Year: 1873




CLEAR CREEK is a miniature river
that runs through the canon of the same
name. 1t descends upon a down grade
of 400 feet per mile, with here and there
a fall over a rocky precipice fifteen or
twenty feet in height. Large bOulders,
forty and fifty feet in diameter and
weighing thousands of tons, impede its
dashing progress every two or three hun
dred yards, while its curves are so sharp
and so frequent that the stream can no
where be seen for a distance of a thou
sand feet Granite cliffs two and three
miles high project over it on either side,
and give frightful, romantic and danger
Gus appearance to the rushing torrent be-


meath.


Just below Black Hawk, on the side of
the stream, "A small reservoir has been


constructed, in which is kept an ordinary
skiff. Last Sunday two little sons of Mar


tin f. Walker, aged respectively ten and
twelve years, got into the boat and were
splashing the water with a stick, when


the fastenings gave way and the boat went
drifting toward the rapidly-running cur


rent. The little boys soon discovered


their danger, but were powerless to avert
| it; they clutched hold of the sides of the


boat, and, with pallid countenances, await


ed their doom. Soon the boat was caught


by the current, and began descending at


a fearful rate. On she went, the boys


hats blew off, and their hair stood straight


up; over Black Hawks Rapids they


went like an arrow, clearing distance
of sixty feet at a single dash.


Lighting again on the torrent


surface the boat seemed to have gained a


new impetus, and shot by the boulders


and around the rocky points with the


celebrity of a sunbeam. AT a distance OF


about six miles below the starting point,


Conductor Gibbons, who was standing on


the rear platform of the down @. @. train,


saw the boat coming, and Immediately


stopped the train. All hands repaired to


the waters edge, and did everything in


their power to assist the flying boat, but


past them she went like bullet from a


rifle, and was out of sight in moment


The conductor then ordered the engineer


to put on full head of steam and follow


as rapidly as possible, which he did, con


stantly sounding the alarm of danger


He did not get another glimpse of the


boat, but the alarm brought the employees


at Beaver Creek Station to the lookout


and quickly making sllp-noose sough


to throw it over the bow of the boat al


she came under the bridge, This they
succeeded in doing, but could no more
: hold it than they could have held thun
, er-bolt, and over Beaver Creek Falls sh'
went with the speed of the lightning
! The falls are about thirty feet high, and a
} the foot are number of large boulders
, but the velocity of the boat was such tina
it cleared them easily, and struck tn,
} water some twenty feet beyond. From
. here no mortal eye saw the boa
8 or its living freight until it haC
l reached a point one hundred mile
+ below Denver. Through Golden into tn,
: Platte River, and under the Denve
/. bridges she went, unnoticed, nor slacken
/ ed her pace until she lodged in drift a
1 the distance below Denver above men
s toned The Platte does not run yer,
a rapidly, but the boat had acquired such
!. wonderful speed in its descent from tn
r mountains that It far outrode the current
# A Mr.. Walsh, who lives on a farm nea


the drift where the boat had lodged, dis
k covered the boys still in the boat, whicl
IS was nearly full of water and took then
# to his home. They were restored to thei
It overjoyed parents the following evening
y after having accomplished the most peri
/, Gus journey, in the quickest time eve
= made by any human being who escape
Y alive, The distance travelled was IA
e miles in two hours; but how it was eve
II done, or how the boat escaped bein
" dashed upon some of the huge boulder
d or rocky cliffs which everywhere inte
10 cept the course of Clear Creek is nothin
n short of providential miracle. Probabl
'e not again in a thousand years could Il
j." journey be made with the best applianc'
4. and by the most skillful mariners.-Oe
le trdL Oity (O0k) Coach.