Estes Park Health Celebrates 50 Years of Serving the Estes Valley
On Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Estes Park Health, the community hospital for Estes Valley, will celebrate its golden anniversary.
These 50 years have marked a steady increase in services, staff, advanced medical equipment and expanded buildings.
It is this type of growth over the past five decades that allows an emergency department team to receive a patient transported by EPH paramedics, a caring nurse to administer chemotherapy drugs to help patients avoid a long drive to the valley, or a parent to have the convenience to bring their child to a local family doctor.
These types of scenarios – providing skilled healthcare from emergency situations to routine visits – at a local hospital makes living at an elevation of 7,522 feet possible for the nearly 6,000 residents of the small town of Estes Park. This type of care also efficiently and effectively serves the more than 4.1 million visitors exploring nearby Rocky Mountain National Park.
But that wasn’t the case prior to 1975, when the only medical services in town were provided by two doctor’s offices – Reid Hospital and Mall Hospital. Each described as modified clinics, with basic and rudimentary equipment for x-rays, surgery, overnight care and family healthcare. At the time, emergency care would require stabilization at one of these offices or a one-hour ride to the nearest hospital.
In 1975, the population of Colorado experienced some of its largest growth in history, expanding by more than 60% from the 1950 to the 1970 census.
Estes Park witnessed some of that growth as well, with new residents moving to the 7,522-foot valley and more than 2.8 million people entering Rocky Mountain National Park in 1975, a 75% increase from just ten years earlier.
Those two small doctor offices – a thriving but limited part of the Estes Park community – could no longer continue to handle the growing needs of the region’s residents and visitors.
In 1967, the idea for a larger and more advanced hospital was first publicly mentioned.
One year later, the Park Hospital District, a special tax district of Larimer County, was formed, but funds would have to be raised to make the dream of a community hospital a reality.
In 1969, that funding took a large leap when Roger Knutsson, a long-time summer resident of Estes Park, donated more than $100,000 in the form of Eastman Kodak common stock to the Park Hospital District as a memorial for his late wife, Elizabeth. That donation amounted to about one-third of the total estimated cost to build the hospital.
The original hospital was opened and dedicated on April 15, 1975.
To honor Knutsson’s generous gift, the hospital board named the hospital the Elizabeth Knutsson Memorial Hospital.
Donations continued to come in from many members of the community, including a $900 donation from Mrs. Claire T. Hertz in 1969, funds resulting from the establishment of the Elizabeth Guild Auxiliary in 1972, and a donation from Scott Thompson, a Longs Peak Boy Scout member, in 1974.
On Saturday, Nov. 24, 1973, supporters of the project moved the first shovel of dirt towards the construction of the new hospital.
After less than two years of construction, the Elizabeth Knutsson Memorial Hospital opened on April 15, 1975.
During the dedication ceremony, Knutsson said, “This hospital is your hospital. It is here to improve the health of you who live here and the many visitors who pass through during the summer. It is here to save lives, possibly of some of us.”
Since that day 50 years ago, the hospital has been renamed twice, to Estes Park Medical Center in 1986 and Estes Park Health in 2018. The hospital has also seen growth in high-quality care with the addition of 24-hour ambulance service, an emergency department, a helipad, the radiology department, expanded surgical services, an outpatient clinic, a digital imaging suite, an urgent care center, and much more.
The hospital has also increased from its original plans of about 15 beds into a 23-bed critical access acute care facility, serving more than 18,000 patients for outpatient and inpatient services.
The next 50 years of medical care in Estes Valley look promising, with advanced technology and healthcare services thanks to a forthcoming partnership with UCHealth.