America's Switzerland: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, the Growth Years

5: Rocky Mountain National Park: The First Years

119 Rocky Mountain National Park: The First Years Chapter 5
Rocky Mountain National Park: The First Years EVEN BEFORE THE OFFICIAL DEDICATION CEREMONIES in Horseshoe Park the new national park had begun to organize itself under acting supervisor Charles Russell Trowbridge (1865–1937).1 Like many other early superintendents , Trowbridge, a native of New York, had a military background. A veteran of the Philippine insurrection during the Spanish-American War, Trowbridge had chosen a career in government. For some years he worked with the Secret Service and then, in 1913, became one of eight “inspectors” assigned by the Department of the Interior to keep an eye on its far-flung activities, including the nation’s thirteen parks. Trowbridge arrived in Estes Park on July 1, 1915, with a first-year appropriation of $3,000,2 but without ranger or support staff. Although Trowbridge loved the outdoors, he knew little about park management. He knew even less about the wilderness area of which he was now in charge. Having located space in the village for summer headquarters and purchased furniture and fixtures, Trowbridge opened his office on July 10. He then set off by horseback to inspect roads, trails, and in-holdings. Although Trowbridge had been selected because of his previous performance in the field,3 his was not an easy assignment. With the post came an unusual set of conditions. In their eagerness to get the much-delayed legisla119 120 Rocky Mountain National Park: The First Years 5.1 Park supervisor Charles Russell Trowbridge, 1915–1916. Courtesy National Park Service–Rocky Mountain National Park tion through Congress, its supporters had accepted the arbitrary provision limiting total park expenditures for “maintenance, supervision , and improvement” to $10,000 per year. Although Colorado representative Edward Taylor explained that the amendment was “merely precautionary, . . . owing to the present financial condition of the country,” and that $10,000 “will in all probability be sufficient for the maintenance of the park for several years to come,”4 such a sum barely covered the salaries of Trowbridge and his rangers and left little or nothing to address the needs of the area Trowbridge was now called upon to supervise. In the glow of victory, supporters like Enos Mills tried to put the best face on the matter. When questioned closely by Charles Boynton of the Longmont Ledger in March 1915, Mills appeared satisfied. “No roads can be constructed until surveys are made,” he told Boynton, “and it will take a good deal of surveying to lay out the roads which are wanted. . . . Next year they may ask for $100,000 and get it.”5 Although this was, no doubt, a reasonable expectation, these were not reasonable times. Not only were troubles brewing in Mexico and Haiti and a war in Europe, but in some congressional minds the appropriation for the new national park in Colorado quickly became identified with the state’s apparent unwillingness to complete the Fall River Road to Middle Park. The restriction on funding remained in force until March 1, 1919, when, thanks to intense lobbying efforts by Colorado interests, it was repealed by Congress. Even then, park officials had to wait for the beginning of the new budget year for the additional funding. As a result, for the better part of five years, Trowbridge and his successor were forced to make do with budgets that allowed for little more than the status quo. Given that fact, it was perhaps fortunate that the 358.5 square 121 Rocky Mountain National Park: The First Years miles making up Rocky Mountain National Park were far less than the nearly 1,000 square miles for which Enos Mills had originally campaigned. They were was also substantially less than the 700 square miles that Robert B. Marshall of the U.S. Geological Survey had recommended in his January 1913 feasibility report. The challenges facing Trowbridge were nonetheless formidable: how to administer with limited resources the entire wilderness area between Estes Park and the village of Grand Lake some sixteen miles across the Continental Divide. As Trowbridge quickly learned, only five miles of the fifty-five miles of roads within the park fell under federal jurisdiction; the rest belonged to the state or county. Moreover, these roads, built by pioneers over four decades, were almost all in fair to bad condition. Some, in fact, were little more than wagon roads, like the one to the “Pole Patch...