Dr. Ruth Alexander and a team of graduate students collect oral histories from professionals responding to the 2013 flood

September 2015 marked the second anniversary of the floods that ravaged Colorado’s Front Range. In an interview about the devastation, Jamestown Mayor Tara Schoedinger recalled a dramatic moment following days of rain: “My husband … ran outside and said, ‘There goes the gulch.’ … He came back in less than a minute later, and he […]

PLHC Program Manager, Ariel Schnee, and RMHS teacher, Kurt Knierim, introduce high school students to careers in history

On March 6, the Public Lands History Center at Colorado State University welcomed 40 high school students from Rocky Mountain High School and Berthoud High School to campus for History Day, a collaborative program that raises awareness of the history major and career options for historians. I PLHC Program Manager Ariel Schnee and RMHS teacher […]

Faculty and Students in the Public Lands History Center work with park managers to solve real-world problems at Rocky Mountain National Park

While it’s not unusual for Colorado State University students to enjoy the great outdoors during the summer, one group becomes actively involved in preserving the history — and future — of a local natural treasure. Each year, CSU’s Public Lands History Center takes students to Rocky Mountain National Park for nearly a week. The program, […]

Dr Jared Orsi and graduate students study the history of Rocky Mountain National Park through repeat photography

One center at Colorado State University teaches graduate students in English the literary publishing process, from manuscript to final printing, while another challenges history students to apply the tools of the historian to public lands management. When the two centers began sharing space on campus, they realized they had a ready-made collaboration: publishing a book of […]

Dr. Sarah Payne organizes research and essays studying Japanese internment camps in New Mexico.

A team of historians from Colorado State University, working under the direction of Assistant Professor Sarah Payne at the Public Lands History Center, has completed a project to preserve and spread the stories of Japanese Americans who were detained in New Mexico confinement camps during World War II. The project, “Confinement in the Land of […]

John Hirn (B.A. ’93) Alumni Award Winner in 2014 and Historian of CSU Football

John Hirn (’93) is listed on Colorado State University’s official athletics site – CSURams.com – as a volunteer historian. It would be more accurate, however, to describe him as an accidental historian. That’s because he never dreamed he would be doing what his three children call “the job I don’t get paid for.” “I don’t […]

Daniel Tyler (M.A. ’67) CLA Distinguished Alumnus, 2019

It was 1946 when Dan Tyler was 12 and his family left their suburban Philadelphia roots to head out West. Tyler’s father had been stationed in North Africa with Field Marshal Montgomery during WWII, and when he returned home, he considered his career options. Already a successful businessperson and banker, the elder Tyler anticipated that […]

Adam Thomas (M.A. ’01) and Michael Childers (M.A. ’97) return to CSU as professors

What do you do with a passion for history? There is no one clear cut answer to this question because the possibilities are endless. While some people become historians, others go to law school, some work in museums, and some take a more circuitous route.  Michael Childers and Adam Thomas, history professors at Colorado State […]