Historian Laureate of Estes Park
James H. Pickering became Estes Park’s Historian Laureate in 2006. He received his undergraduate education at Williams College and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University . A professor of English, specializing in American literature and American studies, he has taught at Michigan State University, where he served as Director of The Honors College, and at the University of Houston, where he served as dean, provost, and president.
Jim’s long adventure with the Estes Valley and its history began in the late 1940s, when he vacationed with his parents and sister in a 1916 log cottage on the lower slopes of the Twin Sisters, high up in the Tahosa Valley. Jim has been a part-time resident in Estes Park since 1992 and served on the board of directors of the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation for nine years.
Jim Pickering’s published books, articles, and reviews on the history and literature of Estes Park, Colorado, and the West are as follows:
“Preface,” Omaha to Estes Park —An Artist’s Legacy and Catalog Raisonné. By Robert L. Crump; David Tanton, editor (Estes Park: Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., 2011), pp. xvi-xix.
“Cole’s Place,” Allenspark Wind, 41 (April 2011): 4-5, 22.
Shared Moments: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park on Postcards. (Denver, privately printed, 2011). Text by James H. Pickering. 440 Pages. Submitted for the 2011 Colorado Book Award.
“The Rocky Mountain World of Karol Mack,” Karol Mack: The History, The Sublime, The Paintings. (Estes Park: Loch Vale Art, 2010), pp. 11-20.
“If I Ever Grew Up and Became a Man”: William Allen White’s Moraine Park Years. With Nancy P. Thomas (Estes Park: Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., 2010). Submitted for the 2010 Colorado Book Award.
“Introduction,” Eleanor E. Hondius: Memoirs of Eleanor Hondius of Elkhorn Lodge. (Estes Park: Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., 2010), pp. vii-x. New introduction to accompany Mrs. Hondius’ original 1964 text.
Lost Links: The Search for Estes Park ’s Oldest Golf Course. With Derek Fortini (Estes Park: Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., 2010).
“Lost Links: In Search of Estes Park’s Oldest Golf Course,” Colorado Heritage, January-February, 2010): 14-23. With Derek Fortini.
“Afterward” and “Notes,” Dorr Yeager, Bob Flame, Rocky Mountain Ranger. (Estes Park: Rocky Mountain Nature Association in cooperation with the Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., 2009), pp. 286-314; 279-286. To accompany Dorr Yeager’s original 1935 text.
“’If I ever grew up and became a man’: The Boys of ’89: A New Glimpse at William Allen White’s First Summer in Estes Park,” Colorado Heritage, July-August, 2009): 12-23. With Nancy P. Thomas.
The MacGregors of Black Canyon: An American Story. (Estes Park, Co.: Muriel L. MacGregor Charitable Trust, 2008). 507 Pages.
Review of Storytelling in Yellowstone: Horse and Buggy Tour Guides. By Lee Whittlesey. Pacific Historical Review, 77 (August 2008): 500-501.
In the Vale of Elkanah: The Tahosa Valley World of Charles Edwin Hewes. Revised Centennial Edition (Estes Park: Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., and Alpenaire Publishing, Inc., 2007). 150 Pages. A revised and expanded version of the 2003 edition.
Rocky Mountain Celts: The Scotch and Irish in Estes Park. (Estes Park: Friends Press, Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc., 2006). With Becky Latanich and J.J. Rutherford. 87 Pages.
Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park : Then and Now. (Denver, Co.: Westcliffe Publishing Company, 2006). Photographic History. With Mic Clinger and Carey Stevanus. 272 Pages. Winner 2007 Colorado Book Award.
Enos Mills’ Colorado. (Boulder . Co.: Johnson Books, 2006), 238 Pages. Collection of Mills essays.
America ’s Switzerland: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park: The Growth Years. (Boulder, Co.: University Press of Colorado, 2005). 457 Pages. Supported with grants from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University, and the Houston Fund, University of Houston.
Early Estes Park , Volume I: Narratives of Discovery, Settlement, and Recreation. (Estes Park, Co.: Alpenaire Publishing/Estes Park Museum , 2004). 234 Pages. Second edition, with new Preface, 2009; Third edition, 2011.
Early Estes Park, Volume II: Narratives of Discovery, Settlement, and Recreation. (Estes Park, Co.: Alpenaire Publishing/Estes Park Museum, 2004). 224 Pages.
Early Estes Park, Volume III: Days and Hours of Estes Park (1912-1944): The Journal of Charles Edwin Hewes. (Estes Park, Co.: Alpenaire Publishing/Estes Park Museum, 2004). 215 Pages.
Early Estes Park, Volume IV: Narratives of Exploration and Mountain Adventure and Bibliography of Historical Literature. (Estes Park, Co.: Alpenaire Publishing/Estes Park Museum, 2004). 210 Pages.
Review of Father Bosetti in America. By Daniel Dervin. Reviewed in Allenspark Wind, 31 (November 2004): 4-5.
The Ways of the Mountains: Thornton Sampson, Agnes Vaille and Other Tragedies in High Places. (Estes Park, Co.: Alpenaire Publishing/Estes Park Area Historical Museum, 2003). 125 Pages.
In the Vale of Elkanah: The Tahosa Valley World of Charles Edwin Hewes. (Estes Park: Alpenaire Publishing/Estes Park Area Historical Museum, 2003). 141 Pages.
Mr. Stanley of Estes Park. (Kingfield , Me.: The Stanley Museum , 2000). 360 Pages.
“This Blue Hollow”: Estes Park, The Early Years, 1859-1915. (Niwot, Co.: University Press of Colorado, 1999). 321 Pages. Winner of 1999 Publication Prize of the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities; Finalist, Colorado Book Award, 2000. Paperback edition, University Press of Colorado, 2005.
“Vanished in the Mountain: The Saga of the Reverend Thornton R. Sampson,” Colorado Heritage, (Summer 2000): 19-35.
“‘Alone Amid the Wind’s Mad Revelry’: The Death of Carrie Welton,” Colorado Heritage, (Summer 1998): 3-13.
“The Ascent of Mount Richthofen,” Colorado Heritage (Summer 1996): 35-42.
“Biking and Climbing with the Denver Ramblers, 1891,” Trail & Timberline, 919 (July 1996): 474-476.
Frederick H. Chapin, Frederick Chapin’s Colorado: The Peaks About Estes Park and Other Writings.(Niwot, Co.: University Press of Colorado, 1995). 229 Pages. New introduction to Chapin’s original texts, with map, photographs, notes, and index.
Ernest Ingersoll, Knocking Round the Rockies. (Norman, Ok.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994). 220 Pages. Reprint of 1882 edition; new introduction and notes.
“Adventuring in Colorado’s San Juans: 1908,” Colorado Heritage (Summer 1993): 2-15.
“Summertime in the Rockies: Estes Park in 1904,” Colorado Heritage (Spring 1992): 40-46.
Enos A. Mills, Rocky Mountain Wonderland. (Lincoln, Ne.: University of Nebraska Press, 1991). 387 Pages. Reprint of 1915 edition; new introduction, photographs, and notes.
Samuel Bowles, The Switzerland of America: A Summer Vacation in the Parks and Mountains of Colorado. (Norman, Ok.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990). 248 Pages. Reprint of 1869 edition; new introduction, map, photographs, notes and index. Paperback edition, 1994.
Enos A. Mills, In Beaver World. (Lincoln, Ne.: University of Nebraska Press, 1990). 234 Pages. Reprint of 1913 edition; new introduction, photographs, and notes.
“A Photo Excursion Through the Rockies—Frederick Chapin’s Mountaineering in Colorado: The Missing Chapters,” Essays and Monographs in Colorado History, 11 (1990): 55-85.
“Tragedy on Longs Peak: Walter Kiener’s Own Story,” Colorado Heritage (Winter 1990): 18-31. Included in Western Voices: 125 Years of Colorado Writing (Denver : Colorado Historical Society, 2004), a volume of “best essays” celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Colorado Historical Society.
Review of The Frontier Experience and the American Dream: Essays on American Literature. Edited by David Mogen, Mark Busby and Paul Bryant. Reviewed in Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas, 21 (October 1990): 167-168.
Enos A. Mills, The Spell of the Rockies. (Lincoln, Ne.: University of Nebraska Press, 1989). Reprint of 1911 edition; new introduction, photographs, chronology, and notes.
“Exploring and Mapping Wild Basin,” Colorado Heritage (Summer 1989): 34-46.
Joe Mills, A Mountain Boyhood. (Lincoln, Ne.: University of Nebraska Press, 1988). 311 Pages. Reprint of 1926 edition; new introduction, map, notes, and photographs.
Enos A. Mills, Wild Life on the Rockies. (Lincoln, Ne.: University of Nebraska Press, 1988). 271 Pages. Reprint of 1909 edition; new introduction, map, photographs, chronology, and notes.
Frederick H. Chapin, Mountaineering in Colorado: The Peaks About Estes Park. (Lincoln, Ne.: University of Nebraska Press, 1987). 184 Pages. Reprint of 1889 edition; new introduction and notes.
“‘Mother by the Tens’: Flora Adelaide Holcomb Bronson’s Account of Her Life as an Illinois Schoolteacher, Poet, and Farm Wife, 1851-1927,” Justin Leiber, James H. Pickering, Flora Bronson White, eds., Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 76 (Winter 1983): 283-307.