The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-08-10

tied, and as the driver mounted the box,
gathered up his reins and whip, and said
to the hostler stlet 'em CO." you could see
that he was master of the situation. 1
craved and gained the privilege of riding
one stage (12 miles) with the driver
He had my confidence from the start,
and 1 soon gained his by presenting him
with a cigar, one of a box presented me
by Mr.. Auter. His thanks were express
ed after he had taken one Whit in the
classic expression, "blank me if she amt
a daisy" OF course there are many
points ON the road that LooK exceeding
ly dangerous. Once we came to the top
of a steep ascent of quarter of a mile,
with a correspondingly steep descent in
front of us. At the point where l would
have begun to "hold in" the driver be-
gan to slet out" and by the time we got
to the bottom of that hill the horses were
in a dead run. Near the bottom were
two boulders, one on either side of the
road the right hind wheel struck one of
the boulders, which naturally threw the
hind part of the vehicle around, n
stBANG" we took the other. As the lum-
bering old coach gave a lurch as if going
over and then Strengthened itself up, and,
we reached the level, the driver without
checking his horses looked at me in a
comical sort of way and said, chit 'em
both, by =" He evidently regard
ed it as a feat of dexterity to be com
mended. would rather ride from Gun
nison to Lake city, than the same dis
lance over any prairie road in Illinois,
We arrived here safely the same eve
ming. 1 have not bored you with de-
scriptione of towns, but 1 must say a
word about Lake city. 1t is the county
seat of Hinsdale county, and has a pop
u~lation, l should say, of 1900. 1t is To-
lated at the junction of Henson creek and
Lake fork of Gunnison river, in a broad
and beautiful park valley 2 miles long
by three quarters of a mile wide, and 81
$50 feet above the level of the sea. The
| Court House is a large frame building of
handsome appearance; a fine school
house speaks well for the intelligence of
the people; two churches open their
doors free to all who desire to enter-in
short Lake city is a thriving, prosperous
town, and there is mineral wealth about
it to support a half dozen towns. The
scenery surrounding the town is beauti-
full. Stand in any of the streets and look
to the northeast, and for a distance Of
16 miles mountain after mountain: SEEM
ingly piled one upon another, stretch
away until buried out of sight, or blend
ed with the clear blue sky. There are
several very fine brick buildings, but
most of the houses are neat and well
built frames. 1t contains two newspa-
pers-'The Mining Register" and t'The
Silver World" the former conducted by
Mr.. Downey, the latter by Mr. Olney. I
have found both these gentlemen bright
and intelligent, we'll posted in general
news, and enthusiastic in the belief that
Colorado is destined to furnish the world
with minerals, and that a large portion
of it will pass through Lake city.
After a few days 1 went out to Sheep
Mountain, II miles up Henson creek, in
a southwest direction, "where pos
sessions lie." The ride was a delightful
one, on a ssbuck board" The road fol-
lows up the creek on the north side. The
stream has a fall of 1000 feet in 8 miles,
and is almost a cataract the entire dis
lance. The mountains rising upon either
side 1000 feet or more, glitter with tum-
bling ~rivulets and bloom like a garden
with wild flowers. Well, its "boss."-
Capital city, 9 miles from Lake is a small
village, and was named after a mountain
that towers above it. Three miles fur
Their on we came to Sheep Mountain,
named so because no sheep was ever
known to attempt to climb its rugged
sides. One thousand feet up the side of
the mountain l noticed a cave, which the
miners, in whose company l was, told
me would be their camp. Hooked around
for an inclined plane railroad but failed
TO see one, but instead was a TRAIL. The
hardy miners with their tools and DiaIh-
cts took the lead, and l followed. The
~recollections of the trip are not pleasant
suffice it that we got there, and l was
well repaid for the effort. In a short
time we had a first class .dinner-coffee,
bacon, corn bread, &c. Ed. Shocks was
cook. The name is not poetical, but as
cook Ed. is a success. The cave is a nat
ural n and by no means beautiful, but
is large enough for twenty men to camp
in comfortably. The miners soon went
off to work, leaving Grave" (the dog)
and myself to watch the camp. There
were no enemies appeared except ground
squirrels, of these there were hundreds,
and Brave wore himself out trying to
catch one andthen lay down and went
to sleep. The whole front of the ave is
open and the descent, though steep, is
graded to the road and creek 1000 feet
below. 1 sat down upon a rock and look
ed across the valley. Great mountains
seemed to vie with each other as to
which could rear its head the highest;
an immense valley or gulch, directly OPP
posite, was a relief to the eye, until it
seemed to end in another range of moun-
tains splotches of snow as large as a
town lot could be seen here and there
over the landscape, being slowly sapped
away by the little rills that trickle down
the mountains side. Asolitary miners
tent, stuck like a white apron, just at the
edge of timber line, was the only thing
indicating human life. Peals of thun-
der, loud as any thunder heard in ordi-
nary storms in Ohio, occasionally echoed
and re-echoed from mountain to o
tain. These were miners blasts of giant
powder, for it seldom thunders naturally
here indeed, it seldom does any thing
naturally here. A n of homesick
loneliness crept over me, and yet l did
not feel as far from home as when, fifty
miles east of Pueblo, l first gazed upon
the snow-capped crest of Pixies immor-
tai Peak. Evening came at last, we ate
our supper, smoked and talked till bed
time, and then spread our blankets and
stretched ourselves upon them, being
careful to pull others over us. I could
not sleep everything was too strange, and
Brave and 1 still watched the camp
Presently the moon came up I'VE the
mountain in the east-not gradually as
OUR moo does, but all at once, like a
Jack in the box. I tell it as it seemed to
met rose apparently six feet above the
mountain, and never got any higher
1t simply moved around the circle of
mountains without seeming any higher,
except when, it crossed a gulch. The
man in the moo possibly stepped out
and walked over the toughest places
1t was still moving on when 1 dropped
asleep. Testing aside, there is nothing
gives one SO good an idea of the vast
proportions of these mountains as to
watch the moon. The appearance is just
as 1 have described, and there is no de-
ception in it. OF course if there is a
break in the chain of mountains that
surrounds you the appearance would be
changed. During the latter part of the
night it rained, which meant snow, above
timber line, and in the morning for q
short time the mountain peaks were in
deed "snow capped" but the rising sun
soon reduced the snow spots to the irreg'
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