The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-06-14
THE FIRST ASCENT OF PIXIES PEAK
By wsI. b. PARSONS.

Soon after leaving Bents, W.
caught the first view of Pixies Peak
We stopped the train and took {
2 good long look. Moses stood upon
! the mountain and gazed upon his
promised land; and we stood upon
the plain and gazed upon our noun
tain. 1t was some eight thousand
J feet higher than most of us had ever
seen, and its head was white with
everlasting snow. 1t was, after all,
not wonderful mountain, but, by
sort of synecdoche, it was to US
everything. 1t stood for the whole
country, from Mexico to our north
ern line. 1t represented gold, and
plenty of it; it spoke of influence,
power and position in our middle
age, and ease and comfort in our de-
cline. / think with the first view
of the celebrated mountain, we felt
the guickening of a definite purpose
and from that time forward, instead
of wandering along with indiffer-
ence, we selected our daily routes
and measured our time with special
reference to the speedy discovery
of the grassy canon in the big
hills where Fsll-Leaf watered his
pony. At all events, our cattle
Travelled faster, we were out of camp
earlier in the morning, and we
drove later at night. The Sd day of
July we left the Arkansas and pass
ed over the 'divide" to the Foun-
taine-Que-bouilIe. a stream which |
energies from the mountains under |
tho north side of Pixies Peak, and |
flows southwark along the base of |
the range into the Arkansas at Pu- |
eblo San Carlos. A patriotic inn |
pulse moved us (and stampede of |
stock compelled us) to remain at
this point a day or two; and SO we
planned, and successfully carried
through, the first formal celebration
of our nations birthday that ever
took place within tie shadow of the /
mountains. We fired q salute at
sunrise, read the declaration, made
speeches, hoisted a flag, had a dance
and fireworks in the evening, and
kept open wagons and open kegs
for our friends all day. On the
second day following we drove to
the Peak, and established perma-
nent camp precisely where Colorado
City now stands. Nature must have
constructed this nook in her pleas
ant moods, and embellished it in
her angry ones. The beautiful
broad plateaux, the due proportion
of hills and green valleys, the three
clear, cold streams that come tum-
bling from the mountains at differ
ent points and hasten on with rip
ping music to mingle into one, the
heavy foliage of q hundred hues,
from the deep dark evergreens to
the brightest rainbow tints, would
together make up landscape of
quiet beauty. But when to these
are added the vast detached rocks,
three hundred feet in height, ire
mendous chasms two thousand feet ,
in depth, and the old mountain it
self towering above the lesser ones d.
like a giant sentinel over a sleeping
upheaYed and thrown to-
gether by some terrible convulsion :
in the morning of the world-the !
scene becomes one of solemn gran '
deur. I
After becoming firmly settled in :
our camp we prepared 10 ascend the =
Peak. We had been told by the !,
at Bent's Fort that no !
man ever stood upon it's summit,
md no man ever would. But we
the thing could be done, q
md we set about it. We did it. A
party of four left camp early in the 6
morning and reached the highest i
point at sunset. The distance was p
bout twelve hours. 1t was a little r
.iresome, and the air was rather !,
hin, but it was not a serious tasl,
Iy any means. Hooker would
march an army easily if there were 2
'ebels aJ~the top. / have seen sew
.ral later ascensions recorded in d
Colorado papers as the first, and u
noticed in a Denver pa
Ter some time ago, an account of h
everal ladies making the trip, and 7
me of them was named as the first :.
woman who ever stood upon the =
ummit of Pixies Peak. / am sor- i
" to spoil the little story, and de- Il
)rive the said lady of her iaurels
Iut the plain fact is that one of our a
before mentioned ladies assembled c
he mountain in question during the "
asst week in July, 1858. She re- 9
NAMED there two days and nights, :,
lept in the eternal snow, and wrote
etters to the eastern press dated at : :
he summit. She did not claim to 1
,e heroine, by any means; but if d
record is to be made at all it VI
hould be accurate, and l therefore "
'egister our woman's name, Mrs. %
lula Archibald Holmes, then res +
dent of Kansas, but latterly of q
d. c., and secretary of =
ome national organization of wo- y y
men. She is probably the first wo-
nan who ever stood upon point Il
IN the American continent any r
where near Il, 900 feet above the T
eVel of the sea, and for aught 1 il
NOW, tie first who ever stood that a
Ugh anywhere.-LKansa Maya b
ine. for June. =