Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1859-02-03
NO..24s

OF the country, added to the numerical
strength and savage character of the Indi-
ans, Is not without value. The facts then
and since collected by me are SO numerous
and 50, positive that l entertain an absolute
conviction, derived from them, that gold;
in. mass and in position and Infinite in
quantity, viii, within the coming three
years, reveal itself to the energy Of ourpio-
neers. All the precious metals and pre-
cious stones viii also reveal themselves in
equal abundance in this region SO propi-
tious to their production. sels r. 4asa
"The distance from Kansas City to
Pixies Peak is less than 700 miles. 1t, is
reached by the great road of the Arkansas
river, traversing straight to the west and
ascending the imperceptible grade of the
Great Plains clear to the mountain base
Gold is here discovered so soon as the
prirneval rocks rise from beneath the ealr
careous plain. Pixies Peak. which rises
to the altitude. of l4,5OO feet above the
sea, is the abrupt colossal termination of
the mountain promontory, which, protrud-
ing eastward from the Cordillera 100 miles,
sunders from one another the sources. of
the South Platte and the Arkansas rivers.
Where this promontory connects with the
Cordillera is supremely grand focal point
of primary mountain chains, primary yiY4
ers and parcs., This focal point is in the
same latitude as San francisco and St.
Louis; (39 deg,) is about 1000 miles from
each and in the centre between them.--
The direction of the Cordillera is from
northwest to southeast. From its western
flank protrudes promontory, balancing
and similar to that of Pixies Peak, known
as the Elk mountain !. it sunders from one
another the Grand river of the Colorado
and the Eagle river, and terminates abrupt
ly within the angle of their junction.
Radiating due south is the Sierra Nimbresi
known for 200 miles by the snowy peaks
of San Juan; this chain sunders the wa
ters of Eagle river from the Rio del Norte.
The southern arm Of the Cosdillera sun
ders the waters of the Rio del Norte from
the Arkansas river; the northern arm, the
waters of the Platte river from, the Rio
Grande of the. Colorado. Such is this
focal summit. from which five primary
mountains and five rivers simultaneously
depart. i Upon the Platte in the pare
known as the Bayou Salade upon the Rio
Grande of the Colorado, the pare known as
the Middle Pare; upon the Rio del Norte,
the pare called the Bayou of San Luis
The Arkansas and Eagle rivers have no
parcs; they defile outward through stu
pendous canons. The parcs, scooped out
of the main dorsal mass of the Cord1lera
by the rivers which bisect them are, each
one of them, an immense amphitheatre of
singular beauty. fertility, and temperate
atmosphere; they approach one another
where they rest against the Cordillera at
the extreme south of the rivers. ~ ~ hsas
alt is manifest with what ease the pio-
neers, already engaged in mining at the
entrance of the Bayou Saladd, will, in an
other season, ascend through it to the Cor
dillera, surmount its crests and descend in
10 the Bayou San Luis. They viii deyeE
op at every step gold in new and increas-
ing abundance. Besides, access is equally
facile by the Huerfano, an afiuent of the
Arkansas coming down from the Spanish
Peaks, one hundred miles farther to. the
south. From New Mexico, the appseach
is by ascending the Rio Bravo del Norces
Tbs snowy battlements of the Sierra San
Juan from the western wall of the Bayou
San Luis. From its middle flank, therSier-
ra San Juan projects to the southwest,,a q
chain of remarkable volcanic mountains,
known as the Sierra La Plata (silyer noun,
tain) The chain divides asunder the wa
tiers of the Great Colorado from the Rio
San Juan and filling the angle Of their
junction forms, the perpendicular wall Of
the Great Canon. ..-..-,--...-.
'The Sierra la Plata is four hundred
miles in length, having its course w. 8.
W. Along its dorsal crest are volcanic
masses penetrating to perpetual snow; its.
hanks descend by immense terraces Of cor
boniferous. and ssulphurous limestone. All
formations of the globe here come togsth,
er, mingle with one another, acquire har-
mony, and arrange themselves side BY side
in gigantic proportions. Lava prophoritic'
granite, sandstone, limestone, the precious
and base metals, precious stons, salt mar
bic, coal, thermal and medicinal streams,
fantastic mountains, called cristones, or abb
rupt peaks, level places of great fertility,
canons, delicious valleys, rivers, and great
forests; all these, and thousand other yar
rieties, find room, appear in succession, in
perfect order, and in perfectly graceful pro-
portions. Remoteness from the sea, and
altitude, secure to this region a tonic at
mosphere, warm, cloudless, brilliant, and
serene. The aboriginal people are numer-
Gus, robust and Intelligent They arethe
Navajos and Zuta Indians. They have
skill in agricultural and weaving, rear great
herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, but con-
struct neither permanent nor temporary
houses, so dry and favorable is the atmos-
phere!. Here also, occurs remarkable
isolated mountain, known to rumor for half
century, but only now locally Identified.
This is Cerro di Sal (Salt Mountain. -
This rises among the western spurs OF the
Sierra Ia Plata, to an altitude OF nine
thousand feet, appearing as an Irregular
cone of great bulk. A pure stratifed mass
of rock salt, its flanks are channelled by
the. little river Dolores, whose waters sat-
urated with liquid salt yield itagain in its
lower course, in granulated beds of snowy
whiteness, q tinted with vermilion streaks
from the beds of selenite with which the
salt formation alternates." r -, f.,,o,,
AS an opposite conclusion to. the above
4 ! II n n II - -