Rocky Mountain National Park – The First 100 Years – Presentation

Rocky Mountain National Park: The First 100 Years

Glimpse the history of Colorado’s premier national park and celebrate its centennial with Rocky Mountain National Park: The First 100 Years by award-winning author and former DLC board member Mary Taylor Young.

Witness the rise, fall, and rise of mountains. Meet ancient people who built rock game drives still visible atop Trail Ridge. Discover explorers lured by the mountains’ call, and adventurers consumed with conquering Longs Peak’s soaring summit. Meet engineers sculpting Trail Ridge Road and CCC crews building trails, intrepid rangers rescuing lost hikers and researchers preserving the fragile tundra. Learn how the Park’s elk were nearly wiped out, then restored to become one of America’s premier wildlife sights. Relive the visits of millions of Americans who flocked to this beloved national park through the 20th century, forming lifelong attachments to this special place. Discover how a changing climate may greatly alter Rocky in its next 100 years.

About the author/presenter:

Award-winning writer and naturalist Mary Taylor Young has been writing about the landscape and heritage of Colorado and the American West for nearly 30 years. Mary’s 15 books include Land of Grass and Sky: A Naturalist’s Prairie Journey, The Guide to Colorado Mammals and Rocky Mountain National Park: The First 100 Years, winner of the 2015 Colorado Authors League Award for Best Nonfiction Book. Many readers know her “Words On Birds” column, which ran in the Rocky Mountain News for 16 years. She has published hundreds of magazine, newspaper and web articles and written extensively for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and others. Mary, who has a degree in Zoology from Colorado State University, was a National Park Service Artist-in-Residence at Rocky Mountain National Park in 2012. She lives in Castle Rock and is a former Douglas Land Conservancy board member.