The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-16
Gunnison.
Something About Colorado Enterprise

Something ADOuI COlOraQO enterprise.
Three years ago this part of the State of Col
o'ado was comparatively unknown, and only
few primitive huts and log cabins occupied
the site where today stands the city of Gun
nison. The maps of recent issue alone contain
notice OF the town, aud great many eastern
people are hardly aware OF the existence of
such place. 1t is, however, fast becoming,
and is destined to be one of the much adver-
tised cities of the far West that spring up in
night time-one day a few shantes and un.
known, the next, full fiedged city and IA
nous. Early in the spring OF 1879 the cry Of
son to Gunnison" was heard on the eastern
slope of the mountains and the prospectors and
miners who crossed the range in the face of
difiulty aud danger, found land of wonder.
full mineral richness and vast resources. The
valley of the Gunnison berame the central
camping ground, and a village of tents and
cabins was formed-the nucleus of the city o.
TODAY. The outbreak of the Indians and the
Meeker massacre in the fall of the same year
was a serious setback for the new town, but
the panic was only temporary, and the follow
AhS opAihS WIG Auoh oo%oA again Will d flgUr
that meant business. Large stocks of goods
and supplies were teamed over the mountains,
paper started, the town incorporated, and
capital and enterprise freely bestowed. Such,
briefly, is the origin Of Gunnison City. To-day
the contains over 5000 population. 1t has
gas and water works, costing over quarter of
million dollars, completed and in working
order. 1T has an iron foundry capable of doing
all kinds of work in its line, in active opera
rion. Many stone and brick business blocks
adorn the wide level streets, and the first
iron front is just being completed. An excel
lent quality of building stone is quarried close
to the town and several companies are en-
gagged in the manufacture of brick, one Of
them producing patent pressed brick Of good
quality. Five or six hotels of greater or less
degree are to be found, the largest at present
being the Tabor House, two-storied stone
building; but another one is now being erected
that will, when completed, equal any house IN
the State. 1t will be four-storied stone and
brick building 125x125 feet, containing elevator
and all modern improvements, and as ii 10 be-
ing built by capitalists with plenty of money
will doubtless be a fine structure. Two more
large schoolhouses are going rapidly forward
towards completion, the school population hav-
ing entirely outgrown the present school build
ings, and when completed will seat about six
hundred scholars. Some idea of growth in
this department may be formed by the follow
ing fgures SIN 1879 there were about forty
scholars in he district. In 1881 one undi ed
and thirty-four. In the last twelve months
the increase in school children was 24l per
cent. Allowing of the same increase for the
next year we shall have here of school age
sixteen hundred children" The city ia stu
ated on the western slope of the Rocky Noun
tains at the junction of the Gunnison and Toni
Chi rivers, on plateau sloping gently TO the
south. 1t is but little less than 800 miles from
Denver in southwesterly direction, on the
line Of the ID. & r. G Railway line push
ing rapidly towards Salt Lake City. The ele-
walton is 1900 feet, and but little snow falls
during the winter. The climate is very even
and the air pure, and people afflicted with
lung troubles find immediate relief At pres
emit one railroad, the Denver & Rio Grande,
before mentioned, finished to this point about
year ago, connects Gunnson with the east
ern world, but another, the Denver & South
Park-a branch of the U. P. roads within II
miles of and will be here within 80 DAYS.
These are both marrow guage roads, but Gun
niSons ambition is not satisfied, and it is ru-
mored, by people who think they ought to
know, that broad guage road will be built to
this point, and in running order inside of
twelve months. Many rich mining towns are
to be found scattered all through the noun
tains near Gunnison. and new towns are
springng up in the rich agricultural valley of
the Uncompahgre, below here, lately occupied
by the Ute Indians, and our town is destined
TO be the central point, for what must be very
thickly settled part OF Colorado, as the mines
develop their wealth of the precious metals as
we'll as coal and iron.
1t is also the proper point for smelters of
large capacity, capable of treating all kinds of
md fhnip aofo htso,w f~~rsn 80 r
dred manufacturing industries. Gunnisons
first smelter will be built this fall by the pro-
pristors of the well known works in Joplin,
Missouri, and will be on large scale. There
seems to be but little doubt among capitalists
and business men that in three or five years
this city will be second in size of the Colorado
cities; while the more sangpine predict that it
will even eclipse Denver, and become a Pitts
burg of the West Making due allowance for
the propensity of the average Western men to
unduly magnify things, it would seem in point
of fact that Gunnison had every ia
cility for the making of great
manufacturing centre. Time will tell. All OF
the prominent religious denominations are
represented, and the most of them have their
own hous es of worship. The Episcopal society
is just completing very pretty stone church.
The others have advanced no further than
wood. Many neat and attractive cottages of
brick, stone and wood have been built, super
seding the primitive "dobey" and log cabin,
trees are being set out, and gardens and lawns
turfed, SO that the element of beauty is begin
ming to be apparent, usually the last element
in a new Western town. Gnnnison is cosmo-
politan IN tone, and its citizens are gathered
from nearly every State in the union, and
from the Old World The much abused Chi
nese dwells amongst us in security, and con-
centrates his abilities on the cleansing of linen
without moleststion. Many Eastern people
with their families, as well as a large number
of young men, mostly from the East, are to be
found here, and the society of the town is
beginning TO assume distinct form. The uni
versal mania for gambling finds full express
sion, and is not limited in any way, and the
gambling houses where Faro Poker, Keno ETC.
are played are we'll patronized, the average
miner usually finding it impossible to resist
the fascination of the game; yet gambling is
not restricted to the miners by any manner of
meaps,-all classes, from "the boys about
town" to the ranchman, INDUCING. During
about two months in the early spring,
the winds freighted with dust are quite
unpleasant, but the windy season lasts
but a short time and the summer
and autumn months are simply perfect-warm
days, with frequent light showers, and always
COOL comfortable evenings. So mush has been
written about the winds said to prevail here at
all times that it is pleasure to rect the no
ton. j. A. s.