Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Rocky Mountains stretch 4,800 kilometers from the Liard River in British Columbia to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. This massive geological structure forms the easternmost spine of the North American Cordillera.
The Rocky Mountains formed between 80 million and 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny. This period occurred when the Farallon Plate dove at an unusually shallow angle beneath the North American Plate.
French fur traders Pierre and Paul Mallet made the first European report of the mountains in 1739. Sir Alexander Mackenzie became the first European to cross the Rockies in 1793, reaching the Pacific coast at Bella Coola, British Columbia.
The Climax mine near Leadville, Colorado, was the world's largest producer of molybdenum. This facility employed over 3,000 workers and supplied heat-resistant steel for cars and planes.
U.S. President Benjamin Harrison established forest reserves in 1891 and 1892. Theodore Roosevelt extended the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve in 1905 to include the area now managed as Rocky Mountain National Park.
The population of Jackson, Wyoming, increased 260 percent from 1,244 to 4,472 residents between 1972 and 2012. This rapid growth occurred over the forty years from 1972 to 2012.