New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-06
THE WAY INTO NEW MEXICO.
THROUGH COLORADO TO Ell MORO.

sCENEHY-THE RIVAL TOWNS OF Ell MORO AND
| TRINlDAD-THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF A
COLORADO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FLOODS
THAT MAKE RAILWAY OFFICIALS CAUTIOUS.
lFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBuEg.l
| SANTA Fl, n NJ, Aug. p The quickest and
most comfortable way to reach Santa F6 from the
! East is TO take sleeping coach the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa F6 Railroad in Kansas City, and
to come through without change the time required
for the Journey being ordinarily forty-sx hours.
From points in Colorado il is necessary first to
Pueblo, which is the railway centre of the southern
part of the Stale, and there the traveller has the
| choice of two routes as far as Trinidad. He may
90 east on The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fc Road
| sixty-th miles to La Junta. where the New
| Mexico line branches to the southwest. and after
waiting about six hours take the through train
for Santa Fe; or he may south to FL Moro by
| the Denver and RIO Grande Road. cross over to
| Trinidad, four miles by stagc-cOach and take the
| Santa Fe train early the next morning took the
| latter of these routes.
Nothing which the stranger will see in Colorado,
except in the cities OF Denver and Lcadvile, will
impress him so forcibly with the wonderful growth
and activity of this newest of the States as the
scene at the Union Depot at Pueblo, between the
| hours of ~ and . o'clock in the afternoon. The
| passenger tIains from all directions arrive at
about the same hour, and during the entire sum
mer have been heavily loaded with people. Every
| class and condition in life is represented Wealthy
| tourists from Eastern cities or from Europe. accom-
| panied by their families transfer there for Denver
| or Lcadvie. The pleasure travel i'll Colorado
| has this season far exceeded that of any former
year, and very few of the tourists have left the
| State without spending a feN days at the great
Carbonate Camp. The number of men who are
constantly passing in and ont of the mining dis
| NJ horn nj Io l.
| ably five times as large as a year ago. Capitalists
| and millionaire mine owners, scientific experts
called by the miners rock sharps y and the super
| intendens of great mining operations, railway
| magnatcs and seattle kings" iostle each other
! upon the platform and interminglc with disap-
pointed prOspcctoTs and dead-brOke " miners who
carry all their materials for housekeeping rolled up
| in their blankets and strapped across their
| shoulders Express agents hustle about their bust
ness on the platform, wearing long navy revOlvers
i'll their belts which they are expected to use If oc
| caSion arises and once in while train comes IN
| from the sOuth or west with extra guard in the
| express car and two men on the pilot of the loco
| motive with shot guns across their knees. These
have taken the place of the messengers who used to
bring fine bullion from the mines in iron-clad
| coaches.
TURNING COLORADO IRON ORE 10 GOOD ACCOUNT
4 mile south of Pueblo by the side of the Denver
and Rio Grandc Railroad the great stacks of the
new steel works are being set UP, and already
little village clusters about them. This is one Of
the most important of the new industrial enter
priscs of Colorado. The project is to manufacture
steel rails from the iron ore found in so great abun
| dance at Ieadyille. Last year while visiting in
that camp the Iron Silver Nine, Old Mr.. Stevens,
who then owned onc-half OF it remarked TO mo that
if lac had his mine in the East he would make
| fortune out of the iron ore alone which 1t con
tanned He little dreamed then that, within twelve
months some of the largest capitalists in the conn
try. among them Mr.. Jay Gould. General Palmer,
President of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad,
and Colonel Thomas \. Scott, would invest mil
lion dollars in steel works for the purpose Of utilz-
ing the iron ore of Leadville in tho manufacture
of rails. l told by brother of the late Hon.
Bavard Taylor who is experimenting the construc
ton Of the works that no iron ore has been found
In the United States better adapted to the manu-
facture of steel. That of the Breeze mine shows 9S
per cent Of oxide of iron, or GS per cent of pure
metallic iron phenOmenally free from other trouble
some metals.
The country between Pueblo and Fl Moro is bar
rem and uninterestng III the last degree The good
grazing lands of Southern Colorado are on the
plains east of the Denver and Rio Grande Road
in the valleys between the mountains which eX-
tend nearly parallel with ii the west. The
prairics along the railroad seem parched and dried
beyond all hope of ever being worth anything. OF
course the sage-brush and cactus flourish in some
pOrtions hut even the heavy rains of the last six
weeks have only partially reached them. and have
failed to revive a sign of life in the driedup grass
roots saw very few cattle and only one or two
flocks OF sheep between Pueblo and the New Mexico
line.
The monotony and deSolation of this strip of
roIia Nv Gin tipe,
views of the Sangre de Crlsto range Of mountains,
which is in full sight the right FOR more than
half the distance. This range terminates on the
southwest in the famous Spanish Peaks, those twin
scntincls and well-remembcred landmarks so often
mention ed Ivy the Argonauts of as" who went
to California by the southern route or by those
who traded en- the old Santa Fe Trail. These bold,
supar-loaf- shaped mountains stand out upon the
plains much more prominently even than Pixies
Peak, and are respectively 1860 and 1870 feet
high. They NAV be seen from almost every high
peak IN Colorado. and Will always be recognized
whenever a glimpse is caught of them. AS they
rise about 900 feet above the country lying i'm
media.cly east of Them and not hidden by foot
hills or nearer mountains they are grandly mpos-
ing with their bare granite peaks.
The towns between Pueblo and FL Moro are
hardly worthy of the name. They consist without
exception OF a railway station and one or two small
buildings IN which the men employed by the com
many hve FL Moro itself has half dead and alive
look as though it was undetermined whether to
continue the struggle for life against fearful odds
or give it up as n bad job. There is desOlate,
empty appearance about many of tho stores, and a
general air OF neglect and decay which makes so
many Western towns take on an aspect OF prena-
ture old age when the boom" to which they owe
their existence has passed away. / am speaking
l. WIN
railway station. / did not go to the coal banks
which lie lust outside of it, and where, from the
amount of coal and coke that is shipped every day,
there must be anything but lack of business
activity.
III MORO AND TRINIDAD COAL Fields