Laserfiche WebLink
. <br />body of knowledge concerning the Rocky Mountain 64est, including the <br />first written accounts of the presence of coed in northwestern <br />Colorado. <br />Fremont's journey proved to be the first of many into <br />the region. However, the remainder did not takes place until after <br />the Civil War. In the intervening years great changes took place <br />just beyond the region, including the Mormon migration to the Great <br />Salt Lake and the Colorado Gold Rush. In both cases participants <br />of the movements entered the area, the Mormons on a purposeful <br />exploration to locate potential new lands for :settlement and the <br />gold rushers equally as purposeful, but less ti~ell organized, to <br />find the "Mother Lode." Both groups also turned their backs on the <br />region because of the hostile Indians, isolation and lack of <br />economic incentives that would make the risks worthwhile. While <br />settlers refused to enter the region others found it to be most <br />intriguing by the late 1860s and early 1870s. <br />One group that found great fascination in 1.he wilderness <br />of the Yampa Valley, the Green and Blue Rivers <snd elsewhere were <br />the new generation of science-oriented explorers that took to the <br />field after the Civil War. Two of the more famous men to visit the <br />area were Major John Wesley Powell and Ferdinand V. Hayden. <br />Powell's legendary trips down the Coloradc River and its <br />tributaries created great interest in the river system. Powell's <br />groundbreaking work on western water set new standards for <br />explorers to aspire to. Hayden, while not as well remembered as <br />Powell, did contribute volumes of new informatio~z about the region <br />and attempted to set out a blueprint for its. future economic <br />development. Hayden's associates included a number of specialists <br />in flora and fauna as well as characters su~~h as the famous <br />photographer William H. Jackson. Hayden's evaluation of much of <br />the region specified that only small parts of the land could be <br />farmed, and then only with irrigation. However, the explorer <br />refused to be daunted by the hostility of the environment, saying <br />that much of the land could be used for grazing a~Zd that the parks, <br />such as Brown's Hole made ideal winter range. Also, they <br />2 <br />