History
Hunter-Gatherers
Hunter-gatherers were some of the first people to come to the Great Sand Dunes. They hunted bison and mammoths with stone spear points called clovis and fulsom points.
Native Americans
The Ute and Jicarilla Apache tribes lived at the Great Sand Dunes many years ago. The Ute tribe stripped bark off the ponderosa pine trees that are found in the park so they could use the inner bark for things such as food and medicine. You can still see these peeled trees today.
Spanish Explorers
Don Diego de Vargas became the first European explorer to see the park in 1698
The Gold Rush
Since there were many gold and silver rushes in the Rocky Mountains in 1853, many miners thought that there might be gold at the Great Sand Dunes. In 1932, the Volcanic Mining Company tried to find gold but it was hard to work in the sand and there wasn't enough gold so they ended up giving up on the project. But when local people heard that the dunes could get dug up for gold, they asked the government to make the Great Sand Dunes a national monument. President Herbert Hoover agreed in 1932. In the 1990's, the government was asked to make the Great Sand Dunes into a national park and it became one in 2004.