Gunnison news-champion., 1921-10-07
written BY Waltes Wilder Of the
Pueblo Chicftain will be worth perusal

And then the road turned gently
10 the luft. there was a narrow cut
with banks on both sides and all of :
sudden whore the road should be, in
front, thor, was nothing al all. a
great space 70 vast that only gradually
could the startled nerves Of vision
measure distance and fit into their
proper places the indefinite feature
Of an enormous landscape.
"Innumerable mountains, each one
gigantic IN individual proportions but
dwarfcd 10 iusiguiicance by immense
distances, were the pieces of the grand
mosaic. Mountains seemed TO crouch
a. OUes feet, mountains huddleds in
groups in the mid-distances, and still,
on the seTrated horizon, mountain
peaks formed the sAwtooth edge OF
the 81 sible world and lifted snow-cap-
ped fingers TO beckon toward noun
tains that lay beyond.
Last Of all, sharp TO the right, the
/ vanished road rcappeared, a narrow
shelf cut into the solid rock and prom
I iscd, IN a few feet Of gently descending
grade before il turned behind the cliff,
I pathway 10 the lower valleys. A
" EAf-fD EAhIts Abtfal-Nt4lttls ElAAkEAiS
westerly TO unknown depths from the
very edge of the road. Two rounded
upper peaks of huge mountains ris-
ing to right and left above the mar
row pass, brown with the frost of
early September, crowned with few
definite evergrecns, ragged with
rocks; the deserted and vanquished
bastions of the wilderness.
4f.W- -
tain ranges with radii measured in
fifty, hundred and fifty miles A
great mountain region as seen from
an airplane. Sky OF Colorado blue, and
fleets of clouds, white dirigibles Of
Natures own making, foated laZily
back from far adventure to secret
hangers in an unknown land. A chill
ling breeze whispering from the west
thru the narrow roadway cut, the
lowest avenue over the mountain bar
rier.
/ AT the top Of the Rainbow! Its
eastern foot planted amid the mills
and furnaces of Pueblo, its western
end is among the peach orchards
where the waters. of the Gunnison
merge with those of the Colorado;
and its crest lies high on the con-
tinental where the foresters' sign
boards at Monarch pass proclaim an
altitude of IL 200 feet above sea level
and the latest triumph Of Colorado's
highway builders.
/ From such altitudinous and titanic
panoramas how may one fitly descend
to these levels of lower earth where
domestic economy and industrial re-
lations engross the thoughts of man
kind, and Precipitation rather than in
spiration is the rule of human activi-
ties. Not upon the wings of the eagle,
however suitable such transportation
might appear, but in a comfortable
car piloted by one of Salida's group
of active city builders and state build
ers, swinging around perfect curves
on an easy grade of less than six per
cent, along perfectly drained road
way wide enough to permit safe pas
sing at any point.
"In one of the forest rangers camp
ing grounds, three miles from the
summit of the pass, hundred auto
mobiles were gathered from the towns
and farms of the Arkansas and the
Gunnison valleys. There great fires
roasted the meat and boiled the cof-
fee that were served freely to all.
There delegation from the State Re
Iformatory at Buena Vista distributed
bread-rolls and cream without limit
and amid the evergreens 500 people
feasted upon fried chicken, peaches,
layer cake and other delicacies where
with woman is able, at least in part,
to reconcile man to civilization.
81 had mine.
ut is big thing, this highway
building, up to the summit and be-
yond. A big thing for the people Of
the mountain valleys who rarely fail
in their appreciation Of all
that it means to them and to
their children. A big thing for us
who live in the lower valleys and who
need, in lives that tend toward sordid
aims and ends, all the Inspiration that
can be drawn from great heights and
wide spaces A big thing for the
state of Colorado and all its people.
l like to give my help in it whenever
and wherever / can"