Editing Rocky Mountains (section)

===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" />