Glacier Basin Campground: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Rocky Mountain National Park

Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. (contractor); NPS Staff

Glacier Basin Campground is a historic designed landscape in Rocky Mountain National Park (ROMO) in Larimer County, Colorado. The campground is east of the Continental Divide and near the eastern boundary of the park, approximately six miles southwest of the town of Estes Park. The inventory unit encompasses 105.9 acres, with 45 acres dedicated to campsites and accompanying buildings, such as comfort stations. The remaining 60 acres include Glacier Basin Campground Entrance Road and prominent landscape features that have influenced the campground’s development, including a large meadow. Established in 1917, Glacier Basin was the first public campground in ROMO. Currently, it is one of five developed campgrounds in the park. The campground operates seasonally, generally from late May through mid-September. This CLI examined the integrity of the Glacier Basin Campground’s cultural landscape as it relates to a period of significance from 1954–1966. These years encompass the Mission 66 era, when Glacier Basin’s extant landscape was primarily developed. The loop roads configuration, campsite locations, and building locations were developed between 1954 and 1966, and the park continued to utilize earlier campground features, such as the ranger station and hose house, that were developed during the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) era. Glacier Basin is eligible for listing in the NRHP. The campground’s landscape is significant at the local level under Criterion A for its association with recreation, and under Criterion C for its Mission 66 landscape design. It retains integrity of location, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. However, as a result of alterations to the vegetation and buildings after the period of significance, the campground has lost some of its integrity of setting, and its integrity of design has been diminished as well. Because Glacier Basin Campground retains five of the seven aspects of integrity, it is considered overall to retain historic integrity. Glacier Basin Campground is classified as a component landscape. Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. was contracted by the NPS for this CLI in June 2019. Commonwealth staff, John Rasmussen and Katie Remensnyder, conducted field survey from July 29 through August 2, 2019. It was completed with assistance from ROMO staff, including Sheri Fedorchak, Dan Jackson, Cheri Yost, Rose Lang, Kelly Dick, Emilio Santiago, and Bob Maitland.

Glacier Basin Campground: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Rocky Mountain National Park

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