Hazel Marguerite Schmoll (1890–1990) was an American

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, and the first to conduct a systematic study of plant life in southwestern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

. She was also the first woman to earn a doctorate in botany from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. She was inducted into the

Colorado Women's Hall of Fame The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted. History There was a short-lived recogniti ...

in 1985.

Early life and education

Hazel Marguerite Schmoll was born in a sod cabin in McAllaster, Kansas, on August 23, 1890, to William and Amelia Schmoll. The family moved to

Ward, Colorado Ward is a home rule municipality in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 150 at the 2010 census. The town is a former mining settlement founded in 1860 in the wake of the discovery of gold at nearby Gold Hill. Once one ...

when she was two, where her father set up a

livery stable A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...

. Schmoll showed an early interest in learning about wildflowers and spent much time roaming the area on horseback collecting specimens and picking berries. She described her childhood in Ward as ideal and retained a lifelong connection to the town, which shrank to less than a dozen residents in the 1940s before rebounding in the 1960s. Schmoll attended Ward School through eighth grade, followed by the State Preparatory School in Boulder (an earlier incarnation of Boulder High School). She then went to the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

, from which she graduated in 1913 with a degree in biology. She taught for four years (1913–1917) at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

, first in the biology department and then in the botany department. She was the first University of Colorado graduate to be hired by Vassar. Coming from the state that had been the first to grant women the vote, she was active in promoting the cause of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

on campus. Discovering that she would need an advanced degree if she wished to continue teaching at Vassar, she enrolled at the University of Chicago to get a master's degree in botany. She studied mainly with botanist and ecological pioneer

Henry Chandler Cowles Henry Chandler Cowles (February 27, 1869 – September 12, 1939) was an American botanist and ecological pioneer (see History of ecology). A professor at the University of Chicago, he studied ecological succession in the Indiana Dunes of Northwe ...

and received her degree in 1919.

Career

On returning to Colorado after her master's degree, Schmoll was hired to do some work for the Colorado Historical and Natural History Society at the Colorado State Museum, at first mainly mounting and cataloguing the botanical collections of

Alice Eastwood __NOTOC__ Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco. She published over 310 scienti ...

and Ellsworth Bethel. The resulting herbarium is still considered one of the finest in the state. She went on to conduct the first systematic study of plant life in the southwestern part of the state, a project that would later feed into her doctoral dissertation. Another of her roles was to educate the public about plant life in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

, and she served briefly (1920–21) as assistant curator for the State Bureau of Mines. In 1925, she was a leading lobbyist for efforts to pass legislation protecting the state flower, ''

Aquilegia coerulea ''Aquilegia coerulea'', the Colorado blue columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to the Rocky Mountains, USA. ''Aquilegia coerulea'' is the state flower of Colorado. The Latin specific name '' ...

'' or blue columbine. A job which Schmoll had expected to be short-term ended up lasting until 1925, when Scholl left with the goal of pursuing a doctoral degree. In late 1925, Schmoll traveled to Europe to visit botanical gardens and learn German. On returning, she enrolled at the University of Chicago for a Ph.D. in ecological botany, supporting herself with various jobs ranging from cleaning houses to rewriting a high school biology textbook. She also worked at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

and served as a substitute professor at a local junior college. In 1932 she became the first woman to obtain a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Chicago. The subject of her dissertation was vegetation of the Chimney Rock area of southwestern Colorado. During the Depression, Schmoll was unable to find a permanent job as a scientist. In 1938, she built Rangeview Ranch outside Ward, first as a children's camp and then as a guest ranch. It adjoined

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

, and Schmoll served as a nature guide for guests well into her seventies. Schmoll split her time between the ranch in the summers and a house in Ward the rest of the year. Schmoll died on January 31, 1990, at the age of 99. Much of her property was donated for conservation purposes, although Rangeview Ranch was donated to the Christian Science Church for use as a retreat and conference center. In 2017, the ranch changed hands again and became th
Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center

Legacy and honors

In Schmoll's honor, the University of Colorado, Boulder, has established the Hazel Schmoll Research Fellowship in Colorado Botany emphasizing field botany and open to faculty, staff, and students. A rare and imperiled species of milkvetch (also known as locoweed), '' Astragalus schmolliae'' or Schmoll's milkvetch, is named after Schmoll. It grows only on Chapin Mesa in

Mesa Verde National Park Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Established ...

, where it was first collected by Alice Eastwood in 1890 and where Schmoll and an assistant reported it for the second time in 1925. It was not described until 1945, at which time it was named after Schmoll. Schmoll's extensive notebooks are in the archives of the Boulder Historical Society.

Early life and education

Career

Legacy and honors

References

Further reading