Isabella Bird, nineteenth century Victorian traveler. Photo courtesy Estes Park Museum

Celebrate Women’s History Month with a special historical reenactment at the Estes Park Museum on Saturday, March 6th at 2:00 p.m. Linda Batlin will appear as Isabella Bird, a Victorian traveler widely acclaimed for her letters and sketches published during 1879 in A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. This book is considered to be the first deliberate account of a tourist experience in Estes Park and what would become Rocky Mountain National Park.  Doors open at 1:30 p.m. and the program is free and open to the public.

Linda Batlin is a storyteller and author from Boulder and serves as the Co-President of the Rocky Mountain Storytellers Guild.  Her living history presentations of important Coloradoan women are entertaining as she tells stories full of wisdom and mirth.  Batlin’s reenactments are educational and appropriate for all age groups.  The presentation will last approximately forty-five minutes, leaving time for a brief discussion about Bird’s life and adventures.  Bird’s book is currently for sale in the Museum Shop.

Now through May 1st, the Museum, located at 200 Fourth Street, is open Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.  The mission of the Estes Park Museum is to collect, interpret and preserve local history, as well as to present exhibits, programs and events for the education and benefit of residents and visitors of all ages.  For more information call the Estes Park Museum at (970)-586-6256 or visit the Museum’s website at www.estes.org/museum.  Admission is free.

Thrilling mountain rescues, dangerous skirmishes with poachers, ski patrols high above treeline, looking death squarely in the eyes. It’s just another day at the office for Bob Flame, Rocky Mountain National Park ranger.

The Rocky Mountain Nature Association, in cooperation with the Estes Park Museum Friends and Foundation, has republished Bob Flame: Rocky Mountain Ranger. This classic novel was written for a youthful audience by Dorr G. Yeager, Rocky Mountain National Park’s first chief naturalist, and released in 1935. Yeager’s exciting fact-based fiction helped define the image of the modern national park ranger.

“In creating the character he named Bob Flame, Dorr Yeager brought to literature a hero who showcased the duties, activities and adventurous life of the modern park ranger,” said historian James H. Pickering, an editorial contributor to the new edition. “Bob Flame exemplified in word and deed the ideals of the National Park Service and its commitment to wilderness conservation.”

The pages from Yeager’s original Bob Flame: Rocky Mountain Ranger appear complete and unedited. The revised edition also features new introductory and afterword materials written by Pickering, Yeager’s daughter Patricia Yeager Washburn and C.W. Buchholtz, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Nature Association, an organization Yeager co-founded in 1931 to assist Rocky Mountain National Park in its missions of conservation, preservation and education.

Bob Flame: Rocky Mountain Ranger (retail price $12.95) is available in visitor center bookstores throughout Rocky Mountain National Park and online at rmna.org.

Founded in 1931, the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Nature Association assists Rocky Mountain National Park, the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Colorado State Parks and other land management agencies through the sale and publication of books and other interpretive materials. RMNA’s field seminar and membership programs encourage public lands stewardship. The association also supports philanthropy for Rocky Mountain National Park.

EP NEWS/ Gary Hazelton

The Estes Park Salvation Army Board of Directors was delighted to receive a rare gold coin in one of its red kettles during the 2009 Christmas fund raising effort. The coin is a ten dollar U.S. issued Liberty/Eagle gold coin dated 1851. Appraisers estimated the value of the coin to be about $550.

The EP Salvation Army Board auctioned the coin to the highest bidder in a sealed bid auction and this week, the winner of the auction was presented her new (old) coin.

The Salvation Army Board received twelve bids on the coin ranging from $601.00-$1,101.00. Gay Nehrig was the high bidder and was delighted to receive the coin this week.

Wayne Andersen of the Salvation Army Board stated they thank all who placed bids and added, “This winning bid allowed us to come within $1,000 of our goal for 2009. We also want to thank whomever anonymously donated the coin and to the community for supporting the Salvation Army Red Kettle Drive.”

Gay stated that she and her husband are delighted to support an organization such as the Salvation Army. “I can’t say enough good things about what a wonderful service the Salvation Army provides to our community. I’ve seen first hand all they do for our town and they are a priority charity in my book.”

Rocky Mountain National Park fire managers are planning to conduct a prescribed fire (pile burn) to achieve resource management and hazard fuel reduction objectives. The burn is planned for March 1, 2010 at approximately 10:00 a.m., if weather conditions allow. Ignition of piles may continue throughout the month of March and will take place during normal business days.

Residual smoke may be observed through the weekends. The burn will be located in the Fall River Valley above Aspen Glenn Campground on the Northern aspect of Deer Mountain. Approximately 2,500 piles will be burned within this project.

Please call the park information office at 970-586-1206 or 1264 for further information. Mike Lewelling, Rocky Mountain Fire Management Officer, may also be contacted with additional information requests at 970-586-1287.

Courtesy Photo

Add the name J.E. Hanway to the list of early Estes Park newspaper editors. Hanway, who owned the Loveland Herald for about eight months before settling in Casper, Wyoming, published a paper in Estes Park in the summer of 1914 called the Estes Park Alikasai.

The word “Alikasai” means “once upon a time” in the Hopi language, and until this year, the newspaper was thought to be a fairy tale, as no surviving copies had ever been found. Join the Estes Park History Rescue Project Saturday afternoon, February 27, at 2:00 p.m. at the Lake Shore Lodge for the conclusion to this mystery.

Now that surviving examples of the Alikasai have been examined in person, they are definitely not a myth, although the ending is something of a surprise. The second half of our February program will be devoted to a presentation by Curt Weibel, who has just returned from a medical mission to Haiti following that island nation’s devastating earthquake.

Curt will update us on what is most urgently needed, as EPHRP fills its dual role in 2010 as the Haiti Rescue Project. Please join us for our free monthly get-together, with free refreshments to follow.

Helen Baker, 96, passed peacefully Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

She was born July 15, 1913 to Carl and Ethel Furney in Coffey County, Georgia. She attended school in Miami, Florida and worked in Miami Beach, Florida. She married Charles Baker and together they moved to Estes Park where they enjoyed visiting and being visited by friends and family.

She is survived by her sister Carlys of Rochester, NY and sister Nell of Johnson City, TN, seven nieces and nephews; grand nieces and nephews and their families. She was preceeded in death by her parents and loving husband.

2010 Lyceum Series “Wilderness: Of What Avail Are Forty Freedoms Without A Blank Spot On The Map?”

Saturday, February 27, 7:00 p.m.-Ute Life in the Forest, Then and Now

Orvid Roland McCook, Sr., Uncompahgre Ute, will present “Ute Life in the Forest.” Mr. McCook will provide a look into the Utes’ lifestyle in the Rocky Mountains during the 1800s and the Utes’ lifestyle on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation today. He will also include their close relationship with wilderness. Born and raised on the Ute Reservation, he is a member of the Northern Ute Tribe, specifically the Uncompahgre Band.

Roland is retired from the Federal Government in Vernal, Utah, and the Indian Service located on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Fort Duchesne, Utah. He was elected to the Ute Tribe leadership and served as the Vice-Chair and Chairman during his term of 9 ½ years. Presently, he sits as the President of the Friends of the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose,

Colorado, and as the Vice-Chair of the Smithsonian Institution’s Repatriation Review Committee in Washington, DC.

In March, 2009, President Obama signed legislation providing additional protection to Rocky Mountain National Park by designating most of the park’s backcountry as wilderness, which encompasses roughly 95 percent of the park. Park staff joined the gateway communities of Grand Lake and Estes Park in welcoming the passage by the Congress of the wilderness designation for the park’s backcountry. This was the culmination of an effort that began in 1974 by President Richard Nixon and was jump started in recent years through the efforts of many.

The theme of the 2010 Lyceum Series is “Wilderness: Of What Avail Are Forty Freedoms Without A Blank Spot On The Map?” the famous quote from Aldo Leopold. This year’s series will focus on how wilderness influences what we do as stewards of this incredible national park.  Speakers will highlight what wilderness means spiritually, physically, as part of naturally functioning systems, as part

of our psyche as a nation, and how it guides our decisions on management

decisions at Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Lyceum schedule runs through May. Financial support for the lyceum series is provided by the park’s nonprofit partner, the Rocky Mountain Nature Association. Programs are free and open to the public. They are held at 7:00 p.m. at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center auditorium in Rocky Mountain National Park.

For more information about Rocky Mountain National Park please call (970) 586-1206.

The full closure of US 34 east of Estes Park for bridge replacement began at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, March 4th (meaning Wednesday into Thursday), weather permitting. The closure will be in place for approximately 12 days until the evening of Monday, March 15th.

During the closure, motorists will be detoured to US 36 through Lyons and over to US 287. Alternate routes on local or county roads will be available, but are not recommended. These roads have lower speed limits, no shoulders, and are more winding with switchbacks and much steeper grades. Chains or adequate snow tires may also be required at any time. Larimer County Road 43 (Glen Haven Road) will not accommodate vehicles over 40 feet in length due to steep grades and switchbacks. For more information about the closure and the project, visit www.coloradodot.info/projects/us-34-truss-bridges and view the frequently asked questions.

Please be advised that the full closure of US 34 could change depending on weather.

Following the second closure, crews will have some minor work to complete. Between the middle of March and the middle of May, crews will install the remaining drainage structures and pave the roadway in asphalt. The paving cannot take place until warmer temperatures return. Other minor work includes staining the concrete on the new bridges and installing the guardrail. During the last two months of construction, motorists can expect single-lane alternating traffic during daytime hours, Monday through Friday.

For more information about the project, visit www.coloradodot.info/projects/us-34-truss-bridges or call 970-685-0229. For frequently asked questions, visit the project Web site.

SEMA Construction, Inc. is the contractor for this $3.8 million project scheduled to be complete by Memorial Day 2010.