Malls, knos A. 1870 192 A Brief History of Enos Mills Page 1 of 3 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENOS A. MILLS Enos Abijah Mills was born on April 22, 1870, in the southeast corner of Linn County, Kansas. The nearest town was Pleasonton. His parents, Enos Mills Sr. and Ann Lamb, were originally from South Bend, Indiana. They honeymoon homesteaded around Breckenridge, Colorado to try mining. When they were unsuccessful, they moved to Kansas to start a farm. Ann. his mother, told him wonderful stories about Colorado while he helped her with the household chores that he could do. His parents would borrow books from any source they could to educate all their children. The older children would help the younger with their studies. All the children attended school, but often Enos was not well enough to go. He was eventually tutored up to the eighth grade, but would take no higher schooling. Enos was a thin, weak child. As much as he loved being out-of-doors, he did what he could to help out on the farm. Often, he was too ill to help with the harder work. Enos steadily grew weaker and weaker. When he was about 13, a local doctor tried in vain to diagnose his illness, and declared that Enos would not live long. Enos left home with his parents' blessing. Their hope was that he would be healthier in Colorado than on a dusty, dry Kansas farm. Enos was already, at 14 years old. very self- reliant. He hitchiked to Kansas City, and got a job at a local bakery to earn enough money for a train ticket. He took the train to Denver, Colorado, then to Greeley where his older sister, Belle, lived. He then later came to Estes Park, where he had relatives to stay with. He began working at the Elkhorn Lodge as a housekeeper. Enos visited his uncle and aunt. Reverend and Mrs. Elkhanah Lamb and their son Carlyle at the Lamb Ranch at the foot of Long's Peak. Elkhanah and Carlyle guided climbers up Long's Peak. In 1885, with some other visitors, Carlyle took Enos up Long's Peak for his first climb. Enos became instantly enamoured with the mountain and decided that he wanted to learn all about it. Guiding people up the peak seemed the perfect occupation for his interests and energies. During his visits with the Lambs, Enos fell in love with a little spot across the valley. Enos started building the small cabin that is now a museum. It was finished in two summers. He had a small cook stove, a table and chairs, a small bookcase and a bed that used two of the cabin walls for the bed frame. This was a "modern" home because of the energy efficiency from a stove instead of a fireplace. having a glass window instead of no window or wooden shutters, cement chinking instead of mud. a tin roof instead of wooden planks or mud and grass, and thick insulating paper on the ceiling and walls instead of layers of news papers. Enos did spend a few winters in this cabin, but most of his time at his homestead was during the summer months. when Estes Park was accesible by road. During the winters between 1887 and 1901 Enos took a job at the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte. Montana. During the winters Estes Park was normally devoid of human life. except for a stalwart few who had supplies to last them the several months of snow. While in Butte, he was introduced to the http://home.earthlink.net/~enosmillscbn/history/page1.htm 12/24/2006 A Brief History of Enos Mills Page 2 of 3 world of mining. The first day Enos got into town. he met another miner who introduced him to the Butte Library. It was a typical day for him to get up at the crack of dawn, work all day in the mines. dine with friends, perhaps go to a club meeting, take a stack of books from the library. and read until well after midnight. At the mine, he started out as a "nipper", or tool-boy, who would ferry dull drill bits from the miners in the shafts, and return with sharpened bits. Always inquisitive, he asked other workers about their jobs, and was observant enough to learn the trade. He advanced up the ranks of the mines every winter he worked. Butte was a bustling mining city. a hub of activity that thrilled Enos in his formative teen years. He joined a poetry club, joined the miner's Union. and was introduced to all walks of life that traveled through there. When Enos left Butte, he was a licensed stationary Engineer in the mines. When he had the money for it, in times between Butte and Estes Park, Enos traveled around the country. His education by books could only satisfy a small portion of his curiosity, SO he satisfied his curiosity by travel. In 1889, after a terrible fire at the Anaconda Mine, Enos traveled to San Francisco to see the Pacific coast. While walking on the beach, he picked up a piece of kelp that had washed ashore, and knowing very little about it. approached an older, kindly-looking man nearby. As they talked, Enos found a man who matched his interests. It turned out that this man was John Muir. Muir took Enos under his wing, and encouraged Enos to pursue his interests in the natural world. To add more fire to Enos' energy, Muir encouraged him to join the cause of conservation, and to write of his adventures in the wilderness. Enos took this advice and applied it to his endeavors throughout his life. Enos and John Muir remained friends until Muir's death in 1914. By the time he was 35. he had had a campfire in every state and territory in the Union, including Canada, Alaska, and Mexico. Often he traveled alone, sometimes with hunters or trappers. He had never known fear of the wilderness, SO he had no need for any weapon heavier than his hatchet. When he could not observe animals in their habitat, he inquired amongst those who hunted and trapped them. Enos often took notes of his observations of any topic of interest, between zoology, botany. geology, and meteorology. In 1901. Enos and his uncle Rev. Elkanah Lamb took a steamship to Europe, and toured through France, Italy. and Great Britain. More History of Enos A. Mills Back to the Main History Page Frequently Asked Questions Enos Mills Cabin Home Page Browse in Our Gallery The Quotable Enos A. Mills Links http://home.earthlink.net/~enosmillscbn/history/page1.htm 12/24/2006 A Brief History of Enos Mills Continued Page 1 of 3 More About Enos A. Mills LONGS PEAK INN In 1901 Enos bought the Lamb Ranch from his cousin. Carlisle Lamb. and in 1904 changed the name to Longs Peak Inn. He guided people up Longs Peak and the surrounding area on Nature Walks. Though these became quite popular he preferred small groups with children because they were, and still are, SO naturally open to new ideas. Unlike most hotels, he focused his guests' attention on the natural world around Lends them. Sitting at the base of Long's Peak, in the heart of the Rockies, he did not want them distracted with the trappings of society from nature. In the lobby of the Inn he did not allow smoking, drinking, card playing, or music. (What one did in one's room was one's own business.) A hotel with all these amenities could be had anywhere, including several in Estes Park. Those with an adventurous spirit flocked in greater numbers each year. He did not deny them modern conveniences. Modern amenities such as steam heat. electricity, plumbing, comfortable beds. flannel sheets and thick towels were enjoyed. Longs Peak Inn had three telephones: one at the main desk and two in Enos' office. At one time, the best three restaurants in Colorado were the Brown Palace, the Broadmore, and Longs Peak Inn. It was important to Enos to provide comfort to people SO they could concentrate on the natural surroundings. In the spring of 1906 the main building of the Inn burned to the ground. Enos was on a speaking engagement and hurried back to begin rebuilding. No blueprints were made, it was a truly organic effort. The main lodge and forthcoming cabins were built from firekilled timbers from an old forest fire in the region. The kitchen and dining room were ready to serve guests by July 4th the year that it burnt. Every summer improvements were made, with forest influences in his architecture. He designed all the furniture and buildings, and hired builders to construct them. As the Inn grew he added a Nature Room with a special container that held a tundra environment with growing Alpine flowers for the people who could not walk up to the tundra. After 1906 his writing and speaking engagements took up more time, and he trained other Nature Guides for his Trail School where the emphasis was not on classifications and names, but on each unique aspect of nature. No matter how many times one walked the same path, there was always something new to see, as nature is continually changing. Enos' methods of nature guiding later became the basis for the modern field of interpretation in the National Park Service. COLORADO SNOW OBSERVER In 1904, when Enos visited a friend. L. G. Carpenter, in Telluride, Colorado, he was offered a job to go to the high altitude regions of the Rockies to measure snow depth. Enos immediately took up the job, and held the job for two years as the Colorado Snow Observer for the Department of Agriculture. He measured wind speeds, snow depths, and other scientific variables in the mountains. He used snowshoes and skis to make his way through the mountains in the winter with this job. This was one of two jobs he held with the government. The other job, another specially created for him, as he would not take a normal governement occupation, was as Government Lecturer on Forestry. ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eenosmillscbn/history/page2.htm 12/25/2006 A Brief History of Enos Mills Continued Page 2 of 3 In 1909, Enos moved from his homestead cabin to Longs Peak Inn, into a larger. more modern cabin when he began working to get Rocky Mountain National Park established. In combination with running the Inn during the summer, and his speaking and writing engagements around the country, he needed to be closer to the telephone at all times. During the winters from 1909 until his death in 1922 he traveled around the country giving lectures and talking to people about the reasons why it was SO important to set natural areas aside and save them for the generations to come. His experience as a miner in his youth, and his experiences in the wilderness gave his topics a balanced perspective on conservation and a population's need for natural resources. and he was able to appeal to businessmen and many public orginizations. Rocky Mountain National Park was created by an Act of Congress in January, 1915. The Denver Post dubbed him "The Father of Rocky Mountain National Park." WRITING Enos kept journals of his travels and experiences. He began giving public addresses in 1891. He would continue giving speeches until his death. His evening talks at Longs Peak Inn by a campfire or by the lobby's fireplace were often the close of the day's exciting events for the visiting public. For many years he attempted to get published, and when he finally was. his writing career flourished. He wrote of his adventures and observations in a plain, poetic manner SO that it would engage those who read it rather than bore them with unecessary details. Magazines such as Country Life, Saturday Evening Post. Counry Gentleman, Outlook, Chums, Munsey's, Cosmopolitan, McClure's Sunset, and Atlantic Monthly published his articles. Many of these magazine articles were put into book form. In 1909 his first major book, Wild Life on the Rockies. launched him into the national eye. Enos wrote more than 18 books, all of which are nonfiction. PHOTOGRAPHY Enos began taking pictures around 1890. He used an Eastman Kodak Pocket Camera. We assume he lost more than one camera in his many outings. He took over 15,000 photographs. Many of these photographs illustrated his articles and books, and he sold prints of them at the gift store at Longs Peak Inn. ESTHER BURNELL MILLS AND DAUGHTER ENDA Esther Burnell came to Estes Park with her sister, Elizabeth, in 1916 for a two week vacation. Elizabeth had a job as a teacher she wished to return to, but Esther had had enough of corporate life as an interior designer in Cleveland. Esther decided that she would homestead, despite her family's and friends' protests. Elizabeth was very supportive of Esther's endeavor. Esther homesteaded four miles west of Estes Park, and in the spring of 1917. she took a moonlit walk across the Continental Divide on snowshoes over to Grand Lake to visit friends. She made the trip in one night, a trip unheard of. even by Enos' standards. This caught Enos' attention, and he courted her. During the summer of 1917, Esther became his personal secretary, and when Elizabeth visited for the summer. both sisters were trained as Nature Guides for Long's Peak Inn. Esther became the first female Nature Guide licensed by the National Park Service. In August of 1918. Enos and Esther were married in the doorway of his homestead cabin, across the road from Long's Peak Inn, with Elizabeth and another friend were witnesses. It was a fast, private ceremony. as the press was already on their way to get news of the event! In April of 1919, five days after Enos' birthday, their daughter (their only child). was born. She http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eenosmillscbn/history/page2.htm 12/25/2006 A Brief History of Enos Mills Continued Page 3 of 3 was named Enda, after family friend Edna Ferber, though the spelling was changed. Enos was thrilled to be a father and husband, and even though matters of conservation efforts elsewhere in the county vied for his attention, he spent as much time as he could with his family. THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN TRANSPORTATION MONOPOLY In 1918, the two-year-old National Park Service, which Enos had been a part of creating, granted one transportation company ingress and egress through Rocky Mountain National Park. This impinged the rights of anyone with a car, including hotels, in the area, and many of the homesteaders who had been included in the borders of the National Park. The Rocky Mountain Transportation Company maintained a monopoly on the public roads inside the national park until 1927. No other company, nor could any hotel transportation service. could use their vehicles inside the park. Very few people owned their own vehicles in those days, SO hotels in the area. like Longs Peak Inn. the Stanley Hotel, and other establishments with their own small fleets of cars, offered transport into the park as part of their services to the visiting public. By 1915. over 250,000 people were visiting the area. Enos, with the support of a few businessmen like F. 0. Stanley of the Stanley Hotel. fought the monopoly, and this would consume his political efforts until his death. After he died his widow Esther, her sister Elizabeth, and F. O. Stanley, carried on the fight until the monopoly was quashed in 1927. Enos died suddenly at the age of 52 in September, 1922. A number of factors contributed to his death. Esther died in 1964, having never remarried. She sold Longs Peak Inn in 1946. The original main lodge burnt in 1949. and has since gone through a number of owners. Previous Page Back to the Main History Page Frequently Asked Questions Enos Mills Cabin Home Page Browse in Our Gallery The Quotable Enos A. Mills Links Copyright 2004 by Enos Mills Cabin Email the webmaster. http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eenosmillscbn/history/page2.htm 12/25/2006 Full Record Page 1 of 2 . denverlibrary.org Denver Public Library Online FULL RECORD Back to Title List Database: Denver Public Library Available copies Search type: Title (without A, An, The, El, La...) Search was: enos mills papers Place hold(s) Next PERSONAL LIST MANAGER Title Papers, [manuscript]. 1896-1954 Add this record to list Other Title Enos Mills papers Author Mills, Enos Abijah, 1870-1922. Description 2.25 linear ft. (3 boxes) Review Search History Notes Colorado naturalist and author. Active in establishing Rocky Mountain National Park. Finding aid in repository, and online at: Save record(s) to disk htp://eadsrv.denver.lib.co.us:8080/sdx/pl/toc.xsp? id=CONS250&qid=sdx%5Fq5&fmt=tab&idtoc=CONS250- Email record(s) pleadetoc&base=fa&n=14&ss=true&as=true&ai=Advanced Forms part of: DPL Conservation Collection. Source Gif of Ester Mills, 1961-1964. Display print version Summary Correspondence, articles, speeches, biographical data, clippings, and original manuscripts of articles. Scrapbooks (5 v.) concern View my account # Mills and his lectures, reviews of his books, and efforts to establish Rocky Mountain National Park. Also includes some correspondence of his wife, Esther B. Mills. Subject(s) Mills, Enos Abijah, 1870-1922 Archives. Mills, Esther Burnell Correspondence. Naturalists Colorado. Nature conservation. Rocky Mountain National Park (Colo.) Other Mills, Esther Burnell, donor. Entries Restrictions Contact Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado. Where to find it Branch Location Date Call Number Status Central Library - 6THLEV 10/06/06 C MSS CONS250 Needs Staff West Hist & Rg9A;Sec14;Sf1;Bx2 Retrieval Genealogy http://catalog.denver.lib.co.us/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?fullRecord+18323+10+1077315+1+-1 1/16/2007 Full Record Page 2 of 2 Central Library - 6THLEV 10/06/06 C MSS CONS250 Needs Staff West Hist & Rg9A;Sec14;Sf2;Bx3 Retrieval Genealogy Central Library - 6THLEV 10/11/06 C MSS CONS250 Needs Staff West Hist & Rg9A;Sec14;Sf2;Bx1 Retrieval Genealogy Central Library - STX 2 12/11/06 C MSS CONS250 Needs Staff West Hist & Mflm 169 (3 reels) Retrieval Genealogy MARC Record Next Enter terms: enos mills papers Search Clear Choose search type: Title (without A, An, The, El, La...) Help New Search Limit Search Exit Try these for additional resources AskColorado eBooks NetLibrary Prospector WorldCat Request It Need help? Download Create an Request from Search and Can't 24/7 Online eBooks, account for audio eBooks Regional order from find it? NetLibrary Libraries of Reference and eFlicks Libraries eBooks the World Request it http://catalog.denver.lib.co.us/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?fullRecord+18323+10+1077315+1+-1 1/16/2007 Denver Public Library EAD ProjectBox 1 - Correspondence, Enos Mills Page 1 of 1 Finding Aid Hierarchy ENOS A. MILLS PAPERS INTRODUCTION Box 1 - Correspondence, Enos Mills FF104 - 1897-1899, n.d. - Mills, Enos A.: correspondence received from The Rocky Mountain News FF105 - 1899-1908 - Mills, Enos A.: correspondence received FF106 - 1899-1921, n.d. - Mills, Enos A.: correspondence sent (9 items) FF107 - 1903-1905 - Mills, Enos A.: correspondence sent to L.G. Carpenter, Colorado State Engineer (10 items) FF108 - 1909-1919 - Mills, Enos A.: correspondence received FF109 - 1910-1919 - Mills, Enos A.: correspondence received from George H. Lorimer, (Editor) Saturday Evening Post The Denver Public Library EAD Project made with PLEADE http://eadsrv.denver.lib.co.us:8080/sdx/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=CONS250_d0e2090&fmt=tab& 1/17/2007 Denver Public Library EAD ProjectBox 1 - Correspondence, others Page 1 of 1 Finding Aid Hierarchy ENOS A. MILLS PAPERS INTRODUCTION Box 1 - Correspondence, others FF113 w March 7, 1907 w Baker, Hugh P.: correspondence sent to Mrs. P.S. Peterson FF114 - January 20, 1908 - Corwith, W.T.: correspondence sent to Gifford Pinchot FF115 - June 1, 1925 - Pierrot, George F.: correspondence sent to W.W. Livengood FF116 - 1908 - Roosevelt, Theodore: invitation to Governors to meet on conservation of natural resources (copy) FF117 - May 7, 1907 - Tharpe, F.D.: correspondence sent to Herbert A. Smith FF118 - n.d. - Trees: correspondence sent to school teachers of the United States The Denver Public Library EAD Project made with PLEADE http://eadsrv.denver.lib.co.us:8080/sdx/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=CONS250_d0e2253&fmt=tab& 1/17/2007 Denver Public Library EAD ProjectINTRODUCTION Page 1 of 3 Finding Aid Hierarchy ENOS A. MILLS PAPERS INTRODUCTION For location information, refer to the Denver Public Library Catalog. INTRODUCTION PROVENANCE: The papers of this collection were donated from 1961 to 1964 by Enos A. Mill's widow Ester Mills. ACCESS: The collection is open for research. OWNERSHIP: Enos A. Mills papers are the physical property of the Denver Public Library. PUBLICATION RIGHTS: All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from material in the collection should be discussed with the appropriate librarian or archivist. Permission for publication may be given on behalf of the Denver Public Library as the owner of the physical item. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained by the customer. The Library does not assume any responsibility for infringement of copyright or publication rights of the manuscript held by the writer, heirs, donors, or executors. Reproduction restrictions are decided on a case-by-case basis. PREFERRED CITATION: [Identification of item], Enos A. Mills Papers, CONS250, Conservation Collection, The Denver Public Library. SIZE: Number of Boxes: 3 (2.25 linear feet) LOCATION: CONS250 PROCESSED BY: Claudia Jensen November 2006 PROJECT MANAGER: Ellen Zazzarino BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Enos Abijah Mills was born April 22, 1870 in Linn County, Kansas to Enos Mills Sr. and Ann Lamb. He came to Colorado at about the age of 13 or 14 because of poor health. Moving first to Greeley where his older sister, Belle, lived, he later moved to Estes Park, working at the Elkhorn Lodge. He soon built his own homestead cabin where he lived during the summers. From 1887 to 1901, Mills worked winters at the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte Montana. Mills also traveled extensively, and it was during a trip to San Francisco in 1889 that he met the famous naturalist John Muir. It was through Muir's encouragement that Mills became active in the emerging conservation movement and began writing about his experiences in the wilderness. In 1901, Mills bought the Lamb Ranch, later changing its name to the Longs Peak Inn. It was from here that he developed his career as a nature guide, leading guests through areas now known as the Rocky Mountain National Park. Mills married Ester B. Burnell of Des Moines, lowa in 1918 and his daughter, Enda, was born the following year. ://eadsrv.denver.lib.co.us:8080/sdx/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=CONS250_d0e38&fmt=tab&ba. 1/17/2007 Denver Public Library EAD ProjectINTRODUCTION Page 2 of 3 Mills wrote books and articles on the animals of the Rocky Mountain region, but he is probably best remembered as the father of the Rocky Mountain National Park. From 1909 until his death in 1922, he lectured extensively on the need for preservation of natural resources and the importance of setting aside areas for future generations. His original proposal for the park was for a far larger area, but after compromising with mining and local interest, the borders for a smaller area were set. The legislation establishing the Rocky Mountain National Park was signed by President Woodrow Wilson on January 26, 1915. In 1929, the Never Summer Range was added to the park. In 1973, the homestead cabin built by Mills was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is now a museum. Books by Enos Mills: The Story of Estes Park and a Guide Book (1905) Wild Life on the Rockies (1909) The Spell of the Rockies (1911) In Beaver World (1913) Long's Peak Inn (1913) The Story of a Thousand Year Pine (1914, first published in Wild Life on the Rockies, 1909) Rocky Mountain Wonderland (1915) The Story of Scotch (1916) Your National Parks (1917) The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal (1919) The Adventures of a Nature Guide (1920) Waiting in the Wilderness (1921) Watched by Wild Animals (1922) Wild Animal Homesteads (1923) Rocky Mountain National Park (1924, Originally published as The Story of Estes Park and a Guide Book in 1905) Romance of Geology (1926) Being Good to Bears (1930) Trees That Twist (1931) Bird Memories of the Rockies (1931) SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE This collection contains over sixty manuscripts of Mills' articles and lectures on natural history topics, with a few devoted to the Lewis and Clark expedition. It also includes biographical essays about Mills and reviews of some of his books. A large number of newspaper clippings, both loose and in scrapbooks, deal with announcements or reviews of the lectures Mills gave throughout the country. The small amount of correspondence is primarily business-like in nature. The remaining newspaper clippings are about Mills, his lectures, books, and work preserving the National Parks The materials date from 1896 to 1954. SEPARATED MATERIAL Two albums, of Estes Park and Longs Peak Inn, and 120 snapshots were transferred to the Western History Photograph Collection. SUBJECT ACCESS Mills, Enos Abijah, 1870-1922 -- Archives. Naturalists -- Colorado. Nature conservation. Rocky Mountain National Park (Colo.) CONTAINER LIST Box 1 - Articles, lectures by Enos A. Mills (manuscripts) Box 1 - Articles (copies) http://eadsrv.denver.lib.co.us:8080/sdx/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=CONS250_d0e38&fmt=tab&ba.. 1/17/2007 Denver Public Library EAD ProjectINTRODUCTION Page 3 of 3 Box 1 - Books Box 1 Lectures Box 1 - Articles, reference material Box 1 - Articles by others Box 1 - Biographical essays, articles Box 1 - Correspondence, Enos Mills Box 1 - Correspondence, Esther B. Mills Box 1 - Correspondence, others Box 1 - Ephemera Box 2 - Newspaper clippings Box 3 - Scrapbooks, posters The Denver Public Library EAD Project made with PLEADE http://eadsrv.denver.lib.co.us:8080/sdx/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=CONS250_d0e38&fmt=tab&ba.. 1/17/2007 Hildegarde Hawthorne t ts the B Hells Boston HM., 1935. 164 Enos Mills of the Rockies Writing and Speaking 165 11/27 During the summer of 1906, Mills was dated for more Yankee to see our New England White Mountains protected than fifty addresses, and started in October on a tour that as a national forest, and for the promotion of this he has took him from Pueblo, Colorado, to Boston. Among the done his part. Mills is the prophet from the Rockies, not, many cities included in the tour were Portsmouth and as he has sometimes been called, the prophet of the Rockies. Dayton, Ohio, Chicago, Peabody, Massachusetts, and He carries to the stay-at-home public the best of what Muir Saratoga, New York. These were the first addresses for calls the mountains' "good tidings. which he received remuneration. And in addition to the Mills was asked by the Governor of Massachusetts to paid talks, he made about an equal number of gratuitous accept the post of State Forester, but declined. talks. His field was as wide and unlimited as the outdoors itself, He suited his talks to the occasion and the audience, nor and his interest covered every phase of Nature. He was on did he hesitate to use names. At the Twentieth Century common ground with nature-lovers in the East, while being Club in Boston, November, 1906, an audience of the seri- an acknowledged authority on the much less appreciated ously cultured of that most cultured of American cities, and West. He came to know John Burroughs, a man as simple presided over by Bliss Perry, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and direct as himself, and delighted in telling him of the he spoke of the immediate dangers to American forests, de birds and animals of his mountains. He met William Lyman claring: Underwood and saw the little bear cub, later written of in 'A Bill has been before Congress for years to preserve the Underwood's book, Wild Brother. What bear stories the two White Mountains and Appalachian forests and add them to must have swapped! He came in touch with John M. the national forest reserves, and one man only has prevented Phillips, who was leader of the Boy Scout movement in its passage. That man is Speaker Cannon, who also prony Pittsburgh, as well as a remarkable photographer of wild vents the preservation of the Big Trees of California. You life. His picture of a mountain goat was used by Mills in the can save them if you will express yourselves. first edition of Watched by Wild Animals. He had first-hand Mills took occasion on these Eastern trips to visit the acquaintance with the work of men like Dr. W. T. Hornaday forests and otable scenery of other states. His interest was and Dr. C. Hart Merriam, who were extending the knowl- not alone in his own Colorado. As Allen Chamberlain said edge of wild life, and he enjoyed the work of Mary Austin in the Boston Transcript: and those ardent bird-lovers, Olive Thorne Miller and Flor- 'It has been said that Mills is doing for the Rockies what ence Merriam Bailey. Muir did for the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is unjust While deeply interested in the work others were doing, to both men, for it never was in either of them to be sectional Mills's Eastern trips were mainly occupied with his efforts to One has but to listen to Mills to realize his unselfishness and arouse the general public to his own particular interests. It nation-wide interest. He is, for example, as eager as any was before the day of popular nature study and education, Alexander Dreemmand Eras mells Citizen of Nature From Park Publicist to Park Critic 249 Builder Catarade 1995 But the conference gave clear evidence of the progress of scenic CHAPTER 17 preservation since the time Pinchot had ignored it at his 1908 Gover- From Park Publicist to nors' Conference. Supportive senators and congressmen now stepped forward to speak out for protecting and maintaining the nation's scenic treasures. Beauty was recognized as a money-earning Park Critic commodity, an agent of social utility, and, for most, a good in its own right. "Let [the parks' mission be to stimulate and promote the higher and better instincts of men," said Scott Ferris, chairman of the House Public Lands Committee. Let them uplift the spirit, invoked a minister. And let them inspire the arts, said the head of the National Gallery against a backdrop of distinguished paintings of Publicizing the national parks and their new agency kept Mills on national park scenes arranged for by Mather himself. Let Americans the elite park-support team until feuding began to separate him from vacation in these great American parks rather than in Europe, urged it by mid 1917. Just before quarreling with Park Service chiefs the railroads and the tourist industry. And let the people fly to the Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, he was one of their leading parks in airplanes, said the flying Orville Wright. So the conference spokesmen at a 1917 national park conference and published a 500- went, with dozens of others helping to fashion the broad appeal of page book, Your National Parks, that both praised Mather and fore- the park movement, which it continues to enjoy today. Ideas trace- shadowed the coming conflict. At the five-day conference in January able back to Thoreau and Muir, now clad with Progressive notions 1917, Mills shared the podium with lawmakers, educators, editors, of public utility, at last found broad political support. Mather's gift businessmen, clergymen, philanthropists, and leading conservation- was to guide those ideas into official governmental policy. 1 ists from all over the country. The proud father of his own national Mather was an imaginative salesman, alternately energetic and park, Mills gave talks on Sequoia Park and "Parks for all the Peo- incapacitated by fits of depression. Even before the Park Service was ple," chaired a workshop on recreation in national parks, answered formed, he had hired Robert Sterling Yard to help him publicize the questions on the training of park guides, entertained the conference need for parks and an agency to regulate them. The former newspa- goers with his famous bear stories, and helped organize a banquet per colleagues launched a publicity campaign for the parks that the for Mather after the conference. news media quickly joined with force and pride. Not the least The event was Mather's and Albright's timely introduction of the among those who spurred them on was Enos Mills. Introducing new Park Service to top government and business circles and to their Mills to the national parks conference, Mather said that he had been own growing constituency of supporters for scenic preservation. "absolutely unselfish" in "his stirring up of the leading papers of the Because the Park Service Act, passed only five months earlier, had country to a realization and to a proper enthusiasm for the parks. not yet brought tangible funding for the agency itself, the conference In issuing its own propaganda, the Park Service matched the For- was also an appeal, said Albright, for the parks' desperate need of est Service during the Pinchot era. Yard wrote and sent a booklet, attention. Restrictive funding ceilings handicapped individual park Glimpses of Our National Parks, to 117,000 influential people. He development, and the whole park system had no secure place in the surpassed that with an impressively illustrated National Park Port federal power structure. The two-page Park Service Act stated no folio that was put on every desk in Congress and mailed to a list of agency missions or management principles beyond a general charge 275,000 potential park backers compiled by the GFWC. Mather to promote parks and regulate their use. contributed from his own pocket to fund the Portfolio and got the railroads to contribute $43,000 more. The railroads spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their own publicity brochures, using the national parks to advertise travel excursions but advertising the 248 From l'ark 11111 parks at the same time. They offered special excursion packages, National pride had already elevated to privileged teamed up to link their routes through several parks, and helped status as the equal of or better than European scenery But before develop park facilities. Courting both the railroads and the auto 1915, Yard said, the standard scenic destinations remained the Alps travel industry, Mather promoted road construction in and to the and the Canadian Rockies With home travel stimulated In the parks, hoping to link them with excursion routes or to send cross- national parks and by the war's closure of Europe, Americans country travel their way. who prefer to "buy the best" +++++++ could at last discover then OWN Mather was a self-made millionaire who could convincingly por- treasures. Both Yard and Mills indulged lavishly in superlatives to tray the parks as prime opportunities for private enterprise. Heman- describe the national parks. Yard called the Grand Canyon the aged the parks themselves like businesses, just as Interior Secretary world's "hugest and noblest example of erosion"; Mills called 11 the Lane said he should, and just as the Forest Service managed the "greatest inanimate wonder in the world." Yard called Hawan's national forests. He showed that the parks could attract as large a Hauleakula the "hugest living volcano"; Mills called il the "cluel business constituency to profit from the park facilities and conces- scenic attraction in the world." Mills continued a Rocky Mountain sions as the national forests attracted to profit from extracting tradition already sixty years old by asserting that the Rockies sur resources. Albright went out to chambers of commerce with a passed the Alps. "The mountain sheep," he said, "is as interesting speech entitled "Parks are Good Business," and Yard published an as the chamois," and "the fair phlox dares greater heights than the article called "Making a Business of Scenery." famed edelweiss." He called Pikes Peak - still on his park-planning Mills pushed the business theme too. He had preached it to the agenda - a "peak for the multitudes," and said, "It has given Denver chamber in 1905, applied it to forestry as a lecturer under mountain-top pleasure to more people than any other fourteen Pinchot, and tailored it to his RMNP campaign. His 1915 essay thousand-foot summit of the earth." It was the place where Kathryn "The Conservation of Scenery" extolled the cash value of tourism Lee Bates had stood enraptured as she wrote the words for "America and its superiority to revenue from natural resources. With Switzer- the Beautiful." And Bates, another veteran of vacations in the Alps, land his still well-polished model, he said the Alps produced annual had exclaimed with seemly patriotism that Pikes was the "most glo tourist revenues of more than $10,000 per square mile, while the rious scenery" she "had ever beheld. Rocky Mountains were being "despoiled by cattle and sawmills" for As a spokesman for the multitudes, Mills neglected the more only a "few dollars a square mile." The United States could have a obvious virtues of American mountains, which had already been dis tourist industry "many times as productive as our gold and silver covered by some writers to be a national asset immune to compari mines," he said, provided the parks were "made ready" for mass vis- sons with Europe: their vast regions of rugged and solitary iting. They could not yet accommodate even a fifth of the Americans wilderness. Though his adventure stories gave plenty of wilderness who took their vacations abroad. In Your National Parks, he urged flavor, his national-park propaganda sold the See America First his readers to lean on Congress for adequate park funding. He said theme almost solely through its appeal to mass tourism. And Mills he wanted the NPS director to be able to say, "Your national parks continued to preach that all the natural beauty contained in the - our matchless wonderlands - are now entirely ready for millions parks would be for naught unless it was "made ready" for use. of travelers." If we supply the parks, he added, the people them- Mather set out to do just that. He supplemented the skimpy gov selves "will help us to build a vast travel industry." Related econo- ernment budgets with private money of his own, adding to the sala- mies would benefit as well. Park travel would bring jobs and income ries of some of his staff and funding developments such as the Tioga to the railroads, auto makers, hotels, guide services, clothing manu- Pass road in Yosemite. He was a master at cultivating personal con facturers, travel book and souvenir industries, and local farmers sup- tacts for both political support and funding donations. He continued plying resorts with food. 3 his practice - begun when he campaigned to create the Park Service Enticing accommodations and recreational facilities at the parks - of taking VIPs on saddle trips through the parks to let nature promised to breathe new life into the See America First slogan. state its own case for the park movement and to let the fellowship of 5/22/2016 ENOS A. MILLS PAPERS ENOS A. MILLS PAPERS Search All Finding Aids Western History/Genealogy Home Denver Public Library Home Search in this document Table of conte Title page INTRODUCTIO INTRODUCTION SERIES Other Finding Aid : 1 For location information, refer to the ARTICLE Denver Public Library Catalog. LECTURE BY ENOS INTRODUCTION A. PROVENANCE: MILLS Papers and photographs were (MANUS donated from 1961 to 1964 by SERIES Enos A. Mill's widow, Ester Mills. 2 Fred Rosenstock donated additional PHOTOG photographs. However, the date of SERIES this donation is unknown. 3 MICROF] (C MSS ACCESS: Mflm 169) The collection is open for research. OWNERSHIP: Enos A. Mills papers are the physical property of the Denver Public Library. PUBLICATION RIGHTS: All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from material in the collection should be discussed with the appropriate librarian or archivist. Permission for publication may be given on behalf of the Denver Public Library as the owner of the physical item. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained by the customer. The Library does not http://eadsrv.denverlibrary.org/sdx/pl/toc.xsp?id=CONS250&qid=sdx%5Fq5&fmt=tab&idtoc=CONS250-pleadetoc&base=fan=14&ss=true&as=true&ai=Adva 1/2