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
1947: Adams Tunnel in operation
Growth, then boom, of winter sports
Island in the Rockies by Robert Black
Widening Trails by Lela McQueary
Sculptor in Buckskin by A Phimister Proctor
Grand Lake in the Olden Days by Mary Lyons Cairns
People of the Shining Mountains by Charles S. Marsh
The Day Before Yesterday by Nell Pauly
High Country Names by Arps and Kinger