The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-09-21
Colorado.


ii to the Union as State, under the cond
m tions prescribed in an enabling act of ii
e late Congress Her immaturity and aver
sion to saddliug herself thus early wit
a the expense ola State Government, hav
hitherto deferred her; possibly, the ez
emption ofTerritories from drafts, to fl
e the Union armies, may have dispose,
some of his citizens to wait But, howeye
caused, the reluctance 4. is at length over
come, and Colorado will soon be official
) ly proclaimed the thirty-seventh anon.
the States composing our Union.
Her history is soon written Though
probably visited by the Spanish explorer
Fasquez de Coronado, so early as l540 F;
traversed by Pixies expedition, dispatched
by President Jefferson in 1902; by Longs
twenty later; and by Fremont's, after a
furtherinterva of twenty years, this region
remained entirely unpeopled by Whites,
save few scattered and vagrant trappers
and hunters Except that a few small ham
lets and their neighboring ranches original
ly and properly belonging to Now Mexico,
have been included within its purely ar
bitrary limits) until the Summer of 1858,
when few adventures, who had mined
In Georgia or California, and fought in
Kansas, were drawn westward to the
Rocky Mountains by reports that Gold
had been washed from their streams
They travelled up the Arkansas (the high
est In what is now Colorado.l along the
eastern base of the chain as far as the
Cherokee trail (half way between the two
Plattes,) thence returning to where Cher
ry Greek falls into the South Platte, where
their search for gold has been most hope
! fully rewarded, and there founded the
rough log hamlet which is now the city
of Denver. Digging and panning in the
beds and banks of the many Greeks which
here issue from the Mountains. or sell
ing each other lots in their new city, they
managed to subsist through the Winter,
and, in the following May, 1852 their
persevering quest was rewarded by the
discovery Of unmistakable gold in the ra-
vine of Nasquez Fork or Clear Creek.
twenty miles within the mountains and
twice so far from Denver, though then
only accessible by far more devious and
difficult way, over many hight, thro,
many deep ravine. Here Gin Gregory
Diggings," now Central City,") we
found nearly two thousand impromptu
miners-most of them fresh arrivals from
'the States, early in June of that
year while Green Russell, with his Geor-
gian party, had made another strike,
three or four miles south westward. II
Hundreds more have since been found
on either side and in almost every de-
preston of the Rocky Mountain chain
bnt Denver remains the emporium ofI
Colorado, and the Gregory Diggings and
their vicinity perhaps as productive as
any other. To-day, there are probably
at least Fifty Thousand Whites in Col
orado some of them farming or herding
cattle on valley ranches ; but Gold Min
ing is the main employment, the iucite-
ment, and support of every other Close
the mines and washings tomorrow, ignore
their existence, aad Colorado would soon
relapse into its savage solitude so recently
dispeied
For the surface of the State rauges
from 4, 500 TO $4,000 feet above that of
the oceans so that the South Platte, the
Arkansas, the del Norte, the San Juan, |
Grand and Green rivers, and even branch |
ofSweetwater, with thousand tributaries
have here their sources. Yet, though .
several peaks are crested with eternal
snow, and every ravine has its creek or
runnel, drouth is a prevailing scourge.-l
Even within the gateways of the noun
tains, whence issues perennial streams,
and though light showers are not very
unfrequent, the grassed hilsides are
parched and brown throughout the sum-
mer and fall, while on the plains at eth
er side irrigation is essential to the secur-
ing Of crops. Grass grows luxuriantly
for some miles from the mountains but
the arid winds soon dry up the smaller
streams and diminish the larger, until at
forty or fifty miles distance, steriity be-
gins and not tree is seen, save few
miserable cottonwoods, thinly skirling
the perennial watercourses, and, very
rarely stuGted yellow pine crestines
some CRASHES sand-bank, till we reach the
eastern boundary of the new State, long.
l02 ". Of Greenwich. II is much the
same westward of the Rocky Mountains
only dryer and more sterlle-but the /
face Of the country is there more rugged,
and streams consequent y more frequent |
and copious. Colorado will always want
Flour and Pork from her Eastern sisters,
though she may ultimatly grow her own
Beef and Mutton.
Colorado is about 400 miles from east
to west by $50 from north to south, with
an area of about 100000 square miles
Her population in 1860 was returned at
81 ,23I and We doubt that it now much
if any exceeds $4,000. \ good many of
her first visitors grew homesick before
they reached it, and returned without E.
yer striking pick into her soil. Many
have been drawn away by the superior
attractions of Nevada, Idaho, and Mon
tana so that her total vote, which was
10,924 in 1861, was but S,72l in '62.-
W. hoUa M lotor raturne af hand hut