Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-31
FROM
B~utferfeId's Overland DIspafehs-
Sights and Scenes from AIchiSOn
10 Donver-DenYer City and its As
poets.
TrOm an Occasional oOrrs.pOndontl

DENVER, COLORADO, Jan. 13, 1866.
DEAR LEADER: I promised to write to
you from here and now fulfill that prom
Use, although I hardly expect to interest
you or your readers. But 1 will be brief.
Let me come at once to Atchison, Kansas,
the 'iumping-of place" the eastern ter
minus of the great stage lines. Butter
fields Overland Dispatch, by the Smoky
Hill route, to Denver was established last
year in opposition to the Overland Stage
Line, Ben. Halliday, proprietor, which
carries the U. s.. mails to California and
has a great monopoly. The officers of this
Dispatch Line evinced great energy and
ability in the establishment of their line
through a comparatively new and unpro-
tected region and placed the fare at 500
to Denver, that of the other line being
$3.50. Had it not been for the Indian
depredstions of last November, they
would now be in successful operation, to
the great relief and benefit OF the large
increasing travel across the plains. As it
is they are pushing forward the work of
re~-establishing the line, the Government
having promised ample protection to the
route in future, and will doubtless be in
readiness for the heavy westward travel
in the early spring. 1 left Atchison on
the morning of the 22d ult, in the coach
of the Overland Line, having provided
myself with blankets, 80, as protection
against the cold, which was very severe.
The coaches are the "Concord" or as near
iy as I can recollect, the old-fashioned,
time-honored stage-coach OF ante-railroad
days, which this ageof improvements seem
to have left undisturbod. They are in
tended to seat nine, 80 that the five who
were in our coach had barely what room
they required, though every eastward
coach had nine and sometimes fifteen in
side and out, except one, which contained
only the two newly elected Senators from
colorado.
The road through Kansas and Nebraska
III we struck the Valley of the Platte at
tot Kearney, was rolling and billy. 1t
Is Try fne country, and one feels a sense
Oh t~he.yrandeur of o. national domains,
IN gam over and riding for hundreds OF
miles threlgh these fertile and almost I'M
touched trhks. But with the building OF
the racine hilroad this picture will fade
ike a dlssoiVNg view and give place to
n IN keeping nth the westward march
OF improvement aid the enterprise of the
american people There was much snow
on lnis part Oh our Iots and in some pla-
ces we were e~onsideraDv DELAYED. The
: line is stocked with very BOD horses, al
though there are not enough, nor eponuh
men TO take proper caro- Of the Fo1r
horses are used in a team, and o. samp
parts of the route six. Stations for Gu NO.
ing teams average about twelve mie.
apart. AT nearly all Of these there an
ranches where meals are to be obtained a
prices ranging from 81 to 50 as you g
westward. Tolerably good fare is pro
vided at most of them. The drivers ar
generally men who know their bushes
and attend to it, and I saw some who tax
the greatest Imaginable pride in theil
"profession" though I missed that air O
conscious dignity which we remember il
the stage driver of old. Some Of these
men, however, are worthless aud very
negligent, and here is where tne overland
deserves censKre, and receives 1t from
nearly al who pass over 1t. l believe
thereb a lack Of management, or super
vifon of tho subordinates, and Of regard
7 for the comfort of the passengers and ex-
petition in keeping coaches going forward
without a moments unnecessary DELAY.
Thus without reference to the Importance
of conveying tho mails through in the
quickest possible time, we were seven DAYS
and six nights on the road, and allowing
for the delay by snow and other necessary
stoppages, l an certain that We might
without d~lAiciGIty Orfnjury 70 the stock IN
the least. But the only corrective for this
is g competing line, which we shall doubt
less have soon, and which will certainly
receive a hearty encouragement and pa
tronage in its p%raiseworthy attempt to
break down a monopoly and c to
travellers and shippers greater security,
comfort and speed, at reasonable rates.
We arrived st Fort Kearney on Christ
mas day. Here we strike the Platte, and
come to the Plains proper, and here come
in the lines from Omaha and Nebraska
City. The fort is an uniateresting col
lection of shaky buildings for quarters and
other uses of the troops stationed there.
Here we first see the " adobe u used in
building, and nearly all the ranches in the
Platte Valley are built Of it. From Cot
touwood Spring, which is in the region of
the hostile Indians, each coach has an e.
cort Of three cavalrymen for a distance of
about two bundled miles, through what is
considered the most dangerous portion of
the route. An eTpeditionary force was Or
ron Szin,r Of NOffnn mood -oA1A1z II
hcan Fork against the hottie Indians, sup
posed to be concentrating in that region.
There was no intelligence of any In
dams near the route as we passed
l had a heavy rife and revolver
and my fellow-passengers were well pro-
vided with revolvers, SO that, with any
chance at all, we could have made quite q !
fight. Fortunately we we're not put to the |
test, and, although 1 am aware that an
Indian fight would have made this 40 /
count interesting and exciting, perhaps I |
must say that l do not regret the omission. |
We saw no buffalo, the cold weather hav-
ing driven them southwark. Saw a few
antelopes, but they kept at a good dis
CayOtes abound, and the big grew
wolf is now and then to be seen. They
of the carcasses of horses, mules and
'xen, which are seen al nearly every rod
If the way.
Throughout almost the entire valley of
he Platte the soil is i~mpregnated with
Ilkali, and the water in some places so that
t cannot be used. The buffalo grass,
which cattle feed on in the winter, ia back
rom the river, on the hills and bluffs, II
9 cured into hay upon the ground by the
un, there being no rain to rot II.
AT last, on the morning of the seventh
.ay, Pixies Peak Became visible to our
reforming eyes, and on the ensuing day
70 Reached Denver. If you would
now the luxury of ever a Denver hotel
takethe trip across the Plains and you
'il, / am sure experience it. Denver is a /
lace of about 1900 inhabitants, though in
appearance and business it IS far
eyond many eastern cities of more than
vice its size. 1t is the entrespot for the {
between all the mining district of I
dorado and Il great part of what l
beyond It lies Just at the foot l
: the Rocky Mountains, on the south
ank Of the South Platte. It has many
&c, substantial brick stores and hand
residences. Though, as in all min 7
g countries, the sterner sex predomi- !
ates, there are ladies enough here to .
axe a refined society. There are two :
'ung ladies' Seminaries fourishing. and .