Joel Estes, the Man Estes Park Is Named For
Near Estes Park, Colorado
This monument honors Joel Estes, the first Anglo settler of the valley that bears his name. Estes was a Kentucky-born adventurer who had struck it rich in the California gold fields a decade earlier. In eighteen fifty-nine he stumbled onto this stunning mountain park, and the next year he moved his wife Patsy and their large family up here to live.
They ran cattle from eighteen sixty to eighteen sixty-six, but the high altitude and brutally short growing season made farming nearly impossible. In eighteen sixty-four, William Byers, the editor of the Rocky Mountain News, visited and named the valley Estes Park in his host's honor.
Eventually Estes gave up and left, and in eighteen sixty-seven Griff Evans took over the ranch and began building guest cabins and welcoming visitors. That was the seed of the mountain tourism town that still carries the Estes name today.
