Editing Rocky Mountains (section)

==History==
===Indigenous people===
[[File:MesaVerdeNationalParkCliffPalace.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mesa Verde National Park|Mesa Verde]] ruins in Colorado]]
[[File:Cherokee Pass2.jpg|right|thumb|[[Cherokee Trail]] near [[Fort Collins, Colorado]], from a sketch taken June 7, 1859]]
Since the last great ice age, the Rocky Mountains were home first to [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] including the [[Apache]], [[Arapaho]], [[Bannock (tribe)|Bannock]], [[Blackfoot]], [[Cheyenne]], [[Coeur d'Alene people|Coeur d'Alene]], [[Kalispel]], [[Crow Nation]], [[Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation|Flathead]], [[Shoshone]], [[Lakota people|Sioux]], [[Ute Tribe|Ute]], [[Ktunaxa Kinbasket Tribal Council|Kutenai]] (Ktunaxa in Canada), [[Sekani]], [[Dunne-za]], and others. Paleo-Indians hunted the now-extinct [[mammoth]] and [[ancient bison]] (an animal 20% larger than modern bison) in the foothills and valleys of the mountains. Like the modern tribes that followed them, Paleo-Indians probably migrated to the plains in fall and winter for bison and to the mountains in spring and summer for fish, deer, elk, roots, and berries. In Colorado, along with the crest of the Continental Divide, rock walls that Native Americans built for driving game date back 5,400–5,800 years. A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that indigenous people had significant effects on mammal populations by hunting and on vegetation patterns through deliberate burning.<ref name="USGS" />

===European exploration===
Recent human history of the Rocky Mountains is one of more rapid change. The Spanish explorer [[Francisco Vázquez de Coronado]]—with a group of soldiers and missionaries marched into the Rocky Mountain region from the south in 1540.<ref name="PBS2001">{{cite web | title = Events in the West (1528–1536) | website = [[PBS]] | year = 2001 | url = https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1500_1650.htm | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120410221051/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1500_1650.htm | archive-date = April 10, 2012 }}</ref> In 1610, the Spanish founded the city of [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]], the oldest continuous seat of government in the United States, at the foot of the Rockies in present-day New Mexico. The introduction of the horse, metal tools, rifles, new diseases, and different cultures profoundly changed the Native American cultures. Native American populations were extirpated from most of their historical ranges by disease, warfare, habitat loss (eradication of the bison), and continued assaults on their culture.<ref name="USGS" />

In 1739, French [[fur trade]]rs Pierre and Paul Mallet, while journeying through the Great Plains, discovered a range of mountains at the headwaters of the [[Platte River]], which local [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] tribes called the "Rockies", becoming the first Europeans to report on this uncharted mountain range.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1650_1800.htm|title=The West: Events from 1650 to 1800|publisher=PBS|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110706033001/https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1650_1800.htm|archive-date=July 6, 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Alexander MacKenzie by Thomas Lawrence (c.1800).jpg|thumb|upright|Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1800]]

[[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Sir Alexander Mackenzie]] (1764 – March 11, 1820) became the first European to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1793.<ref name="PrincetonNWPass">{{cite web | title = Mackenzie: 1789, 1792–1797 | url = http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/northwest-passage/mackenzie.htm | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130117093541/http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/northwest-passage/mackenzie.htm | archive-date = January 17, 2013 }}</ref> He found the upper reaches of the Fraser River and reached the Pacific coast of what is now Canada on July 20 of that year, completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico.<ref name="CAHistPlace">{{cite web | title = First Crossing of North America National Historic Site of Canada | url = http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=14662&pid=0 | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120512165546/http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=14662&pid=0 | archive-date = May 12, 2012 }}</ref> He arrived at [[Bella Coola, British Columbia]], where he first reached saltwater at South Bentinck Arm, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean.

The [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] (1804–1806) was the first scientific reconnaissance of the Rocky Mountains.<ref name="NPSScientificEncounters">{{cite web | title = Lewis and Clark Expedition: Scientific Encounters | url = http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/encounters.htm | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120409015017/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/encounters.htm | archive-date = April 9, 2012 }}</ref> Specimens were collected for contemporary botanists, zoologists, and geologists. The expedition was said to have paved the way to (and through) the Rocky Mountains for European-Americans from the East, although Lewis and Clark met at least 11 European-American mountain men during their travels.<ref name="USGS" />

[[Mountain man|Mountain men]], primarily French, Spanish, and British, roamed the Rocky Mountains from 1720 to 1800 seeking mineral deposits and furs.<!--"mountain men" seems US-language here; were these what Canadians think of as "voyageurs" and "fur traders"?--> The fur-trading [[North West Company]] established [[Rocky Mountain House]] as a trading post in what is now the [[Rocky Mountain Foothills]] of present-day [[Alberta]] in 1799, and their business rivals the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] established Acton House nearby.<ref name=PC2012>{{cite web | title = Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site of Canada | date = February 28, 2012 | url = http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ab/rockymountain/index.aspx | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120513122427/http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ab/rockymountain/index.aspx | archive-date = May 13, 2012 }}</ref> These posts served as bases for most European activity in the Canadian Rockies in the early 19th century. Among the most notable are the expeditions of [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]], who followed the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.<ref name = "nwda2006">{{cite web | title = Guide to the David Thompson Papers 1806–1845 | year = 2006 | url = http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv07195 | access-date = April 15, 2012}}</ref> On his 1811 expedition, he camped at the junction of the Columbia River and the Snake River and erected a pole and notice claiming the area for the United Kingdom and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a fort at the site.<ref name="Oldham2003">{{cite web | title = David Thompson plants the British flag at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers on July 9, 1811| last = Oldham | first = kit | date = January 23, 2003 | url = http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5096 | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120326165320/http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5096 | archive-date = March 26, 2012 }}</ref>

By the [[Anglo-American Convention of 1818]], which established the [[49th parallel north]] as the international boundary west from [[Lake of the Woods]] to the "Stony Mountains",<ref name="USDS2007">{{cite web | title = Treaties in Force | date = November 1, 2007 | url = https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/83046.pdf | access-date = April 15, 2012 }}</ref> the UK and the US agreed to what has since been described as "joint occupancy" of lands further west to the Pacific Ocean. Resolution of the territorial and treaty issues, the [[Oregon dispute]], was deferred until a later time.

In 1819, Spain ceded their rights north of the 42nd Parallel to the United States, though these rights did not include possession and also included obligations to Britain and Russia concerning their claims in the same region.

===Settlement===
[[File:Silver mines, Aspen, Colorado, 1898.jpg|thumb|right|[[Aspen, Colorado]] silver mining in 1898]]
After 1802, [[fur trader]]s and explorers ushered in the first widespread American presence in the Rockies south of the 49th parallel. The more famous of these include [[William Henry Ashley]], [[Jim Bridger]], [[Kit Carson]], [[John Colter]], [[Thomas Fitzpatrick (trapper)|Thomas Fitzpatrick]], [[Andrew Henry (fur trader)|Andrew Henry]], and [[Jedediah Smith]]. On July 24, 1832, [[Benjamin Bonneville]] led the first [[wagon train]] across the Rocky Mountains by using [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]] in the present State of Wyoming.<ref name="USGS" /> Similarly, in the wake of Mackenzie's 1793 expedition, fur trading posts were established west of the Northern Rockies in a region of the northern Interior Plateau of British Columbia which came to be known as [[New Caledonia (Canada)|New Caledonia]], beginning with [[McLeod Lake|Fort McLeod]] (today's community of McLeod Lake) and [[Fort Fraser, British Columbia|Fort Fraser]], but ultimately focused on Stuart Lake Post (today's [[Fort St. James]]).

Negotiations between the United Kingdom and the United States over the next few decades failed to settle upon a compromise boundary and the [[Oregon Dispute]] became important in geopolitical diplomacy between the British Empire and the new American Republic. In 1841, [[James Sinclair (fur trapper)|James Sinclair]], Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, guided some 200 settlers from the [[Red River Colony]] west to bolster settlement around [[Fort Vancouver]] in an attempt to retain the [[Columbia District]] for Britain. The party crossed the Rockies into the [[Columbia Valley]], a region of the Rocky Mountain Trench near present-day [[Radium Hot Springs (British Columbia)|Radium Hot Springs]], British Columbia, then traveled south. Despite such efforts, in 1846, Britain ceded all claim to Columbia District lands south of the 49th parallel to the United States; as resolution to the [[Oregon boundary dispute]] by the [[Oregon Treaty]].<ref name="CSPN">{{cite web|title=Historical Context and American Policy |url=http://content.lib.washington.edu/curriculumpackets/treaties/assimilation2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513112547/http://content.lib.washington.edu/curriculumpackets/treaties/assimilation2.html |archive-date=May 13, 2012 |access-date=April 15, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Saltair-Pavilion-1900.jpeg|thumb|right|The [[Saltair (Utah)|Saltair Pavilion]] on the [[Great Salt Lake]] in 1900]]
Thousands passed through the Rocky Mountains on the [[Oregon Trail]] beginning in the 1840s.<ref name="BLMotic">{{cite web | title = Oregon Trail Interpretive Center | url = http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/history-basics.php | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084450/http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/history-basics.php | archive-date = March 4, 2016 }}</ref> The [[Mormon]]s began settling near the [[Great Salt Lake]] in 1847.<ref name="UNL">{{cite web | title = The Mormon Trail | url = http://cdrh.unl.edu/diggingin/trailsummaries/di.sum.0006.html | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120405012738/http://cdrh.unl.edu/diggingin/trailsummaries/di.sum.0006.html | archive-date = April 5, 2012 }}</ref> From 1859 to 1864, gold was discovered in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, sparking several [[gold rush]]es bringing thousands of prospectors and miners to explore every mountain and canyon and to create the Rocky Mountains' first major industry. The Idaho gold rush alone produced more gold than the California and Alaska gold rushes combined and was important in the financing of the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War]]. The [[transcontinental railroad]] was completed in 1869,<ref name="UC2012">{{cite web | title = The Transcontinental Railroad | year = 2012 | url = http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic2b.html | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120412120759/http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic2b.html | archive-date = April 12, 2012 }}</ref> and [[Yellowstone National Park]] was established as the world's first national park in 1872.<ref name="NPS">{{cite web | title = Yellowstone National Park | date = April 4, 2012 | url = http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150707200218/http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm | archive-date = July 7, 2015 }}</ref> Meanwhile, a transcontinental railroad in Canada was originally promised in 1871. Though political complications pushed its completion to 1885, the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] eventually followed the [[Kicking Horse Pass|Kicking Horse]] and [[Rogers Pass (British Columbia)|Rogers]] Passes to the Pacific Ocean.<ref name="StanfordCPR">{{cite web|title=Canadian Pacific Railway |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/west/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=108 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120171941/http://www.stanford.edu/group/west/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=108 |archive-date=November 20, 2012 |access-date=April 15, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Canadian railway officials also convinced [[Parliament of Canada|Parliament]] to set aside vast areas of the Canadian Rockies as [[Jasper National Park|Jasper]], [[Banff National Park|Banff]], [[Yoho National Park|Yoho]], and [[Waterton Lakes National Park]]s, laying the foundation for a tourism industry which thrives to this day. Glacier National Park (MT) was established with a similar relationship to tourism promotions by the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]].<ref name="PennState2011">{{cite web | title = Glaciers and Glacier National Park | year = 2011 | url = https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geosc10/l7_p3.html | access-date = April 15, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130117093549/https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geosc10/l7_p3.html | archive-date = January 17, 2013 }}</ref> While settlers filled the valleys and mining towns, conservation and preservation ethics began to take hold. U.S. [[Benjamin Harrison|President Benjamin Harrison]] established several forest reserves in the Rocky Mountains in 1891–1892. In 1905, U.S. President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] extended the [[Medicine Bow – Routt National Forest|Medicine Bow Forest Reserve]] to include the area now managed as [[Rocky Mountain National Park]]. Economic development began to center on mining, [[forestry]], agriculture, and [[recreation]], as well as on the service industries that support them. Tents and camps became ranches and farms, forts and train stations became towns, and some towns became cities.<ref name="USGS" />