1.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
2.
Grand Lake, Colorado
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Grand Lake is a statutory town in Grand County, Colorado, United States. The population was 471 at the 2010 census, established in 1881, Grand Lake sits at an elevation of 8,369 feet and derives its name from the lake on whose shores it is situated, Grand Lake, the largest natural body of water in Colorado. Grand Lake was the Grand County seat of government from 1882-1888 and it was incorporated on June 23,1944. Grand Lake is located in northeastern Grand County at 40°15′2″N 105°49′28″W, U. S. Route 34 runs through the western side of the town, entering Rocky Mountain National Park just north of town and leading 45 miles across the mountains to Estes Park. To the southwest, US34 leads 15 miles to Granby, according to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.0 square mile, all of it land. Due to its elevation, Grand Lake has a climate with a short growing season. Temperatures are chilly at night even through the months. Grand Lake is Colorados largest and deepest natural lake, and is part of the headwaters of the Colorado River, the lake became a component in the Colorado-Big Thompson Project in 1937, when it was recruited as a conduit for C-BT project water. The C-BT project diverts water from the Colorado River Basin east via the Alva B, adams Tunnel under the Continental Divide and Rocky Mountain National Park to the Big Thompson River watershed, thence the South Platte River and ultimately the Mississippi River basin. Grand Lake Yacht Club is a club that hosts sailing races on the lake, and there are also publicly and privately operated marinas, a public boat ramp. As of the census of 2000, there were 447 people,219 households, the population density was 472.5 people per square mile. There were 748 housing units at a density of 790.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 96. 20% White,0. 67% African American,0. 89% Native American,0. 67% Asian,0. 22% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 68% of the population. 35. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 5. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.02 and the average family size was 2.60. In the town, the population was out with 16. 8% under the age of 18,6. 3% from 18 to 24,29. 3% from 25 to 44,35. 6% from 45 to 64. The median age was 44 years, for every 100 females there were 124.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 122.8 males, the median income for a household in the town was $45,096, and the median income for a family was $55,750. Males had an income of $30,833 versus $26,250 for females
3.
Estes Park, Colorado
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The Town of Estes Park /ˈɛstɪs/ is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. A popular summer resort and the location of the headquarters for Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park had a population of 5,858 at the 2010 census. The town overlooks Lake Estes and Olympus Dam, before Europeans came to the Estes Park valley, the Arapaho Indians lived there in the summertime and called the valley the Circle. When three elderly Arapahoes visited Estes Park in 1914, they pointed out sites they remembered from their younger days, toll, recorder, and David Robert Hawkins, a Princeton student. In the 1850s, the Arapaho had spent summers camped around Marys Lake, where their rock fireplaces, tipi sites and they also recalled building eagle traps atop Longs Peak to get the war feathers coveted by all tribes. They remembered their routes to and from the valley in detail, naming trails and they pointed out the site of their buffalo trap, and described the use of dogs to pack meat out of the valley. Their recollections included a battle with Apaches in the 1850s, and fights with Utes who came to the area to hunt bighorn sheep, whites probably came into the Estes Park valley before the 1850s as trappers, but did not stay long. The town is named after Missouri native Joel Estes, who founded the community in 1859, Estes moved his family there in 1863. One of Estes early visitors was William Byers, an editor who wrote of his ascent of Longs Peak in 1864. Griff Evans and his came to Estes Park in 1867 to act as caretakers for the former Estes ranch. Recognizing the potential for tourism, he began building cabins to accommodate travelers, soon it was known as the first dude ranch in Estes Park, with guides for hunting, fishing, and mountaineering. Lord Dunravens land grab didnt work, but he controlled 6,000 acres before he changed tactics and opened the areas first resort, the Estes Park Hotel, in 1873, Englishwoman Isabella Bird, the daughter of an Anglican minister, came to the United States. Landing at San Francisco, she came overland to Colorado, where she borrowed a horse and set out to explore the Rocky Mountains with a guide, the notorious James Nugent, aka Rocky Mountain Jim. She wrote a memoir of their travels, including the ascent of Longs Peak. On June 19th 1874 Rocky Mountain Jim and neighbor Griff Evans had an argument, having had bitter history with each other, Nugent and Evans hated each other and were deep personal rivals when it came to tour guiding tourists. The argument escalated until Evans blasted Jim in the head with his rifle shotgun, Evans then traveled to Fort Collins to file an assault charge against Nugent, but he was arrested and tried for first degree murder when Jim Nugent died on September 9th 1874 of the bullet wound. Evans was put on trial, but the case was dismissed due to the lack of witnesses to the shooting. On August 9th 1875, the Loveland court-house acquitted Evans of any charges in the case, William Henry Jackson photographed Estes Park in 1873
4.
Grand County, Colorado
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Grand County is one of the 64 counties in the U. S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 14,843, the county seat is Hot Sulphur Springs. It was named after Grand Lake and the Grand River, an old name for the upper Colorado River, on January 29,1877 Routt County was created and Grand County shrunk down to its current western boundary. When valuable minerals were found in North Park, Grand County claimed the area as part of its county and it took a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court in 1886 to declare North Park part of Larimer County, setting Grand Countys northern boundary. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,870 square miles. The population density was 7 people per square mile, there were 10,894 housing units at an average density of 6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 95. 15% White,0. 48% Black or African American,0. 43% Native American,0. 68% Asian,0. 10% Pacific Islander,2. 00% from other races, and 1. 15% from two or more races. 4. 36% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,23. 8% were of German,12. 6% Irish,10. 0% English and 7. 3% American ancestry. 24. 80% of all households were made up of individuals and 4. 80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.85. In the county, the population was out with 21. 80% under the age of 18,9. 00% from 18 to 24,34. 70% from 25 to 44,26. 80% from 45 to 64. The median age was 37 years, for every 100 females there were 112.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 115.70 males, the median income for a household in the county was $47,759, and the median income for a family was $55,217. Males had an income of $34,861 versus $26,445 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,198, about 5. 40% of families and 7. 30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7. 90% of those under age 18 and 6. 10% of those age 65 or over
5.
Larimer County, Colorado
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Larimer County is one of the 64 counties in the U. S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 299,630, the county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr. the founder of Denver, Larimer County comprises the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is located at the end of the Front Range. Larimer County was created in 1861 as one of seventeen counties in the Colorado Territory, however. Controversy existed as to whether Larimer County ended at the Medicine Bow Range or at the Continental Divide thirty miles farther west. An 1886 Colorado Supreme Court decision set the boundary at the Continental Divide, the mining boom almost entirely passed the county by. It would take the introduction of irrigation to the region in the 1860s to bring the first widespread settlement to the area, in 1828 William H. Ashley ascended the Cache la Poudre River on his way to the Green River in present-day Utah. The river itself received its name in the middle 1830s from an incident in which French-speaking trappers hid gunpowder along its banks. In 1848 a group of Cherokee crossed through the county following the North Fork of the Poudre to the Laramie Plains on their way to California along a route that became known as the Cherokee Trail. The first U. S. settlers arrived that year in a party led by Antoine Janis from Fort Laramie. Nearly simultaneously, Mariano Medina established Fort Namaqua along the Big Thompson River just west of present-day Loveland, the first irrigation canals were established along the Poudre in the 1860s. In 1861, Laporte was designated as the first county seat after the organization of the Colorado Territory, in 1862, the United States Army established an outpost near Laporte that was designated as Camp Collins. A devastating flood in June 1864 wiped out the outpost, forcing the Army to seek a better location, at the urging of Joseph Mason, who had settled along the Poudre in 1860, the Army relocated its post downstream adjacent to Masons land along the Overland stage route. The site of the new post became the nucleus of the town of Fort Collins, by that time, Mason and others had convinced the Colorado Territorial Legislature to designate the new town as the county seat. Cameron and other members of the Greeley Colony established the Fort Collins Agricultural Colony, one of the primary goals of the early citizens of the county was the courting of railroads. County residents were disappointed when the Denver Pacific Railroad bypassed the county in 1870 in favor of Greeley, the first railroad finally arrived in the county in 1877 when the Colorado Central Railroad extended a line north from Golden via Longmont to Cheyenne. The town council of Fort Collins designated right-of-way through the center of town for the line, along the new railroad sprung up the new platted towns of Loveland and Berthoud, named respectively after the president and chief surveyor of the Colorado Central
6.
United States Numbered Highway System
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The United States Numbered Highway System is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. The route numbers and locations are coordinated by the American Association of State Highway, the only federal involvement in AASHTO is a nonvoting seat for the United States Department of Transportation. Generally, north-to-south highways are odd-numbered, with lowest numbers in the east, the area of the thirteen states of the United States. Similarly, east-to-west highways are typically even-numbered, with the lowest numbers in the north, where roads were first improved most intensively, major north–south routes have numbers ending in 1 while major east–west routes have numbers ending in 0. Three-digit numbered highways are spur routes of parent highways but are not necessarily connected to their parents, some divided routes exist to provide two alignments for one route, even though many splits have been eliminated. Special routes, usually posted with a banner, can provide various routes, such as an alternate, bypass or business route, Routes were designated, auto trails designated by auto trail associations were the main means of marking roads through the United States. In 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways, recommended by the American Association of State Highway Officials, after several meetings, a final report was approved by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in November 1925. They received complaints from across the country about the assignment of routes, so the Board made several modifications, as a result of compromises made to get the U. S. Highway System approved, many routes were divided, with alignments to serve different towns. In subsequent years, AASHTO called for such splits in U. S, expansion of the system continued until 1956, when the Interstate Highway System was formed. After construction was completed, many U. S, Routes were replaced by Interstate Highways for through traffic. Highways still form many important regional connections, and new routes are still being added, Routes do not have a minimum design standard, unlike the later Interstate Highways, and are not usually built to freeway standards. Many are designated using the streets of the cities and towns through which they run. New additions to the system, however, must substantially meet the current AASHTO design standards, as of 1989, the United States Numbered Highways system has a total length of 157,724 miles. Except for toll bridges and tunnels, very few U. S. AASHTO policy says that a road may only be included as a special route. U. S. Route 3 meets this obligation, in New Hampshire, but US Routes in the system do use parts of four toll roads, US51 uses part of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois, the old road is Illinois Route 251. US278 uses the tolled Cross Island Parkway in South Carolina, US412 uses the Cimarron Turnpike in Oklahoma, the old road is US64. US412 also uses the Cherokee Turnpike in Oklahoma, the old road is Alternate US412, Routes follow a simple grid in the contiguous United States, in which odd-numbered routes run generally north to south and even-numbered routes run generally east to west
7.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
8.
U.S. Route 34 in Colorado
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U. S. Route 34 in Colorado is a segment of U. S. Route 34. Its west end is at U. S. Highway 40 in Granby and its east end is at the Nebraska border east of Laird, the route begins in Granby at US40. It then follows the Colorado River Valley near Granby Lake and enters Arapaho National Recreational Area, after entering Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorados Front Range, US34 follows the North Fork Colorado River through Kawuneeche Valley. It passes over Milner Pass and reaches the Alpine Visitor Center, then it continues east, passing its highest point at 12,183 feet near the Gore Range. It exits the park at US36 at Deer Ridge Junction, US34 here is the highest continuous highway in the United States. This section of US34 requires a $30 national park entrance fee, from here, it passes by Estes Park as Eisenhower Boulevard, has a business route and enters Loveland, becoming a four-lane expressway. Here, it intersects I-25 and U. S. Highway 287, at Greeley, it passes by U. S. Highway 85 in a complex interchange and U. S.34 Business, and crosses the South Platte River. It also has an interchange with SH257, from here, it is no longer an expressway. It intersects SH144 and SH39, then joins I-76 at Wiggins. It leaves, and follows the North Fork Republican River east into Nebraska, where it intersects SH71, SH52, SH63, SH61, SH59, parts of the route were originally designated as US38. US34 was extended into Colorado in 1939, U. S. Highway 34 Business serves Estes Park, Colorado. Both of its termini are at US34, the business route splits from the main route east of the Rocky Mountain National Park Fall River Entrance Station, in the western city limits of Estes Park and enters town on West Elkhorn Avenue. The main route continues around the edge of Estes park on Wonderview Avenue. At Moraine Avenue, It joins US36 in downtown Estes Park and it returns to US34 after about 1.7 miles at an intersection with Wonderview Avenue, Big Thompson Avenue, and North St. Vrain Avenue. The business route was established in 1964, the entire route is in Estes Park, Larimer County
9.
Rocky Mountain National Park
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The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west. The eastern and westerns slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park with the headwaters of the Colorado River located in the northwestern region. The main features of the park include mountains, alpine lakes, the Rocky Mountain National Park Act was signed by then–President Woodrow Wilson on January 26,1915, establishing the park boundaries and protecting the area for future generations. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the main route, named Trail Ridge Road. In 1976, UNESCO designated the park as one of the first World Biosphere Reserves, in 2016, more than four and a half million recreational visitors entered the park, which is an increase of about nine percent from the prior year. The history of Rocky Mountain National Park began when Paleo-Indians traveled along what is now Trail Ridge Road to hunt, Ute and Arapaho people subsequently hunted and camped in the area. In 1820, the Long Expedition, led by Stephen H. Long for whom Longs Peak was named, approached the Rockies via the Platte River. Settlers began arriving in the mid-1800s, displacing the Native Americans who mostly left the area voluntarily by 1860, lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains were established in the 1870s when prospectors came in search of gold and silver. The boom ended by 1883 with miners deserting their claims, the railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881 and the Big Thompson Canyon Road—a section of U. S. Route 34 from Loveland to Estes Park—was completed in 1904. The 1920s saw a boom in building lodges and roads in the park, prominent individuals in the effort to create a national park included Enos Mills from the Estes Park area, James Grafton Rogers from Denver, and J. Horace McFarland of Pennsylvania. The national park was established on January 26,1915, Precambrian metamorphic rock formed the core of the North American continent during the Precambrian eon 4. 5–1 billion years ago. During the Paleozoic era, western North America was submerged beneath a sea, with a seabed composed of limestone. Concurrently, in the period from 500–300 million years ago, the region began to sink while lime, eroded granite produced sand particles that formed strata—layers of sediment—in the sinking basin. About 300 million years ago, the land was uplifted creating the ancestral Rocky Mountains, fountain Formation was deposited during the Pennsylvanian period of the Paleozoic era, 290–296 million years ago. Over the next 150 million years, the uplifted, continued to erode. Wind, gravity, rainwater, snow, and glacial ice eroded the mountains over geologic time scales. The Ancestral Rockies were eventually buried under subsequent strata, the Pierre Shale formation was deposited during the Paleogene and Cretaceous periods about 70 million years ago. The region was covered by a deep sea—the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway—which deposited massive amounts of shale on the seabed
10.
Colorado River
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The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The 1, 450-mile-long Colorado River drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U. S. starting in the central Rocky Mountains in the U. S. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U. S. National Parks, the Colorados large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower 100 miles of the river, beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Most native peoples that inhabit the basin today are descended from groups that settled in the region beginning about 1,000 years ago. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, early contact between Europeans and Native Americans was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river. After most of the Colorado River basin became part of the U. S. in 1846, several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century – one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation, lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in the 1860s and 1870s. Large engineering works began around the start of the 20th century, with guidelines established in a series of international. The U. S. federal government was the driving force behind the construction of dams and aqueducts in the river system, although many state. Most of the dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, as demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy. The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, after a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters, arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the slickrock country and this is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the slope of Colorados San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. S
Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow Road
