He was born in Canton, Illinois on January 14, 1888.  He first visited Colorado in 1900, then he and his mother, Josie, spent a summer on a ranch in South Park owned by some friends of theirs from New York.

  In 1903 he made his first visit to Estes Park.  He stayed a month or so at Longs Peak Inn, climbed Long Peak with Enos Mills and made many other trips by himself...to Chasm Lake, Estes Cone, etc.  in 1904 made a walking trip with his cousin Louis Levings, August and September started at Boulder and returning there.  The route was mostly by old wagon roads and trails.  Went from Boulder to Sunset, Ward, Allenspark, Longs Peak, Flattop, Grand Lake, the northeast part of Middle Park and back over the divide by a high pass (probably Arapahoe Pass, for he recalled that they climbed one of the Arapahoe Peaks), Nederland then (by stage) back to Boulder.  Made several side trips from Longs Peak Inn.

In the summer of 1905, with Louis Levings and another cousin made headquarters at Longs Peak Inn and took five or six camping trips of three or four days each...Wild Basin, Glacier Gorge, Mummy Range, Hallett (Rowe) Glacier.  It was at this time that Louis Levings was killed on Mount Ypsilon.

  In 1922-26 he made trips and climbs in the north end of Estes Park: Richtofen, Specimen, part of Wild Basin and west slopes of the range from Mount McHenry south to Ouzel Peak and the lakes and mountains west of Ward, Navajo Peak, Isabel Lake and so on.  during three intervening years from 1905-1908 he was in New York, studying art, spent time on the Maine Coast and one year in Spain.  In 1908 he returned to Colorado with Professor Edward Orton on a geological survey party (making glacial records of the Longs Peak region.  He also worked with William S. Cooper on "the first authentic map" of the Longs Peak--Wild Basin region.  My grandmother, Dean's mother, acquired eighty acres, including the Ledges as a "Timber and Stone" purchase in the fall of 1908.  He built his first house at the Ledges mostly in 1910, although he had built his little "shop" and the fireplace and other stone work of the main house the previous year.  The winter of 1910-11 was the first time he stayed a full winter at Longs Peak, living in his own home.  He lived at the Ledges the greater part of the time for 35 years.  He was there every summer but two and probably 20 winters, though not continually.

  He was married in 1914 to Adele Ramsey, who wasborn in September, 1890 on the Ramsey Ranch in Northwestern Colorado.  They had two daughters: Evelyn, bornin Greeley, Colorado in 1916 and Sylvia, born in Denver in 1919.
From 1918-1921 he was with the National Park Service as a ranger, naturalist, surveyor and for a time Assistant to the Superintendent in charge of construction.
 
 

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