In 1929, Marie L. Greenwood and Margaret I. Shelton became two of the first Black girls to attend the girls’ conference in Estes Park, as well as one of the first Black mentors, Lillian Bondurant. Little information about Lillian Bondurant and Margaret I. Shelton exists about their life after the conference; however, Marie L. Greenwood would go on to make her mark on Colorado history. Marie L. Greenwood, born in Los Angeles, California, on November 24, 1912, was the first tenured African American educator in Colorado. When she was thirteen years old, she and her family moved to Denver, Colorado to seek better opportunities. When she was seventeen years old, she attended the Girls’ Reserve and Business Girls Conference in Estes Park. In 1931, she attended Colorado Teachers College, now the University of Northern Colorado. She could not join clubs, student organizations, or live on campus because of her skin color. In 1938, she began teaching as a tenured educator at Denver’s Whittier Elementary School. Her legacy continued as she grew to become a revered teacher. In 2001, Denver Public Schools named a new elementary school in her honor, and in 2010, Denver proclaimed November 4th as Marie Greenwood Day. She went on to publish two books: By the Grace of God and Every Child Can Learn, an autobiography that chronicles the stories of some of her most notable students. She also received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado, as well as the Martin Luther King Trailblazer Award in 2010. In 2019, she died at the age of 106.

During the mid 1910s to the mid 1920s, Colorado had the second highest membership of Ku Klux Klan leaders. It caused Black people to create safe spaces for themselves, often outside the space of whiteness. Black Coloradans created neighborhoods and towns to save themselves from racism and violence. This act of preservation was also segregation, however the YWCA saw the significance of establishing diversity and friendship through different groups. The YWCA established the Girls’ Reserves and Business Girls Conference. These conferences took place all over the country at predominately white YWCAs and YMCAs, including Estes Park’s YMCA.

Estes Park YMCA and Marie L. Greenwood

This tour brings listeners across the Estes Valley and Rocky Mountain National Park to learn the history of the forgotten women that helped shape the region's history. Best enjoyed during the summer to experience the full tour and the breathtaking views along this ten-stop tour. Beginning at the Estes Park Women's Monument, you can learn more about the history of influential women that this tour does not cover. The tour then takes you to the Estes Park Visitor Center, you you can learn more about the history of the area, and what Estes Park has to offer before embarking on your tour. Taking you to several sites in town, before traveling southward to learn more about the Mountaineers, Tea Rooms, and forgotten voices of the Estes Valley. Then heading north into Rocky Mountain National Park, listeners will learn about the Naturalists, Conservationists, and Judges that helped create, preserve, and protect the area they called home. The Forgotten Women in Familiar Places: Extraordinary Women of the Estes Valley allows listeners to see the breathtaking scenery of the region through the lens of the women that impacted it.

The Estes Park Women's Club was founded in 1912, with the goal of bringing together the women of Estes Park to enhance the town, and the lives of those who live there. The first project completed by the club was the enhancement and construction of numerous trails in the region. By making the trails safer and easier to traverse, the Women's Club greatly enhanced the scenery and vistas available to Estes Park residents and tourists. The club also sought to build a library in town, both to function as their meeting place but also to give access to literature to those living in town. This library would transfer locations numerous times in its history before the Town of Estes Park granted a plot to build a new library in Bond Park in 1922 where it still stands today. The Estes Park Women's Club is still integral to the library and town of Estes Park today. Their work to highlight the history of influential women in the Estes Valley opened the door to further scholarship on the women of the Estes Valley. The Estes Park Women's Club was accepted into the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs in 1914 and continues to serve the community since then.

Dedicated in 2021, this site hosts a collection of twelve bronze statues depicting individual women who were influential to Estes Park History. Designed by the Estes Park Women's Club, the monuments were erected in 2021 to highlight the influential women that helped make Estes Park what it is today. Showcasing women like Margaret Fuller, Flora Stanley, Wendy Koenig, and many more, the monument is a must-see when visiting Estes Park.

Estes Park Women's Monument and the Estes Park Woman's Club

Elizabeth Mary Ann Foot, born in 1871 in England, was a cornerstone of the Estes Park economy. While taking care of her younger siblings, she also successfully entered the real estate business. In the late 1880s, Foot visited Estes Park with her friends. She must have fallen in love with the mountain town; she decided to purchase property on the Fall River, which currently serves as the parking lot for Performance Park. [Foot then erected a “collection of tent lodgings for summer visitors. By the 1930s, she had developed those into cottages for rental.”]Foot opened a general store in 1891 where she sold “everything from needles to Sloan’s liniment and lemons.” In 1906, Foot relocated her store to the corner of Elkhorn and Moraine to make room for Josephine Jose Hupp’s new hotel. As businesses boomed with tourism, the property became prime real estate. Soon other entrepreneurs arrived in the mountain town. Foot decided to leave the mercantile business, but her long-lasting business success allowed her to become an Estes Park philanthropist by the mid-twentieth century.In 1950, Foot’s generous donations led to the construction of the Estes Park Chamber of Commerce in Bond Park. The town erected a plaque with Foot’s words: “In this gracious valley, under the protective vigilance of the everlasting hills, may our visitors find surcease. With affectionate loyalty to Estes Park, my home for sixty years, I give this building.” Foot’s time in Estes Park ended when she moved into a senior care facility in Garden Grove, California in 1954. She died in 1966 aged 95. Foot’s successful businesses helped strengthen the tourism trade in Estes Park.

Located in northern Colorado, at the base of the Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park’s natural landscape and surroundings attracted people. Like every U.S town, Estes Park’s history starts with the people who originally inhabited the valley: the Ute and Arapaho tribes. The Ute and Arapaho people first came to the Estes Valley about ten thousand years ago, where they thrived until the nineteenth century, when white settlers came to the Colorado territory in search of gold. Starting in the 1860s, men like Joel Estes and Abner Sprague established settlements in the valley. From making the strenuous hike to Longs Peak, to establishing homesteads to better reflect their love for nature, to maintaining ranches to grow sustainable crops in the valley, their contributions to Estes Park’s development make the town’s history more complete.

Estes Park and Elizabeth Mary Ann Foot 

Hattie Carruthers, nee Snodgrass, moved to Estes Park with Reverend Carruthers in 1917 for his health. Hoping that the higher and drier climate of Colorado would improve Reverend Carruthers’ health, the couple moved to Estes Park where Reverand Carruthers became the pastor of the Estes Park Presbyterian Church, with Hattie by his side.   The year 1917 saw the United States entering World War I. While the fighting occurred only in Europe, the First World War still impacted those living in Estes Park. Up to 43,000 Coloradoans served in the Great War. Estes Park decided to create defense clubs to create support and patriotism for the War effort. Chaired by Joe Mills, the Local Council of Defense established itself in 1918 to “protect property and conserve resources.” Enthusiasm was strong for this initiative, and a women’s division was created with Hattie Carruthers as the leader. While in Estes Park, she worked as Post Mistress for the town. After her husband's death in 1923, she resigned from her position, having held it for four years. After this, Mrs. Carruthers disappears from the record. However, in the brief moments she makes an appearance among the dusty papers of old newspapers, she clearly valued education and community through her work as a teacher and involvement in the town of Estes Park.

The Estes Park Post Office saw several homes in the early days of the community. The first location that housed the Post Office was Dunraven Ranch in 1879. It then moved to the Macgregor Ranch until 1884, before returning to Dunraven Ranch. Finally, in the 1890s, the town of Estes built a location on the main drive, Elkhorn Avenue. While the Post Office once again moved locations, it was the Elkhorn Avenue location that saw Hattie Carruthers as Postmistress from 1919-1924.

The Old Estes Park Post Office and Hattie Carruthers

Muriel MacGregorMuriel MacGregor was born on April 2, 1904, to Alexander and Clara MacGregor. She spent her childhood on the MacGregor Ranch but fell into higher education. An academic woman, she studied math at Colorado College and graduated in 1925; she then attended the University of Colorado, earning her History MA in 1931. Finally, she went to the University of Denver and earned an LLB in 1934. All the while, Muriel would return to visit the ranch. In 1936, she became “one of two women admitted to practice before the Colorado Supreme Court.” Once her parents died, she stayed on the ranch, beset by illness though as active as she could manage. Now in her 60s, lonely and becoming increasingly physically immobile, she looked for a friend. In October of 1964, Orpha Kendell moved to Estes Park and became close friends with Muriel. Orpha already knew of Muriel’s reputation in town, having heard stories of the “crazy Miss MacGregor.” By the spring of 1965, Orpha was visiting with Muriel nearly every day and driving her to the chiropractor once a week following stroke complications. Within a year, Muriel was too immobile even for Orpha to take to the chiropractor, much less help in and out of the car. Still, she loved to head off the ranch to drive around and look at cattle. She traveled to Fort Collins, Boulder, and Greeley to try to arrange a deal to leave the ranch to one of the universities there. Never married (perhaps by her parents’ own design), Muriel spent her last years tending to the ranch, bartering for help managing it through her disability, and searching out freedom, friends, and a future for her ranch. In Orpha, Muriel found someone to entrust the ranch to – not family, however distant, but the spiritual successor to her own love of the ranch and the community it fostered.	Orpha became the ranch manager, and later trustee, after Muriel died on October 22, 1970. Friends for just over five years, the impact each woman made on the other’s life changed the heart of the ranch. Orpha Kendell Orpha Kendall moved to Estes Park in October 1964 with her husband Orval, and she met Muriel that same year in November. In Orpha, Muriel found someone to entrust the ranch to – not family, however distant, but the spiritual successor to her own love of the ranch and the community it fostered. Orpha became the ranch manager, and later trustee, after Muriel died on October 22, 1970. Friends for just over five years, the impact each woman made on the other’s life changed the heart of the ranch. Orpha engineered the opening of the museum at the ranch in 1973 after a protracted legal battle with MacGregor cousins over Muriel’s will and some obstinacy from Carlson. With a new administrator, Jim Beatie, Orpha was able to proceed with $2,500 on the condition that the museum open by the summer season. Having started work in November 1972, the team was ready to open the museum in May 1973.  Muriel’s mission continued all the while Orpha struggled to save the ranch from litigious family members, rising attorney fees, and a troublesome trustee. In 1975, Orpha was one of the signatories of twenty-five-year agreements with UNC and the BOCES (Northern Colorado Board of Educational Services) to use the ranch for outdoor education. The Heritage Camp program soon started up, and school group visits began to boom. By 1985, between four and five thousand students were visiting annually, and Orpha was already implementing plans to expand the education center. Orpha also joined in lobbying the National Historical Society to get the ranch listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The efforts of the trustees have paid off as 28 of the 42 buildings on the ranch are listed on the NRHP as of 2022. What saved the ranch from financial collapse was a conservation easement signed in October 1983 which Orpha helped to draft and negotiate with the National Park Service for a sum of four million dollars. With this contract secured, Orpha and the other trustees were able to set up an endowment fund to continue investing in the ranch. Orpha maintained that she could not have saved the ranch alone, even if her stubbornness and dedication to the ranch was the cornerstone the community needed. Women made up many, if not the majority, of the volunteers there. Harriet Burgess, who went on to manage the museum, Debbie Burgess, Edwina Horst, Kay Haughey, Joanne Slizeski, Opal Paglia, and Moline Marriott. Over two hundred locals volunteered their time to the MacGregor Ranch. “‘Most everyone falls in love with the ranch as soon as they hear a little bit,” noted Orpha. Orpha dedicated forty years of her life’s work. Becoming part of her life and her family’s, and the volunteers’ and their families, the ranch has turned into a place of community.

Located in the Black Canyon Creek area of Estes Park, the MacGregor Ranch serves as a museum and a working cattle ranch. In 1873, Alexander and Clara MacGregor founded the MacGregor ranch, passing it on to their children over the years. Today it is the “last remaining working cattle ranch in Estes Park.” The original homestead house turned into a museum in 1973 and is open from June to October and hosts a multitude of people each year. Surrounded by mountains and majestic scenery, the historical homestead ranch is unique to Estes Park. Even more unique are the extraordinary women part of its story.

The MacGregor Ranch and the women that ran it

Ana Wolfrom, born March 1872 filed a homestead claim in 1907 for land near Estes Park, Colorado and opened the Wigwam Tea Room in 1914. Janet Robertson in Rocky Mountain Rustic notes that Wolfrom was the first unmarried woman in the region to receive a land title after proving up a land claim. The Wigwam Tea Room, the structure of which still exists today, is located about a mile and a half north-west of Lily Lake. The Wigwam, as well as the other structures on Wolfrom’s old property, though all completely out of use today, are under the National Park Service’s purview. In its heyday, the Wigwam Tea Room was a popular destination for travelers on foot or horse, and eventually by car. However, now the buildings are only accessible via a two-mile hike.Katherine Griffith Garetson, born July 1, 1877, in Terre Haute, Indiana, was the only currently known tea room proprietress in the Estes Park region to record extensively her experience proving up on a homestead claim and starting a tea room business. Garetson had clear motivations and dreams to live “the romance of the simple life [of] pioneers.” Garetson was successful enough to keep operating the tea room for many years, but not, it would seem, successful enough for her to live off only that one stream of income. To make ends meet, she convinced an elderly and wealthy friend of the family with tales of adventure to loan her money to continue homesteading. During the off season, Garetson would leave Estes Park to work as a stenographer and other jobs in St. Louis.Yaye Kato (née Nakayama) was born on May 10, 1901, in Okayma, Japan. At the age of ten, Kato immigrated to the United States. Together, the couple moved to Estes Park towards the end of 1927 where Ryoji opened Kato Art Shop, a gift shop where he sold Asian art. In June 1929, Yaye gave birth to her only child, a daughter named June. According to The Estes Park Trail, Yaye Kato opened the Oriental Tea Garden on June 21, 1931. There is little information about the tea room or its proprietress for the following year until Yaye Kato died somewhat suddenly from “a complication of illnesses” in a sanatorium in Boulder, Colorado, aged thirty-one.These three women showcased the opportunities of proprietorship that Estes Park had to offer. Their legacies paved the way for many other women to own businesses and created equal economic footing for women, a rarity in the late 19th century.

Estes Park proved to be an area where women could successfully run businesses. Many took the Homestead Act as a way to gain land ownership and start their own business. Women in the area like Anna Wolfrom Dove, Katherine Garetson, and Yaye Kato owned Tea Rooms. Tea Rooms served tea as well as other snacks and food to their local communities. These places became a hub for togetherness and became synonymous with women owned businesses in Estes Park.

The Tea Rooms of Estes Park

Carrie Welton, born in 1842 in Waterbury, Connecticut, became the first known woman to die on Longs Peak. Known for her kind heart and restless adventurous spirit, Carrie Welton was the only child of a wealthy family. Her father was a successful businessman and built a large estate in Waterbury where Carrie grew up. Her father gifted her a horse, Knight, which became Carries’ most beloved friend. From her home in Waterbury Carrie became involved with the ASPCA and would donate large sums to their organization. In 1874 after injuries sustained after being kicked by Knight, Welton’s father passed away. A few years later Knight would also pass away.Heartbroken and grief-stricken, Welton left her hometown to seek adventure in the West. Her adventures took her to the Rocky Mountains, where she sought to prove herself as a mountaineer. Attracted to the area of Estes Park for its beautiful scenery and access to new and difficult mountains, she honed her skills as a mountaineer. After conquering Pikes Peak and other notable mountains in Colorado, Welton was determined to climb Longs Peak. She employed the help of a guide, the young Carlyle Lamb. Carlyle was the son of Elkanah Lamb, who was among the first mountaineers to set up guiding businesses in the area.Departing from the Lamb’s cabin just before sunrise on September 23rd, 1884, Carrie and her guide began their trek up to Longs Peak. As the two approached the peak, they noticed a fierce snowstorm approaching. Carrie refused to submit to the storm and pressed on, successfully reaching the summit of Longs Peak. As the storm battered the exhausted hikers, they began their descent. However, as the duo crossed the ‘keyhole,’ Carrie showed signs of severe exhaustion. Carrie was unable to walk without assistance, but Carlyle quickly realized the incredible danger of their situation. It was about three in the afternoon, and the snowstorm showed no signs of letting up. Wrapping Carrie in his jacket and extra clothing to protect her from the vicious snowstorm, Carlyle sat her upright and quickly descended the mountain to get his father’s help.Carlyle and his father would arrive at the keyhole at dawn the next day. Carrie Welton had already passed away from exhaustion and hypothermia. She had crawled about ten feet from where Carlyle had left her. In those few feet she crawled, she slipped and struck her head against a rock. News of her death spread quickly, and many blamed Carlyle for leaving her to descend the mountain. One journalist lambasted Carlyle as a “Cowardly Cur” for abandoning Carrie on the mountain. According to newspapers from the time period, the Lambs placed a granite slab at the site of her death, which states, “Here is the spot where Carrie J. Welton laid to rest and died alone, Sept. 23, 1884.” However, this granite slab is no longer present at the keyhole, and its location remains unknown. Carrie’s remains were brought down from the mountain, and she was buried in her hometown of Waterbury Connecticut.  In her will, Carrie left over $150,000 to the ASPCA. After legal disputes over Carrie's will, the amount donated to the ASPCA was around $73,000. Over her lifetime, she would donate over $250,000 to the ASPCA. She also left $7,000 to her hometown of Waterbury to construct a fountain and life-size bronze statue of her beloved horse Knight. The statue and fountain are still present today. Carrie Welton was the first recorded white woman to die on Longs Peak. Her story is a grim reminder of the dangers that the Rocky Mountains present to even experienced and prepared adventurers.

From this viewpoint you can see Longs peak, at 14,259’ it’s the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park. Its breathtaking views and challenging ascent attract adventurous mountaineers from across the country. However, reaching the peak is no easy task. The rigorous trails will exhaust you; the sun can burn you, and snowstorms can freeze you. Since opening in 1915 the National Park Services has recorded over seventy deaths on longs peak, making it Colorado’s deadliest peak. However, the case of adventurous 19th-century socialite Carrie Welton predates even Rocky Mountain National Park.

Long's Peak and Carrie Welton

Mary Belle King Sherman (née King), born in Illinois in 1862, was one of the major proponents for the preservation of Rocky Mountain National Park. While still in Illinois, she was an active member of her community and the local Woman’s Club. In 1909, after an incapacitating shoulder injury, she moved with her husband and son to Estes Park to rehabilitate. Her cabin in Estes Park, called Tahosa, was nestled in the valley between Longs Peak and the Twin Sisters mountains. Sherman apparently admired Longs Peak from the window in her cabin, longing someday to climb it with her son once she recovered. The two did so sometime in the 1910s. An interview with Better Homes and Gardens implies that her home in Estes Park and her eventual trek up Longs Peak that inspired Sherman to actively conserve natural landscapes. Her first project after her professional transition to preservation focused on the Rocky Mountains. It later led to projects in five other National Parks. She became so well-known for her efforts that multiple sources refer to her as the “National Park Lady,” though the origin of this nickname is unclear. While in Estes Park, she teamed up with Enos Mills to help designate the nearby region of the Rocky Mountains as a National Park. Enos Mills himself credits her with an important role in the park’s creation. She lobbied directly to the National Park Service, often citing the natural landscape’s benefit to human health. Only two months after the National Park Service dedicated Rocky Mountain National Park, Sherman attended the National Park Conference in Berkeley, California, where she called on each state to survey its lands for potential national or state parks. As a part of her strategy, she advocated that nature was essential in the upbringing of healthy children. A preservationist through and through, Sherman separated herself from the conservation movement; she wanted to preserve the natural landscape purely for its beauty, [as good for the well-being of any American. NOTE: Meaning unclear]Sherman was president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and is an example of women’s involvement in the need for National Parks. In 1917, she appeared at the National Park Conference once again, proclaiming the work of women in the National Park Movement. She emphasized the importance of outdoor recreation to encourage the preservation of more natural scenery and more national parks. Sherman remained an active member of her community until her death in 1953, aged 91.

Located in northern Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park is rooted in environmental preservation and protection. In the 1900s and into the 1910s, the local residents of the Estes Valley championed the park’s creation, understanding the sublime mountainous landscape could attract tourists to the valley. Because of Rocky Mountain National Park’s existence, and its proximity to the town, Estes Park has become a popular location for tourists. Since Rocky Mountain National Park’s creation in 1916, millions of visitors [have been storming in and out] of the park to admire the natural ecosystem in the park. Many of them, including the women that have established permanent residencies in Estes Park because they strongly admired the beautiful, natural spaces that Rocky Mountain National Park offered for them.

Rocky Mountain National Park and Mary Belle King Sherman

Florence Ellinwood Allen was born in Utah on March 23, 1884. Her father moved the family to Cleveland, Ohio for a job as a linguist at Case Western Reserve University, and Florence spent her teenage years there. She later attended Case Western Reserve herself, graduating in 1904. After this, she traveled to Germany to study music. Florence returned to the United States, studying Constitutional Law at Case Western, graduating with a Master's Degree in 1908. From there, Florence entered law school at the University of Chicago Law, due to Case Western not accepting women at the time she applied. She only stayed at the University of Chicago for one year before transferring to New York University in New York City. During this time she acquainted herself with the suffragette movement, becoming an active member and advocate. Florence Allen graduated from law school in 1913 and returned to Ohio to set up her law practice.Florence Allen championed herself as an advocate for women’s rights and suffrage. Prior to women receiving national suffrage, she obtained a position as a prosecutor in Ohio, making her the first woman prosecutor in the state. After the passing of the nineteenth amendment, which gave women the right to vote in elections, she rallied up her suffragette supporters and ran for the Ohio Supreme Court in 1922, winning by five thousand votes. Judge Allen became the first woman judge to rise to the Ohio Supreme Court, as well as the first woman judge to sit on the bench for any state supreme court. Judge Allen’s next achievement would again leave her legacy as a trailblazer in the United States judicial system. A lifelong Democrat, the Roosevelt administration thought her to be a good candidate for a nomination for the Sixth District Court of Appeals. While she aspired for the highest court, the nomination never came, though allegedly she was on the shortlist during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. The first woman on the United States Supreme Court would be Sandra Day O’Conner in 1981, just fifteen years after Judge Allen passed away. While she never saw a woman sit on the highest bench, she certainly knew her significance as a pioneer for women in the legal profession and elsewhere, as she had many admirers and mentees.Judge Allen spent much of her professional life in Ohio. In her downtime, she liked to be outside. The freedom of the outdoors appealed to her, especially the West. It was through her love of the outdoors that she purchased a cabin in Moraine Park, up in the Rocky Mountains, in 1927. She purchased this property with a woman that she lived with, known as Mary Pierce. Mary Pierce was referred to as Judge Allen’s “distant cousin,” in public, though no familiar relation is known. Neither woman married, but the two lived with each other until Allen’s death in 1966. Mary Pierce and Judge Allen share a grave plot together in Ohio. The little family in the cabin in Moraine Park consisted of Mary, Florence, and their two dogs. The women spent time fishing, hiking, and gardening in their little patch of paradise. These two women clearly felt a deep connection to the place and each other, with Florence remarking that life in Moraine Park was, “hectic but satisfactory,” when comparing it to her life as a federal judge in Ohio. Mary and Florence built an addition onto their cabin, expanding and caring for their property for the next twenty-six years until age prevented them from doing so any longer and they sold their beloved cabin.The Florence Allen of Estes Park and her public-facing persona, Judge Allen, shattered the restraints of her gender in her private and public life. Throughout her career and private life, she showed dedication to the causes and people she loved. The summers she spent with Mary Pierce up in Estes Park show the freedom that the mountains gave these women to shed the boundaries of masculinity and femininity, mixing the rugged outdoors with the pleasure of leisure, in a space to care for, enjoy, and love each other. The cabin provided a space away from the constraints of gender roles, something that Florence Allen seemed to break from throughout her entire life, with the little cabin in Moraine Park standing as evidence of this.

Moraine Park is one of the more well-known areas of Rocky Mountain National Park. Many people know Moraine Park today as a popular campground for visitors to the National Park. Moraine Park is the only campground in Rocky Mountain National Park that is open year-round. Nearby the campground, several cabins stand starkly among the natural scenery. One of these cabins belonged to Judge Florence Allen of Ohio. Judge Allen summered in Moraine Park for many years with her partner Mary Pierce. She described her life in Moraine Park as “hectic but satisfactory.”

Moraine Park and Judge Florence Allen

Beatrice Willard, born in California in 1925 to a family of dedicated naturalists, was herself an acclaimed botanist and ecologist, best known for her extensive and revolutionary ecologic studies in Rocky Mountain National Park. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Stanford, Willard traveled to Europe on a fellowship where she first began studying alpine tundra ecology. She “dreamed of becoming a National Park Service naturalist-interpreter” and became one of the very first women to actually do so. Willard moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1957, where she lived most of her life. She earned her graduate degree and Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research working under Dr. John Marr. At this time, she began studying tundra vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park, noticing that the vegetation in these climates was almost completely destroyed. From there she started documentation on all the vegetation that grew in the tundra and under what conditions each flourished. Most notably, she documented how tourists have affected the tundra climate zones in Rocky Mountain National Park since traffic has increased.She promoted paved walking paths in the areas of Toll Pass, Rock Cut, Forest Canyon Overlook, and Fall River Pass. These were all near paved parking lots, which attracted thousands of visitors daily. In the Rock Cut area, she observed that there were no set paths during the first 26 years of use; tourists wandered at will. After 40 years of studying the alpine tundra, she worked with the National Park Service to determine a solution to the ecological damage. Willard’s research emphasized the importance of designated walkways for tourists, which encouraged people to stay on the path and helped mitigate the effects of wandering tourists, such as littering and flower picking. Per her recommendation, the Nation Park Service installed paved paths in the alpine tundra, to encourage tourists to stay on the path. With this development, visitors remained on the path a majority of the time, greatly promoting the growth of the alpine vegetation. Two of her Alpine Tundra Research Plots on Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park are now preserved as historic sites: Rock Cut Research Plot and Forest Canyon Research Plot. These research plots are some of the oldest alpine tundra research plots in the world and likely in the National Park System.In her research, she documented the effects of littering on vegetation. To do so, she photographed and recorded a tin can that was left on the ground. In an interview, Bill Coors cited an instance of meeting Beatrice Williard. She showed him a picture of one of his tin cans on the alpine tundra; it is unclear if it is the same tin can that she documents in her paper. However, this picture did inspire Bill Coors’ environmental consciousness, which later encouraged him to invent the aluminum can. Willard died in Boulder, Colorado in 2003, aged 78 years. Some cite her 40 years of research on the tundra as her greatest achievement. She was dedicated to understanding human relationships with the environment, and how to mitigate damage while maintaining the enjoyment of the environment. She was ahead of her time, calling on the National Park Service to think about future generations and how we want them to experience the park and the environment in general.

Opened in 1965, and located at 11,796' the Rocky Mountain National Park Alpine Visitor Center is the highest visitor center in any national park. The parking lot and viewing areas provide incredible views of the surrounding peaks and valleys. Inside you'll find a gift shop and a small museum where you can learn about the alpine environment. Rocky Mountain National Park is committed to the preservation of the alpine ecosystem, and many of the strategies they employ today can be attributed to Beatrice Willard.

Forgotten Women in Familiar Places: Extraordinary Women of the Estes Valley

Estes Park YMCA and Marie L. Greenwood

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources