CO Tour 1

The American Guides Project

(McCook, Nebr.) — Holyoke — Sterling — Fort Morgan — Denver — Georgetown — Loveland Pass — Glenwood Springs — Grand Junction—(Thompsons, Utah); US 6. Nebraska Line to Utah Line, 493.5 miles. Oil-processed road entire distance. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R. parallels route between Nebraska Line and Sterling; Union Pacific R.R. between Sterling and Fort Morgan; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R. between Brush and Denver. Good accommodations. Tour Map

The route crosses semiarid plains devoted to ranching and dry farming, then traverses the productive valley of the South Platte River to Denver and into the foothills and mountains beyond. Ascending through a region of great beauty, US 6 crosses the Continental Divide, continues over Vail Pass, and descends the Eagle River and the Colorado into Utah.

This eastern plains section is good farming land when rainfall is adequate. In normal times a prosperous countryside, it has recently experienced reverses, first from the collapse of agricultural prices and then because of prolonged droughts.

US 6 crosses the NEBRASKA LINE, 0 miles, 93 miles west of McCook, Nebr. (see Nebraska Guide).

HOLYOKE, 13 miles (3,745 alt., 1,226 pop.), named for the city in Massachusetts, is the seat of Phillips County. Grain elevators and livestock and dairy products exchanges are an index to the character of business and home life of villages in this area.

Right from Holyoke on a dirt road to the RANCH OF OTTO FULSCHER (open daily), 16 miles, noteworthy for its herd of Hereford cattle, descended from the prize-winning bulls, Prince Domino and Beau Aster.

West of Holyoke the highway crosses a grain-growing section to PAOLI, 23 miles (3,873 alt., 143 pop.), a trading and supply center. Level broad prairies, interspersed with grain fields, border both sides of the route. This area, unprotected by hills or trees, with an average annual rainfall of 15 inches, embraces three-fourths of the 22 million acres of the potential dry-farming acreage in Colorado. To be a successful dry farmer, one must understand the principles of water movement in the soil and its conservation in order to take advantage of rains when they fall. Plowing must be deep; for fall crops it is performed in spring and early summer. Winter wheat is planted in September in ground plowed, disked, and harrowed in June and July. As high winds prevail, their force is lessened by leaving the ground rough and by planting crops in strips, alternating corn and sorghums with grains (see Farming).

HAXTUN, 31 miles (4,000 alt., 1,027 pop.) is a shipping point for farmers. The flat brown country through which the highway continues is the habitat of the coyote, smaller than the wolf but more cunning, which thrives near the habitations of man. The coyote hunts rabbits and other small animals, but it is a night marauder, preying upon chickens, even young lambs and calves. Its yelp has an uncanny sound, and one coyote may sound like a dozen. Coyote hunting has long been a popular sport. Formerly the riders moved across the plains with a two-wheel cart bearing a cage in which were hounds. When a coyote was "jumped," the cavalcade halted, dogs were released, and hunters followed. If the chase lasted more than a mile the animal usually escaped. Now the automobile has supplanted the horse, and a trailer carries the hounds. On level open ground, the coyote is often pursued by car until it is near exhaustion, when the dogs are released.

The road traverses the valley of the South Platte, where the prairies merge with low rolling hills. The highway enters a country of rich farms, irrigated from the South Platte. Beyond the river bottom the broken swells are covered with buffalo grass and gray-green sweeps of sagebrush.

The lower valley of the South Platte is one of the most productive sugar-beet districts in the country. Farmers contract with the sugar companies for sale of their produce before the beets are planted. Sugar-beet farming requires more hand labor than most types of large-scale agriculture. Workers in large numbers, chiefly Spanish-American and Russian, move into the region soon after the April planting. The majority of them are migrants; some are Slavs and Scandinavians who live on dry farms and in neighboring towns. Many workers occupy shacks near the fields; others are housed in make-shift barracks on the larger farms. Farmers contract with sugar companies, and field workers contract with farmers. Work is done on an acreage basis. Since 1938 a wage scale has been established annually by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The 1939 rates were: blocking and thinning, $8.00 an acre; first hoeing, $2.50 an acre; second and subsequent hoeings or weedings, $1.50 an acre; topping, 80c a ton up to thirteen tons an acre, plus 70c for each additional ton. One man can take care of approximately eight acres. Usually minors in the worker's family assist him, and adult members assume other contracts.

Fields are fertilized in the fall, a procedure called "spreading incense." Sugar companies raise their own seed beets, termed "mamas," and sell the seed to growers. Workers are in the fields by the last of May; when four true leaves have appeared on plants, blocking and thinning begins, which is done by hoeing and hand-pulling until the plants stand eight to ten inches apart in rows approximately 20 inches apart. The initial hoeing is known as the "first chop," hoes are called "mud hooks."

Beginning in June, fields must be irrigated regularly. Those engaged in the undertaking, dubbed "mud pie hands," are equipped with shovels, or "mud spoons." By July the leaves meet across the rows and fields merge into solid blankets of green. August is often called the "tonnage month" because the beet then puts on weight.

Harvesting begins in October. The heavy white beets, some with seven-foot roots, are plowed out by "lifters," two-wheeled implements, each drawn by a horse. Field workers pick up the beets, cut off the green tops—a backbreaking job known as "topping"—and then "fork" them into open-side trucks that convey them to receiving stations along the railroad or directly to the factory.

At some receiving stations the trucks, after being weighed, ascend a ramp where they are picked up bodily and dumped. A random sample of each load is taken, and calculations are made to determine the tare—the approximate amount of earth and foliage remaining. At other stations, where it is necessary to build huge storage piles, machines unload trucks on the ground.

Although the sugar beet was known to the ancient Mediterranean peoples, it is said that Napoleon gave it to the modern world in 1811. After bestowing the Cross of Honor on Benjamin Dellessert, who had set up a factory at Passy and produced a small amount of crystallized sugar, the Emperor notified his Minister of the Interior: "All steps shall be taken to encourage this culture and to establish schools for teaching the manufacture of beet sugar—advise cultivators that the growing of sugar beet roots improves the soil and the residue of the fabrication furnishes excellent food for cattle."

A complete sugar manufacturing outfit, purchased in France by the Mormons in 1852, was brought to Fort Leavenworth by boat from New Orleans, loaded into covered wagons drawn by 52 ox-teams, and carried across the plains to Provo, Utah. The experiment was a failure; the factory produced a syrup so acid that "it would take your tongue off."

Peter Magnes, a farmer living near Littleton, wrote in the Rocky Mountain News in 1876: "If we had beet sugar factories in Colorado ... so that the farmers could raise beets . . . and get them manufactured the same as we now get grain manufactured into flour and meal, I imagine Colorado farmers would produce more gold than all the miners in the mountains"—a true and far-seeing prophecy.

Sugar towns come to life in October and November, when growers receive their largest checks from factories. Beet pay day is a gala event. Streets are jammed; stores, decorated for the occasion, advertise bargain sales; sidewalk stands dispense soft drinks and souvenirs; carnivals set up their tents and barkers exhort the crowds.

SHERWIN RANCH (open daily), 61 miles, pastures a herd of 40 buffalo; sometimes the shaggy beasts are visible (R) from the highway.

OVERLAND PARK, 62 miles, contains the LOGAN COUNTY MUSEUM, modeled after an early western fort, with round bastions and a parapet pierced by loopholes. A large fireplace is faced with petrified wood found in the vicinity.

Right from Overland Park to the SITE OF VALLEY STATION, 3.8 miles, an old stage station on the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express route.

STERLING, 63 miles (3,947 alt., 7,195 pop.), seat of Logan County and named for a town in Illinois, has broad tree-shaded streets and well-tended lawns. Two landscaped parks have recreational facilities. David Leavitt, surveyor for the railroad in 1871, liked the valley so much that he returned the next year and began ranching. Later, families from Tennessee and Mississippi, who had been attracted to Colorado by the success of the Union Colony at Greeley, settled in this vicinity. The first houses, of sod and adobe, were built three miles to the north. Settlers dug an irrigation ditch, and hauled posts from Chimney Canyons for fences to keep roving herds from their fields. M. C. King, one of the group, platted the town site in 1881, and several families moved to the new site because the Union Pacific tracks were fast nearing it. The town's growth as a trading center was rapid, the river valley at this point being exceptionally productive.

The GREAT WESTERN SUGAR FACTORY (visited 9-4 weekdays by arrangement, Oct.-Jan.), one of the 17 operating in the State, has a daily beet-slicing capacity of 1,600 tons and pays approximately $1,600,000 to growers and $250,000 to employees each season. The beets are carried into the factory through flumes filled with warm water, which is agitated by a washer equipped with rotating paddles. They fall upon hopper scales, are weighed, and then drop into a slicer that cuts them into long thin strips, called "cossettes," but known as "chips" to the workers. These are carried along high-speed belts into a battery of cylindrical tanks where hot circulating water extracts the juices. What remains is diverted either to the wet-pulp silo and stored, or is passed through heated drums where the pulp is dried. Part of the dried pulp is pressed into blocks known as "bull biscuits." The men handling the pulp, which has an unpleasant odor, as well as the trucks transporting it, are called "high smellers."

The juice is put through several chemical processes, repeatedly filtered, and run into evaporators, to emerge as "evaporator thick juice." Treated with sulphur gas and carefully filtered, the clear sparkling liquor, known as "blowup thick juice," passes into vacuum pans and is boiled until the sugar begins to crystallize. High speed centrifugal machines separate sugar crystals from the syrup. The wet sugar passes into granulators, where it is dried and screened; the dry sugar is sent to the warehouse for packing in barrels, sacks, and small packages. Workers engaged in the latter process say they are "making pups."

The two kinds of syrup produced, "high green" and "high wash," are again filtered and returned to the vacuum tanks to be boiled and stirred for the recovery of some of the remaining sugar. After a third boiling the high green or mother liquor, called molasses, is sent to factories where the Steffen process is used to extract yet more sugar (see Tour 13).

The sugar content of beets ranges from 14 to 18 per cent. Beet pulp, both wet and dried, as well as molasses and green beet tops, are valuable stock feed. The weight of beet tops ranges from one-half to two-thirds of the weight of the beets, and the tops from an acre of beets have a feeding value equivalent to a ton of hay. An acre of beets, it is estimated, produces enough by-products to fatten 10 lambs or put 150 pounds of meat on a steer (see Farming).

Right from Main Street in Sterling on a graveled road to PIONEER PARK (picnic grounds, tennis courts, swimming pool).

West of Sterling the highway follows the winding course of the South Platte River to ATWOOD, 69.5 miles (3,993 alt., 250 pop.), an unincorporated village in the dry farm area.

Left from Atwood on State 63 to the junction with a dirt road, 8 miles; L. here to the SUMMIT SPRINGS BATTLEGROUND, 13 miles, scene of the last important Indian battle fought in northeastern Colorado. On July 11, 1869, a large band of Cheyenne, under Tall Bull, were defeated by 285 white scouts and troopers with their Pawnee allies. Tall Bull and 52 of his warriors were slain. Two women, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians, were the only white casualties. Traveling Bear, a Pawnee scout who killed and scalped four Cheyennes single-handed, was awarded a Congressional medal. A granite monument marks the site of the battleground.

MERINO, 75.5 miles (4,042 alt., 230 pop.), originally called Buffalo, was renamed in 1881 when Merino sheep were brought here for grazing. The town is a shipping point for sugar beets grown in the irrigated sections of the valley.

Where the highway crosses to the southern bank of the Platte, 78.2 miles, is the SITE OF FORT WICKED (R), once a ranch and station on the Overland Trail. On January 14, 1865, Indians attacked every ranch between Fort Sedgwick, near Julesburg, and Fort Morgan, a distance of almost 100 miles. Many ranches were burned, and their occupants massacred or put to flight. H. Godfrey, station master of the Overland here, had prepared for such an emergency and while his wife and daughter molded bullets and supplied him with powder, Godfrey continued firing at the raiders. The Indians soon rode off, carrying dead and wounded, and thereafter referred to Godfrey as "Old Wicked."

At 97.5 miles is the eastern junction with US 34 (see Tour 3) ; US 6 and US 34 are united for 24.5 miles.

BRUSH, 98.5 miles (4,280 alt., 2,312 pop.), is a shipping point for agricultural products. Named for Jared L. Brush, pioneer cowman, it was for many years the center of an extensive cattle-grazing district. Irrigation projects in 1900 caused farming to supplant the raising of beef; nevertheless, Brush annually stages a rodeo and fiesta on July 4th.

The GREAT WESTERN BEET SUGAR FACTORY (open 9-4 weekdays by permission) has a daily beet-slicing capacity of 1,600 tons.

FORT MORGAN, 108.1 miles (4,240 alt., 4,423 pop.), seat of Morgan County, is the trade capital of an area that produces four per cent of the beet sugar refined in the United States; thousands of sheep are fattened here on beet pulp. Grain, beans, and dairy products provide other income. A municipal light plant provides residents with free current for porch lamps, which are kept burning night and day.

During the gold rush the town was a station and a military post, on the Overland Trail, known first as Camp Tyler, then as Camp Wardell. In 1866 it was named Fort Morgan in honor of the first commander, Colonel C. A. Morgan. The SITE OF FORT MORGAN is marked by a monument on Riverview Avenue. A large collection of Indian relics on display at the high school includes many Yuma and Folsom artifacts (see The People) found in the near-by hills.

The GREAT WESTERN BEET SUGAR FACTORY (open 9-4 dally on application), with an annual payroll of $300,000, has a daily beet-slicing capacity of 1,600 tons.

West of Fort Morgan, US 6 traverses dry-land country, paralleling WILD CAT CREEK, where a chain of mica-covered hills glitter against a drab background.

Southwest of WIGGINS, 123 miles (4,443 alt., 275 pop.), a supply center, a range of low hills (L) rises above the shallow undulations of the prairies; the hills are composed of vast beds of small sea shells, which are ground up to produce a mineral food for livestock.

The road threads its way across brown plains relieved occasionally by low gray hills and clumps of bright-green cottonwoods fringing water courses. At home in the cottonwoods are the kingbirds, the white-rumped shrikes, and the melodious western mockingbirds. Most conspicuous is the ever-chattering, long-tailed magpie, master architect of the bird kingdom. Its huge domed nest, weather-proofed with mud and occupied but one season, often becomes the home of the grotesque long-eared owl.

The highway touches a boundary of the PAINTER RANCH (R), 135 miles Established in 1883 by Dr. John E. Painter, it once pastured the fourth largest herd of registered Herefords in the United States. The 22,000-acre domain remains intact, but the prize stock were sold at auction in 1938, a sale that attracted buyers from half of the States of the Union and from many foreign countries.

Southwest of the ranch US 6 traverses Prospect Valley, rich sugar beet land. Alfalfa and corn are other crops in the irrigated districts; wheat and beans are grown in adjacent dry farming sections.

This section of the tour traverses a mountainous area colored with the robust history of early mining camps. The highway three times crosses the Continental Divide, the geologic backbone of North America.

West of Denver, 0 miles, US 6 and US 40 (see Tour 7) are united for 43.6 miles (see Tour 7b). At 43.5 miles US 6 branches (L) south from US 40, following the South Fork of Clear Creek. Marking the hillsides are numerous mine dumps, and among the clumps of willows are heaps of worked-over sand from placer mines.

GEORGETOWN, 47 miles (8,640 alt., 303 pop.), walled in by high barren mountains where the valley narrows at the foot of the Continental Divide, is the seat of Clear Creek County, which produced more than $90,000,000 in gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc up to 1939. The town came into existence with the discovery of gold here in 1859, and prospered until placer claims gave out. A period of stagnation was followed by a boom in the 1870's, when lode mining was developed. Prior to the great Leadville strike in 1878 it was the most important silver camp in the State.

In its heyday the town attracted many questionable characters, but the camp was not marked by the rowdyism and violence that prevailed elsewhere. Old-timers maintain that the climate is so healthful that it was necessary to hang a man in order to start their cemetery. Among the curiosities of that day was a sign over a saloon, "We sell the Worst Whiskey, Wine and Cigars." A sign painter, angry at the proprietor and knowing that the man could not read, thus gave vent to his feelings; it attracted so much attention that the saloonkeeper let it remain until his death.

With the decline of silver mining in the 1890's Georgetown entered a second decline. A few prospectors, some gold miners, and many tourists kept the town alive. Curio hunters ransacked uninhabited houses in search of relics of by-gone days. One man rented a stable for a summer studio and found files of several of the State's earliest newspapers—priceless for the historian—thrown into an attic as rubbish. In 1933 higher prices for gold and silver caused many mines to reopen. Houses and picket fences are now brightly painted, set off by blue-grass lawns. Livery stables have been transformed into garages and filling stations. But the old FIRE STATION, a tall wooden tower in the center of the village, still houses an outmoded hose reel, a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by volunteer firemen.

The HOTEL DE PARIS, one of the most celebrated hotels west of the Mississippi during the 1880's-1890's, retains some suggestion of its former glory. Its rococo elegance of furnishing and decoration, its exotic cuisine, and its curious owner were talked of throughout the mountain region, where opulence was common but discriminating taste was not. Louis du Puy, its builder and presiding genius, was born Adolphus Francis Gerard at Alencon, France, in 1844. He has been described as "an innkeeper who hated his guests, a philosopher, and poet who left no written record of his thought, a despiser of women who gave all he had to one, an aristocrat, a proletarian, a pagan, an arcadian, an atheist, a lover of beauty, and, inadvertently, the stepfather of domestic science of America."

The last title is his because of the influence his knowledge of food and wine had upon Dr. James E. Russell, high priest of domestic science in America, dean of Teachers' College, Columbia University, who first gave domestic science academic status. The idea was born during a visit to the Hotel de Paris in 1896, when Russell was fascinated, as he confessed, by Du Puy's philosophies concerning food and man. "French Louis'" tastes were epicurean to the extreme; a French guest once remarked, "I would have slave girls and music at dessert; with my wines I would have the ceiling to open and orange blossoms and roses to fall upon the table." His host answered, "I make one to smell the roses and imagine the slave girls by my wine!"

He was altogether a strange type to find in a frontier town, and there was a fantastic life behind him. Born to wealth and position, he squandered his inheritance and then tried journalism in Paris, London, and New York with indifferent success. He served in the French and the American armies, deserted from both, drifted through a succession of odd occupations, and, inevitably, wound up in the mining camps, taking the name Du Puy. He came to Georgetown in 1869 and was seriously injured in a mine explosion four years later.

A collection was taken up to establish him in business, and the Hotel de Paris was the result. In 1875 Du Puy bought the Delmonico Bakery building on Alpine Street, excavated cellars, and added another story to provide space for eight bedrooms, each 12 by 20 feet, divided by a large central hall. He did almost all the work himself. Although the building was ready to be opened at Christmas, work continued for another year before Du Puy was satisfied. The two-story hotel is built of huge block bricks, with lintels and facades of brown stone, crowned with a cheval-de-frise of gilded spikes. A wide wooden veranda, garnished with scroll work, occupies one whole side of the building. There formerly was gilt on the lion guarding the gate, on the metal stag decorating one wall, on the heroic statue of Justice on the peak of the roof; there was more gilt on the legends "Hotel de Paris" and "Louis du Puy" emblazoned over the doors. The inner decorations were lavishly Parisian—mirrors, sculpture, paintings, hangings, and more gilt; many of these trappings remain.

The establishment of the hotel was due to the kindness of the citizens of Georgetown, but its success was due wholly to Louis du Puy's own efforts, and fully aware of this he established himself as a feudal lord, refusing to pay taxes, even threatening to shoot the collectors and burn the hotel with himself inside. He was equally high-handed in his selection and treatment of guests. Visitors who did not please him were not permitted to register, and others were ordered out instantly on incurring his displeasure. This was not such bad business, for everyone was eager to be accorded the privilege, something in the nature of an accolade, of being accepted at the Hotel de Paris. Women were never welcome; at best, they were accepted grudgingly if accompanied by one of Du Puy's favored gentlemen. Their marital status, however, was a matter of complete indifference. His attitude toward guests he explained to Dr. Russell, "If you are a college man, surely you know that no gentleman invites himself to be the guest of a stranger. This house is my own, and if I want guests I invite them."

Naturally he became a storm center of gossip, and, in spite of the pride of the town in his splendid establishment, he was not popular with citizens. His arrogance, his frank pagan philosophy, his contemptuous hatred of women in a community where "ladies" were revered and "women" were well-patronized, even the "heathen images," as the - good people of Georgetown termed the classic statues that adorned the hotel, were criticized. Still, the rank and fashion of East and West and of the Continent continued to register at the Hotel de Paris—if they could get in—to eat Du Puy's food, drink his wine, and argue with him on every subject from art to socialism.

Du Puy was fond of children, and there was one woman to whom he was kind. She was Sophie Galet, "Aunt Sophie," the widow of an old French cabinet maker, and at her husband's death Du Puy took her in. Her position in his establishment was ambiguous; Du Puy said that he asked her to do nothing, but she seemed to do everything. She became chatelaine, housekeeper, and maid of all work. She may even have done the cooking, but this is doubtful—Louis du Puy was jealous of this province. On his death in 1900 it was found that he had willed the hotel to her. She survived him but four months, and was buried beside him at her request.

West of Georgetown the highway begins a long ascent, passing (L) the SITE OF THE GEORGETOWN LOOP, 47.8 miles, where the narrow-gauge tracks of the Colorado & Southern Railway formerly looped over themselves for easier grade. The road was abandoned in 1939, the tracks removed, and the high trestles torn down. At one time excursion trains carrying hundreds of awed passengers daily passed over the loop.

Mountain walls slope steeply on either side of SILVER PLUME, 49 miles (9,175 alt., 126 pop.), another formerly prosperous mining town, described by early Colorado historians as a "pretty village." It shared in the early silver prosperity of the region, but most of the mines ceased operations after 1900. A high-quality granite, quarried near by, is used for most of the State historical markers.

The highway follows the South Fork of Clear Creek, a thin sparkling stream running between willow and aspen thickets, its bed broken by numerous pools and eddies where trout abound. The canyon is overshadowed (L) by the massive forms of GRAYS PEAK (14,-274 alt.), ninth highest summit in the State, and TORREYS PEAK (14,264 alt.); tenth highest. The peaks were named for the eminent American botanists, Asa Gray and John Torrey.

The boundary between Pike and Arapaho National Forests is crossed, 52.1 miles, and the highway ascends steadily through forests of dark green Engelmann spruce, the trees almost identical in size, shape, and color. Away from the highways this is a primitive area, the habitat of deer, elk, and some bear.

At 54.7 miles is (R) the entrance to BETHEL, an improved camp ground of the Forest Service (fireplaces; sanitary facilities).

South of the junction US 6 approaches the massive salmon-colored barrier of the Continental Divide, looping upward along its wall. LOVELAND PASS (11,992 alt.), 62 miles, the second highest motor traverse in the State, is often impassible in winter. In spring, when the snow is gone from lower slopes, many skiers come here for sport. The pass, named for W. A. H. Loveland, pioneer Colorado road and railroad builder, was not used as a motor highway until 1931.

South of the pass the highway winds downward through forest country; ranch houses and sawmills appear in occasional clearings. Still descending, the route enters the comparatively level valley of the Blue River, which forms a long neck of Middle Park (see Tour 7b), good hunting and fishing country. Early placer gold discoveries were made along this stream.

The road crosses a boundary of Arapaho National Forest, 75 miles, to DILLON, 76.6 miles (8,600 alt., 92 pop.), a hunting and fishing resort of frame houses and log cabins on the Blue River, set in a circle of abrupt and jagged mountains. The town formerly was a station on the Leadville-Breckenridge stage route.

FRISCO, 79.6 miles (9,097 alt., 18 pop.), a lively mining camp during the 1870's, was practically deserted until the rise of gold and silver prices in 1932. Then weather-beaten shacks were re-roofed and painted, and boarded windows were refitted with glass.

Left (straight ahead) on this road to KOKOMO, 8 miles (10,618 alt., 44 pop.), the highest incorporated town in Colorado, formerly a gold camp. Today it is a huddle of cabins, except for a cafe built on the hillside, down which pours a lively mountain stream. Many of the houses are collapsing under the weight of years. For the most part, the few inhabitants are prospectors whose faith in the hills has never died.

The highway crosses the Mosquito Range to the eastern slope of the Continental Divide over FREMONT PASS (11,320 alt.), 12.3 miles, named for Lieutenant John C. Fremont, explorer and pathfinder. The pass marks the boundary between the Arapaho and Cochetopa National Forests.

At the top of the pass is CLIMAX (11,320 alt., 600 pop.), the highest post office in the United States and Colorado's most prosperous mining town. Here is produced approximately 72 per cent of the world's molybdenum, a rare metal used in making radio tubes, chemicals, and dyes, and in hardening special steels for automobiles and aircraft. The plant and living quarters of the workers, surrounded by a high wire fence (no visiting), are built at the foot of BARTLETT MOUNTAIN (L), a mountain of molybdenum, with known ore reserves of 100,000,000 tons and a large unexplored area. Climax presents a busy and efficient scene with its great white silt dumps, and its miles of trestles on which ore cars run between mine cuts and sprawling gray flotation mills where the ore is processed. The company maintains a dormitory for ita single workers, with commissary, library, and recreation rooms; some 1,250 are normally employed. Mining is done by the caving system, a modification of Alaskan mining practices, which has eaten away a large gash in the face of the mountain. Ore bodies are undercut horizontally and broken down with dynamite.

Molybdenum was first discovered by gold seekers; they ignored it, thinking it lead. Later it was believed to be galena; but in 1900 it was properly identified by the Colorado School of Mines. There was little market for the metal until 1914, when its value as an alloy for toughening steel was recognized; the outbreak of the World War sent it skyrocketing in price. After the war the market slumped, and for several years mining operations virtually ceased. The company began an intensive and successful campaign to interest steel manufacturers and others in use of the metal, and almost overnight the production of molybdenum became one of the State's important industries. Production in 1938 had a gross value of $20,000,000, outstripping coal as the State's most valuable mineral in that year. Shares of stock in the Climax Company, according to Time, increased 116,900 per cent in value between 1926 and 1936. Concentrated "moly," as it is known to miners, is shipped in paper-lined jute sacks for domestic use, and in oak barrels for foreign consumption.

South of Climax the road descends through forested slopes into the upper Arkansas Valley, crossing a boundary of Cochetopa National Forest, 15.3 miles The surrounding mountains do not appear exceptionally high, although they rise to greater elevations than elsewhere in Colorado. Ahead are Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, the State's two highest peaks.

In LEADVILLE, 25.4 miles (10,190 alt., 3,771 pop.) (see Leadville), are junctions with US 24 (see Tour 5) and State 104 (see Tour 5D).

US 6 crosses the Continental Divide, follows the new Vail Pass highway, and descends the western slope to the junction with US 24,110 miles.

Between this point and GRAND JUNCTION 274.5 miles (4,587 alt., 10,247 pop.) (see Grand Junction), US 6 and US 24 are one route (see Tour 5c).

West of Grand Junction, US 6 and US 50 are one route (see Tour 9c), crossing the UTAH LINE, 308.5 miles, 45 miles east of Thompsons, Utah (see Utah Guide).