . . . — — Map (db m281980) HM
“I often wonder how long all the game is going to last,” wrote market hunter Frank Mayer in 1878. “You can’t have wild animals and civilization side by side.” Permanent settlement had only recently come to this area, ushered in by gold . . . — — Map (db m291285) HM
This miner's cabin is one of the oldest buildings left standing in the Kawuneeche Valley. In 1902, Joseph Fleshuts homesteaded 160 acres here with the intent to live on the land for at least five years. Life must have been hard. In 1911 he abruptly . . . — — Map (db m89117) HM
Berthoud Pass Across the Continental Divide between South Platte and Colorado River drainages
Altitude 11,314 Feet
Discovered by Capt. E.L. Berthoud Colorado pioneer May 12, 1861. Surveyed by Berthoud and Jim Bridger July, 1861. Toll Road . . . — — Map (db m129889) HM
Homestead, ranch, stagecoach stop, post office, hotel, Jesuit retreat, museum Placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior June 9, 1988 — — Map (db m288200) HM
Cozens Ranch Museum Welcome to historic Grand County, known by early explorers as Middle Park. Connect with history by visiting the Heritage Coalition's many historic and cultural sites - from the top of Berthoud Pass, west along Highway 40 to . . . — — Map (db m288193) HM
Grand County Skiing Grand County was one of the first areas in Colorado where people enjoyed the sport of skiing. While mail carriers, loggers and other workers used the "Norwegian Snowshoes" (or skis) as necessary winter . . . — — Map (db m288196) HM
Grand County Tourism Since the opening of Berthoud Pass in 1874, Grand County has been a draw for vacationers and tourists. Ranchers, such as the Cozens Family, or pioneers such as the Kauffman's of Grand Lake, housed early guests. . . . — — Map (db m288197) HM
