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Ghost Town
In NorthernColorado
LongsPeak 
PioneerClimbers
Outlaws
In EarlyColorado
Skiing
SteamboatSprings
 
EstesPark 
Places andFaces
Where theBuffaloRoamed
PioneersCrossingthe Plains
CoverPicture
StanleySteamer Automobile
EstatePlanning,Health, News
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The Senior
 June 2008
Local Attractions • Scenic Places • History • Money • Health • News
 
2• June 2008 • The Senior Voice
Crossing thePlains to Greeley
(Editor’s Note: Greeley historianHazel E. Johnson wrote the followingstory years ago.)By Hazel Johnson
G
reeley pioneer Etta McConaugheyrecalled crossing the great plains ina covered wagon to Colorado in 1859.She said:“Seeing clouds of dust, the menbelieved a cyclone was coming. Laterthey decided it was Indians, but fieldglasses proved it was a buffalo stam-pede.“Our wagons were drawn awayfrom the ridge where we had themcircled because buffalo ran on highground. They were running eight orten abreast and came by us for nearly20 minutes.“The men killed several for freshmeat. The bellowing of the buffalobulls was terrible, and the roar of thehoof beats made it impossible to hearanyone speak.”When Etta’s family first came toColorado in 1859, the Indians werefriendly. But she made several tripsacross the plains, and on her last tripin 1867, she recalled that the Indianswere more restless.She remembered how her fatherhid her and her sister in apple barrelswhen, seeing a flame in the distance,he thought Indians had set fire to astage station at Bijou Basin near FortMorgan.The men stood guard all night. Inthe morning, they discovered a haystack had been set on fire.Another Greeley pioneer, D.F.Raney, arrived in 1860. On the journeyacross the plains, he said the oxen’sshoes wore out. Every night, they hadto make shoes for them out of hide.They traveled only 15 miles a day,Raney recalled. They once met a tribeof Indians who were taking an old,helpless squaw out to the prairie.She implored them to save her.
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When Indian squaws became old,they were usually taken to the plainsand left to die, said Raney. He added:“It is said the Indians were morefriendly toward Fort Lupton than theother forts because its founder,Lancaster Lupton, could supply themwith metal arrow heads. Those weremore effective in buffalo hunts.“In using stone arrows, severalhad to be lodged in a beast’s hide.Then the Indians would run theanimal until the arrows worked into avital spot, causing death,” said Raney.Those memories give a brief glimpse of what life was like forpioneers.
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Pioneers crossing the plains in covered wagons.Hazel Johnson Collection.
 
The Senior Voice • June 2008 • 3
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The Senior
 Published Locally Since 1980
 VOL.28,NO.7
email thevoice@frii.com www.theseniorvoice.net
PUBLICATION INFORMATION
The Senior Voice 
newspaper has beenpublished locally the first of each monthsince 1980 for residents age 50-plus.
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The Senior Voice 
EDITORIAL OFFICE:
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No material may be reproduced by any means without permission of the publisher.
Dr.William Lambdin,Publisher 
By Bill Lambdin
A
s you drive or hike around theEstes Park area, you’ll probablysee places that prompt you to ask,“Why did they call it that?” Here ishow some places got their names.
Stanley Hotel.
Named for F.O.Stanley, who built the hotel in 1909and, with his brother, invented theStanley Steamer automobile. Healso invented several other things,became wealthy and spent many of his summers with his wife at thehotel. That building put Estes Park on the map as a popular, earlytourist destination.
Allenspark.
Named for AlonzoAllen, who came to Colorado duringthe gold rush of 1859. He and hiswife first owned a stage stop andhotel in what later becameLongmont. In 1864, they built acabin about two miles east of thepresent village of Allenspark, thefirst home in this scenic valley.
Bear Lake
. Named by pioneerrancher Horace Ferguson, whoencountered a bear here one day andthereafter referred to the area as that“bear lake place.”
Bierstadt Lake
. Named forAlbert Bierstadt, a famous artistwhom the Earl of Dunraven broughtto Estes Park in 1876. Dunravenwanted Bierstadt to choose the bestscenic site for a hotel to housewealthy European guests. Whiledriving a horse and buggy aroundthe area, Bierstadt admired a lakeand Dunraven promptly named itafter him. Bierstadt did a famous oilpainting of Estes Park that nowhangs in the Denver Public Library.
Big Thompson River
. Probablynamed for Philip Thompson, an1830s fur trapper who did businessat Fort Vasquez south of Greeley.The Arapaho Indians called it thePipe River because they sat along itsbanks and carved smoking pipes outof stone.
Devils Gulch.
Named becausethe eerie clouds and fog that oftenrise from this deep canyon resem-bled smoke from Hell to the firstpioneers who saw the place.
Fish Creek.
It runs along the eastside of the Estes Park golf course andinto Lake Estes. Milton Estes, whosefamily was the first to settle EstesPark in 1863, remembered the threeand four-pound trout they caught inthis creek: “We fished with grasshop-pers or with artificial flies which wemade...We kept the fly on top of thewater and kept it moving, and the fishwould jump after the fly...It was aregular paradise for the fisherman inthose days.”
MacGregor Mountain.
Namedfor Alexander MacGregor, a youngWisconsin lawyer who brought hisnew wife to Estes Park in 1874 andestablished a ranch. In 1886, he washunting when a lightning bolt struck and killed him. The MacGregorRanch is now maintained as apublic museum so people can seewhat a working ranch looked like inthe 1800s.
Marys Lake.
Named for one of the most important people in EstesPark’s history. Mary Estes was theyoung bride of Milton Estes. In 1863they came to this beautiful valleywith Milton’s father and mother.Years later Milton wrote: “I shallnever forget my first sight of thePark...No words can describe oursurprise, wonder and joy at beholdingsuch an unexpected sight.”
Mills Lake.
Named for EnosMills, another important figure inEstes Park’s history. A Kansas farmboy born in 1870, he came to thePark at age 15 and began hiking inthe mountains. He became a self-taught naturalist who believed themountains around Estes Park shouldbe protected from development. Forseveral years, Mills traveled andlectured on the need for a nationalpark here. In 1915, partly due to hisefforts, Congress established RockyMountain National Park. Otherfeatures named for him are MillsGlacier and Mills Moraine.
Sprague Mountain.
Named forAbner Sprague, who came toColorado by covered wagon with hiswife and children in 1864. As one of Estes Park’s first innkeepers andguides, he came to know the moun-tains here better than anyone else.When he later worked as acounty surveyor, Sprague mappedthe region and named many of itsfeatures for pioneers, friends andpeople he had guided across the highpeaks. He became known as thepatriarch of Estes Park and wrotetwo manuscripts about the area,which historians call gold mines of information. Other features namedfor him are Sprague Glacier,Sprague Lake and Sprague Pass.And that’s how some placesaround Estes Park got their names.________________
COVER PICTURE: A StanleySteamer car near Estes Park.Courtesy the Stanley Museum.
■
Early tourists in a Stanley Steamer. Colorado Historical Society.
Places at Estes Park 
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