The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-06-27

/ cnmDS from an altitude OF 0,9J2 feet to
one of 9,918 feet. And this climbing is
right by the side of the nigh Y Rockies,
so aptly styled the Backbone of the
Continent, rearing their lofty forms
almost perpendicularly for thousands of
feet; great red wall of almost base
| granite, cut here and there by canons
equally as deep which must be spanned,
one continuous succession of cuts ard
fills and trestles and tunnels.
At Point Sublime the road is carried
across from one mountain to another
on trestle anchored to the side of the
mountain and the passenger can look
out of the car window down a perpendic-
ular distance of l 200 feet to the bottom
of Cheyenne Canon. Across the canon
apparently only few hundred feet
away rises the mountains fully 5000
| feet higher than the train. This view
impressed me more than any other and
literally made me ''catch my breath. ]"
AS we enter the goldfelds, we pass on
the left, Altman, which enjoys the dis
tinction of being the highest incorporat-
ed town on the American continent, its
elevation being over 10000 feet, nearly
three times as high as the highest point
in Great Back Bone mountain.
Fifteen years ago Cripple Greek was
cattle grazing country For the past
five years its gold production each year
has exceeded that of any other district
in the world averaging close to S25.-
100000 per year, or one tenth of the
worlds total output Nearly all Of
this comes from a few great mines,
the Portland (the greatest one, paying
more than a million annually in divi-
dends), the Ell Paso, Stratton's indie
pendence, the indicator, etc AL
though the district is fifteen years old,
only twenty companies are on a dividend
paying basis and yet the population is
now only $4,000 as compared with 20, 900
at one time.
The Rockies are literally plugged full
of holds, nearly all of which are of the
shallowest kind, for miles in every di-
rection hundreds of which had no other
end in view than the sale of the stock
in million dollar companies to Eastern
Suckers.
Early this morning, | was out to
Manitou and the Garden of the Gods. :"
From the former the tourist climbs by
the famous cog railroad in a journey
of nine miles to the top ,of Pixies Peak
14,147 feet above the sea. This rail-
road is claimed to be great triumph
of engineering, but the building ofIan al
most straight cog road up a steep in
cine seems to me an easy proposition
as compared with the Cripple Creek
Short line.
The rock formations in the Garden
of the Gods" are like the ones seen along
the Potomac in the vicinity of Cumber-
land, only on scale a hundred time as
great. They are simply the result of
the action of the elements during untold
ages on the strata of rocks of,varying
degrees of hardness that were tilted up
vertically by volcanic action The soft
er portions are worn away and the
harder parts remain, after assuming
very grotesque and fantastic forms.
Nearby in Cheyenne Canon and only
few feet from the trail which leads to
its head, lies buried Helen Hunt Jack
son.
will mail this from Woodland Park
a few miles west of Colorado Springs,
on the Colorado Midland railroad, where
the finest possible views of Pixies Peak
are to be obtained, apparently as close to
the observer as Monte Vista is to Oak
land, but eighteen miles away.
have spent the past six hours in
Soda Springs, Idado. 1t is the center
of the sheep belt of south east Idaho.
There are scores of herds here that ex-
coed 10000 head in number There are
also thousands of acres of land, the
richest kind for farming purposes, along
the Bear River here that need only
water to make them as productive as
any soil in the world and the irrigation
schemes now being developed make an
eastern man open his eyes with wonder.
This is one of the towns which the
Southern Pacific Railroad company adj
vised me that needs bank badly. If
it were in the east it would have two.
1t ships annually 10000 pounds OF
wool, l,500 double decked cars of sheep,
1900 cars of cattle and other things ir
proportion. There is an immense coun.
try tributary to it, including the rich
; caribou mining country and the bulk Of
banking is done at Pocatello, SO miles
away. Three hundred and fifty people
in this vicinity have bank accounts al
Salt Lake City, Ogda, Montpelier, Pc.
catello, etc. The town has a much
finer school building than Oakland, ar
an electric light plant, creamery, the
finest mineral springs in the state, large