Reading room

The old books about these places, free to read because they are public domain or the work of a government survey. Chapin climbing the peaks about Estes Park in 1889; the Park Service's own mountaineering guide from 1919; Hayden's 1877 atlas, the first geology anyone drew of this ground.

Every entry here was opened, read and signed by a person, with the place it covers and the scan it links to. Nothing is copied beyond a title and a line about it; the link is the book. Wrong, or missing one? Write to us.

1870s

1877 Geologic Map of Colorado (Hayden), high-resolution scan · F. V. Hayden; scan by the Colorado Geological Survey · 1877

The whole-state sheet of the 1877 atlas, scanned at full resolution by the state survey and free to download.

Colorado Geological Survey (publication HM-01-04) · Public domain · read it · checked by a person

Covers Alpine Rock, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Durango, Estes Park Valley, Fort Collins, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Grand Junction Area, Gunnison, Independence Pass, South Platte
Geological and geographical atlas of Colorado and portions of adjacent territory · F. V. Hayden, U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories · 1877

The first geology anyone drew of this ground. Hayden's survey mapped the state in the 1870s; these are the sheets, with the rock units coloured as they understood them then.

Internet Archive (Brigham Young University copy) · Public domain · read it · checked by a person

Covers Alpine Rock, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Durango, Estes Park Valley, Fort Collins, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Grand Junction Area, Gunnison, Independence Pass, South Platte

1880s

Mountaineering in Colorado: the peaks about Estes Park · Frederick H. Chapin · 1889

The first book of Colorado climbing. Chapin's 1887-88 ascents of Longs Peak, Hallett, Ypsilon and the Mummy Range, with the approaches as they were before the park.

Internet Archive (Harvard University copy, Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston) · Public domain · read it · checked by a person

Covers Alpine Rock, Estes Park Valley

1910s

The story of Estes Park · Enos A. Mills · 1914

Mills, the Longs Peak innkeeper and guide who pushed the park into being, on the valley's people and peaks. Published from his own inn at the foot of Longs Peak.

Internet Archive (Brigham Young University copy) · Public domain · read it · checked by a person

Covers Estes Park Valley
Trail and Timberline, volume 2 (1918) · Colorado Mountain Club · 1918

The Colorado Mountain Club's own magazine in its sixth year, with the club's outings and ascents as its members wrote them up at the time.

Internet Archive (Brigham Young University copy) · Public domain · read it · checked by a person

Covers Alpine Rock, Boulder, Estes Park Valley, Golden
Mountaineering in the Rocky Mountain National Park · Roger W. Toll, U.S. National Park Service · 1919

The Park Service's own mountaineering guide, four years after the park was made. Peak by peak, with the routes of the day and the first recorded ascents Toll could find.

National Park Service, scan at the Internet Archive (Brigham Young University copy) · Public domain · read it · checked by a person

Covers Alpine Rock, Estes Park Valley

6 titles. A book published before 1929 is public domain in the United States; a federal government report is public domain from the day it is printed. Later works appear here only under a CC0 dedication, or not at all: they are linked from Sources & licences, never copied. See the whole deep cuts layer.