Rocky Mountain National Park owes its existence to the tenacity and vision of Enos Mills. The straightforward stories Mills told of his wilderness adventures with snowslides, wild beasts, and even wilder weather are exciting and fun. James Pickering, a foremost expert on the life and writing on Enos Mills, has collected the stories that truly express Mills’ experiences in Colorado. The reader is transported to the turn of the 19th century as Enos Mills guides them through the Rocky Mountain wilderness.
For the first quarter of the twentieth century, the names Enos Mills and Estes Park were virtually synonymous. Together with annotations to aid in locating places and identifying Mills’ references and allusions, James Pickering presents Enos Mills to a current generation of readers through Mills’ own essays.
James H. Pickering, a longtime summer resident of Estes Park, is a professor of English at the University of Houston, where he has also served as dean, provost, and president. He has published seventeen books on Colorado and the West, including This Blue Hollow: Estes Park, the Early Years, 1859-1915.
