Anna Wolfrom

Anna Wolfrom (ca. 1872–July 12, 1950) was a pioneer homesteader, teacher, writer, and businesswoman in Estes Park, Colorado. She was an alumnus of Columbia University and Oxford University. She also spent summers and studied in Paris. Her published works include Sacajawea, the Indian princess. She established five businesses in and around Estes Park and another in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the "first successful female entrepreneur in the Estes Park area." Her success inspired five women to homestead in or near Estes Park by 1917.

Early life and education The daughter of Louis and Anne Wolfrom, Anna was born about 1872 in Massachusetts and was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Both of her parents were immigrants. Her father was born in Germany, and her mother in Ireland. Her siblings included her older brother Philip (who was not alive at the time of her death), She spent the summer in Paris in 1897. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 1907.

Career Teacher Wolfrom began teaching in Kansas City, Missouri in 1890. Between 1896 and 1904 or more, she taught at Yeager School Lathrop School, and taught French in a Kansas City school. In 1917, Wolfrom taught at Northeast High School in Kansas City and lived in the Estes Park cabin a few months a year. Dunraven told her how to homestead land in Estes Park.

Wolfrom filed for 160 acres of land under the Homestead Act and built a cabin on Aspen Brook, near Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Businesswomen and playwright Hikers passed her home when the Wind River Trail Her initial customers arrived on the trail after she had a road built, doing most of the work herself, From 1920 to 1922, she established more businesses and expanded the size of the Wigwam Tea Room. The businesses included the Indian Shop, the Beaver Point store and filling station, the Belknap Cottages, and the Louise Gift Shop in Estes Park. In 1926, she established a gift store in New Orleans. becoming Anna Wolfrom Dove. They then lived in Estes Park. After Dr. Dove died, she married John T. McNamara, but the marriage was annulled. At the time of her death, she was known as Anna Wolfrom Dove and Anna Wolfrom Dove McNamara. She was buried in Hudson, New York.

After her death, her Estes Park property was owned by the Coburn and Reichardt families. It was sold in 1985 to the National Park Service to build a trail to allow hikers to hike to and from Lily Lake from the Wind River Trail.

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