Frisco Historic Park and Museum kicked off their summer lecture series on Wednesday, June 18, with a visiting author, Stan Moore, who spoke about the history of mountaineering in the Gore Range.

The Gore Range is one of several prominent, rugged mountain ranges in Summit County. It includes Buffalo Mountain, where summer hikers climb the grueling trail to the summit and winter thrill seekers enjoy skiing and snowboarding down Silver Gulch. Despite its prominence in the county, the Gore Range is one of the least explored ranges in the county, according to Moore. This is due to the difficult nature of approaching most of the range.

Moore’s father lived in Breckenridge in the 1930s and took part in Colorado Mountain Club’s 1935 expedition to summit as many peaks in the Gore Range as possible. Moore wrote an article about the expedition, titled “First Ascents in the Gore Range: the 1935 Summer Outing,” for Trail & Timberline magazine’s Summer 2016 issue. Moore described how the expedition “closed a chapter in mountaineering,” for the Lower 48.

In the decades leading up to that time, clubs formed across the United States as the desire to be the first European to summit a peak took hold of the popular imagination, according to Moore. By 1935, very few mountain peaks were left unexplored. The Gore Range, however, held some of the last opportunities for major first ascents in the Lower 48, Moore explained.

Moore described amusing anecdotes about the expedition wherein the company of about 35 people constructed a rough trail to camp, with the permission of the U.S. Forest Service, and set up walled tents for about a week near Black Creek from which they set out to achieve mountaineering glory. While the group did claim first ascents for several peaks, including “Peak F,” “Peak G” and “Peak H” there were others where, upon reaching the summit, the group found evidence of prior travelers. They would reach the top “only to find a matchstick or a round of spent ammunition,” described Moore.

The most significant object the group found was an old cocoa tin on the summit of Mount Powell. Inside was a ledger that, though bearing the brunt of years of weather, still bore witness to the ascent of John Wesley Powell and his crew in 1868, said Moore. Powell, a Civil War veteran and explorer, is known by many as the first to take a group down the Colorado River and among the first Europeans to summit Longs Peak, explained Moore. This he did with one arm and wearing denim pants and a wool shirt, said Moore.

The Colorado Mountain Club still keeps the document and the cocoa tin safely archived for future generations to see, said Moore.

The Gore Range retains its character today, according to Moore, thanks again to the difficult approach. “I think the Gore Range even today is wild and beautiful and hard to get around,” said Moore.

Moore invited mountaineering enthusiasts in attendance to return later in the summer when author Joseph D. Kramarsic would speak about his new book, released by the Frisco Historic Park and Museum, “High Above Frisco: A History of the Naming, Importance, and Climbing of Frisco’s Scenic Mountains.”

“Joe’s forgotten more about the Gore Range than most of us know,” said Moore.

The book release will take place during the Night at the Museum event on Friday, Aug. 8, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Local band Moonstone Quill will be performing, and the museum will be serving free food.

The Frisco Historic Park and Museum will continue its summer lecture series every Wednesday around 12 p.m. until Aug. 20.

To read descriptions of the lectures, visit the Museum’s website: TownOfFrisco.com/event/history-heritage-events/historic-lecture-series/.