<P> History of Rocky Mountain National Park began when Paleo - Indians traveled along what is now Trail Ridge Road to hunt and forage for food . Ute and Arapaho people subsequently hunted and camped in the area . In 1820, the Long Expedition, led by Stephen H. Long for whom Longs Peak was named, approached the Rockies via the Platte River . Settlers began arriving in the mid-1800s, displacing the Native Americans who mostly left the area voluntarily by 1860, while others were removed to reservations by 1878 . </P> <P> Lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains were established in the 1870s when prospectors came in search of gold and silver . The boom ended by 1883 with miners deserting their claims . The railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881 and the Big Thompson Canyon Road--a section of U.S. Route 34 from Loveland to Estes Park--was completed in 1904 . The 1920s saw a boom in building lodges and roads in the park, culminating with the construction of Trail Ridge Road to Fall River Pass between 1929 and 1932, then to Grand Lake by 1938 . </P> <P> Prominent individuals in the effort to create a national park included Enos Mills from the Estes Park area, James Grafton Rogers from Denver, and J. Horace McFarland of Pennsylvania . The national park was established on January 26, 1915 . </P> <P> People have been visiting the area near Rocky Mountain National Park for at least 11,000 years, including the Lindenmeier and Dent Sites where projectile points were found that were used to hunt Mammoth and Bison antiquus . Both Clovis and Folsom projectile points have been found in the park, some near Trail Ridge . This indicates that there were early hunters, or Paleo - Indians, of large and now extinct mammals, like mastodons and bison antiquus, that traveled through the park . Their shelters were animal hide tents, brush huts, or rock shelters . They traveled into the Rocky Mountain National Park area using a trail that is now Trail Ridge Road . </P>

When was the rocky mountain national park established