There is evidence of humans being in the Colorado Mountains around Rocky Mountain National Park for about 10,000 years.  There is some evidence that Arapaho Indians hunted within the park, but this seems to have stopped with the American migration into the area during the 1800s.  The Arapahoe were plains Indians and considered the Park prime hunting grounds during their continual movement up and down the Front Range following the Buffalo each year.  There is no supporting evidence that the Ute Indians, who lived in what is now Western Colorado, hunted in the Park. 

            The first official white explorer into the area was Major Stephen Long, who led a government sponsored scientific expedition during the summer of 1820.  Trekking up the Missouri River to the Platte, and then again to the South Platte, he and his expedition made steady progress until the morning of June 30, when they first saw the mountain that bears his name.  They then turned South West and celebrated the 4^th of July at a site that is within present day Denver.  The expedition later moved into the Colorado Springs area, where three of the members were the first white men to climb Pikes Peak.  With the expected long trek east, the party then headed back toward the Mississippi to report their findings. 

            During the 1830s the fur trade was nearing the end of its run and several forts were established along the South Platte River including Fort Jackson, Fort St. Vrain, and Fort Lupton.  This trade by the 1840s, however, was almost exclusively in Buffalo hides with the Indians as the Beaver had been all but trapped out.  As the fur trade began to wane, gold was discovered in Colorado in the late 1850s and the flood of settlers into the area began in earnest.  This great migration of people into the area would continue until late into the 1890s.  There was a second gold rush in the Estes Park area in the 1880s.  Some gold was discovered, but it was mostly silver that was found in the area.  This rush was short lived though and the area settled a tourist attraction 1890 as the are was difficult to farm and ranch.

            One of the first settlers into the area was Joel Estes, who moved into the area of Rocky Mountain Park with his family intent on starting a cattle ranch.  He had tried his luck at farming near Fort Lupton, but during a hunting trip with his son the hiked up a high mountain that overlooked a beautiful valley.  After seeing the area, he uprooted his family and moved them into the valley and into the cattle business.  The cold winters proved too difficult to raise cattle so the family sold out and moved South to warmer climates in 1866.

             In December of 1872, the Fourth Earl of Dunraven, Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin came to the area for “sport” as the area had been touted as a hunting paradise.  He was so impressed with the area that he returned in 1873 and again in 1874.  During his trip in 1874, he decided that wanted to make a private hunting reserve for himself and his friends in the area and began purchasing, and taking land for himself by both legal and illegal means.  In 1877, he built a lavish hotel, the Estes Park Hotel, in the middle of his “preserve”.  The Earl got into many legal battles with legitimate settlers over the next 20 years and finally grew tired of the bothersome legal actions and intrusive tourists on his land.  He owned much of the land into the 1900s, but never returned after 1886.

            Tourism slowly grew from the 1890s and into the 1900s until F. O. Stanley, co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer, moved into the area in 1903.  He was so impressed with the beauty of the valley and the improvement of his health that he invested heavily in the area.  In 1909 he built the Stanley Hotel as well as an electric plant to provide electricity to the area.  He also spent a great deal of money to upgrade the roads in the area and then transported tourists from the railroad into the Park in Stanley Steamer buses. 

              In 1909, discussions got under way to convert the area into a game preserve and it was eventually decided to create a national park.  Initially called Estes National Park and Game Preserve, it was debated and changed to Rocky Mountain National Park. 

             On January 9^th, 1913 a report was submitted supporting a park of about 700 square miles and a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 6^th, 1913.  The Park bill passed the Senate on October 9^th, 1914, and the House on January 12^th, 1915.  President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill on January 26^th, 1915 and Rocky Mountain National Park was officially established.