The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-09-05
William e. COnnelley's Graphic
Story Of His Experience.
Caught in Storm After Storm
on Descent.
NEARLY DIE OF THIRST
Exhausted the Party Reaches
Cascade After NightfalI.
Vivid Pen Pictures of the Long
Tramp.

Kansans have always taken deep In
terest in Pixies Peak. The eastern
half of Colorado was once part of
Kansas, and the capital Of the CEN
tennial state was founded by Kansans.
was made the county seat of Arapanoe
county, Kansas Territory, and was
named for James w. Denver, then gov
ernor of Kansas.
While Kansas territory embraced
Pixies Peak and the adjacent country,
a number of expeditions from Law
renee and perhaps from other Kansas
towns visited IL. Some OF these ex-
petitions are described in the Kansas
Magazine. And it was the Delaware
chief, Fall Leaf, who lived near the
site of the present Kansas town or
that name. who furnished most of the
Information upon which the Pixies
Peak gold excitement was based.
And a Kansas woman, Mrs. James
H Holmes, was the first white woman
who ever stood on the summit OF
Pixies Peak. Holmes was one OF old
John Browns ardent supporters in the
border troubles and did some good
fighting in the interest of Kansas. BY
many he is given the credit of killing
"Dutch Henry" proprietor of the ia
NOUS Crossing where John Brown
and his men killed i've border ruff
fans in 1856. Perhaps Mrs. Holmes Is
still living. but Holmes died about
year ago In New Jersey. Mrs. Holmes
was a correspondent for number or
eastern newspapers. and was, Derore
her marriage to Holmes, Miss Julia
Archibald of Emporia.
The expedition in which Mr.. and
Mrs. Holmes visited Pixies Peak lert
Lawrence, May 81, 1858. At Bents
fort the party were told that no one
had ever stood on the summit of
Pixies Peak and that none ever would.
This was an error. for detail from
Longs expedition assembled the Peak
July IA, 1919. General Pike raiIed to
reach the top. Perhaps the members
of this expedition were the second to
make a complete ascent of the Peak.
This was accomplished by a party of
four in the last week in July, 1858.
Mrs. Holmes remained on the summit
two days and nights and slept upon
the eternal snow and wrote letters 10
the eastern press dated at the sum-
nit" A full account Of the expedition
can be found in the Kansas Magazine
for June, 1872, written by William B.
Parsons, a member of II.
In these modern times it Is an easy
matter to ascend Pixies Peak. Per-
haps it was thirty years ago that a
stage road, said to be the highest In
the world, was cut to the summit from
Cascade. This trail is something more
than seventeen miles In length, and
for sublime views of mountain, plain
and canyon it is surpassed by few up
land trails in America.
In the month OF August this year 7
was the guest OF Mr.. L. A. Bigger at
his summer home at Cascade. This
resort is quite a Kansas colony, and
Kansans own the most beautiful and
desirable portions Of the canyon and
have the best cottages.
The Trip to the Peak.
Mr.. Bigger made UP a party to visit
the peak. This party consisted of Miss
10 frxr ~
Phille Read, Topeka, Mr.. Bigger and
his brother, Samuel, Harry Everett "a
Topeka boy), and myself.
We left Cascade at 4 o'clock on the
afternoon of August 5. and went by
the old stage road. The ladies were
provided with horses, hardy mountain
climbing ponies. We had a wagon to
carry our camping OUTFIT. Mr.. Bigger,
his brother and myself walked.
The road winds about mountains
from the start, and about two miles
from Cascade 1t passes around the
brow of a headland more than a thou
sand feet above the village, not half q
mile below. 1t soon enters a region of
beautiful upland valleys separated by
low hills. These valleys ascend rap
idly, and most of them end in deep
and rugged canyons under Pixies
peak. Through them flow the head
streams of the Fountaine qui Bouille
(the fountain that boils), so called
probably from the effervescent springs
at Manitou, and now called Fountain
creek by the practical and unpoetical
Americans.
At three miles we passed Groves
ranch, now abandoned. but upon
which are extensive barns. sheds and
fences. Below the ranch this prong
of the Fountain flows over water
washed stones and swirls about huge
boulders. Its banks are covered with
many varieties OF wild flowers, and
over 1t grow fine evergreen trees.
Above the ranch the valley is lined
with small aspens with trunks like
shafts of polished silver. The general
appearance of this valley is like the
well-worn valleys in the southern
Alleghanies. the bare hills resent bling
the abandoned "old fields" of the
Carolinas.
Pass Abandoned Cabins.
The road follows this branch to its
source, and through low gap passes
TO another tributary Of the Fountain.
Here Is Patterson's ranch. also aban-
doned, with buildings in ruins. 1t is
six miles from Cascade. Good water
is to be had, and there we camped
and cooked supper. II was dark when
we left this point, and we could see
the firelight in the cabins of a min
ing camp below the road. Three miles
UP the trail we came to the Halfway
house, formerly a station on the stage
road. but now abandoned. Beyond
the Hallway house the trail Is much
sleeper, for there It begins in earnest
the ascent of the buttressed base upon
which Pixies peak rests. It follows a
sort OF backbone between two prongs
OF the Fountain, which finally head