Joel Estes and the Naming of the Valley
Near Estes Park, Colorado
The valley you are standing in carries the name of a Missouri farmer who found it almost by accident. Joel Estes had gone west chasing gold, striking it lucky in the California rush of eighteen forty nine before turning to ranching. In eighteen fifty nine, while on a hunting trip, he rode into this lush high mountain basin and was struck by its beauty and its abundance of game.
By the following year he had brought his wife and children and settled in, becoming the first permanent settlers on record in the area. But the name Estes Park did not come from Joel himself. In eighteen sixty four, William Byers, the editor and owner of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, visited the valley and was generously hosted by the Estes family.
Byers was so taken with the landscape that when he returned to Denver he began calling the place Estes Park. The name spread and stuck. Ironically, the family it honors did not last long here.
The winters were harsh and the isolation severe, and by eighteen sixty six the Estes family had packed up and moved on, leaving behind only their name on the map.
