The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-08-20
Heights of Colorado Mountains.

In the second bulletin of the United
States Geological and Geographical Survey
of the Territories, DIR. Hayden director, re-
Gently issued, may be found record of
the results of the measurement OF the
mountains of the Rocky Range in Color
ado. 1t is stared preliminarily that the
widest area of elevation of the entire noun
tain region is between the thirty-slXth and
forty-first parallels and measures about
nine hundred and fifty miles across. This
is also the region of the greatest elevation,
the greater part of it being above twelve
thousand feet. The greatest force OF up
heaval seems to have acted in a belt 3OO
miles wide, whose central line runs south
westward from Denver. Colorado, to Mon
terey, California. 1t crosses the Sierra
Nevada at the Mount Whitney cluster of
peaks and near the Yosemite, passes the
Wahsatch at their highestpOintin Utah and
terminates in a number of parallel ranges
of the lOftiest mountains in Central Color
ado. The most eastern OF these, called the
Front Range, rises abruptly 1000 feet from
the plain and is studded with >nOw-capped
peaks, of 49, 900 feet in elevation. Beyond
this line, on the western side Of the
Parks which are interrupted by various
subordinate mountains, rises the Park
Range, extending 240 miles without inter-
ruptiOn. Only twenty miles west OF this
stands the highest chain of all, the back
bone of the Eastern or true Rocky Noun
tains. the Sawatch, set with whole line
OF l4,000-fOOt peaks. In the valley be-
tween these two ranges rise the Grand and
the Arkansas Rivers, the former turning
to the westward and feeding the Colorado,
while the latter cuts the eastern ranges and
flows to the Mississippi. 1t passes the
Park chain in an interruption, south G
which the mOurt tains take the name of the
Sangre de Christie and extend with many
high peaks into New Mexico.
West of the Sawatch the ranges are short
and broken and very elevated. The prin-
cipal one is found IN the central part of
the territory and is called the Elk Range.
South of these, between the Grand and
San Juan Rivers. is the eliminating point
of the whole system, the UnCOmpahgre
Mountains, where the UncOmpahgre peak
rises to a height of 1850 feet. Ii Is
doubtful whether any mountain OF the
Sierra Nevada equals this one in elevation,
which is in this case the highest in the
United States. There are five peaks of
about l4,000 feet in the northern thirty
miles of the Elk Range. In the Sawatch
Range there are ten mountains Of about
1900 feet, and sixty to eighty miles of its
crest are elevated l3 ono feet. The highest
mountains are, in order, Mount Harvard
Mount Elbert, Massive Mountain, and
Mount AntOrO. The Holy Cross Noun
tain is a vast mass of granite l35OO
feet high. 1t is named from its being
deeply worn by great ravine on its flank,
which is crossed by another at right an
giles. These retain the winters snow long
after it has melted from the slopes of the
usual level, marking the peak with white
cross.
In the Park Range there are but four
peaks of the l4.O00 foot class, but large
number of about $4,000 feet. The center
of the former class is Mount Lincoln, and
Quandary and Buckskn Mountains are
little less elevated. The cross range be-
tween the Middle and South Parks culmi-
mates i'm two high pOintS-MOunt Silver
heels. 1874 feet,and Mount GuyOt, 1892
feet. The Front or Eastern Range eX-
tends all the way from the Laramie Plains
of Wyoming to twenty-five miles south OF
Pixies Peak, in Colorado. Ii is the best
known the travelling public. who rarely
penetrate to the other chains. Its familiar
points are Pixies Peak. 1885 feet; Mounts
ROsalip and Evans and Gray and TOrrey,
about 1920 feet; and Longs Peak, l4,l5O
feet. Mount Evans is the highest. eXcred-
ing Mount Gray by about sixteen feet.
The northern part of this range l. double,
the western line being the Medicine Bow
Mountains. which gradually diverge 70 the
nortbward. The whole number of peaks
in Colorado enumerated by the Survey as
exceeding 14.000 feet is seventeen, while
twenty-seven exceed (many of them by
much) 1900 feet and eleven are between
that and II. 900 feet in elevation.