Pingree
Park
Contents
Pingree
Park
is a mountain campus of Colorado
State
University
located on the South Fork of the Cache la Poudre
River
in the Mummy
Range
at 9,053 ft. It is 25 miles
(40 km) up Highway 14 in the Poudre Canyon, then a left turn at
Eggers and another 16 miles (26 km) on a dirt road, CR 63E. It
is located on 1,600 acres in the
Colorado
National Forest, the result of an 1912 Act of Congress which set
aside this land for use by Colorado
A&M
College
(now CSU, Case 308).
The following information is from Wikipedia, with additional information
about George Pingree from Stanley Case.
During
the summer Pingree Park is home to a variety of conferences from around
the country ranging from CSU students enrolled in Natural Resource and
Forestry classes to corporate groups using its ropes course and finally
Elderhostel groups organized through the Pingree office.
Challenge
Ropes Course
A
popular program at Pingree
Park
is the Challenge Ropes Course operated on the campus. Many groups use
the facilities including students from both Colorado
State
University
and Poudre
Valley
School District. Additionally many recreational and corporate
groups include a stop at the Ropes Course for use in team building
exercises. The course consists of several low and high elements built in
1989 with a large climbing wall and adjoining "Giant Swing"
built in 2005. In the Hourglass Fire of 1994 the course was damaged
severely but was rebuilt in the following years.
Academics
at Pingree
Park
Since
1915 the Pingree
Park
campus has hosted summer sessions for students with programs in the
mountains. Students stay in four person cabins on the campus grounds
with heat provided by a wood burning stove. NR-220 is a required
four-week field camp for undergraduate students in the
College
of
Natural Resources. The Forestry program, F-230, is a one-week program
for Forestry majors, required in addition to the NR-220 program.
Elderhostel
Programs
Throughout
the summer various Elderhostel groups make their way up to Pingree
Park. These trips began in 1983 and now include Intergenerational,
Watercolor, Musical programs and intensive Hiking trips.
Elderhostel is
the world's largest not-for-profit educational travel organization for
adults. Elderhostel offers more than 8,000 learning adventures every
year, in all 50 U.S.
states and in over 90 countries around the world. Over 160,000 people
enroll in Elderhostel programs every year.
Conferences
The
6-bedroom conference cabins were constructed in 1995 after the old
structures burnt in the 1994 fire. They can house various private
organizations that go to Pingree
Park
for retreats, workshops and meetings.
The Five Summits
Five
mountains among the mummy range hold particular attention to the
students and staff of
Pingree
Park. It is often a goal to hike all of the summits in one season
and there is even a trip that tackles them all in 24 hours. These
summits are:
-
Signal
Mountain
- 11,262 ft (3,433 m)
-
Stormy Peaks
- 12,148 ft (3,703 m)
-
Fall
Mountain
- 12,258 ft (3,736 m)
-
Comanche
Peak
- 12,702 ft (3,872 m)
-
Hagues
Peak
- 13,560 ft (4,130 m)
The
area that is Pingree
Park
has been home to many different communities over its history before
becoming the campus that it is today.
Early History
From
Wikipedia: the
original inhabitants of
Pingree
Park, as determined through early interaction and artifacts recovered
were Native Americans of the Arapaho,
Mountain Ute
and Cherokee
tribes. White settlers began to arrive in the 1830s as fur trappers,
interested primarily in beaver pelts. In the 1850s prospectors
came through the region in search of gold.
George W. Pingree
George
W. Pingree (1832–1911, 79 years old) in 1867
traveled up the South Fork of the Poudre
River
and into the park looking for trees
to make suitable railroad ties for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1868,
George Pingree established a logging camp in the valley that now bears
his name. 30 to 40 "Tie-hacks" were paid 10˘ per railroad tie
and hunters were employed to provide food. The "Tie-hacks" had
to walk 25 miles (40 km) in and out of the valley to the
nearest wagon track. The lumberjacks could hew up to 50 ties a day. In
the springs of 1869 and 1870 the ties were taken out and hauled by wagon
to Tie Siding,
Wyoming (now a few buildings along U.S. 287). Pingree moved to
Wyoming
in 1870 when the camp closed
because the railroad no longer needed railroad ties, having moved past
the Nebraska
and Wyoming
section the camp had serviced.
Case’s story is
slightly different: George
W. Pingree after several stints in the Army, including the Battle of
Sand Creek, “came into Poudre
Canyon
in the late 1860s and spent winters in its upper territories, trapping
beaver and hunting wild game. He
built a camp at what is now Rustic and cut a trail up the gulch north of
the river [what we now call Pingree Hill].
Over this trail he packed out his supplies, game and furs.
In all probability, once he heard of the need for railroad ties,
he notified some of the abundance of good material in the area.”
In other words, Case differs from Wikipedia in that Pingree did
not specifically come to be a tie-hack.
Case’s story is likely more accurate since it is well known that
trapping, hunting, and prospecting (gold was discovered in Cherry Creek,
west of Denver
in 1858) had been drawing
men to the area for years. Second,
the Union Pacific Railroad
track construction reached Cheyenne November
13, 1867, at which
time over four thousand people had migrated into the new city
anticipating the prosperity the railroad would bring (Wikipedia).
Wyoming
in the area of Cheyenne
is not known for trees, so they had to come from other areas, namely Colorado. The Laramie River flows north so that was one source taking ties
directly north, but further west than Cheyenne. The Cache la Poudre was another source, which took the ties down to
La Porte
where they were trimmed up to the specifications for the railroad, then
hauled up the
Overland Trail
to Tie Siding. The Union
Pacific had built a spur south to this area where the train picked up
the ties and brought them back, north to the main line, thus name for
the community.
Fore more information on Tie Siding and
the work of tie-hacks, go to http://www.over-land.com/tieside.html,
which has information on the Overland Trail Stage and the many
emigration trails in Wyoming
.
1890 Fire
In
1890, a forest fire engulfed most of the area around the park destroying
the Ponderosa pine forest and resulting in the proliferation of
Lodgepole pine and aspen
(the current dominant species in the park). Remnants of the original
forest can be found along the ridge south of the Pingree
Valley.
The Ramsey and Koenig
Era
The Koenig children along
with Joe Bennett (back right) pose with their schoolteacher. Circa 1920.
In 1897, two brothers, Hugh and Charles Ramsey, homesteaded the present
southern portion of the campus. The homesteads were officially deeded in
1903. The Ramsey’s made a living ranching and operating a sawmill. In
1912, Hugh Ramsey hired Frank Koenig who spent the winter with the family and helped build a road over Pennock
Pass.
In 1913, Ramsey, Koenig, and a helper Tom Bennett built a road to
Twin
Lakes. Frank Koenig and Hazel Ramsey were married that year. Hugh Ramsey
moved to the upper ranch and sold to Frank Koenig most of the property
except for 40 acres which he gave to Hazel as a
wedding present.
Terrible
hardships struck the residents of Pingree
Park
in the early years. In 1907 diphtheria struck killing one son and two
infant daughters. In 1919, Frank and Hazel Koenig’s twin infants died
of whooping cough while the family was snow bound. The children were
buried in a plot next to their cousins. The original homestead cabin was
burned to the ground and the present structure was built. In addition to
the many structures that still stand of the original ranch community,
the Koenig's retain their legacy in the region through many geographical
names. In 1915,
Rocky
Mountain
National Park
was created through an act of Congress. Frank Koenig was selected
as one of the initial three park rangers and went on to name many of the
surrounding geographic features, (Emmaline
Lake
after his mother,
Hazeline
Lake
after his wife, and Ramsey
Peak
after his father-in-law).
Integration into
Colorado
State
University
Wikipedia:
As
early as 1910, Pingree park was the interest of the fledgling
University. Through the work of Professor B.
O. Longyear, a special act of Congress allowed
Colorado
Agricultural
College
(now Colorado
State
University) the right to select tracts of federal land for biologic
research and practical study. In 1912, Colorado Agricultural College
President, Charles
A. Lory; Colorado National Forest Supervisor, N.M. Wheeler; State
Forester and Professor, B. O. Longyear; President Edwards of the State
Board of Agriculture; and Colorado Governor, E.
M. Ammons, selected 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of land,
including the present campus land in Pingree Park. The group traveled by
Stanley Steamer and then by horse through
Pennock
Pass.
While selecting the land, they stayed at Hazel and Frank Koenig’s
cabin.
A
functional campus was erected quickly with the first building completed
in 1913 to serve as bunkhouse, cafeteria and classroom. During
construction, Hazel Koenig cooked for construction workers at the site.
In 1915 the first Civil Engineering class was held and then in 1917 the
first Forestry field camp was held under Professor Longyear with one
student in attendance.
View
from the trail of the Koenig Homestead at Pingree
Park.
Hourglass
Fire of 1994
The
Hourglass fire started on July 1, 1994 near the Hourglass Reservoir
which gave the fire its name. It started with a lighting strike which
caused a crown fire. It burned down the South Dorm and it almost burned
down the Old Schoolhouse. The fire burned a half dozen buildings.
|
