The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-05-09
FAvORITE TOURIST REGION.
And Some of the Geological History Of
Pixies Peak.

Pixies Peak.
!, No place in America is better known {
, tourists than Colorado Springs, and n
mountain is more widely renowned TO
beauty and grandeur than Pixies Peak
, The remarkable features of the Pike
Peak region might justify even stronge
expressions of appreciation, for many
globe trotter has acknowledged that TO
scenic beauty it ranks with the most at
tractive regions in the world. Othe
mountains in America are higher, NOR
rugged in outline. and more varied il
surroundings, but for noble presence, i'm
pressive dignity, and distinctive charac
ter Pixies Peak is unsurpassed. 1t stands
apart from other mountains like giant
who with folded arms looks calmly
down upon the pygmies at his feet.
A high mountain among mountain:
equally high is dwarfed by comparison
but Pixies Peak stands close to the Dor
der of the great plains and rises 5000
feet above them. The observer on its
summit may gaze eastward with unre-
strieted vision as far as his eve can
reach In other directions he may see
stretching out before him wide pan
Drama of varied landscape-~of mountain
and canyon, crag and dell, rock walled
gorge and forested slope.
An almost inaccessible high peak can
appeal only TO the venturesome noun
tain climber, for what does it matter to
most of us how glorious a landscape may
/ be seen from its top if only few can
climb to it? But the cog road TO the
summit Of Pixies Peak now carries each
summer thousands of tourists. Especial
| ly thrilling is il to stand ON the summit
when the storm clouds hang low and
when the traveller may look up to an
unclouded sky and down upon a fierce
storm raging below him.
At the foot of the mountain lies the
far famed Garden of the Gods, on whose
flower sprinkled floor stand monuments
of strange form and brilliant color,
carved by erosion from upturned beds
of red sandstone. These red beds once
covered large parts of the mountainous
area but have long been eruded away.
They now extend to a considerable depth
underground and turn eastward under
the plains, where they lie almost hori
zontal thousands of feet beneath the sur
face and are covered by later sedimen-
tary rocks
The rocks of this region record his
tory that reaches back millions of years
into the dim past, when this old world
was young The granite of Pixies Peak is
pre- Cambrian in age. Long before any
known forms of plant or animal life ex
listed an the earth it lay where it now
lies, and there it remained for ages un
disturbed The records of many of the
events that occurred during the long
geologic periods between the pres Cam |
brian and the Carboniferous were de- !
stroyed by erosion, and these periods are |
represented here by thickness of only |
800 feet of sedimentary rocks. But the |
shorter time that has elapsed since the /
beginning of the Carbinoferous period |
is represented by sedmentary rocks more |
than 10000 feet thick Volumes have
been written on the geologic periods rep
resented by these rocks periods cover
ing the rise and fall of great mountain
systems and the birth. life and decay of
tribe after tribe of living creatures The
first animals that walked on land trod
the Carboniferous red beds. In later
geologic period the site of Colorado
Springs was low-lying swampy plain,
in the mud holes of which wallowed huge
amphibious lizard-like reptiles--the larg
est beings that ever dwelt on the earth.
The drier parts of the plain were in
habited by some of the smaller but even
more grotesque reptiles of that far-off
time
Then the sea spread over this region,
md during the long Cretaceous period its
waves rolled and its tides ebbed and
lowed where Pixies Peak now stands. In
his sea accumulated the mud and limy
,ozy which were later hardened into the
hale and limestone that now form the
'ock floor Of Colorado Springs. In the
mud were entombed great numbers of
ea shells, which are now found at many
places near that city. At a few places,
llso, may be found the bones of marine
that navigated the waterways
md of great dragon-like flying reptiles
hat winged their way over the sea.
In the course of time the basin was
lied with mud and sand, the water was
'ushed seaward, and swamps were !,
ormed on the low-lying coastal plains.
n these swamps gathered the muck and
'eat which was sfterward covered by
ther deposits and turned into coal. This :
GAL now crops out in beds that are mined
/ places east of Colorado Springs.
The end of the Cretaceous period was
marked by series of uplifts of the re-
ion. Little by little mountains were
aised where the sea had been, and the
7aters of this sea were forced back into II
he basin Of the ocean. As result of Q