author
Joe Mills
1880–1935
A lively outdoorsman with a storyteller’s eye, he turned his early years in Colorado into vivid adventure writing. His best-known book, A Mountain Boyhood, captures the wonder, danger, and freedom of growing up close to the Rockies.
1 Audiobook
A Mountain Boyhood
by Joe Mills
About the author
Born Enoch Josiah "Joe" Mills on July 23, 1880, he was an American writer, naturalist, coach, and hotelier whose life moved between athletics and the outdoors. He is especially remembered for writing about his youth in the Estes Park region of Colorado, where mountain life shaped both his interests and his voice as an author.
Mills wrote A Mountain Boyhood, a memoir first published in 1926, drawn from his experiences growing up in the Rocky Mountains. The book reflects a deep familiarity with wilderness, animals, and frontier life, and it helped preserve a personal picture of early Colorado for later readers.
He was also the younger brother of Enos Mills, the well-known naturalist associated with the founding of Rocky Mountain National Park. Joe Mills died on October 3, 1935, but his writing still stands out for its sense of place and its affection for the natural world.