Post (C) Doris McCraw
aka Angela Raines
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| Image (C) Doris McCraw |
Let's begin with who Lord Dunraven was. Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Durraven and Mout-Earl, was born on February 12, 1841at Adare Manor, County Limerick. His early years were spent at Duraven Castle in Glamorgan, Wales.
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| Image from Wikipedia |
At twenty-six, he was a war correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, a London newspaper, and covered the Abyssinian War in Africa. Then, for another paper, he covered the Franco-Prussian War, the Third Carlist War in Turkey, and witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles ending WWI.
He was also involved in British politics as a conservative.
In 1872, Dunraven visited the Estes Park area to hunt wild game. This was a year before Englishwoman Isabella Bird visited the area. In 1874, he decided to create a game preserve in the area for himself and his English friends. He used the Homestead Act to acquire control of 15,000 acres. Some say this is one of the biggest land steals in Colorado history. He sold his land in 1907. This area is part of the Rocky Mountain National Park.
On a side note, this same Lord Dunraven commissioned artist Albert Bierstadt in 1876 to paint a canvas of Longs Peak and Estes Park. Bierstadt was paid $15.000 for the work. Image of Bierstadt painting
Would we have a Rocky Mountain National Park without this early land grab? The park was officially designated in 1815, so it was eight years later.
For more on this interesting person: Wikipedia, National Parks website
Until Next Time,
Doris
4 comments:
That's a beautiful painting of Longs Peak. Hubbs & kiddo climbed it. I enjoy seeing it from afar. Thank you for sharing, Doris. I, too, like to think Lord Dunraven played a part in RMNP.
If he hadn't grabbed that land for his preserve, I think it would have been harder to create the park we all know now. It probably would have been divided up into numerous little homesteads. I think it did make a difference. Doris
Hi Doris, thanks for the post. Love the national parks, so I'm grateful to Lord Dunraven for his work.
My pleasure. He was a character, but in the end his actions helped the future. Doris
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