Tax Day, Two Oxen, and the People Who Built This Valley Plus a New Restaurant and Spring Finally Showing Up in RMNP

The people who built Estes Park, the federal income tax, and the eleven-month window that changed everything

BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD

Yesterday was April 15th.

You know what that means. The government sent you its annual reminder that it exists. Most of you filed on time. Some of you filed an extension and are currently pretending that is not a problem. All of you, at some point yesterday, had a thought about how much you handed over and what exactly it bought you.

Buck's answer to that question, for what it's worth, is Rocky Mountain National Park. But we will get to that.

The people who built this valley never had that conversation. Not once. Joel Estes arrived in 1859. Lord Dunraven arrived in 1872. Isabella Bird climbed Longs Peak in 1873. F.O. Stanley drove his steam car up the switchbacks in 1903. Squeaky Bob Wheeler opened his tent resort in 1907. Enos Mills spent twenty-six years lobbying for a national park.

• Not one filed a federal income tax return. The law did not exist.

The 16th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1913. The Revenue Act followed on October 3, 1913—when returns were first due. Rocky Mountain National Park was signed into law January 26, 1915.

• The park and the income tax arrived in the same eleven-month window of history.

Moe heard that and said it was the most interesting thing anyone had told him on a tax day.

I told him the story gets better from there.

SIT DOWN. THIS ONE'S GOOD.

Nobody Here Paid Taxes Until 1913

The people who built Estes Park, the federal income tax, and the eleven-month window that changed everything

How Did Joel Estes Leave?

Joel Estes arrived in the valley in 1859 on a hunting trip with his son Milton. He was the kind of man who moved west to get away from neighbors and found Colorado because Denver had already gotten too crowded for his taste.

He moved his family in permanently in 1860. Two log cabins near Fish Creek. His son Charles, born there in February 1865, was the first white child born in the valley. They ran cattle. They hunted. They supplied the mining camps in Denver with elk and whatever else the mountain provided.

Then the winters got to them. In the spring of 1866, the Estes family left for the warmer climate of New Mexico. Joel Estes never came back.

He sold out for a yoke of oxen. A Colorado newspaper ran the headline in December 1899: "SOLD ESTES PARK FOR A YOKE OF OXEN."

The valley that still carries his name was a place he could not wait to leave. He never paid federal income tax. He sold everything he had up here for two oxen and a fresh start somewhere warmer.

By any measure, he got out clean.

Who Tried to Steal the Whole Thing?

The 16th Amendment established the federal income tax. What was the exact date it was ratified, and how many months before Rocky Mountain National Park was signed into law did the first federal income tax returns come due

Alpenglow Beauty: Skincare That Handles Spring and Whatever April Throws At It.

April in the Rockies is its own thing. The sun is stronger, the wind is still cold, and the air up here has never once cared about moisture. Your skin knows the difference between a Colorado spring and anywhere else.

Alpenglow Beauty is made for life at elevation, where the seasons do not follow the calendar and your skin takes the full weight of whatever the mountain is serving that day. Their clean, nourishing formulas help keep skin balanced without overcomplicating things.

If the long dry winter has left your skin feeling tight or rough, their

Whipped Tallow Balm is especially worth a look. Simple. Effective. Made to hold up out here.

Explore the collection at AlpenglowBeauty.com and enjoy 20% off with code RIDGE20. 

LOCAL HIGHLIGHT - NEW RESTAURANT

A new restaurant is opening in Estes Park on May 1st and it is worth knowing about before the summer crowds arrive.

Club House Fairway Tavern is coming to town led by Chef Caleb Gafner, who brings Michelin-level training to a mountain town that has needed something like this for a while. Details on the full menu and location are still coming together but the short version is: trained at the highest level, opening in Estes Park, May 1st.

Worth putting on the calendar before everyone else does.

More information at estesparknews.com.

A few pieces of good news from the park this week, with one caveat worth reading before you head out.

As of April 12, the road between Alluvial Fan and Endo Valley is open to vehicles. Upper Beaver Meadows Road is also open to cars. Both are welcome additions to the lower elevation access that has been available through the winter.

The caveat: it is snowing in the park today, April 14, and road conditions can change fast at elevation this time of year. Any road that opened last week can close again by this afternoon. Check current conditions before you go at nps.gov/romo or call the park road status line at 970-586-1222, updated around the clock.

Trail Ridge Road remains closed at Many Parks Curve. No opening date has been announced for 2026. Plowing begins when conditions allow. Given the thin snowpack this season some sections of the upper road are already bare, which may mean an earlier than usual opening, but no timeline has been confirmed.

Bear Lake Road is open. Wildlife is active on the lower trails in the early morning hours. Spring is arriving unevenly up here, the way it always does.

DID YOU KNOW? 

Joel Estes left his valley in the spring of 1866 after six years of brutal winters. He sold everything for a yoke of oxen. A Colorado newspaper ran the headline in December 1899: "SOLD ESTES PARK FOR A YOKE OF OXEN." The valley that still carries his name was a place he could not wait to leave. He never paid federal income tax. He never came back.

The 16th Amendment was ratified February 3, 1913, but the first income tax returns under the Revenue Act of 1913 were not actually due until March 1, 1914. Rocky Mountain National Park was signed into law January 26, 1915 — just eleven months later. The park and the modern income tax arrived in the same narrow window of American history.

Alexander Q. MacGregor, the Milwaukee lawyer who defeated Lord Dunraven's land grab in court, came to Estes Park on a camping trip in 1872, met his wife there, and never left. He built a toll road, filed fraud charges against Dunraven's agents, and won. He was later struck dead by lightning working his ranchland at age 51. His ranch operates today as a living history museum next to Rocky Mountain National Park.

F.O. Stanley came to Estes Park in 1903 because his doctor told him he was dying. He had tuberculosis. The mountain air saved his life. He built the Stanley Hotel in 1909, established the town's first power plant, water system, and bank, and lived to age 91. His hotel later inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. He filed income tax returns for the last 27 years of his life.

Buck's Joke Of The Day

A doctor, a property owner, a father and his son, a local looking for firewood, a camp guest, a hiker, and a woman following a strange sound all filed reports about the same thing in Larimer County over 54 years.

The county has not issued a statement.

The park service has not issued a statement.

Bigfoot Days is April 25th.

(Eight reports. Zero official responses. The festival has better attendance every year.)

Joel Estes sold this entire valley for two oxen and moved to New Mexico.

Lord Dunraven tried to steal 15,000 acres with $10 homestead claims and lost to a lawyer from Milwaukee who later got struck by lightning.

F.O. Stanley came here to die and built a hotel that inspired a horror novel instead.

Enos Mills spent 26 years lobbying for a park he would only live to enjoy for seven years.

None of them paid federal income tax for any of it.

You filed yours yesterday.

(The 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913. Some people had better timing than others.)

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Moe put on his jacket at the door and said the story about Joel Estes selling the whole valley for two oxen was going to bother him for a while.

I told him it bothered me too, in a good way.

A man arrived here in 1859, settled in 1860, built two cabins, raised the first white child born in this valley, survived winters that would have finished most people, and then sold everything he had built for two oxen and moved to New Mexico.

You can read that as a failure. Or you can read it as a man who knew when to cut his losses and go find somewhere warmer.

Either way, the valley kept going without him. It collected an Irish earl, a dying inventor, a teenage naturalist, and a Milwaukee lawyer who won and then got struck by lightning. It collected all of them before the government had figured out how to tax any of it.

You filed your taxes yesterday. The park is still there. The switchbacks are the same ones Stanley drove in 1903.

Some things are worth what they cost.

Stay smart, stay safe, and leave the mountains better funded than you found them.

- Buck Timber The Mountain Thread themountainthread.com/signup

 - Buck

Share The Mountain Thread with someone who loves this valley. themountainthread.com/signup