Explore the History & Culture of Grand County Colorado
Welcome to the Grand County Historical Association (GCHA) stories page!
GCHA operates four museums located in Grand County, Colorado: the Cozens Ranch Museum, the Emily Warner Field and Aviation Museum, Heritage Park, and Pioneer Village. Visithttps://grandcountyhistory.org.
GCHA hosts a variety of events throughout the year, from exhibit openings, author talks, history treks, kids programs, special museum events and fundraisers such as the annual Taste of History. Be sure to subscribe to our Email Newsletter to get the latest updates about what’s happening. Visit the Events page for a complete listing of scheduled events.
You'll find over 200 stories to explore for research and inspiration. Let us know if you have an idea or a comment on any of the articles written by over 30 volunteers. Send us a note on thecontact form.
This website is managed by the Grand County Historical Association. For more information, contact Dede Fay at dedefay@hotmail.com.
The Three Lakes area encompasses the north-east corner of Grand County and is so named because of the three connected lakes of Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Granby Reservoir.
The two reservoirs were formed as a part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, which takes water from Grand Lake on the western side of the Continental Divide to the Big Thompson River on the east. Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Granby Reservoir. connected by a unique pumping plant, assure that the Grand Lake water level remains consistent. Further reservoirs were added in the Three Lakes area, including the Willow Creek and Windy Gap Reservoirs.
Prehistoric
7000 BCE to 900 BCE: Paleo Indians (Yarmony, Rollins Pass, Windy Gap) use Middle Park as summer hunting area
1819 – 1860
1819:Adams-Onis Treaty – Middle Park partitioned – Sites of Granby, Fraser, Grand Lake and Hot Sulphur are in the U.S, Kremmling still part of Spain
Middle Park well known to “Mountain Men” by 1820
1828: Kremmling becomes part of Texas
1837: T.J. Farnham’s expedition crosses the Blue at Grand River
1839: Grand River named on a semi-official map
1842: Rufus B. Sage visit
1844: Captain John C. Fremont’s second expedition, accompanied by Kit Carson, enters Middle Park over Muddy Pass and exits up the Blue River
1854: Sir St. George Gore, an Englishmen, accompanied by Jim Bridger enters Middle Park for hunting expedition
1859: First appearance of prospectors; interest in Hot Sulphur Springs
1861 – 1874
1861: Berthoud crosses Berthoud Pass and traverses Middle Park
1861: Middle Park becomes part of Summit County
1863: Trouble begins between the Utes and white men
1864-1868: Wm. N. Byers acquires Hot Sulphur Springs
1866: Gov. Cummings signs Treaty of Middle Park
1868: John Wesley Powell visits Grand Lake, makes first recorded ascent of Longs Peak
1867: Joseph Westcott settles at Grand Lake
1871-1872: Clarence King surveys area
1873-1874: F.V. Hayden surveys area
1874: Creation of Grand County (two years before Colorado became a state)
1874: Toll roads opens over Rollins and Berthoud Passes
1874: William H. Jackson, renowned photographer, takes first photographs of Middle Park
1875 – 1888
1875: First mail routes to Hot Sulphur Springs
1875: Silver ore indications in Never Summer Range
1875: First school opens in Hot Sulphur Springs with 12 students, (school “year” was 20 days)
1877: Routt County detached from Grand County
1877: Stokes-Dean political crisis
1878: Tabernash and Abraham Elliott killed
1879: Ute Indian War produces excitement, anxiety
1879: Lulu City & Teller City formed
1880: Gaskill City formed
1881: Four railroad projects frustrated
1881: County Seat moves to Grand Lake, height of mining boom, Grand Lake Prospector is launched
1883: Commissioner shootings at Grand Lake
1884: Shooting of Texas Charlie in Hot Sulphur Springs
1884: Kremmling formed
1885: Kremmling Post Office opens
1885-1886: Collapse of mining, North Park separates from Grand County
1888: County Seat moves back to Hot Sulphur Springs
1889 – 1904
Expansion of ranching
Development of public education
1890: Grand Ditch construction begins... carries water from Grand Lake mountains to the front range
1891: First platting of Kremmling
1891: Berthoud Pass route becomes state road
1893: Construction begins on Byers Canyon road
1896 et seq.: Organized religious congregations develop
1892: First diversion of water to eastern slope
1898: First high school opens in Kremmling
1902-1904: Moffat – Harriman struggle
1903: Hot Sulphur Springs incorporates
1904: Kremmling incorporates
1904: Moffat Road crosses Rollins Pass
1904: First motor car arrives Grand County
1904: First telephones installed
1905 – 1914
1905: First Forest Reserves
1905: Fraser develops, Granby is founded
1905: Moffat Road reaches Hot Sulphur Springs
1905: Parshall is founded
1906: Moffat Road reaches Kremmling
Proliferation of competitive newspapers
1905-1908: Heyday of Monarch
1908: Arapaho National Forest established
1911: First Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival
1912: First Middle Park Fair
1913: Eleven motor vehicles are registered in Grand County
1913: Tabernash established as railroad division point
1915 – 1930
1915: Rocky Mountain National Park founded
1917-1918: Participation in World War I by 151 Grand County residents
1918-1919: Influenza epidemic
1919: Grand County Pioneer Society founded
1919: Fall River Road completed
1921: Grand River name changed to Colorado River by U.S. Congress
1922: First radio receiver
1923: Gore Pass opens to motor vehicles
1923: Improved Berthoud Pass road opens
1923-1928: Moffat Tunnel built
1926: Fred Selak murder
1929-1941: The Great Depression
1930-1932: Berthoud kept open all winter
1932: Trail Ridge Road completed
Since 1930
1938: Colorado-Big Thompson irrigation and power project begins
1940: Winter Park Ski Area opens
1941-1945: Participation in WWII
Late 1940s – early 1950s: Construction of Colorado– Big Thompson Project
In Yorkshire, England on October 15th 1831, a clergyman and the daughter of a clergyman gave birth to small, sickly girl who would grow up to be one of the most well known travel writers of her time, an exceptional accomplishment in an era when women rarely ventured far from home unescorted. In 1850, after a childhood full of ailments, Isabella had an only partially successful operation to remove a tumor from her spine. Following the surgery, Isabella suffered greatly from depression and insomnia; it was then that her doctor recommended that she travel. Isabella's father, becoming increasingly worried about his daughter, gave her a hundred pounds and sent her off to see the world.
Ms. Bird traveled throughout the world including Canada, Hawaii, Australia, China, Tibet and Morocco. She came to Colorado right after the territory had officially been become a state. Isabella loved it in the mountains, so much so that she wrote many letters home to her sister which eventually came to become her third and most famous book, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. In this document, Isabella wrote of her adoration of the area saying, "I have found a dream of beauty at which one might look all one's life and sigh."
Upon her arrival to Colorado, she traveled into the mountains west of Estes Park. She wrote about adventures and challenges and of her romance with Jim Nugent, or "Rocky Mountain Jim" a one eyed outlaw with an attraction to violence and poetry. He was shot and killed a year after Isabella left Colorado.
Throughout the letters, Isabella mentions the wonderful sights of the lands she explored near current day Grand County. In one of her letters, Isabella wrote of the time she rode a horse through a blizzard with her eyes frozen shut. She found herself in another adventure when she was snowed in a cabin with two young men for several months.
Isabella grew eventually grew homesick and headed back to Edinburgh Scotland where she married a doctor. After five years of marriage, her husband died and Isabella returned to travelling. When Isabella returned to Edinburgh in 1904, she grew very ill and died while planning another trip to China.
The first settlers in Granby realized the sunny days and cool nights were perfect for growing one crop in particular, lettuce. Lettuce farming boomed in the 1920's and a new industry was born.
Granby had become an important railway center as tracks were laid over the Divide at Rollins Pass,giving the Moffat Railroad access to Salt Lake City. Granby produced some of the best-known lettuce in America. There are even tales that New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bragged of their “Granby Lettuce” on the menu.
Then a blight settled into the soil, probably brought in by the wooden crates used for shipping, and the lettuce business was ruined. Since then, ranching has replaced agriculture as Granby's major industry.
Before there were any people anywhere, the Creator, "Sinawaf", cut sticks and placed them in a large sack. After many days, this aroused the curiosity of the coyote. When Sinewaf was away, the coyote could no longer control himself and opened the sack.
Out came many people who scattered in all directions. Each spoke a difference language from the others. When Sinewaf returned, there were only a few people remaining in the sack. He was furious with the coyote, as he had planned to distribute the people equally in various parts of the land. As there could now be no such equity, there would be wars among the different people, who would fight for the best locations.
Of the small group left in the sack, Sinawaf called them Ute or Nuche, which meant "the people". They would be a very brave and strong tribe.
A little over a hundred years ago the few residents of Fraser were awakened by a sound new to their town.The railroad had finally arrived in 1904, just over 30 years after it had first debuted in Denver.That same blaring horn, followed by the rumble of iron wheels on rails is waking up the good town-folk of the FraserValley today.As the local Manifest has documented recently, many residents have long been annoyed by the noisy disruption the train makes as it announces its passing through town.Additionally, parents of school children rushing to FraserElementary School in the morning can attest to the intrusive obstacle the slow moving behemoth becomes at in the morning.
A hundred years ago, residents of the FraserValley complained loudly of the intrusion of the iron horse on the tranquil lifestyle.It has long been rumored that the course of the railroad was determined by an angry old timer by the name of Billy Cozens.Cozens was a pioneer of the valley having homesteaded his ranch in the area in the early 1870s.According to legend, when the engineers were surveying the route of the future Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific Railroad through the valley, Billy Cozens bullied the crewmen into the woods.As the railmen would lay their flags for the roadbed, Cozens, an expert marksman, would shoot the markers out of the ground.As the story goes, this was the reason the tracks were laid through the forest, rather than the meadow.
The reality of the chosen route for the D.N.&P. was due to grade and not fear of the rifle.Whether Cozens despised the railroad is anyone's guess.According to Robert Black's book, Island in the Rockies, the railroads designing engineers actually consulted Cozens concerning the lack of snow on the continental divide.Regardless, the rumors have persisted over the years about the "Old Sheriff's" contempt for the railroad.It has even divulged to me that the ghost of Billy Cozens will not allow anything concerning the railroad in his former home, the CozensRanchMuseum.Whenever railroad exhibits have been attempted they have mysteriously vanished and were never seen again.
As far as the townfolk of Fraser were concerned, many of them regarded the railroad as an opportunity that had eluded the region for years.Unfortunately for Fraserites, their town was to be bypassed as the major hub for the area.Further down the valley Tabernash was chosen as the location for the workshops and roundhouse for the forthcoming trains.As a result, the trains would move through Fraser without their engineers paying the town much notice outside of their blowing whistles.Nonetheless, the people of the valley would embrace the iron horse.Economic potential in GrandCounty would erupt due to the advent of relatively efficient transportation.Specifically, the lumber industry would boom with the outlet that the railroad would provide.Additionally, people could move between Denver and GrandCounty easily compared to the wagon roads that formerly provided the only passage to the outside world.As timber and cattle traveled to the Front Range, mail and hard goods traveled back to the FraserValley.
In years past, just like today, it has been easy to forget the benefits that the railroad has brought to our lives.Certainly, when the train moved into the valley, the people that day realized that their life could slow down a bit.The reality was that the short inconvenience that the passing train brought with its blaring horn, bringing traffic to a momentary standstill enhanced the life and character of the FraserValley.It provided power, people, and materials in a unique way that simplified life here.This is as true today as it was in 1905.
Horace Button was 10 years old when he saw the ski jump competition at the 1911 First Annual Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Sports Carnival. A railway man noticed that Horace was spellbound. The man asked Horace what he wanted to be when he grew up, to which Horace replied, “I want to be a ski jumper like Carl Howelsen.” The seed had been sown, and Howelsen taught Horace the skills of skiing.
Horace Button became an All-American Skier. Winning awards over nationally recognized competitive ski racers. The basic knowledge he learned from Howelsen was passed on which in turn sent Jim Harsh of Grand Lake, to be on the 1932 United States Olympic Nordic Combined team. The Olympics were held at Lake Placid, New York.
Barney McLean of Hot Sulphur Springs, became a champion following in the "ski boots" of Mr. Button. Horace would be waiting at the ski hill every afternoon, when school hours were over and he and Barney would schuss the mountain together. Barney was a 9-time national champion, and a 3-time Olympian. In 1948 he was Captain of the men’s alpine ski team that competed at St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Horace Button continued to advise ski techniques to students of East and West Grand School Districts, helping them compete at the university or Olympic level. They were; Dale Thompson, Wes Palmer, Zane Palmer, Landis Arnold, Todd Wilson, Kerry Lynch, Tim Flanagan, and many more. Horace coached 12 national champions.
Horace also was an accomplished artist. His specialty was carton ski scenes. Tim Flanagan honored Mr. Button for his work with local youths and created the Horace Button Ski Foundation.
Horace Button, Jim Harsh, Barney McLean, and Carl Howelsen have been inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame. Barney McLean and Carl Howelsen are honored at The National Ski Hall of Fame.
The picture on the right is of Barney McLean at age 4, wearing a pair of skis his dad made for him. The photo was taken in Hot Sulphur Springs.
Because gold had been found at the headwaters of the Blue River at Breckenridge, hopes were high among prospectors who worked the downstream tributaries in Grand County. However, this lower section of the Blue contained no mineral wealth.
The Denver and Rio Grand Railroad planned to run a route through the valley and began constructing grades, but the tracks were never laid because Moffatt's railroad crossed the county first.
An enterprising Canadian, 25 year old Willis Charles Call, had been employed as a cook for the grading company in 1881. When the railroad abandoned the project, Call became a registrar of voters, and in 1886, the county assessor. By 1890, he had a choice ranch near Kremmling. His Austrian wife, Mary Rohrocher, was a very popular hostess. It is believed that they owned the first automobile in the county.
The conflicts between the white settles and Ute Indians came to a climax in 1878 when the Ute leader Tabernash was killed by a posse and the very next day, Abraham Elliott a homesteader on the Blue, was killed in retaliation. The remains of his ranch can be seen on Highway 9 at mile marker 135.
Across the river was the ranch of Henry Yust, who settled there in 1885. Another early ranching family was that of Thomas Pharo, An Englishman from Franham in Surry, near London. Settling there in 1880, he developed a major cattle and horse ranch.
The Blue River area was connected with a route west in 1913, when the co-called Trough Road was constructed, beside the Gore Canyon to State Bridge.
According to local lore, Native Americans named Devil's Thumb, a rocky outcropping that towers high above the Ranch. As legend goes, after the warring Ute and Arapahoe tribes settled their differences in the RanchCreekValley, they buried the devil, but left his thumb exposed to remind them of the evils of war.
Before the Trans-Continental Railroad opened up the area in 1904, a stagecoach route from Idlewild (now Winter Park) joined the RollinsPass route. A state station was situated east of what is now our Ranch. The road extended transversely over the Ranch where it followed the course of the existing County Road 83. The land was rich agriculturally, and was used for cattle grazing in the early 1900s.
After the railroad was introduced, settlers began moving west in search of wealth and opportunity. Many ended their journeys in the Rocky Mountains. During this time, there were more people living in the FraserValley than there are today. One favorite hangout of the railroad workers was a dance hall on Black Ranch, located immediately north of Devil's Thumb Ranch.
In the 1930s, Margaret Radcliff built the original Ranch homestead and operated it as a dairy. However, it was brothers Dan, Louis, and George Yager who started Devil's Thumb Ranch as a vacation property in 1946. The Yagers incorporated the Radcliff homestead in to the Ranch facilities and the original building exists today as the Ranch House Saloon.
The Yagers operated Devil's Thumb Ranch as both a working ranch and dude ranch until 1972. They introduced cross-country skiing in the winter of 1975-1976. Dick Taylor, a 1964 Olympic cross-country team member, designed 35 kilometers of the area's Nordic trails.
The Ranch was well known as a Nordic destination, but one without many amenities or niceties. The current owners purchased it in 2001, saving it from a group of developers who planned to fill the valley with residences and a golf course. They immediately began making improvements to the facilities, all the while impacting the land as little as possible.
John Wesley Powell was a Civil War veteran who had lost part of one arm as a result of combat. He was a professor of natural history at Illinois Wesleyan Collage, who took field trips with his students to the Rockies.
He came to the Grand County region looking for a vantage point to conduct an exploration of the Colorado (the Grand) River. With six local men he made the first recorded ascent of Long's Peak, the 14,255 foot landmark of the Front Range, on August 23, 1868. From that summit he could view much of the headwaters area of the river.
Descending back into Middle Park, he ventured to Gore Canyon where he decided the turbulent rapids were too dangerous for his boats. He decided to take an exploratory party of students to the Green River in Wyoming, a tributary of the Colorado. Losing one boat in that expedition, the party made the first known trip through the Grand Canyon in 1869.
He later became leader of the first U.S. Geological Survey, and because of his study of Indian tribes, the first head of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology.
