Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-11-08
HEART OF COLORADO
The Golden Centre of the,
American EldoradO. |
A Pen-Picture Of the Cripple Creek
Of Today.
The Wonderful Mining Town as Seen
by an Eastern Visitor.

IL Colorado is the Eldorado OF TINS
country, it's very name suggestihs
golden dreams to the miner and specu-
lator in mining stock, the nucleus or
epitome of this great mining state Is
Cripple Creek The name is not eu-
phonious, but 1t Is none the less a
name to conjure with. During the
last few years it has Iured tens OF MIL
lions OF capital from the pockets OF
investors at least as far away as
Great Britain, and it has stood loi .ds'
fortunes made by impecuniouS
pros pectors and humble artisans 81
most in a day. In Baedekers suiue
book To the United states Tor 1888 tile
name OF Cripple Creek is not even
mentioned. Now Il visit 10 TINS re-
nlarkable region of gold has become an
Inevitable part OF the TOURIST
itinerary on d trip 10 Colorado. inc
visit need not consume more than Il
few hours. Ii would he worth days OF
travel to make.
TO begin with. the trip by rail TO
Cripple Creek is one of the finest
things in Colorado. There are three
possibIc routes. The two older lines
run from Florence. west of Pueblo. on
the Rio Grande Railway, northWard
for forty miles, and from Colorado
Springs by the Midland Railway, up
Ute Pass and around Pixies Peak and
Camcrons Cong. Il total distance OF
ffty-six miles, These two railway
connections fully sufficed to meet the
needs of the district; but when COM
bination took the place of competition
between the two companies, and rates
We're made so high as to seem eXorbl-
tant to the patrons of the roads. local
ca pitaiists at both ends determined to
put through another competing line to
protect their interests. This resolu-
ton WAS carried out with a character
istic western audacity. A railway
built that certainly represents one of
the boldest enterprises in America,
from a financial as well as an engi-
neering point of view. 1t was built
apparently with a total disregard for
natural obstacles. not winding around
through convenient passes and valleys,
but climbing right over Cheyenne
Mountain by the shortest possible
route. and rising 1000 feet in twenty
miles. This Short Line" is master
piece of railway engineering, than
which | have seen only one more as
tounding-the Swiss section of the st.
Gothard Railway, where the groups of
loop tunnels through which the train
goes CorkScrcwing up i'll the heart of
the mountain are even more impress
sive than the famous nine mile tun-
mel at the highest point. But the st.
Gothard is an Indispensable link in q
great European trunk line. while the
Cripple Greek Short Line was built to
serve - single mining camp up IN the
mountains, to which there were al
ready two railways. The variety and
grandeur of the scenery from the Grip
pie Creek line has no counterpart
along the st. Gothard. The Swiss
road runs through narrow ravines,
whence the necessity of resorting to
loop tunnels to gain latitude. The
Cripple Creek road is on the outside of
things; it affords magnificent piano.
ramas of peaks and plains. giimpses
both charming and thrilling into the
depths Of the meautful Cheyenne can
yons far below, and all the wild and
picturesque details of Rocky Mountain
scenery. And at the end of the brief
journey of forty-five miles the train
winds round and round amid Il net
work of rails along the edge of the
shalloW basin. in which lies what is
perhaps the most remarkable mining
camp in the world.
- Let not the word camp" used in
this connection bring up any visions of
tented fields of temporary shacks. No
matter how soldIy a town may be
a.,
the primitive conditions of the first
rich strikes, so long as it Is mining
town il remains, q camp That is
merely -. bit Of Colorado dialect or
technical iargon. just rs a stranger
from another section is a "tenderfoot.
or as a person suffering from pulmo-
nary disease is more eXpresSvely than
elegantly termed q Hunger" II may
he added, Tor the benefit of the ilt-in-
formed, that there are no paths in
Colorado. hut only trails" no ravines
or gorgeE. but "canous" and ''gulches. "
no farms or farmers, but only
ranches and 'i,mchmeu;" that a
mountain IS pretty sure to be a peak.
that . donkey is always a ''burro" and
a pony usually a ."broncho,' and that
q park is trceless level tract
among the u FOUNTAINS. covering any
where from an acre 10 several thou
sand square miles
As :, whole. in spite of their efforts al
municipal dignity of architecture
these cities of mushroom growth are
extreme. almost offensive examples OF
the lark af aesthetic SENSE that is
usually evident i'm American cities
Never We're. towns more obviously de-
voted TO The exclusive Worship oI
Mpnmon., without even a little corner
reserved for possible temple of the
9 Grsces. And indeed, from this point
OF view, the whole district is repelient
ly ugly. as ugly as the factory district:
In our big cities. The omnipresent de
forn,ity of huge and lesser shaft.
houses and mills. the unsightIy fores
OF smokestacks, the dull gray or dirt,
yellow dumps of rock torn from tn,
bowels of the earth and pfsstering al
the hillsides with their hideousness
the thousands of deserted prospec
'hoies. so many open graves of colder
homes unrea1ized. all these form a sorr
OF Inferno that might have te,nptet
Inc weird pencil of Dore 1t seem.
as II there brooded over this region tn,
curse of the unbeautiful. visited by :