America's Switzerland, a companion volume to This Blue Hollow, is the first comprehensive history of Rocky Mountain National Park and its neighboring town, Estes Park, during the decades when travel became a middle-class rite of summer. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources and extensive archival research, James H. Pickering reveals how the evolution of tourism and America's fascination with the "western experience" shaped the park and town from 1903 to 1945. America's Switzerland provides extensive information, much of it new to historical literature, on how Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park - the most visited national park west of the Mississippi - developed to welcome ever-growing crowds. Pickering profiles the individuals behind the development and details the challenges park and town confronted during decades that included two world wars and the Great Depression.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from The Story of Estes Park "Within the district treated we will scarcely be able to find a region so favorably distinguished as that presented by Estes Park. Not only has nature amply supplied this valley with features of rare beauty and surroundings of admirable grandeur, but it has thus distributed them that the eye of an artist may rest with perfect satisfaction on the complete picture presented." - Dr. F. V. Hayden, father of the Yellowstone National Park, in U. S. Geological Survey of Colorado, 1875. "Never, nowhere, have I seen anything equal to the view in Estes Park" writes Isabella L. Bird - "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" - 1879. In an admirable description of the Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, region, Mr. Robert B. Marshall, Chief Geographer of the United States Geological Survey, says: "The region as a whole is as beautiful as any to be found in the United States, or, indeed, in the world." Says F. H. Chapin in "Mountaineering in Colorado," "I would not fail to impress on the mind of the tourist that the scenes are too grand for words to convey a true idea of their magnificence. Let him, then, not fail to visit them." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This volume is the consequence of dissecting all previous editions and selecting the essence of the very early times spent in Estes Park. Enos A. Mills' first book, "The Story of Early Estes Park and a Guide Book" is, as always, a glorious experience to explore the Estes Park of the past. Enos did not include the "Guide" section in his second edition "The Story of Estes Park." Nor did the subsequent editions "The Story of Estes Park and Grand Lake," "The Rocky Mountain National Park Memorial Edition," "Early Estes Park," and "The Story of Early Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Lake." We have tried to remain faithful to the original "paleface" names of areas, rock formations and canyons of this time period, simply because we cannot keep up with the recent explosion of confusing name changes. We have added a few new goodies we hope you will enjoy. We thank the Stanley Museum of Estes Park, Colorado and Kingfield, Maine, for graciously allowing us to include a portion of Flora's personal perspective of Estes Park.