Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-01-02
CORRESPONDENCE.


Correspondence of the Daily Commercially
DENVER, Colorado. Deer 20, 1865.
We left Atchson, Kansas. at eight O'Clock on the
| morning of December lst in of the coaches of
the Overland Stage Line. Beni, Holiday, proprie-
| tor" bound for the Rocky Mountains. 1t
first intention to go by the Butterfield Overland Dis
! patch, via the great Smoky Hill route, but few
| days before the Indians had made a raid upon it,
| burning stations. destroying vehicles, killing and
| woundipg employers and passenger, and running
off the horses and mules They were reported as still
lowering TO repeat the attack the first favorable
| opportunity.
| The time consumed by the Despatch was three or
four days longer than by the Mail line although the
distance to Denver was claimed to be 1l6 miles less
by the Smoky Hill than by the Platte route, and the
fare charged was just one-haiI Or seventyhye dol
lars by Butterfed, and one hundred and fifty dollars
cord coaches while the former used covered express
wagons. The Indian element in the calculation set,
tied the question in favor of the Overland Stage and
we paid the hundred and fifty dollars for what
said to be 653 miles, at the rate of y cents
mile. A card posted up in the ofceat Atchison, gave
| the time through to Denver as follows:
,-Atchson to Fort keaney, % hours l253 miles, at
Fort Keaney to Juesburg, 81 hours 1903 miles, at
| 50 miles per hour
1ulesburg to Denver. IS hours 1877 miles. at 35
Total time l24 hours or FIVE days and four hours to
travel 653 miles at an average speed of 81 miles per
hour.
The progress actually made was as follows:
Dec /. Left Atchison a. NJ; dined, kekapoo , P.
NJ 36 niles sup at Seneca, ?. NJ, 60 miles out.
Dee 9. Breaklast Rock Creek, $50 A. NJ. III miles;
dine, kiowo, P. NJ, I6S miles.
Dec; 3, Breakfast, Fort Kearney A. NJ. 253 miles;
dine, Plum Greek. $50 miles.
Dec f., Breakfast Cottonwood, NJ, $50 miles;
supper Junction 1l-So P. NJ S miles from Denver
Dec. g. Breakfast, Living. Springs 100 A. NJ, 10
miles from Denver; arrived Mt Denver go =. NJ,
having spent five days. six and half hours the
route.
The trip was fatisuing beyond expression, but for
tunatoly there were only three through passengers
and they made themselves comfortable rs possible.
The third day out feet became swollen, and it
was found impossible to draw on boots after taking
them of am informed this occurs to most passen-
GERS sometimes producing serious lameness difficult
TO cure, and often for weeks the swollen feet do
return to their original dimensions. The only rem
cdy appears to be wearing very loose stockings and
| shoes walking often and as much as possible and
| sitting with the feet elevated when practicable.
From itchison the road runs nOrthwesterly till il
| enters the Platte valley fifteen miles east of Fort
/ kcarney. when it follows the Platte river to Den
ver distance of more than four hundred miles. At
irst the county was broken ANA the road hilIy but
| after the first hundred miles was passed it became
| very uniform, and through the Platte valley, with
very slight exceptions, 1t was smooth and even
| turnpike.
The Great American Plain, as it is called, extends
| from the Missouri river to the Rocky mountains
1t Is one vast rolling prairie, with little timber
scattered here and there along water courses In the
whole seven hundred miles | did not sufficient
! wood to supply Baltimore with fuel single week
| Wood commands fabulous prices at those points
where most difficult to obtain One station keeper
stated that his wood was hauled nearly two Thousand
miles, and that he sold it 70 his neghbors for
| hundred dollars per cord. ! was informed the con
tract price to supply the military post at uIesburg
| with wood for the year was one hundred and Eve
! dollars per cord.
The soil Of the plains is very poor, except IN few
localities, as on the banks of streams and produces
nothing but coarse grass Along the mail route ranches
established every few miles, and the occupation Of
the ranche-men appears to be securing prairie hay in
summer, and selling it at fabulous prizes to wagon
IN kind OF whisky warranted to kill on the plains
four hundred yards from the bottle.
| The ra0ehe buildings are usually constructed OF
| sod plasteied Inside vita moran, made of pTar
! mud. The roofs ara formed by laying poles clos.
| together covering them with sodS aHd ping o.
earth or two feet deep. However primitive and
| unromantic such structures appear taey are
very comfortable habitations for winter and frn sh
far better protection than frame buildings from the
derec vintc7 blasts that constantly sweep over the
The force severity and icy chijlnes of the winter
| Winds. can only ha gpprCri ted by enduring them
Hardly storm at this season without destroy
ng cattle, and il very severe. houses and mules also
wagon train near Denver latsI lost more than one
hundred oxen IN single night by their freezing 10
Mule trains are run between Missouri river and
the mountains at all seasons. but trains rarely
used on the plains from November to April The
rate charged for TRANSPORTING freight varies with the
season. the demand, and the state of the Indians
| Three years Ego from Atchison to Denver it wa,
four to five cents per pound, or eighty to one hun
bred dollars per ton Last summer and fall it was
seven to twelve cents per p0uGd-one hundred and
forty TO two hundred and forty Gollars per ton Now
it is fifteen to twenty cents per pound, three hun
bred four hundred dollars per ton. The practical
significance of these figures lDay he appreciated h.
observing that at the latter rates the extra cost Of
BARREL Of -four is thirty to forty dollars, and OF a
bushel Of corn $50 to Sll.2h. True. these com
modiles are rarely hauled at the highest rates but
IN the mountains corn often commands twenty TO
| twenty-five cents per pound.
As scarcely any grain or vegetables have been
raised in the Territory for the last two years, all such
supplies are hauled in wagons from the Missouri
river, principally from Atchison and Nebraska iy.
Along the Platte river and its tributaries the land
IS said TO be naturally fertile and to produce large
crops when irrigated. Rain 'alls only in one or two
months Of the year, during what is known as the
rainy season, usually in July and August and the
quantity is entirely Inadequate for the wants ofcuti-
Walton.
Extensive preparations for irrigation are made
along the South Platte and branches near Denver,
and large crops anticipated in 1861 and 1862 but
Ill both years they consumed by graSShopperS.
These insects made their appearance in May or
June, 1864 in such numbers literally to obscure
thesUn. and consumed every green thing except the
wild prairie grass. hence they came in Il MYSTERY:
SEINE suppose from the South others from the Salt
Lake country.
In the spring of 1865 young grasshoppers appeared
evidently Matched from the eggs deposited last year.
repeated the work of devastation and suddenly left
for parts unknown Ono day the air, and apparent
| ly all space filed with them: the next day not
one was to be except and then a straggler.
1t is generally believed they left this Tcrritory
without depositng their eggs, and that hereafter the
country will be free from their ravages.
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