The Place:
"Hayden is a Home Rule Town in Routt County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,634 at the 2000 census. The town sits along U.S. Highway 40 in the Yampa River Valley between Craig and Steamboat Springs. Hayden is located near the Yampa Valley Regional Airport, which has seasonal passenger jet airline service during the winter ski season nonstop to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul and New York Newark, with year-round passenger air service to Denver. The airport's close proximity to Hayden is reflected by its three letter identifying code: HDN. Hayden is one of the smallest communities in the U.S. to have mainline passenger jet service provided by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines on a scheduled basis, if only during the winter months when the ski season is underway in nearby Steamboat Springs.
The Ute people used the area for summer hunting before the town was settled. Trappers worked in the area in the early 1800s.
The area was first settled in 1875, with the town established in 1894 and incorporated in 1906. Hayden was named for F.V. Hayden, head of a survey party for the U.S. Geological & Geographic Survey in the late 1860s. Hayden explored western Colorado during the late nineteenth century.
Historically a center of coal mining and agriculture, it consists today of a small cluster of homes and businesses." (from (
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The Person:
The hand-routed plaque reads:
FERDINAND VANDEVEER HAYDEN
The United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the territories completed in the 1870's by Professor Hayden was the first systematic study of the mineral wealth of the Colorado mountains. William H. Jackson, official photographer for the survey, made the first photographs of the Mount of the Holy Cross and the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings. With amazing energy and thoroughness, Hayden's parties sketched, measured, photographed and chronicled the incredible geography of the Rocky Mountain West. The citizens of Colorado recognized Hayden by naming streams, mountains and even a town after the eminent geologist. This townsite is said to have been a camping place for the party that surveyed the Yampa Valley. The mountains that made Hayden famous also brought his death. Weakened by "Mountain Fever", the aging scientist died in 1887.
Erected by the State Highway Department, by the Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks, and by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Endowment.
Built by C.S.P. 8-65
"Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (September 7, 1829 – December 22, 1887) was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Hayden Valley in Yellowstone is named after him. The town of Hayden, Colorado, located in the Yampa River valley, is named for him. Many mountain peaks have been named after Hayden as well. The sedge Carex haydeniana was named for him by Stephen Thayer Olney, in 1871. A garter snake, Thamnophis radix haydenii was named for him by Robert Kennicott in 1860; although it was in a different genus at the time. A land snail, Oreohelix haydeni was named for him by William Gabb in 1869. Hayden Hall at the University of Pennsylvania which formerly housed the dental school now houses the bioengineering and earth sciences departments." (excerpted from (
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