The Pingree of Pingree Park
Where did Pingree Park get its name? Was there more than one scout and tie hack named Pingree? These are questions shared by visitors to Pingree Park and other local history researchers alike. Over the years several articles have appeared in magazines and books describing the life of George W. Pingree, the person now generally accepted as the founder of Pingree Park .
Considerable research has been conducted by Dr. Evadene Swanson, author of Fort Collins Yesterdays, who has granted permission for the use of her material in this article on George Pingree. According to Army pension records, George W. Pingree was born in Orono, Maine, on November 16, 1832. Details of Pingree's life prior to coming to Colorado are sketchy, but he evidently went to sea for a few years before he gave it up due to the confinement of ship life. He also cut railroad ties for a time in Missouri in 1856 ( Denver Post interview dated March 4, 1911).
Pingree followed the gold rush west after trapping for a couple of years in Minnesota and became a miner in Central City, Colorado. In August 1861, Pingree enlisted at Central City as a private in Company H, First Regiment of the Colorado Cavalry Volunteers. Pingree was discharged in 1864 but re-enlisted immediately in the same Cavalry Volunteer Regiment. Pingree was assigned to Fort Lyons , Colorado , near Denver . During his army career, he was wounded with an arrow in the right side of his face.
Pingree followed his fortune into northern Colorado and in the late 1860's settled in the Rustic region of the Cache la Poudre River . It is at this point in history that the possibility of a second person named Pingree occurs. It seems that in an interview by R.E. Ford in The Colorado Forester, Charles E. Pennock recalled a man named John W. Pingree having a tie camp on the Little South Poudre River. As Pennock was in his 80's, it is possible that the person was in fact George Pingree. Both Larimer County historian Ansel Watrous and Norman Walter Fry in Cache al Poudre, The River place one George W. Pingree in the Cache la Poudre Valley . Watrous recalls that Pingree, in the late 1860's, built a cabin near present day Rustic and cut a trail north three miles up what today is still called "Pingree Hill".
In the fall of 1867, the Union Pacific Railroad reached Cheyenne, Wyoming . The general contractors, named Coe and Carter, had, up to this point, used eastern hardwood ties in construction. As the distance from the source of supply became greater, it became economically advantageous to search for local ties when construction resumed in the spring of 1868. Word probably spread fast of the need for ties and loggers, including George Pingree, and Charles Pennock, contracted with the railroad.
According to R.E. Ford, Pingree established his first tie camp in the Pingree area early in 1868. Thirty to forty tie hacks worked that summer and winter cutting and piling ties along the banks of the Little South Poudre River. In the spring of 1869, during the runoff flooding, the ties were floated down river to a point near LaPorte, Colorado, where they were hauled by oxen-pulled wagons to Tie Siding, Wyoming . The name "Tie Siding" is indicative of the town's role in the construction of the railroad. It is said that teamsters charged 50 cents per tie for the round trip to LaPorte, which took seven to ten days.
The tie camp at Pingree Park, a name given to the valley the first winter, was occupied during three seasons. All provisions were packed by men and mule over hard trails form the colony of LaPorte. The tie hacks were paid 10 cents per tie, an average day's work was from 30 to 40 ties.
By fall of 1870, the local demand for railroad ties had been filled, and the tie camp closed. Once again Pingree sought his fortune elsewhere, but records are vague as to his roamings. It is known that in 1875 he married one Susan Morley, who died in Boulder, Colorado, in 1882. In 1892 Pingree married Elizabeth Stewart Adams in Laramie City, where he lived for 20 years, according to pension records. Elizabeth died before or during 1915. During that year, Pingree moved to Platteville, Colorado, and stated that it was the best spot on earth according to a later Denver Post interview. He literally pitched his tent, living in it for 16 years as recorded in Geff's History of Weld County .
He passed away on August 30, 1921, at the age of 89 and is buried in the Platteville cemetery. No one can deny that George Pingree led an exciting life during the late 1800's.
