The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1895-11-14
HERE'S THE LAST OF
THE EDITORS SIGHT SEEING IN
COLORADO.
THIS rs THE LAST OF THE YARNS
If Our Readers Desire More Information
About the State They Must Seek
It Elsewhere.-StrangeE Sights
to a Stranger.

garding the happenings OF interest dur
ing the western trip of the Wisconsin
editors have been put off until it is now
almost too late to resurrect the subject,
but l shall venture one more INSTALL
ment, and the last. 1t will make good
wadding" if nothing more:
The railroads leading eastward from
Leadville follow the valley of the Ar
kansas river in descending from the
mountain elevation for 100 miles or
moro, while the Rio Grande line con-
tinues along the river course to Pueblo
nearly twice that distance. Leaving
Leadvi!le sometime in the night, we
aWOke the next morning seventy five
miles down the line upon a siding at
Buena Vista, in the South Park. A
six mile carriage ride before breakfast
across a level mesa and one of the finest
natural drives we have ever seen,
brought us to the Cottonwood Springs
hotel located at the foot of three noun
tains whose peaks reach far above
others in the great Rocky Mountain
Divide, known as the collegiate peaks,
Mount Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
All the moving clouds yelled these
mountain tops, said to be higher than
Pixies Peak. Natural hot springs,
which issued from the gulch near, gave
an excuse for locating the hotel at this
point. Otherwise there was nothing
remarkable about the locality except
the proprietor of the Cottonwood hotel,
who, by common consent, held the belt
as the most picturesque liar in COlOra
do. He was such cheerful liar, too,
that one could'not help but admire the
creations of his fancy. He did not
even have to produce his credentials to
convince the Wisconsin editors, who
listened for couple of hours to this
Der of the Ancient, Reckless and indie
pendent Order OF PrevaricatOrS. After
breakfast this old, unblushing prevari-
Gator gathered small knot about him
and proceeded to tell of a mining friend
of his who became very much attached
to a burro. which had been his only
companion through many years of pros
pecting in the mountains. One day
while the miner had taken off his only
red flannel shirt to wash and hung it
on the bushes to dry, the burro came
along and ate it. The miner was SO
enraged at the loss of his shirt that he
resolved his old friend must die, and
although it caused tears to come to his
eyes at the parting, he tied the donkey
to a railroad rail, expecting a passing
train would commit the murder which
he had not the heart to do. When the
burro saw the train coming and real
lied what fix he was in, he threw up
the red shirt, tagged the train and
thus saved his life.
Buena Vesta was fourishing county
seat town five years ago, of some 1000
people, but it is full Of empty stores
ami residences now. A former Wis
consin man, living at one time in Wall
worth county, came down to our train
and told pitiful tale of the condition
of that section of Colorado, since the
decline in the price of silver. The
South Park used to be great sheep
range, he said, but free trade price for
wool had driven them all out, so that a
cossit lamb somewhere down the valley
was the only remnant of the big t1ocks
left. He said he was interested in
corporation that owned something like
200 mining properties in that vicinity,
a good many of them ore producers and
half million dollars had been con-
sumed in developing them, but today
not one was producing a shovelful OF
ore or earning dollar on their invest
ment The county of which Buena
Vista was the county seat had been as
sessed way up into the millions on ac-
count of its mining properties which
must now be stricken from the tax roll
and the county found it difficult to pay
the interest on the script it had issued.
Do you WONDER" said he, that Col
orado people demand that silver be re-
monetized."
The same afternoon our Pullmans
were hitched to the regular train for
a so mile run down the Arkansas val
ley through the Royal Gorge. For
some distance along the river banks
placer mining was being conducted with
very fair success. Leaving Salida the
roads run down the Arkansas river and
the scenery begins to grow wilder, the
valley now closing the gaping jaws of
the gorge. For miles you speed along
between the towering walls of granite.
From the car at the rear of the train
the best view of this wonderful scenery
of tall pinnacles, ragged crags and
, streaks of blue sky are obtainable. At
places the railroad is suspended in mid
air over a seething, cauldron of the
rushing river whose rear coupled with
the awful granduer of the overhanging
cliffs, makes one of the most awe in
spring scenes found on the continent.