The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-09-30
A LAND OF SILVER AND COL u.
The Magic City of Colorado.

The Magic City of Colorado.
| interview i'll New Orleans States
A reporter for the States called upon
Col. John M. Sandidge, who has just
returned from an exploration out West
into Colorado, and in reply to the gen
eral interrogatory as to the peculiar
characteristics of the country he had
seen, and especially of Colorado-its
climate and resources-Col. Sandidge
said 4: 1t was no easy matter to quick
ly arrive at conclusions about what
was SO entirely different from every.
thing he had before seen or considered.
The opinions generally entertained
thirty years ago, as to the valueless'
ness of all that Interior country having
all been exploded, no obstacles are
presently recognized as sufficient to
stay or impede the full development OF
its now knOWn-almOst limitless-re-
sources.
The humid atmospheres of States
eastward of Kansas, driven westward
ly, give up all their moisture before
reaching tho Rocky Mountains. AS a
result, an almost treeless plain extends
northwardly from Mexico to Canada,
across which I passed by rail from
Kansas City to Denver, Colorado, in
less than twenty.four hours; 600 miles.
There are no foot hills, proper, to the
Rocky Mountains, as they are APP
preached at Denver-they rise up alb
ruptly from the great plain, presenting
no profile of long, straight, blue line in
the distance. Upheaved by some
mighty throe of Nature, their front
bulwarks, where pierced by canyons,
| looked as if the scanned, bare and Jagged
rocks had been unclothed by the dash
ing waves of some great ocean, battling
to recover its buried treasure.
Passing the front line, the mountains
rise up confusingly-not in great solid
ranges, but into peaks, from whose
sides other and higher peaks rise up,
until far back, above where timber can
grow, their tops are clad in perpetual
snow. Time has eaten into the rocks
of these mountains, disintegrated and
melted them down in her crucible.
Heights, accessible only to the winged
birds of the air, now present sloping
surfaces comparatively smooth-mon-
otonously so in fact. 1 grew tired of
looking at them, as l did of the great
plains-too much of sameness.
There is but little timber of any
kind, even in the mountain country,
but every little valley and gulch of the
mountains has its stream of water,
usable for all mining Operations, and the
larger of them, as they deploy from
the mountains, are tapps l with acque-
ducts and canals to supply the n, IDS Of
towns and cities, and people of the
plains, whose crops are made prolific.
Denver, at the foot of the noun
tains, is about one mile above the sea
level, and friends who have been liv-
ing there several years, say the cold of
winter is not as great as at st. Louis,
nor is there as much snow observable.
This is accounted for by the greater at
mospheric dryness at Denver. Respir-
alton, with me, was not affected, no.
ticeably, except at an altitude of ten
or twelve thousand feet.
Soil productions of every kind, suit
ed to the latitude of Colorado, equal
the best elsewhere, when the land is
artiticially watered. Without irriga-
ton crops cannot be grown.
The cost of living, at Denver, is
about the same as in this city-their
our own trading places. People out
there seem to work after natures
They project great schemes and
rapidly perfect them; cause trees to
grow where none grew before; grow
field crops where only wild sage and
grass seemed possible of life;
run railroads where even horse-paths
seemed impracticable; build cities in
few years, and ornament them with
palatiaI structures, such as are rarely
seen in the oldest communities; invest
millions in the reduction of ores and
the manufacture of iron and steel, ac-
cOr(ling to the best methods known to
the world-for it is in the metals that
Colorado eXcels.
The men drive tunnels through the
and shake out their gold
and silver with "Giant Powder;" the
women engage in whatever business
may suit them, as do the men, and it
is recognized as being just as right.
Men and women command what they
are worth, in business place, or society.
There are no drones. All go there to
10 something, and they arc intent on
the doing.
The amount of "git-up' out there is
truly wonderful, and I could but feel a
little of it myself.
Reporter-Colonel, understand you
have concluded to go into the mining
business in Colorado would like to
know what it is that could take you so