Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-02-10
FROM COLORADO.

FROM COLORADO.
EDITORS CHRONICLE: As you have
no correspondent from this the CEN
tennial State. thought l would drop
you a few jottings from this place. As
have promised number of friends
of GAINESVILLE and surroundings that /
would give them descriptive and his
torical sketch of this country, / know
of no better medium by which to COM
municate the desired information than
through your valuable paper.
Well the centennial year has passed;
so good by, old G. None of US that
made so much fuss over you this time
will ever see you again. Though there
is food for reflection in the thoughts,
who cares none of us will be in con-
ditiOn to help bang the stuffing out
of the centennial fourth of July, and
poison the air with saltpetre and sui
Phur. 1t would be jolly joke to be
at the next centennial, if a fellow
didn't have to live so long before he
could go. So l may as we'll drop the
subject and speak of something else.
left GAINESVILLE the 10Th day of
March, 1876, and arrived in this place
about the Goth of May last, after a
good many ups and downs. was
sick about a month on the road.
Lake City is beautiful little place,
being the county-seat of Hinsdale
county, and is the chief town in the
mining district; situated at the confu-
ence of Lake Fark with the Gunnison
river. 1t has population of about
wv tl4Vuss-.-I i--I-s-Li...--,,. T"v Gou
roads have been constructed, one from
Del-Nort and another from Saquache
to Lake City, giving it two outlets to
the East, and the road is extended
West to the forks of the Animas,
which will give straight route to Sill
verton. The town is we'll supplied
with dry-goods stores, these being nine
in number, five bakeries. two saw
mills, eleven restaurants, three black
smith shops, two livery stables, ten
saloons, three hotels, one Church and
three congregations, one Odd Fellows,
Masonic and Good Templars' lodge,
one weekly paper, the Silvery World,
and two banks; Bank of Hinsdale
county has a capital of fifty thousand
dollars. The bank of Lake City has
about the same capital, which will
greatly facilitate business and assist
materially in building up the mining
interest here. There are some seven
hundred mines located in this district,
aud new ones being discovered every
day. 1t has one of the most important
tellurium lodes in the San Juan (pro-
nounced San-Worn) county. A great
many of the mines in this section are
being vigorously worked this winter.
Several have been sold this season at
very fair prices. The Ocean Wave
mine was sold at the handsome sum of
S13O,OOO; the Ute and Ulay mines were
sold at $4,000, and several others at
lower figures, ranging from $4,000 to
$4,000.
The scenery about Lake City is re-
markable for its deep eanons, pictur-
esque waterfalls and floral attractions.
Thus briefly have we noticed some
of the leading features of Lake dis
trict. Some twenty-five miles south
of this place is Burrows Park, very
rich mining section it has produced
some as rich mines as you will find in
San Juan. And west of Burrows
Park some twenty-five or thirty miles
you come to the town of Silverton, /
which is also very rich mining dis
trict; has a population of about four
hundred inhabitants; well supplied |
with stores, etc. Thence to Eureka dis
trict. which is about nine miles from
Silverton; there you are approaching !
one of the richest mining sections in /
the State. Thence TO the fork of the /
Animas, which is only four miles, is
another very rich mining district
But let us go back little just before
You reach the town of Eureka the
mountains have crowded close upon
You on either side, and you are in view
Of some grand mountain scenery. On
the left bank of the Animas there is
mountain that, viewed in the twilight,
presents the appearance of huge ca
thedral, its pillars and dome marking
magnificent heights and presenting a
very imposing appearance, and in this
natures architect has furnished a mod
81 of the grand and sublime which the
art of man can never initiate. The
summit of the Uncampahgre noun
tains is the place of all places though
10 view mountain scenery in its great
and most imposing grandeur.
Nature must have been IN wild riot to
have produced such wreck of mat
ter" as is here found. If the ruins of
ancient cues iLnpASSS thS bShOAACA
with wonder and amazement. what
must be the emotions in viewing for
,be first time what one might imagine
10 be an exploded world, with its
= harm. broken fragments piled in
strange confusion fifteen thousand feet
high. In the sumner season when
foliage and flowers are at their best
Win those grand old mountains which
border ON the park, lifting their heads
I,nost S,sets from their base fifteen J