The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-08-26
LETTER FROM COLORADO.
Sneclal Correspondencc.

IIIC lOuI lSU III CNStlClj vi CllllGI
health or pleasure may probably
spend many days, or even weeks, in
the vicinity of Colorado Springs. To
the health.see the air here is prob
ably more eXhilarating and bracing
than that of the higher attitudes, or
of any other place in the State, ex-
cept, possibly, Idaho Springs. about
one hundred miles further north.
And then the various points OF inter-
est near here, some of which [ men
toned in my last letter, furnish am
pie sources Of amusement to the eX-
plOrer. Then, too, from whatever
point you view them it is impossio9e
to avoid an ever recurring feeling of
admiration for the grandeur of 3he
two lofty mountains always beore
ypu-the majestic appearance of
Pixies Peak, towering above the
line of mountains around it, ard the
beautiful Cheyenne, whose misslve
contour is so striking as to maze you
overlook the fact that its haght is
several hundred feet less thar Pixies.
There is a unity of conception in 1t
unsurpassed by any mountain L have
ever seen, and you feel tina it is full
of living power. "PikeS Peak or
bust" is as much the cry now as 1t
was in the early days, md all who
feel equal to the task invariably
climb its rugged ascent and the lay
by few days tor repairs.
In 1910 Coronado wassent INTO this
region by those old feIDw-SpanIards
who were consumed with that fierce
hunger for gold Whichinduced them
to scour the earth in sarch of it and
eighty years before the Pilgrim Faith
ers landed upon Plymouth Rock he
was perilously traversing the San
Luis Park and, permps, seeing the
Wet Mountain Valley lying. as it
does to-day, green andfertile between
the two ranges. Buthe went away
disappointed after all. Then in 1906,
when Mr.. Jefferson was President,
and AarCn Burr was engaged in his
reasonable conspiracy to found a
new empire west Of the Alleghanies,
Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, an adven-
turOus and perseYering officer of the
army, was ordered to proceed west
ward and explore the region between
the Missouri River and the frontier
of Mexico, which then included con-
siderable territory now belonging to
the United States. He left st. Louis
on the oath of June and camped in
the foothills near this point on the
25th of November. To-day the same
journey may be made in less than
sixty hours, and the traveller need
not 90 into camp upon arrival here
either, but may be assigned a COM
Portable room by a hotel clerk with
Eyeglasses. Pike saw the great peak
on the 18th of November-.ust as
travellers by rail now see it when at
least $50 miles distant. 1t appeared,
he said, "like small blue cloud, !"
and on the 18th he "marched at the
usual hour, pushed with the idea of
arriving at the mountains that night !;
but found when night came no visi-
bic difference in their appearance
from yesterday" And on the 18th
he again marched early with the
expectation Of ascending the noun
tain, but was only able to camp at its
base" This recalls the old stories
we have so often heard about the de-
ceptive distances in this clear atmos-
phere. 1t is absolutely true that
mountains twenty miles distant ap-
pear to be near enough for morning
walk before breakfast. Probably the
reader has heard about the English.
man who wouldn't jump a three
foot irrigating ditch because he
couldn't tell, by Jove, you know,
that the blasted thing wasn't three
quarters of mile wide" But to re-
turn to Pike. He called his discover
ed peak Mexican Mountain, and left
others to give it his name. Upon
the very top of it, where cold winds
blow and snow squalls occur at near
ly all seasons of the year, Govern
ment signal station is now maintain
ed, the officers in charge living there
a portion of the time.
1t was the "Old, old story" which
turned the tide Of emig grafton in this
direction. People probably never
wanted gold any more than after the
panic of 1857, and the report of its
finding here the following year caus-
ed such a stampede across the plains
as has never been equaled, except in
early California days. Events NOV.
ed rapidly, and in the winter of 1860.
'6l a Territorial Legislature, num-
bering some twenty-five devoted pa-
triots, met at what was then Colorado
City, located just about where Pike.