The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-01-09
The Colorado Mountain Peaks.

| MT. James Il. GarQnor, the geo.
grapher of the Hayden scientific expe-
dition, in Colorado, the past season, has
contributed brief article to the Amer
ican Journal of Science, in which sew
eral interesting facts are grouped in re-
gard to the number and elevation of the
mountain peaks of all that region. He
states that from Mt. Lincoln two hun
dred peaks can be counted, of 13, 900
feet and over. OF the three great ran
ges which lie between latitude 38, 30,
and 40, 50, the most eastern was named
| the Fort range, in which are Longs
peak, Mt. Tory, Gray's peak, Mt. Rosa,
| Mt. Evans, Pixies peak, attaining an ell
ovation of from 1000 to 14,200 feet
above the level of the sea. West of the
fort range lie the great parks, separated
| from each other by comparatively low
or broken cross ridges. Parallel with
| it, and about forty miles farther west,
| is q grand line of mountains, forming
the western boundary of the south, mid
die and north parks. We named this
the park range. It's highest points are
near the junction of the cross range
that divides the south from the middle
park. They are the Mt. Lincoln group,
which include twenty peaks that exceed
5000 feet in height; and its culmina-
ting points, Lincoln and Quandary rise
above 14,000 Twenty miles farther
north, the range becomes very sharply
crested wall, with many 13,000-foot
peaks, and with it's eliminating points
rising to 13, 300 feet. This we call the
blue river group. To its northmost and
highest summit belongs the name of
Mt. Powell, from the gallant explorer
by whom it was first assembled in 1868.
From Mt. Powell northward there are
no high peaks until opposite the north
park, where the range rises again into
SUBMITS of $4,000 feet and over. West
of the southern park of the park range
is the Arkansas valley; and beyond this
valley is another grand line of heights,
heretofore unnamed, and which we call
the National range. The highest part
of the national range commences about
twenty miles south of tina holy cross,
in grand mountain, opposite the town
of Orc, in the Arkansas valley. Grand
mountain is about Il, 200 feet high, and
from here to so miles farther south the
whole range is elevated to $4,000 feet.
while there are ten peaks that rise
above IA, 900 feet, some of them doubt
less reaching IA, 400. These eulminat-
ing points rise at intervals of five to
eight miles along the crest of the range.
The one next south of Grand mountain
is Mt Elbert the next is La Plata
mountain: then come the peaks ma ned
bv professor S. d. Whitney in 1869.
Mt. Harvard and Mt. Yale, and so on.
The National range is one of the grand
est on the continent. Through nearly
it's whole extent it forms the divide
between the waters of the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. West of this range,
and connected with it, is a great group
of mountains. lying in a triangle be-
tween the Grand river on the north and
the Gunnison river on the south, and
known as the Elk mountains. The most
elevated peaks of this group from a
ridge about thirty miles long, nearly
parallel with the National range, and
some thirty-five miles west of it, At
the northern end of this line of eleva-
ton, in latitude 80, Is, is Sopris noun
tain, long, dome shaped ridge, about
13, 900 feet high. Ten miles to the
south of it is q sharp cone, overlapping
all its neighbors, and rising to about
Il, 1000 feet this we have named the
Capitol. Three miles further south is
another great peak, only about fifty
feet lower, which we call the White
House, from the CONSPICUOUS snow field,
about a mile in horizontal breadth and
having a slope of half a mile, which
covers it's eastern front. This snow
mass is by far the largest we have found
in the mountains of Colorado, and dis
tinctly marks and characterizes the
peak, even as seen from the Front
range, eighty miles away. Yet further
south, five and ten miles respectively,
are two 14,OOO-foot peaks, of dark red
sandstone, which we call Maroon noun
tain and Castle peak. We expect to
publish accurate panoramic drawings OF
each of these four ranges nothing but
these and photographs can give an idea
of their grand forms and interesting
structure. It seems very remarkable
that, in region where there are so
many high peaks, the eliminating
points should all range between L, 600
and IA, 500 feet. So far as 1 know,
there are twenty-five SUBMITS of this
class in our district.