The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1890-06-20
Colorado.

From letter received by Jesse Ball,
written at Veta Pass Colo, June II by G..
ii. Hicks, we are permitted to take the
following:
After taking i'm Denver, Pueblo, Mainton
Springs, the ''Garden of the Gods" and Del
Norte, we came here Monday night and ex-
pect to stay until next Monday night.
This place is on the summit of the Sangre
de Christie blood of Christi range of the
Rockies, $500 feet above the sea, about $50
miles southwest of Denver. Big tOwn-con-
sisting of a nice little stone depot, a section
mems boarding house, bunk house where
they sleep and Mexican hut The entire
population consists of the operator, section
foreman Ga Germany five section men Mex
ican) Mexican woman and her big nanny
goat, young lady who keeps the section
house, whose parents live at the foot of the
mountains sixteen miles east, and the late
agent at Owosso Junction and his wife,
eleven persons in all. Live stock consists
of the aforesaid nanny goat, Shepherd
dog and eight puppies, cat and two horned
toads caught today should have said
one, as the other is picked in alcohol.
Just below us, three miles, is the famous
mule shoe pass, where the railroad, in
climbing the mountain, crooks around like a
horse shoe. Just north of us are the two
Veta mountains (Veta meaning ''twins")
and to the east the Spanish Peaks, covered
with snow-mountains in every direction.
Nice mountain streams containing trout.
Lots and lots of flowers. Yesterday pick
ed some above the snow, which was three
or four feet deep. v y y
l was very much surprised at the cheap
ness of the board, S. a week, and it is first
class, too. Section foreman gets S65 per
month, but section men get but S1.35 per
day. They are all MeXicans but the fore
man. This country is full of them-a
measley lot they are, too. n The air
here, as you may imagine, is generally cool,
about so or 60 degrees, but gets quite hot in
the middle of the day. No mosquitoes,
snakes or reptiles Except a few horned
tOads). Some grouse and an occasional
black tailed deer and a few black bear back
in the mountains.
1t is a delightful place for me. 1t takes
three engines to pull train over this 'hilf'
two ahead and one behind to hold it back.
Section men have push cars instead of hand
cars; have brake sticks and ride down the
hill at about mile minute, three or four
miles, and push car up hill.
The soil is red and composed of rocks,
whence the range of mountains, Sangre de
Christie, gets its name. Lots of small pine,
pOplars and small scrubby trees cover the
mountains. But oh, the valleys or plains
of southern Colorado. 1t makes me very
tired to look at them-miles and miles of
sage bush and cactus, with an occasional
ranch, where all the water is brought by
irrigation. The famous San Louis valley,
which the II. II. books praise to the skies,
is the worst kind of a desert, where the
ranch men are not making living.
IL of bn M
stone buildings i'm all the towns of any ac-
count.
We did not like Denver at all, though it
is lively place. Liked Pueblo the best of
any town we have been in, though the water
is not the best, coming from the muddy
Arkansas river. At Del NOrte we drank
out of the Rio Grande.
Here we have splendid mountain water
from Ojo pronounced "OhO" and meaning
'spring'') a few miles down the mountain.
There is' large cstern here which the
train men keep filled from the engine tanks
and the water keeps nice and cool all the
time %%
Probably will make but one stop, namely
Salt Lake City, after leaving here, then di-
rect to Portland. Don't know how long l
will be gone. Will not go down into New
Mexico too hot and dry and not enough
plants except cactus and am sick of that,
though it has beautiful flowers of all colors.
| am getting as black as aMexican. When
| first came here l could hardly walk straight
on account of the high altitude, but now L
don't mind it at ALL Your Friend,
BERT HICKS. |