The Daily Texarkanian., 1895-08-16
OVER THE MOUNTAIN
To Cripple Greek, the Famous Mining
Camp of Colorado.

trip with us; it was grand and awe
inspiring, Here were shown forth
the marvellous works of God and
the triumphs of the genius of man
granite mountains thrown up
thousands of feet into the air by
the power Of the Almighty, and
man making it possible for the
iron horse" to climb in safety to
the top, The Colorado Midland
railroad is one of the most scenic
roads in the United States, and, in
deed, of the world. Starting from
the foot of Pixies Peak, in the
space of two or three miles we pass
ed through nine tunnels. Two enor-
nous engines with their great
hearts beating together, stroke for
stroke, pulled our train of cars by
degrees up and up, around horse
shoe curve after curve, with the
towering mountain on one side of
us and the almost bottomless gorge
on the other, until we we're between
10000 and $1,000 feet above sea
level. We reached the point called
"the divide, where all the waters
to the west find their way to the
Pacific, while the waters to the
east made toward the Atlantic.
AS the tram wound in and out,
first from one side and then the
other, Pixies Peak, with its snowy
summit, appeared close at hand,
while away off in the distance might
be seen the snowy and crystal rang
es melting into the heecy clouds
above them No wonder that to
the ancient Greeks Mt. Olympus
was the dwelling place of the gods.
Nature surely scattered her beau
ties here with a lavish hand, In
some of the valleys through which
we passed, never before have seen
such a profusion OF wild flowers on
one side, while on the other up the
side of the mountain, were great
boulders of speckled granite, many
of them as large as a house, seem
ingly ready to fall, which if they
fallen. would have ground us to pow
der. But on and on speeds the
train, and now we are getting into
the famous mining district The
hillsides begin to be dotted, thiclly
dotted, with the holes where men
have prospect d and sank their
shafts, where many have found only
disappointment, and the few the
realization Of their hopes. There
it is, spread out on the hillsides,
like the letters upon the printed
page of book, and one wishes chat
those deserted shafts could tell to
him their story-their story OF
crime, of broken hearts, of lost for
tune, disappointed hopes and mad
dened brain,
Over there to the right is the
now famous Bull Hill, where the
miners entrenched themselves dur
ing the mining trouble last year A
little further on down in the valley
is the town Of Victor, where are
situated two Of the best paying
gold mines in the Rockies the
Portland and the independence.
Two years ago the owner OF this
last named mine was not wortt
anythingj today he Is worth his
millions, and every day adds more
struck it by accident, as 1t were
AS we looked down into this mine
the gold fever began to strike Mr.
b. and myself, and we lelt like go
ing out and digging a hole of oul
own in the mountain side, trusting
fortune to favor us,
After passing through some more
beautiful scenery over some deel
gulches, one Of which bore the eu
phonious name of "Squaw Gulch,
we reached the point for which w
had started--Cripple Creek,
was told that this place attain
ed It's name from the fact that II
the early time, when pistols were
more plentiful than water, almost
every one bore some trace OF hav
ing come in contact with one o
these "barkers, "
This, the most famous and rich
est gold mining camp Of the noun
tains, is a town Of some few thou
sand inhabitants, built on the side
of the mountains and down In the
valley, consisting of a few brlel
buildings, some substantial frame
ones, but mostly shauties, whlcl
seemed to have been knocked up 1t
a few hours. All in all, though, i
is a better looking town than eX
pected to find
In every direction the eye looked
the sides Of the hills were covered
! llt. ,,t,aa Wp were very muCl