The first recorded use of the pass (then known as Boulder Pass or Rollinsville Pass) by a wagon train was in 1862, nearly 14 years before Colorado became a state. Directions for wagons traveling from Rollinsville to Winter Park were published in newspapers. John Quincy Adams Rollins, a Colorado pioneer from a family of pioneers,: constructed a toll wagon road over the pass in the 1873, providing a route between the Colorado Front Range and Middle Park; subsequently, Rollins Pass was named after John Q.A. Rollins.