Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-10-22
LETTER FROM COLORADO.

LETTER FROM COLORADO.
Editor Monitor: 1t has occurred |
to me that possibly some of my old |
friends in Orleans County would be
in letter from the Cen
tennial State and I take the liberty
to write you. I am situated in a
mining town of about 1900 people in
the heart of the Rocky Mountains,
31S miles west of Denver, at an ele-
walton of $500 feet above the sea
level. We are in a beautiful valley
with peaks on all sides towering up
more than IA, 900 feet. AS I am
writing you, the snow (new) is visi-
BILE on all the mountains about us and
the old snow has not disappeared
during the summer. We know moth
ing of hot weather here, and what is
remarkable, the winters are not
nearly as cold as in Vermont. At
this altitude no vegetables are grown
to amount to anything; hard frosts
are likely to occur every month in the
year. Everything eaten is shipped
in; from Utah and California come
the incest of fruits. We might al
most say we live out of cans, canned
fruits of every kind, canned meats
and vegetables. During the summer,
however, most excellent beeves are
fattened in these valleys on the rich
est of grass. The principal business
in our town is coal mining. Anthra-
cite and bituminous are both found
here in inexhaustible quantities. The
coal is fully equal to the best fonnd
in Pennsylvania. The coking coal
is superior to any found in the coun-
try, and large quantities of coke
ovens are in operation here.
The silver mines are an immense
source of wealth in the locality, as
nearly all the mountains about are
composed of mineral bearing rock
silver predominating and in less
quantities, gold, iron, lead, copper,
zinc, and tin.
The railway over the mountains
and through the canons is a most
wonderful feat of engineering skill.
No one can have any adequate idea
of the grandeur of the scenery
through which the road passes till he
has witnessed it and then it does not
seem that it can be reality. 1t
seems as if one was in dream or
looking upon huge painting.
At Denver we took the marvellous
narrow gauge of the D. & R. g.
railway between this city and Pueblo,
the road skirts the beautiful foot
hills in plain sight of the snowy peaks
of the Rockies. From Pueblo the
road strikes out into the mountains
following the windings of the upper
Arkansas river through the Grand
Canon. For ten miles the road winds
through this gorge, the most sublime
in its proportions of any chasm on
the continent, except the Grand
Canon of the Colorado. It is mere
assure and walls rise perpendicularly
from LOCO to 5000 feet, and the
river is crowded between these walls
and broken into foam by the rocks
that fret its bed. The canon is sc
crooked that the rocks seem to close
up before and behind and imprisor
the train in the narrow space, Sud
denly the walls shut together till ont
can almost touch them on either side
from the train. There is not room
for the road-bed beside the stream
and it passes over it on bridge bull
lengthwise of the river, suspended
from steel rafters mortlsed into tn
rocks overhead. 1t is peculiar sen
sation one has when he looks up tn
dizzy height of 800 feet and see
the blue sky overhead and the boil
ing waters below. This is the cul
minating grandeur of the Roya
Gorge. The exclamation "Marvel
Gus are thy works, o sGod,' invol
unfairly comes to our lips. Word
F are useless here and comparisons fu
tile to express the incompatible, bu
the sensation will never be forgotten
At Salida we leave the Arkansa
valley and begin the ascent prope
of the mountains over Marshall Pass
. Three locomotives are to do the wor
} of hauling the train to the summit
And we wind back and forth some
thing like the manner of ascending
winding staircase. At one place W
look down the mountain side and ca
see where we have passed tire
times Ascending at the rate of Fl
feet to the mile, we soon reach th
l summit about II 900 feet above th
sea! Here many experience difficult
in breathing, the atmosphere bein
light. Water boils at a far lowe
temperature than in Vermont. 1t
impossible to cook vegetables at TIL
point by boiling, and here where W
g reside they have to be cooked abot
one third longer than we have bee
accustomed to. Now we begin I'll
5 descent and, if possible, this is MOI
exciting than the ascent. The Rocl
= les have peculiar system of brake