The yearlong celebration of Rocky Mountain National Park’s centennial is finally drawing to a close with two days of events, culminating an official rededication ceremony Friday, Sept. 4 – a date that has an interesting backstory for the park.
Rocky Mountain National Park was officially created on Jan. 26, 1915 – but wasn’t dedicated until Sept. 4, 1915, months after President Woodrow Wilson signed the establishing legislation. The reason we didn’t celebrate the centennial in January goes back to reasons that should be familiar to any park visitor today.
Automobiles and the weather.
"Probably back then they looked at January 26th and thought, ‘Hmm… wonder who will come for a celebration in their Model Ts?'" says RMNP spokeswoman Kyle Patterson.
The iconic Colorado destination has undergone many changes in its 100 years. Some have been man-made – such as the addition of Bear Lake and Trail Ridge Roads, to accommodate increasing numbers of visitors in the 1920s and '30s.
Others have come about at the hands of Mother Nature, including significant wildfires in 2012 and the devastating floods in 2013. Today it’s the sixth-most visited national park in the U.S., with 3.4 million visitors in 2014.
Rocky Mountain National Park is still growing. In August, officials announced a campaign to buy the last privately owned piece of land inside the park.
Two nonprofit groups are spearheading the effort to raise $3.6 million to buy the parcel known as the Cascade Cottages. The land is about a mile from the Fall River entrance on the park’s east side, and has a dozen cabins for summer rental.
"The family who has been operating it for the last three generations, since the 1940s, has decided they no longer want to operate it as a tourist facility," says Charles Money, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, RMNP’s nonprofit partner.
The site’s owners have offered to sell the land to the park before putting it on the open market. Although the timing was a coincidence, Money says it’s a significant and meaningful gift to give to Rocky on its 100th birthday.
"We will make the park 40 acres larger and create a legacy for the park’s next 100 years," Money says.
Rocky’s centennial celebration wraps up with events Sept. 3 at Holzwarth Historic Site on the park’s west side. The official rededication ceremony takes place Friday, Sept. 4 at Glacier Basin Campground of the east side. Most of the events are open to the public.
