Item #4465 [Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]. Frank E. Baker, anonymous photographers.
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]
[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]

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[Photo album documenting the Estes Park, Colorado.]

Estes Park, Colorado, and vicinity, [ca. 1895-1896]. 4to photo album (290 x 220 mm), half red leather with black cloth (spine largely perished). 255 mounted photos, albumen prints, silver prints, platinum prints, bromide prints and cyanotypes; 38 x 50 mm to 230 x 154 mm; 1 mounted folding brochure, 225 x 103 mm, with map (178 x 179 mm); various newspaper and photographic clippings.

A delightful photo album documenting visits to Estes Park, Colorado, in the region that became the Rocky Mountain National Park two decades later.

Estes Park serves as a base for the Rocky Mountain National Park (est. 1915), situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west, whose creation was spearheaded by the American naturalist, author and homesteader Enos Mills (1870–1922). The present album documents outings in these parts undertaken by an unidentified couple and their friends primarily in 1895 and 1896, and shows a portion of the National Park before it became officially designated as such.

A number of the earliest images in the album show Long’s Peak House, a cabin erected in 1880, with the Peak visible in the background. Many of the images immediately following record men hunting and fishing, presumably in the Long’s Peak area. In two images hunters are shown descending from elevations with beheaded animal carcasses (possibly pronghorns?) hanging across their chests. In several photos we encounter members of the party chowing down around a campfire, trudging through snow, casting for trout, etc.

Various candid portraits are included, many of which center on what appears to be a newlywed couple whose son later provided inscriptions, such as "Mother + Father 1895." Judging by one photo and the son’s inscription, it seems his mother’s maiden name was Crocker, which may tie her to the Crocker Ranch in Estes Park, which is still standing. His father’s initials appear to be A.E.P., which he shares with his son. One picture is included of a baby, beneath which the son has written, "AEP his majesty himself 1896."

A lively cavalcade, which likely took place in the town of Estes Park, is documented, including one photo of Native Americans on horseback with a chief in headdress. Several photos capture Elkhorn lodge and various other lodges, and a handful of views document the town of Estes Park proper. Other photos show gold mining operations and bear inscriptions reading "Portland G.M. Co. Gold Mining Teller County, CO" and "Moon Anchor GM CO Cripple Creek Gold Fields." One Mr. Sherwood is pictured in several of the photos who likely had ties with the Sherwood Hotel in the park. A number of photos at the end of the album were taken at Glenwood Springs, one showing a group of men swimming in the resort pond. Included are several newspaper clippings and a brochure of Estes Park Colorado, complete with a map of the park and information on hotels and boarding houses, how to reach the park, and other related matters. To this day the park is one of the most visited in the National Park System, ranking as the third most visited U.S. national park in 2015.

Most of the photos in the album are snapshots taken by unidentified photographers, but also included are three large commercial images by F. E. Baker of Greeley, as well as two similar unsigned photos that appear to be his work.

An appealing photographic record of the region that would later become the Rocky Mountain National Park.

CONDITION: Spine persished, covers and contents very loosely held together, photos generally good, most with moderate to strong tonality.

Item #4465

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