The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-01-17
Especial Correspondence vIna1NrAn.
LETTERS FROM COLORADO.
NUMBER SEVEN.

LETTERS FROM COLORADO.
NUMBER SEVEN.
The soda waters of Manitou are to bt
utilized as mineral ba tbs in a building now
rapidly approaching completion, situated
| in this vicinity 1t is erected at cost OF
$40, 900 by a company of citizens of Col
orado Springs and Manitou who are also
engaged in improving and identifying
the spa. The bath-house, two-story
building, with it's four quaint towers, the
southeas tern being three stories high $50
ft.), is bordered bya veranda, and convent
entity arranged within, as it IS architect
urally fine without. The building is 116x67
feet on the outside. On the first floor, are
ten mineral baths for ladies, and the same
number for gentlemen. For the former q
plunge bath 14x35 feet and for the latter
a plunge bath So feet long by IS feet wide.
is provided There are also thirty-five
dressing rooms, parlors and linen rooms,
physicians, directors, and managers rooms.
The plunges are filled with cold water from
the mountain streams and the marbleized
iron tubs will contain mineral water tenn
pered to suit the bather. The building is
heated by steam and lighted by gas and
electricity.
The valley Of Manitou has an attitude
of $3.50 feet above sea level. The resident
population is about five hundred, but this
is indefinitely increased both summer and
winter by the tide of health and pleasure
seekers, constantly coming and going. 1t
IS built along two streets, the principal
running east end west. Facing it are ho-
tells and stores, Of which Manitou has
goodly number for a watering place, keep
ing supplies of all that a sojourner is likely
to require.
There are remarkably good drug stores,
and several resident physicians. Horses
and carriages are in constant demand
there are four livery stables with rates
very much the same as Colorado Springs,
perhaps trifie higher during 1.-THE season, y
double carriages per day. $1,000 buggy per
day half day, $500; riding horse, $500,
&c. The postoffice is centrally located and
there are three pretty chapels, Congrega-
tional, Episcopal and Roman Catholic
Service is held in these every Sunday, with
the exception Of the last named, which
has mass on every alternate Sabbath during
the summer, and once month in winter.
Manitou has fourishing public school,
with substantial stone building, weekly
paper, the Item, and an efficient fire depart
ment, whose headquarters are to be found
in the lower story of the new stone-built
city hall. Parallel with the Main street
and back of it, behind the hotels,
with a high cliff on one side and a
gurgling stream below, is Lovers Lane. y
1t extends from the Manitou House to the
Soda springs, and an experimental knowl-
edge OF its destinations is better than de-
scription. A narrow, tortuous path so
steep in some places, so narrow in others. |
but from which all distractions have been
carefully cleared away, is overarched with
a wilderness of clematis vines. 'sTravel-
ers' Joy'' is the good old. fashioned name
for it, with it's delicately pointed leaves,
and clusters of airy stars by which even
the jassamine is clumsy flower, and which
leave behind them white, downy clusters
OF seed balls light as smoke. Thsre are
rustic seats in Lovers Lane, tete-a-tete
seats nestled just where the branches of
shrubs lave themselves in the stream below.
which dashes white foam wreaths to your
feet. 1t is cool and shady there in the
summer day, and at sunset the rose and
and amber glories are palely reflected in
the CLASSY mirror. In the evening, the
glamor of its beauty is most enhancing,
Where webs Ct steep trees etch the mellow
moOn.o H
MANITOU OR WILLIAMS CANYON.
Beyond the Cliff House at Manitou,
where wide road seems to open into the
mountain 5 heart, is Manitou Canyon. At
its entrance is Bellevue, the residence of
Mr.. and Mrs. John L. Rand, where those
who love canyons and the play of dawn
and sunset on the mountains sides, and
yet wish to be near Manitou proper, find
pleasant summer boarding place. Mani
tou Canyon is one of those mighty gorges
cut in the solid rock, by some stream of
pre-historian ages-perhaps the very one
which brought down on it's rushing tor
rent, the big boulder that has found a lodg-
ment by the Navajo Spring. The water
worn centre is now occupied by carriage
road, and a shrunken stream hides itself
under the wall of overhanging rock. A
tilted forest grows adown the red and yell
lowed sides of the canyon, whose roots
mold the crumbling rock in close grip,
while it losses it's leafy SUBMITS into the
free air Low and dark on the right hand
side, under rocks eight hundred feet high,
in this basin, is the famous ice-cold spring
where the Indians drank. Not so long
ago, arrow-heads which they had dropped
in their wanderings, were to be found for
gotten among the stones. When this can
yon was first opened, the aperture at the
narrowest part could be bridged by mans
extended arms. Now the rocks have been
cut away and double carriage will take
70 for couple of miles in it's recesses,
after which the true canyon lover will 90.
on foot and explore its weddings and cas-
cades for himself. M.V.D.