Dearborn independent. [volume], August 13, 1921, Page 14, Image 14

About Dearborn independent. [volume] (Dearborn, Mich.) 1901-1927

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
14
Enos A, Mills Nature Guide and Author
ON THE hot sandhills outside of San Francisco, i
nineteen year-old boy. frail but alert. stood ex
amining a strange weed and contemplating what
it might be. Tie was interrupted by an old man, whose
sympathetic eyes and kindly answers to the youth's
questions took the lad fancy. This Elijah seemed to
know all about nature, and his flowing white beard and
quick ready replies attested years of nature study. The
boy had just come from the Rocky Mountains where
he had spent nearly four years in building hi health.
And he realized, as he questioned the old man, that
age had not plucked youth out of the heart of his
visitor
Little events change a man s career more often than
big ones. This chance interview with John Mmr. na
ture's great apostle, sent Enos A. Mills back to his
Rocky Mountain wonderland to study and to fame.
Of those who have followed in the footsteps of John
Muir and John Burroughs, perhaps Enos Mills is the
best beloved. He has brought the scenery and stories
of wild life in the Rockies to our fireside with sum
cient literary interest that we feel we have lived in
his experiences. After all. that is the real test of lit
erature. .
"I - we everything to Muir." said Mr. Mills in his
cabin at the toot of Long's Peak. Colorado. "If it
hadn't been for him I would have been a mere gipsy.
He told me to systematize my knowledge and that then
I would be able to write."
Long before this meeting with the famous natural
ist, destinv had shaped a course for Mr. Mills. He was
bora at Fort Scott. Kansas, April 22. 1870, and during
his childhood his mother told him stories of the beau
ties of the Rockies which hred hi- imagination. She
had spent her honeymoon near the mining camp of
Breckenndge, on the Blue River. Colorado, and thee
bedtime stones made a vivid impression
on the future naturalist.
The boy was frail and his health
wa- threatened. The country doctor
said there was only one way to save
the boy's life "Perhaps Colorado air
would help him." N physician ever
diagnosed a case with better results.
He was fourteen year old when he set
out alone for the wilderness. He wanted
to live amid the scenes about which
his mother had told him. And then
like most active boys, he had an am
bition. His was that he would some
time write a book. He didn't know
what sort of book he wanted to write,
but one that would be of interest : one
that people would remember long after
it was finished and laid aside. That was
a strange dream for a youth without
schooling or education and with health
impaired.
"If you are really interested in do
ing a thing, you will find a way to do
it." commented Mr. Mills in a piecemeal
conversation that unclothed his early
ambition-. There was stated a humble
aphorism that the great universities of
the land might well emblazon over their
portals. For Mills' life has exemplified ,
this principle.
At the foot of Long's Peak he came
all alone fiftv miles from the railroad.
Here in 1886 he built a cabin and the
balmy climate, the pine-scented breezes,
the ever-changing wonder of the moun
tains, the rose-tinted skies at sunset and
moonlight enchantment worked its healing cure and
imbued him with a love of nature. Leading this life
has made him the authority on the Rocky Mountain
region.
Success in writing did not come at once. Long
petri it delayed. Months each year he worked around
the mountain hotels, on the ranches and at one time he
was a foreman of the Anaconda mine. Time and again
the love for nature called him from these money-making
occupations and he strolled over the mountains,
making his campfire beMde s,,me quiet glacial stream or
near some beaver pond fringed by willows and aspens.
This was the life that brought him peace, and quiet
and mental satisfaction.
Then after four years he suddenly realized that he
had saved $2,000 and he felt the need of a schooling.
He went to San Francisco, attended a business college
for a short time and met John Muir
"We walked back to San Francisco together, over
the sand dunes." continued Mr. Mills and there was a
note of hero worship for his aged companion in his
voice, "and he asked me questions about myself and my
ambition and he advised me to study nature at every
opportunity, everywhere, and to practice writing and
-peaking so I could tell what I saw. It was this ad
vice that blazed the trail for my future."
The trees, flowers, birds, rocks, mountains and scen
ery of Colorado took on a new meaning upon his re
turn. The theater of the adventure, of hunters trap
pers and pioneers Pike. Fremont. Kit Carson and
Jim Baker was to lose its historic glamour. Mills
was to make the state famous by its scenery.
"Colorado has one thousand jeaks that rise more
than two miles into the sky." declared Mr. Mills, with
the enthusiasm for the region that bums brighter each
year. "About one hundred and fifty of these reach up
beyond thirteen thousand fret in altitude. There are
more than twice as many peaks of fourteen thousand
feet in Colorado as in all the other states of the Union,
Covering these mountains with robes of beauty are for
estf, lakes, meadows, brilliant flowers, moorlands and
vine like streams that cling to the very summits Kach
year the state is colored with more than three thousand
varieties of wild Mowers, cheered by more than four
By FRED L. HOLMES
hundred species of birds and enlivened with a numer
ous array of other wild lifc.M
To a visitor from the plains, the mountain sky line
at Denver takes on a world of significant beauty. Lo
cated a mile above sea level the view of the Rockies
is superb, with its cloud-wreathed ridges, its sides
sloping green from the timber line; its caps of snow
shimmering in the sunlight, and Long's Peak ( 14,271 feet
high) at whose base Mr. Mills makes his home, to the
northwest blazing like a pyramid of jasper. From the
elevated points on the Denver Capitol hill. Pike's Peak,
eighty miles to the south, and Long's Peak, some sixty
miles to the northwest, stand like beaming sentinels for
the plains, lending enchantment to the colorful pano
rama. When Mr. Mills went into the Long's Peak region
he had no definite purpose in mind. First of all he
wanted health In time he noticed that simple eating
and his own cooking relievedt his dyspeptic condition.
Gradually this life of the mountains had him impris
oned. Forsecing that some day people from all lands
would come to visit the wonders of the Rockies, he took
up a homestead claim in the Estcs Park region, dis
covered by Joel Estes in 1859 which Mills has since
made famous by the witchery of his pen.
Then he found that there was a demand for
guides through the Estes Park region: that more
money was paid than that given for work around a
hotel, and that, instead of being able to be on the
mountains occasionally he would by following this vo
cation be able to spend most of his time there. He
Mills has written have come from hi "
guiding'
cxpe-
KNOS A. MILLS, feeding the chipmunks that scamper around his home.
changed his occupation and became a guide to Long's
Peak and the scenes about
I made a dozen trips to the top of Long's Peak
under all sort- of conditions before I attempted to
guide." said Mr. Mills. "First I knew every step of
the way. Then 1 went up when it was foggy and
stormy, when I couldn't see ten feet ahead. 1 trained
my -elf to know the trail by moonlight and then 1 went
up on the darkest nights. I figured out what I would
do under every possible circumstance and practiced
various gaits until I knew just what pace was easiest
to maintain. Several times I assumed that one of my
party had met with an accident and that I must go
down and return at once with aid before resting. I
learned all I could about the geology of the region, the
paths of the glaciers, the birds, the flowers and the
treat When I had learned about all of these things 1
felt I was able to guide."
Now. Mr. Mills is a man who believes that not only
is there a great opportunity for guides but that in the
future guiding will become a profession. He believes
that the successful guide will not be like the barker
showing city scene from a rubberneck wagon. The
guide to nature's wonderland must be able to impart
useful knowledge; not a man who points out spots of
hattle and death, but one who can point the wild low-
r riotous in their beauty, tell how the lakes were
formed by the glacier, show how the tarns of the
meadows were scooped out and how useful are the
trees and mountains in checking the stream flow pre
venting flood and drought. Then there will come a
realization that mountain and valley, meadow and plain
are of new interest and meaning to all.
"Nature guiding really means inciting interest in
natural history rattier than giving academic informa
tion concerning it." said Mr. Mills.
"I lad that nature guiding is the one thing which
will arouse interest in our outdoors and cause parks to
Ik' lived by th. public and properly managed by the pub
lic Anions the outdoor organizations which are doing
great work, to me the Friends of Our Native land
scape of Wisconsin and Illinois are the most construe
tive of which I have heard "
Some of the most interesting stories which Mr
rienres. First nnhli;hrrt in mn,ina. .i
- - r fs. ii n. , mese str '
have been gathered in book form under the IkUaS?
.iMjiuaiu onucriami, waiting m th U; ij
erness" and "Wild Life in the Rockies." Here are u
stones of athletes who failed through enthusiasm
making mountain ascents and college girK mho he 5
giddy and hysterical on the brink of the DreciS
Still other stones have come from his loach tra
over the mountains. "Racing an Avalanche" impS
With a Crumbling Mountain." "Doctor WordrjeckeT
Tree Surgeon," "Mountain Top Weather," The Forest
Fire." "Insects in the Forest" and "Fate of a T
Seed" are a list of titles taken from the volume "Th
Spell of the Rockies," that would convince any maza
zinc editor that here was a new find of material Th
are true stories unsullied by weazel words and hieh
sounding rhetorical phrases. K
To lovers of dogs, "The Story of Skotch" will rank
with John Muir's famous dog classic, "Stickeen." But
of all the studies of outdoor life made by Mr. Mills
the two which have repeatedly challenged my attention
have been incorporated in two separate volumes 'Tn
Beaver World" and "The Story of a Thousand Year
Pine."
Some of the state conservation departments have
urged the extermination of the beaver as an enemy of
society. Not so Mr. Mills. He declares after years
of observation that this little animal "is a persistent
practicer of conservation and should not perish from
the hills and mountains of our land." These beaver
studies have been carried on by him for twenty-seven
years, during which time he has rambled through every
tate in the Union, and visited Mexico, Canada and
Alaska.
"Ever since I was a boy, beavers have been my
neighbors." declared Mr Mills. At any
time during tne pa-t twenty-hve years I
could go from my cabin on the slope
of Long's Peak to a number of colonies
within fifteen minutes. One autumn
my entire time was spent in making ob
servations and watching the activities
of beavers in fourteen colonies. Sixty
four days in succession 1 visited these
colonies, three of them twice daily."
With such a routine of study little
. a - - r w:n -t. ...u u
wuiiuci nidi .ti i . ..iiiis MiMum Le recog
nized as the leading authority on bea
vers and that his stones of the beaver
ihotdd be found good reading for old
and young. Entirely aside from the fact
that these experiences were to be used
in his writings, Mr. Mills was making
his observations to determine whether
the beaver was man's enemy.
"I have determined to do all I can
to perpetuate the beaver," exclaimed
Mr. Mills, "and I wish I could interest
every man. woman, boy and girl in the
land to help in this. Beaver works are
so picturesque and so useful to man.
His growing scarcity i awakening some
interest in him and I hope and halt be
lieve that before many years every
brook that is born on a great watershed
will, as it goes swiftly, merrily singing
down the slopes toward the sea. pass
through and be steadied in a poetic pond
that is made and will be maintained by
our patient, persistent, faithful friend.
the beaver."
Tree life is equally interesting
Tracing the history of the world through geological
studies could not possibly be so engrossing as unrav
eling the recent history of this nation as written in the
trees. Until fifteen vears ago there stood within sight
of the Cliff Dwellers' Mesa Verde, near the corner of
four states in the southern Rockies an old pine tree
under which Mr. Mills had often camped at night and
built his fires. One day he was notified by the logging
company that the old pioneer was to be cut down. He
went to the funeral. The old patriarch eight feet
diameter was covered by a rough golden brown bark.
Its top was broken and bald from storm and age. Many
of its arms had been torn and split by wind and light
ning. When the tree was cut it broke in such a way
as to make it worthless for lumber. So it was given
to Mr. Mills. Then it was that he sat down to weeks
of work, splitting it open and sawing it in cross sec
tions to read the old tree's autobigraphy
said
I r..M.. : i u ( Uic xtiimD
i tart inn', cxaiiimeu mc ixtc . r ,
Mr. Mills, "and in it I found 1.047 rings of growtn.
He had lived through a thousand and fony-fg
years. As he was cut down in 1903. his birth proDam)
occurred in 856." . , M
Mr. Mills related the study. The rings of the m
told the story of bums, bites and bruises ; Of nrew
lightning; of storm and drought and of injury au
carelessness and vandalism. From this scroll Oiw
and fiber he learned that the tree was hit by Iigmn m
in 1301 ; that in 1348 a heavy snow broke off two . o
limbs; Indian arrow heads had pierced the tree m
before the coming of Columbus, and that H
one hacked the old settler with an axr-tne c
I hi'SP wcit f-
lintinn's Hrstruction
ably Spanish adventurers from the south.
And so he
no
amy ripaniMi anvnuunis uvm etorm nu
went on tracing the history of forest nres s .
other events in the history of the tree. WJ
finished the work he piled the splinters &e was
fied the lumber company to burn the pyre wn
gone. . . ;. i spent some
Seating myself upon tnis Pf"" ' ' UITin sun-
time that afternoon gazing through tne )t and
glow at the hazy Mesa Verde while my which
shifted the scenes of the long, long rh hc had
the OM Pine had played his part, and of wn