Enos Mills was presented with a certificate from the Colorado Chapter's Colonial Dames XVII Century:

This Certificate is presented by the Colorado Chapter's Colonial Dames XVII Century, to commemorate "Enos Abijah Mills" for his sincere dedication, persistent determination, and perseverance participating in the establishment of a National Park Service in the United States of America.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - Extensions of Remarks E 3574

Thursday, July 29, 1982

• Mr. BROWN of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, two active women, Mr. Harold Kester and Mrs. Charles Jones, with the Daughters of the American Revolution in Loveland, Colo., have brought to my attention their efforts to achieve public recognition for Enos A. Mills, an important figure in the history of Colorado.

In a mountain meadow at Longs Peak, on June 26, 1982, the Namaqua Chapter of the Daughters of the Revoluton in Loveland dedicated a marker to honor Enos Abijah Mills. The bronze marker is embedded in an earthstone, pedestal monument 5 feet by 6 feet by 4 feet, and is inscribed:

Enos A. Mills, Father of The Rocky Mountain National Park, Internationally Known Naturalist, Author, Lecturer and Nature Guide, Placed by Daughters of the American Revolution, 1982.

The site is near his original cabin, now a museum, south of Estes Park.

Mr. Mills was born on a farm near Pleasanton, Kansas, April 22, 1870, and came to Colorado alone, at age 14. He worked in mining camps and on ranches but his fascination with nature led him to become a top-notch scientific observer. His self-taught study and amassing of facts brought many concerns for the future. He found himself called upon for "tell it like it is" lectures.

Writing was difficult for him but he became a reporter for newspapers and wrote for magazines. Many of his books are in libraries. His photographs or wild life are outstanding. He was a famous nature guide. The present trail to the top of Longs Peak Mountain was laid out by him and constructed at his own expense. His greatest joy was getting people to enjoy nature according to their interested.

His walking tours all over the country and in Europe made him a champion of beautiful natural resources. He felt that the Rocky Mountains were especially rich is scenic resources and to save some for a park occupied his best efforts for 7 years. Lecturing throughout the East, lobbying in Washington and visiting newspapers brought about the bill, passed by Congress on January 26, 1915, creating a 25-mile expanse into the Rocky Mountain National Park.

He died in 1922. The Namaqua Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution felt that recognition of Mr. Mills was long overdue and should be acknowledged not only by a marker but by public attention to this interesting part of Colorado's heritage. There were 182 people at the dedication.  

In 1992 Enos Mills was inducted as an honored member of the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame.

Office of the Mayor
Estes Park, Colorado

Proclamation

• WHEREAS, Enos A. Mills was born on April 22, 1870 and made his first climb of Longs Peak in 1885; and
• WHEREAS, Enos Mills became fascinated with Longs Peak and homesteaded below it as a young man; and
• WHEREAS, Mills met naturalist John Muir on a trip to San Francisco in 1889, and the two established a close friendship; and
• WHEREAS, Mills became a nature guide and teacher whose methods are the basis for the modern field of interpretation in the National Park Service; and
• WHEREAS, Mills traveled and lectured throughout the country until his death in 1922, talking about why it was important to set natural areas aside and save them for the generations to come; and
• WHEREAS in 1915, when President Wilson signed the act creating Rocky Mountain National  Park, the Denver Post dubbed him the "Father of Rocky Mountain National Park;" and
• WHEREAS the Enos Mills Cabin is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated by the Mills family at the base of Longs Peak as a museum and archive of his photographs and writings;
  
• NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE TOWN OF ESTES PARK, COLORADO recognize the contributions of Enos Mills, the "Father of Rocky Mountain National Park," as a conservationist, writer, lecturer, nature guide, homesteader, innkeeper, and photographer, and hereby proclaim April 22, 2006 ENOS MILLS DAY.
  
• Proclaimed by Mayor John Baudek, April 11, 2006.

Like all great men he was perhaps least appreciated while he lived - and however much that appreciation was - I think all will agree that Mills, his work and what he stood for, cannot be too much known and understood. It means far more to our children than the work of men after whom many of our mountain peaks have been named. Some of these men like Zebulon Pike, discovered the bodies of our mountains. Mills discovered their souls. In the sordid struggle of commercialism largely to enrich themselves, men have discovered their mineral wealth. Mills discovered there a far greater wealth - one that may be shared with all mankind. He found there the sweet stories of the trees, the romance of the woods, and all living creatures that inhabit those temples of God. He had brought them to light through marvelous understanding, he did this in his lectures and happily in the books he has left for us and our children. Here we may find the real poetry, music and philosophy of life. Or rather here we may find the touchstone, the inspiration, the way to Heaven on earth. His insight and understanding of life as it is, as interpreted through God's living things, will make for us a better citizenship.

May we not then appeal to womens organizations, men's clubs and every influential organization to urge upon school boards the establishment of an "Enos Mills Day". His stories of all the live things in our mountains should then be told and read to the children, how would they love it. May not this be Colorado's monument to our Burroughs, our Muir, our Thoreau, our Emerson - our most useful citizen. He would not care for it because it is "Mills' Day" but because it is for those beauties, glories, truths and symphonies of the eternal hills in whose heart he truly lived - and whose message is unknown t a sordid, savage world of decadent men - except when it reaches them through the soul of a true child of nature.

Standing by the place for his body, that we call a grave, I tried to comfort the sobs of one of those children of the mountains who loved him so. "Oh it is too bad," he said, "that he should be taken away from his mountains - oh what will they do without him!"

Let us resolve that he shall not be taken away. Let us resolve that the soul of those mountains shall not be commercialized by the touch of men's greed that broke his heart. Let us make the start now by declaring a Mills' Day in all our schools where we may reach the unsullied souls of little children with the noble heart of Enos Mills - the heart that is the heart of the hills, the soul of nature, the touch of God.
 
 
 
 

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