Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Rocky Mountains rose from the earth between 80 million and 55 million years ago during a period known as the Laramide orogeny. This geological event occurred when tectonic plates began sliding underneath the North American plate at an unusually shallow angle.
The Rocky Mountains span a latitude between the Liard River in British Columbia at 59 degrees North and the Rio Grande in New Mexico at 35 degrees North. This vast distance creates diverse environmental factors ranging from precipitation levels of 10 inches per year in southern valleys to over 40 inches locally in northern peaks.
Indigenous peoples including the Apache, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Ute inhabited the Rocky Mountains since the last great ice age. Paleo-Indians hunted now-extinct mammoth and ancient bison which was an animal 20% larger than modern bison in the foothills and valleys.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie became the first European to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1793 finding the upper reaches of the Fraser River. He reached the Pacific coast of what is now Canada on July 20 of that year completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing north of Mexico.
Minerals found in the Rocky Mountains include significant deposits of copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, silver, tungsten, and zinc. The Climax mine near Leadville, Colorado was the largest producer of molybdenum in the world employing over 3,000 workers.