White River National Forest

Newsroom - Local News

2005

News Release

USDA Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Region
White River National Forest

Yeomen Park Interpretive trail receives centennial grant

“This is living history,” said White River National Forest recreation planner Bill Johnson who has been working on this project for two years. The trail starts in Yeoman Park Campground and travels south past the original Eagle District Ranger Station that was constructed by the original Forest Service Ranger, William Sears Brown. The trail then passes through the Eagle ranger station of 1922 and through the area that was once the home for a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1941.

The project involves installation of several interpretive signs that explain the history of the structures and a parking lot.

Ranger Brown’s family will be there for the dedication ceremony and have been very instrumental in the Yeoman Trail project and four of William Brown’s five sons are still alive to take part in the project. Grandson Wayne Brown has also contributed to the project and is even writing a book on the deep connection that the entire family has to the area.

“Grandpa's (Ranger Brown's) life and times, his exploits in Colorado, his mark upon the future of the area, are meaningful to our family and to anyone who has a serious interest in that area of Colorado. From his master finish carpentry work on the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs to his raising of a family in the mountains, he certainly had his day.” said Wayne Brown.

In the winter of 1920 District Ranger William Sears Brown was transferred from the Sheephorn Ranger District to the Eagle Ranger District, both on the then Holy Cross National Forest, and moved his family to Yeoman Park by wagon into an old two-room cabin that had been used as part of a sawmill. This was their Ranger Station for two years until they built a new Ranger Station at Yeoman. He was the Ranger in Eagle until 1935 when he became the Building Supervisor for the White River and Holy Cross National Forests, which would involve the construction of new offices and houses in Eagle, Minturn, Glenwood Springs and Basalt. Some of the original structures remain, but mostly just a few logs and a foundation. The original cabin was bought and moved a while back.

William Brown and his family played a significant role shaping the forest service culture of that time and are now part of the history of the area and the White River NF. Ranger Brown and his family not only built a cabin and a ranger station at Yeomen park, they built a life and became part of history. This project signifies, to the family, the importance of Ranger Brown’s life and ensures that his memory will live on.

“As a family, we will gain a final recognition of his work. For the public we would hope that they would recognize the importance of the work of Rangers in general, and more specifically, that Yeoman Park was there a long time before people decided to come and enjoy the pure beauty of the Rocky Mountains,” said Wayne Brown. Wayne is writing a book titled "The Valley of Our Dreams." It is about the Brown family and what the Yeomen Park area means to them.

"...I return with my family when possible just so they can know and pass on to their children where their great-grandfather lived and worked and raised his family. I try to make the feeling the same as it was when I was a child, and I am sure my family knows and appreciates the effort. I can only get that wonderful feeling when it is dark and the stars are shining brightly, and we sit around the campfire once again to tell the old stories, to reminisce about by-gone days, and live that wilderness life, if only for a few days. We look at the mountains through prejudiced eyes and wish we were there then.

“Eventually, we put out the fire, go to our tents and warm sleeping bags, and dream happy thoughts of things that no longer exist except in our dreams. We think of all the Browns that came before us and how they helped form what we are and what we will become.

“The following morning, the sun casts its warming rays to wake us up and tell us it is time to come back to reality. We might fish, hike, sit around the picnic table and discus the new day's activities, or even just sit and stare at the wonder. The light has a special effect on all who care to see, for even in spite of the tent in the campsite next to us, we can still feel the calmness of another morning, the calmness and solitude we all feel in the valley of our dreams."

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver/news/2005/20050719yeoman_park.shtml