This may be our only local monument dedicated to the memory of a botanist. Charles Christopher Parry (1823-1890), an early explorer of the Colorado flora, is further honored in the names of several of our native plants, including Parry's primrose and Parry oatgrass. He, in turn, honored his mentors, John Torrey of Columbia College and Asa Gray of Harvard, by naming two of Colorado's fourteeners after them in 1872. British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker called Parry "the king of Colorado botany."

This massive granite boulder commemorates Parry's discovery of the Colorado Blue Spruce on Pike's Peak in 1862 and is surrounded by tall specimens of this distinctive species. Colorado's official state tree, Blue Spruce was designated by the legislature in 1939, after being nominated by schoolchildren back in 1892.

IN HONOR OF
DR. C.C. PARRY
DISCOVERER OF THE
COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE
1862
DEDICATED BY THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF
NURSERYMEN
1928



Monument Setting