Rollins Pass: Past and Present (2022)

Rollins Pass: Past and Present by B. Travis Wright, MPS and Kate Wright, MBA

Available May 2, 2022

Rollins Pass Cover 2022
Rollins Pass: Past and Present (2022)

Rollins Pass: Past and Present by B. Travis Wright, MPS and Kate Wright, MBA

96 Pages | 165 Images | Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.31 x 9.25 inches | Publisher: Arcadia Publishing | Publication Date: May 2, 2022 | Series: Past and Present | List Price: $23.99 | Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-4671-0795-2


Back Cover Text: Rollins Pass holds 12,000 years of history; Paleoindians utilized the pass 65 centuries before the invention of the wheel. Later, wagon and rail magnates saw the pass as a “Great Gate” across the Continental Divide. Today, the area is listed as one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places.

About the Authors (Back Cover): B. Travis Wright, MPS, is a 2022 Colorado Preservation Inc. State Honor Award recipient for his advocacy of Rollins Pass. As historians and photographers, B. Travis Wright and Kate Wright, MBA, document the timeless landscapes atop Rollins Pass.


This paperback book contains black and white historical imagery and full-color modern photography.

The finished work contains poetry about the pass from 1866, prose from present day, newspaper articles, scientific facts, stories about birth, death, and life, while answering many frequent questions that we have been asked over the years from travelers about the elusive mysteries of the pass and the surrounding areas. We touch on some of the earliest claims for gold in Grand County, how prohibition made the East Portal company town unique in Gilpin County during the construction of the Moffat Tunnel; the Winter Park Express, Yankee Doodle Lake, and nearly every area in between Rollinsville and present-day Winter Park.

The book contains over 160 years of photographs—each historical image was meticulously and painstakingly restored from the original. Our restoration process for a single image took on average 30 hours, with a handful of rarer images that consumed 125 hours each to remove stubborn creases, folds, dust, discolorations, scratches, tears, nicks, stains, and smudges. Every historical photograph has a match with a modern-day counterpart—printed in color.

This book reaches back to the beginning of time to describe the intricate formation of Rollins Pass and the story carries the reader through present day. We’re immensely proud of how this book turned out and we’re excited to share it with you.

This is our second book on Rollins Pass; our first publication from 2018 entered its third printing within its first year and we donated our first royalties to Colorado State University’s Archaeology Field School—they conduct field research and archaeology on Rollins Pass in the summers. We have also donated dozens of books to local libraries, preservation groups, county governments, and land managers.

Available for purchase.

B. Travis Wright, MPS background image