The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-08-05
VISIT TO MINES OF COLORADO
Peace Now Reigns Where Once
IaWIessneSS Held Sway

Colorado Springs, Colo, July 2S.
Mo one can afford to come to or
through Colorado and not take the
famous Short Line" trip to Cripple
Creek For grandeur of scenery and
marvellous engineering achievement
this line excels anything in this
country.
The air line from Colorado
Springs to Cripple Greek is 10 miles,
but this famous railroad, in its as
cent of the mountains, twisting and
turning around the edges and over
the tops of the gorgeous canyons,
| traverses a distance of 81 miles,
and from start to finish presents a
continuous panorama of bewilder-
| ing mountain and canyon scenery
which battles all description. 1t was
| hausting his vocabulary of adjec-
| tives before reaching the awe-in-
spring Point Sublime, six miles out,
declared that it was the one day trip
that bankrupts the English Ian
| guage.
| The ascent at ST. Peters Dome,
which guards the entrance to South
/ Cheyenne Canyon, is marvel of
engineering skill. 1t seems impos-
sible that the track we see on the
opposite side of the canyon, hun
dreds of feet above our heads,
should be the path we are to fol-
low; but a few turns, almost i'm
perceptible, and we look down upon
the place we have just passed.
Continuing the ascent, Duffields
| is reached, eighteen miles out, from
which the last view of Colorado
| Springs is obtained, at an altitude
of 9400 feet. Three miles beyond
! is the summit of the range, crossed
at an altitude of about 10000 feet.
Just beyond is Rosemont.
/ We soon see Bull Hill in the dis
| lance, and realize that we are
nearing the gold fields of the Cripple
| Greek district. Twelve years ago
| Cripple Creek consisted of cattle
ranges. Today the district has pop
ulation of $4,000 people and is COM
! posed of twelve towns, the principal
| ones being Cripple Creek, Victor,
/ Goldfield and Independence.
| Four years ago | made my first
( ;ri, 10
| Dor troubles were then disturbing
the entire district, and soldiers were
patroling the streets of all the above
/ towns. | saw the famous "bull-pen"
{ that was used to confine the union
miners. | saw the depot at Indepen
! dence that was dynamited three days
and the building wrecked. All was
| under martial law and murder and
! lawlessness ragged rampant. 1t was
the beginning of the decline of the
! Western Federation of Miners.
This trip | found everything very
different. Peace reigned supreme
as if there had never been a soldier
| there. There is a mad scramble to
/ see which mine can produce the
most gold, and, as result of this
activity, this district now produces
/ one-seventh of the entire gold pro-
| duction of the world. Owing to the
improved methods of extracting the
gold, ore which was formerly con-
/ sidered worthless is now taken out
and miiled at a profit. Ore running
as low as $1,000 per ton in gold is
now being profitably mined.
| On April %, 1896, Cripple Creek
was almost entirely destroyed by
fire and 5000 people rendered
homeless. Recovering from the eff
fects of this great fire, the town
continued its marvellous growth.
Handsome and modern buildings re-
placed the rude structures of the
| pioneer days, and the town lost, in
appearance, the characteristics of
/ mining town. 1t is now a modern
city of churches and schools, and
! has a municipal government second
! to none and the people proudly pro-
| claim the wonderful achievements OF
/ the operators who have transformed
/ COW pasture into the greatest gold
camp on earth, which has produced
over 5000, 100000 In the last twelve
years, and there are known ore
j bodies that will in the next decade
I yield as much more
! 1t was truly a great privilege to
have a chance to go through this
wonderful gold field and see the
great dumps of rock that have accu-
mulated at each mine as result OF
f, the tunneling and drifting in all
directions in the great effort to pro-
duce the greatest results in the
shortest possible time. We took
! 16-mile street car ride over the en-
tire district and was told by miners