The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-06-24
THE SN0W7CAPPED "ROCKlES."
IMPRESSIONS OF A TRIP THROUGH THE
STATE OF COLORADO.

- +.
Scenes Along the Route by Roil--Thc Wonder
ful City. of Denver--The Future of a Great
Commonwealth.
--a.- (Denver Letter in Pomeroy's Democrat.)
Those who ride in sleeping cars in the
East are quite apt to remain in their
bench to turn, snooze, think, plan and
rest as on they roll. Not SO here. Sun
rise, and all were up. The cars of the
Burlington Route were so well laden
with passengers that every berth was
occupied, the great majority of passen-
gers. in the sleepers being persons from
the East who had never been to Denver,
never seen its rocky mountains. Near
ing their destination, they were like the
early bird.
1t is now six o'clock. In two hours
we will be III Denver. The berths have
all,been made'up for the day, the cars
busted out and people are on the qui
vive. We are running southwest. Be-
hind us is the head of the Republican
valley and the millions of acres of choice
Nebraska corn land. We are on top of
the divide, as n fly would be on top of q
barrel that lay upon the ground. Miles
OF unfenced country are to be seen, with
here and there q little house, home of a
homesteader OF headquarters of q ranch
man or cattle raiser whose cattle are to
be seen grazing on the wide expanso of
plains here being run over
The depot buildings are small, painted
red and snug. Depots arc so far apart
that several others can be built between
them in time! The appearance is that
of very new country, yet it is older in
fact than is the East, as first of all from
the Vastly deep rose the backbone of the
continent, still to the west of us.
A lady screams: 30! See!s
She points to the west and there, sure
enough, are to be seen the snow-capped
mountain peaks of the grand old noun
tains. In a little while the cars have
sped on SO that we sec the main range,
extending south from Cheyenne or near
as a great wall might rise along the sea
shore, the plains to the east being under
the evening shadows of the mountains
that rise in the west
Now we see down into the valley of
the South Platte. Many school teachers
insist that Denver is a city on the North
Platte. Such is not the case Denver is
on the waters of the South Platte, about
, J4O miles from where it heads. The
11yer is not large, except after freshet.
1t runs through pleasant, wide valley
that at Denver is fourteen miles east
from the loot hills and that at Grcely is
about forty miles east. Along here is the
choice agricultural lands of the State,
taking i'll the county vest from Denver
to Golden i'll a gorge of the mountains,
Boulder, Longmont, Fort Collins and
Greedy, in the respective counties of
Jefferson, Boulder, Larimer and Weld.
lIongmont being in Boulder county, one
of the finest in the State.
West of these counties, west from
Denver, the county-scat of Arapahoe
county, are the Rocky Mountains, rising
as an abrupt granite wall to the height of
n mIe]or 8, 600 feet above tho plains.
From north to south We see them from
the cars, a range of fully two hundred
mile. Denver is about 5000 feet above
sea level. We are full mile near the
stars than arc those who live in New
York. The mountains rise up into the
clouds that rest upon their snowy peaks.
from 5000 to 5000 feet above the plains.
L he air is light, SO clear, 80 rarifcd
that no new conner can judge distance.
10 the northwest we see q very HIGH
peak, standing like whitc~headcd Long
John Wentworth, Of Chicago, higher
than his fellows. That is Longs Peak.
Lit is named in honor of Lieut.. Long, an
explorer who was long time in getting
to the top of it, there to float the Ameri
can flag.
WHITE ABOVE THE GRAY AND GREEN.
Snow is white and deep Oh the tops
and sides of the mountains, while the
plains below are green with growing
grains and grasses. Away along to the
south rise the snow-capped Rockies, like
a great cross-cut saw, its teeth in air. 1t
Is seventy miles from where we are this
morning in the cars, west to the top of
Longs Peak, yet people in the cars esti-
mate the distance at fifteen to twenty
miles.
There are big mountains and little
mountains oil stuck in together like
taothes-pins in snow heap. About
ssewe1ity-fve miles south from Longs
Peak, and sixty miles due west from
Denver, its snow-white top piercing
gray, snow-1nade cloud that is beating
up to fall and to whiten anew, rises
Gr&y's Peak, the top of which is II, Al
feet above the level of the sen. 1t is the
mountain under which the company of
which the editor and writer hereof is
president is driving tunnel at the alti-
tude of 10000 feet above sea level, and
which tunnel will be five miles long.
Welcome, old fellow! We have seen
You before, rs from your summit range
We have looked east toward the Atlantic
and westward toward the Pacific, miles
upon miles. Some of these days we will
walk through you and ride through you,
ana walk into your hundreds of fissure
Tea9s ,naa lad laden with gold silver, copper and
asa rat gets out of cheese il has Rnr.
ro%ed % into beyond the reach of q cat.
10 the south from Gray's Peak. nbopt
seventy-five miles distant, with I'm manW mTD"c -
snow-coYered peak between us is =
PIKE's PEAK,
distant about ninety miles from Donvar
but T. ITS stop, top not 50 high by fourteen feet feet
OF Denver, as a guide to Salt Lake C;tS TeaO
which is 403 miles north of west faSy, fnSyJ,,