Joel Estes was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1806. Married in 1826, Estes and his wife Sarah came to the Territory of Colorado in 1859. Some time in October of 1859, Estes and his son Francis Joel came into a mountain park along the Little Thompson River in present-day Larimer County, Colorado. Camping at the site during the winter of 1860, the following spring Estes moved his entire family on to the site, later to be known as Estes Park. Ill health forced Estes to move to a lower elevation in 1868. Estes died in Farmington, New Mexico in 1875.