Omaha daily bee., 1888-06-10
AMONG THE CRACS AND PEAKS
A Land of Gold, Silver and Eternal
Snow.
a LETTER FROM SlLvERToN.
All Kinds OF Climates at once-The
Track of the GIaciers-Streams
Clear as Crystal and Cold
as Ice Water.

CObs, JuNS u IL
BEE. ~---Silverton is the county seat of
San Juan county. 1t is located in the
heart of the great mining region of
northwestern Colorado, on the Pacific
slope of the Rocky mountains. All the
waters of this slope flow into the gulf OF
California. Its principal water course
is the Animas river, and hundreds OF
tributaries flow into it from the noun.
tain slopes. 1t is one Of the best watered
regions on the continent of North
America, and the perennial SHOWS that
crown the mountain tops keep the
streams pure and sparkling all the year
round. 1t is a marvellous region OF
country, rich in mineral resources and
rugged in contour, many of the noun
tains eliminate over $1,000 feet above
sea level, and several wear their eternal
caps Of snow at attitudes OF more
than $4,000 feet. This bed of
the Rockies is peculiar for its deep and
narrow canons and gorges, and its
sharp and lofty mountain culminations.
AVALANCHE.
Many of the mountain slopes are so
p%recipitous that all the vegetation, the
soil and immense bodies Of decomposed
rock have become loosened, and in vast
avalanches have swept down the mount
aims for thousands Of feet, carrying in
their mighty embrace everything clean
to the bedrock, and filling the gorge
where they lodge q hundred feet in
depth. Every winter vast bodies of
snow accumulate on the brink of the
mountains, break away and plunge
down their long d~eclivities, increasing
in volume and velocity as they
proceed, stretching out their
wide arms and sweeping
the face Of the mountain as clean as a
billiard ball. In places these ava
lanches have been known to dam large
streams, and their waters have cut
channels beneath them, thus leaving a
compact bridge of snow one hundred
feet in thickness, the entire summer,
while a great river reared and tumbled
far below. Not a winter passes that
does not witness one or more Inflated
fellows swallowed up in these snow
slides. Their breadth and velocity are
80 great that it is sometimes impossible
to escape them. The roar of some of
the larger ones on their travels re-
sembles distant thunder.
SlLNElkION.
SilvertOn Is located in a beautiful
park, embracing an area of $500 acres.
It's altitude is / O,40O feet and a dozen
mountains look down upon it from
heights of 10 600 to $4,000 feet above the
sea. 1t contains a population of miners
and merchants estimated at 2 500. The
town is reached by the Denver & Rio
Grande railroad, a distance of 495 miles
Via Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Cucha-
ras, Walsenburgh, Veta Pass, Fort
Garland, Coneios, Toltec Gorge, Du-
range and many other towns and re-
markable landmarks. In a direct course
Denver is only about 800 miles north
east of Silverton. But this line of the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad COM
passes a vast territory to get in here,
and it passes over some of the most re-
markable country ever spanned
by a railroad, Mountains are seated
at attitudes of from 5000 to
1000 feet, rivers and chasms are
bridged at dizzy heights, the roadbed
in places is cut into the vertical cliffs
and hangs above unfathomable gorges
like a thread of gassamer. 1t winds
back and forth on the sides of the
mountains, making its sharp curves and
grades of 2ll feet to the mile, and fin
ally here it ends for a brief period only.
1t Is a marvellous feat of engineering,
and is probably not surpassed anywhere
in the realm of railway building. 1t is
now being pushed on north OF Silver
ton, in the direction of Red Mountain
and in n few months the circle will be
completed, and this end will connect
with the Salt Lake line ut Montrose
which is already completed from thai
point in this direction to Ouray, a dis
lance OF t~hirty-five miles. A large
force of men and teams on this side are
pushing on the work, and
eight or ten miles are already
completed and in operation beyond here,
Soon the rich mining district of rec
Mountain will be greeted by this little
road, giving it W outlets, one via Sill.
verton and the other via Ouray and
Montrose. In the near future the roaG
will be extended from Silverton up the
Animas river to Eureka, a distance Of
ten or twelve miles, and eventually VI
to Animas Forks, and perhaps oven the
mountain and down the Gunnison tc
Lake City, in Hinsdale county. There
is no limit to the building of these mar
row-gauge railroads, and these rugged
and %forbidding mountains appear Il
present no obstacles insurmountablc t.
the genius and enterprise OF their pro
j~ectors. Where they are not disposed
TO go over tnelf tops tney tuhne
through them, and to get on the Other
side they frequently go around them.
TIE CLIMATE.
This is.a delightful summer climate
cool and invigorating. The atmosphere
Is as pure as nature can manufacture it
and the waters are the very elixir o
life. They come from the vast accumu
lations of SHOWS on the mountains, an,
they sing and dance and sparkle in al
the valleys and parks and on all TIN
mountain slopes. 1t is but a few step
here from August to January. Tw
thousand feet takes one up to wher'
the snow glistens all summer, and il
winter it Increases the dimensions G
the mountains. In the heat of the
season men a wrap themselves il
their blankets and sleep like Rip Va
Wrinkle. II is n glorious country j
winch to eat and sleep. TIL
altitude develops the appetite
and the fatigue incident to noun
tain climbing, mining and othe
hard work, combined with the tonic a
mosphere, invites to profound and re
c%uperative slumber, the secret of goo
health and long life. These miners an
the hardest worked mel in the worlf
and did they not eat and sleep lil'
grizzly bears, they would not spin OF