CO Tour 12

The American Guides Project

(Cheyenne, Wyo.) —Greeley—Brighton—Denver—Littleton—Castle Rock — Palmer Lake — Colorado Springs — Pueblo — Walsenburg Trinidad—Raton Pass—(Raton, N. M.) ; US 85. Wyoming Line to New Mexico Line, 312 miles. Oil-processed road. Union Pacific R.R. parallels route between Wyoming Line and Denver; Colorado & Southern Ry., between Denver and Trinidad; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. between Denver and Pueblo, and between Trinidad and Raton, N. M.; Denver & Rio Grande Western R. R. between Denver and Pueblo. Good accommodations.

US 85, the most heavily traveled north and south highway in Colorado, skirts the Rockies for its entire distance, passing through the most populous cities of the State and traversing rich irrigated areas. Only at Palmer Lake does it enter the higher foothills. Historically, it is of less interest than the routes followed by explorers and pioneers.

This section traverses arid and sparsely settled hill country which gradually merges with fertile farm lands watered by the State's first and largest irrigation system.

Crossing the WYOMING LINE, 0 miles, 10 miles south of Cheyenne, Wyoming (see Wyoming Guide), US 85 traverses broken grassland, a continuation of the Wyoming plains country, a region of high wind-swept hills, picturesque in its desolation. To the west the peaks of the Rockies rise in glittering contrast. This area is chiefly used for cattle grazing.

NUNN, 21.6 miles (5,186 alt., 196 pop.), a farming center, was named for "Bob" Nunn, who forestalled an accident on the Union Pacific Railroad by flagging a train in time to prevent its running into a collapsed culvert.

The highway crosses the northern boundary of the Weld County irrigated area at PIERCE, 26 miles (5,041 alt., 281 pop.), and traverses miles of sugar beet fields to AULT, 30 miles (4,940 alt., 737 pop.), at the junction with State 14 (see Tour 2).

EATON, 33.5 miles (4,750 alt., 1,221 pop.), in the Cache la Poudre Valley, was founded in 1881 by Governor B. H. Eaton, who established the flour mill and grain elevator still operating here. The town's greatest development followed the introduction of sugar beets. Surrounding farms produce a diversity of crops, and there is considerable livestock feeding.

Left from Eaton on a dirt road to the GREAT WESTERN BEET SUGAR FACTORY (open 9-4 daily on application), 0.5 miles, the town's largest industrial plant, with a daily beet-slicing capacity of 1,600 tons (see Tour 1a). East of GALETOWN, 7 miles, the road crosses dry hill country through great sand drifts piled up by dust storms to CORNISH, 16 miles (6,708 alt., 140 pop.), a farming hamlet in Crow Creek Valley.

Here, between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, was the homeland of a prehistoric people (see The People). Little is known about these ancient hunters whose arrowheads and other artifacts have been uncovered here as high winds have swept away the topsoil. Collecting these articles became a popular local pastime, and George Bowman, local school teacher, and Oscar Shirk, a member of the school board, arranged an exhibit of artifacts, sponsored by the local grade school. The first Stone Age Fair, as it was called, was held July 10-15, 1934, at which were displayed 25,000 artifacts of the Yuma and the Folsom man, as anthropologists have named the prehistoric peoples of the Southwest. The fair attracted 5,000 visitors; 20,000 attended the fair in 1935, and again in 1936, when archeologists throughout the West contributed exhibits; lectures were given by a staff headed by Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, archeological authority of the Smithsonian Institution. The fair is now an annual event, August 6-9. The Cornish collection is said to be one of the largest of its kind in the world.

In GREELEY, 41 miles (4,637 alt., 12,203 pop.) (see Greeley), is the junction with US 34 (see Tour 8).

South of Greeley the highway traverses the valley of the South Platte, richest agricultural section in eastern Colorado, to EVANS, 44.5 miles (4,647 alt., 540 pop.), founded in 1869 by promoters of the Denver Pacific Railroad, headed by Governor John M. Evans. For a time the terminus of the railroad which was to connect Denver with the Union Pacific R. R. at Cheyenne, it was a busy loading point for wagon trains hauling supplies to numerous mining camps. In 1879 Evans was chosen for settlement by the St. Louis Western Colony, established by parishioners of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church. That same year the railroad was extended to Denver, the county seat was removed to Greeley, and Evans' boom period was over.

The route crosses the SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, 45.5 miles, which has a drainage basin of approximately 24,000 square miles and contains the oldest extensively cultivated and irrigated area in the State. The stream has been called Dry River, Sand River, Silver River, and "the river that is upside down." The Mallet brothers, French trappers who penetrated Colorado as far as the present site of Julesburg, named it the Riviere la Platte (shallow), a translation of the Spanish Rio Chato, given it by Juan de Saldiver. According to Washington Irving, the river was once designated as the Ne-braska by the Otoe Indians.

LA SALLE, 46.5 miles (4,700 alt., 564 pop.) an irrigated agricultural center, is a junction point on the Union Pacific Railroad.

GILCREST, 52.5 miles (4,752 alt., 324 pop.), is at the junction with a dirt road.

Right on this road to ST. VRAINS, 3 miles, a substation of the Public Service Company of Colorado.

Right from St. Vrains 0.2 miles to the SITE OF FORT ST. VRAIN, indicated by a granite marker. Fort St. Vrain, the first and largest of the South Platte trading posts, the third largest in the Rocky Mountain West, was exceeded in size and importance only by Fort Laramie on the North Platte and Fort Bent on the Arkansas (see Tour 9A). This post was established in 1838 by William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain, agents of the American Fur Company, to compete with Fort Lupton and Fort Vasquez (see below) of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Built of adobe, the fort was 125 feet long and 100 feet wide, with walls 2 feet thick and 14 feet high. Half way between Fort Bent and Fort Laramie, it was a popular rendezvous of traders, emigrants, and adventurers. Kit Carson spent several months here, and Lieutenant John C. Fremont visited the post in 1842 and again in 1843. The post was abandoned in 1844 when the American Fur Company and Lancaster P. Lupton (see below) agreed to give up their competing South Platte Valley posts.

South of Gilcrest the road is bordered with irrigated fields of alfalfa, sugar beets, potatoes, and garden truck. Throughout this area ring-necked pheasants, native to China, known locally as "stubble ducks" are seen in the fields and along the highway. The long-tailed males are brilliantly colored, with iridescent orange, red, and bronze plumage. The birds were introduced into Colorado in 1894 by W. F. Kendrick of Denver, who later released 100 pairs in Weld and Larimer Counties; from these have sprung the present stock. Protected for many years, the birds multiplied rapidly, to the annoyance of farmers who had difficulty in keeping them out of grain fields and from fighting with domestic fowls. An open season on them was at last declared in December 1938, when an army of hunters invaded the countryside, tramped down the fields, banged away at everything in feathers, frightened livestock, and occasionally winged one another.

PLATTEVILLE, 58 miles (4,820 alt., 533 pop.), is the center of a large irrigated farm area; dairying is an important occupation; a condensed milk factory here maintains a large receiving station. The town was founded by the Platte River Land Company in 1871 when several thousand acres of ground were purchased from the railroad and platted as farms and townsites.

Right from Platteville on a graveled road is MEAD, 10.5 miles (5,280 alt., 152 pop.), another of the many towns that sprang to life with the sugar beet industry.

Reconstructed FORT VASQUEZ (open daily), 59.5 miles, is built on the site of the original post destroyed by Indians in 1842. The fort then stood on the bank of the South Platte, but the stream now runs five miles farther west. The large court of the reconstructed fort, 125 feet long and 100 feet wide, is surrounded by heavy adobe walls pierced with loopholes. At each corner are towers for riflemen; footpaths extend along the top of the walls.

Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette, who built the fort in 1836, conducted the fur-trading post for four years as agents of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company; in 1840 it was sold to Locke and Randolph; two years later Indians captured and looted it. Although never completely rebuilt, the fort was used as a base by troops during the Indian wars of the 1860's. Directly south of the fort is the OLD WELD COUNTY COURTHOUSE, some fifteen feet square, built of hewn logs.

IONE, 63 miles (4,858 alt., 100 pop.), is a scattered farm settlement. When a Union Pacific official arrived in 1890 he asked who owned the land west of the contemplated station site. "I own it" answered W. A. Davis, a local resident. "To the north?" the official queried. "I own it," Davis repeated. And so it was for all points of the compass, which is said to have led to the naming of the town. Ione once had a ghost; as the phantom habitually took midnight rambles along the tracks, the railroad ran ''ghost trains" from surrounding towns; the specter in the end proved to be two frolicsome cowboys in sheets.

Right from lone to the unmarked and approximate SITE OF FORT JACKSON, 3 miles, least known of the Platte Valley fur posts, founded by Peter Sarpy and Henry Fraeb in 1833, for Pratte, Chouteau & Company of St. Louis. According to company records, the post shipped furs valued at $10,000 in one season. The post, bought by St. Vrain in 1838, was later abandoned.

South of lone the serpentine course of the South Platte River (R) is marked by cottonwood trees. A fieldstone monument (R) marks the SITE OF FORT LUPTON, 65 miles (open by permission of owner), on the farm of H. H. Ewing, whose dairy barn is built around some of the original adobe walls. This fur trading post, founded in 1836 by Lancaster P. Lupton, formerly a lieutenant in the Army under Colonel Henry Dodge, was the first permanent settlement in northern Colorado. At times hundreds of Indians gathered here for a council, and the air pulsed day and night with the rumble of ceremonial drums. The fort was never attacked, but numerous battles between enemy tribesmen were fought nearby. John C. Fremont, Kit Carson, and Francis Parkman visited the fort, which was abandoned in 1844.

Surrounded by immense beet fields is a three-story red brick GREAT WESTERN BEET SUGAR FACTORY (open 9-4 weekdays on application), 66.4 miles, with a daily beet-slicing capacity of 1,200 tons.

FORT LUPTON, 67 miles (4,906 alt., 1,578 pop.), was founded about 1872; free lots were offered to home builders, and an acre of ground to anyone putting up a hotel, blacksmith shop, or saloon. The town is a trading center for a rich farming country. A beet sugar factory, a vegetable cannery, and a condensed milk plant are the principal industrial enterprises. Fort Lupton celebrates Tomato Day annually in August.

BRIGHTON, 74 miles (4,979 alt., 3,394 pop.), seat of Adams County, was originally named Hughes Station for General Bela M. Hughes, promoter of the Denver Pacific and other railroads. Platted as a town in 1889 by D. F. Carmichael, it was named for the birthplace of his wife in Massachusetts. The town is one of the largest sugar beet centers in the State, and the GREAT WESTERN BEET SUGAR FACTORY (open 9-4 weekdays on application) has a daily beet-slicing capacity of 1,800 tons; there is also a pickle plant and a vegetable cannery. The town yearly ships about 700 cars of produce. Brighton is on the trail once used by fur traders in their passage between Fort Bent (see Tour 9A) and Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The first Fourth of July celebration in Colorado was held here when Major Stephen Long's expedition camped on the site of the town in 1820.

HENDERSON, 80 miles (5,230 alt., 150 pop.), is at the junction with a graveled road.

Right on this road to the DENVER FARM (open 9-4 daily), 0.8 miles, an institution maintained by the City and County of Denver for unemployables and indigents. The two-story main building of brick, contains dormitories accommodating 180 inmates and the superintendent's quarters. The farm, which includes 320 acres of irrigated land, is largely self-sufficient. Inmates are allowed, but not required, to work in the fields.

South of Henderson the highway traverses a Denver suburban section to a junction with a graveled road, 85.3 miles

In DENVER, 93 miles (5,280 alt., 287,861 pop.) (see Denver), are junctions with US 6 (see Tour 1), US 40 (see Tour 7), US 87 (see Tour 13), and US 285 (see Tour 15).

This section of the tour leads through a pleasant rural area filled with prosperous farms and country estates. Broken pine-clad hills appear as the highway approaches Colorado Springs. To the south the route traverses windy plains, broken by outcroppings of stony hills, to industrial Pueblo.

1. Left on this road is ENGLEWOOD, 0.3 miles (5,200 alt., 7,980 pop.), a residential suburb of Denver and trading center for a rich irrigated farming and dairying district. The town is connected with the metropolis by bus and street car lines.

Right here 0.6 miles to LORETTO HEIGHTS COLLEGE, a Roman Catholic school for girls, built on a high hill overlooking Denver.

Left (straight ahead) from the junction with Federal Boulevard to FORT LOGAN, 2 miles, the only garrisoned military post in Colorado. Headquarters of the Second Engineers, it is used as a summer training center by the Citizens Military Training Camp, the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and units of the organized reserve of the U. S. Army. The grounds embrace 1,000 acres, with 136 buildings, including barracks, warehouses, administration buildings, and officers' houses. The site, a barren knoll near the foothills, was selected by General Philip H. Sheridan, and the fort was established Oct. 20, 1887, at which time the Federal Government abandoned its other military posts in Colorado—Forts Garland, Crawford, Lewis, Lyon, and Uncompahgre. The first soldiers quartered at the post were two companies of the Eighteenth Infantry. Then the fort was garrisoned for short periods by various regiments, and was a recruiting depot for a time. Since 1927 it has been occupied by the Second Engineers.

LITTLETON, 9.9 miles (5,362 alt., 2,019 pop.), seat of Arapaho County, is the center of a prosperous irrigated farming area.

South of Littleton the highway swings away from the South Platte Valley and crosses a country of broken rocky hills. To the west (R) rise the even walls of the foothills, with the glistening cone of Mount Evans (14,259 alt.) beyond.

WOLHURST (R), 12.6 miles, is a large country estate; its white mansion with bright green roof was built by Senator E. O. Wolcott, and later was the home of Thomas F. Walsh, bonanza king, who amassed a fortune from the Camp Bird Mine near Ouray (see Tour 18).

Right on this road is LOUVIERS, 0.8 miles (5,800 alt., 350 pop.), a Du Pont powder town. Across the river is the DU PONT POWDER PLANT (open by special arrangement), largest manufactory of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region, built in 1907 for production of explosives used in mines.

The highway traverses broken hill country, most of it belonging to the Diamond K Ranch, last of the great cattle holdings in this section, and skirts SEDALIA, 24.1 miles (6,000 alt., 202 pop.). Neighboring creek bottoms were favorite camping grounds of the Plains Indians, particularly the Arapaho. After the town had been founded, Indians continued to frequent the region, occasionally raiding isolated farms and ranches. One of the first sawmills in Colorado was set up in the pine stands on Plum Creek here in 1859 by D. C. Oakes and supplied lumber for the then raw town of Denver.

1. Right from Sedalia on State 105 is an alternate route to PALMER LAKE (see below), 24.1 miles.

2. Right from Sedalia on graveled State 67, an alternate route to Colorado Springs, through rolling country to the mouth of JARRE CANYON, 5.1 miles. The road crosses the eastern boundary of Pike National Forest (see Tour 6b), 7.3 miles, to a junction with a dirt forest road, 10 miles.

Left here 10 miles to DEVIL'S HEAD, a jutting mass of rock, crowned with a Forest Service fire lookout station.

State 67 passes PINE CREEK (store and cabins), 13.3 miles, swings in a wide circle to bring Mount Evans (R) into full view, and descends into the valley of the South Fork of the South Platte, which is crossed several times. The route passes a picnic ground, 23.6 miles, and the cabin resort of SNOW WATER SPRINGS, 26 miles DECKERS, 27.3 miles (6,250 alt., 50 pop.), a summer resort (cabins), is popular with anglers. Here the highway ascends along West Creek, a tributary of the South Platte, to camp grounds, 34.5 miles, and the junction with a graveled road, 36.2 miles

State 67 continues south, crossing a boundary of Pike National Forest, 39.9 miles, to WOODLAND PARK, 49.9 miles, at the junction with US 24 (see Tour 6b), 18 miles northwest of Colorado Springs (see Colorado Springs).

The highway crosses broken foothills to CASTLE ROCK, 31.2 miles (6,000 alt., 478 pop.), seat of Douglas County, named for the high outcrop of salmon-colored stone (L) that served Indians, explorers, and early settlers as a landmark. This curiously eroded formation, resembling a medieval castle, was noted by Major Stephen H. Long's expedition in 1820 and was named by Dr. Edwin James, historian of the party. The village is a Gretna Green for Denver enamorati.

South of LARKSPUR, 42.2 miles (6,580 alt., 150 pop.), the road ascends the divide separating the drainage basins of the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. Here the route, winding through pine-clad hills, approaches the mountains. This area is subject to sudden violent storms.

PALMER LAKE, 50.1 miles (7,237 alt., 244 pop.), built around a spring-fed lake at the top of the divide, was one of the first resort towns in Colorado; many residents of the larger cities still have summer houses here. When the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad reached the town in 1872, it was known as Weisport, but in 1889 it was renamed for General William J. Palmer, builder of the road, who did much to publicize the resort. During the 1870's columbines grew profusely in the vicinity, and travelers spoke so often of the beauty of the flower that it was made the State flower in 1889. Each year, the Sunday before Christmas, the ancient ceremony of hunting and burning the Yule log is held at Palmer Lake.

South of Palmer Lake the highway passes (L) ELEPHANT ROCK, 51.7 miles, a mass of curiously eroded sandstone.

1. Right on State 50 is MONUMENT, 0.5 miles (6,895 alt., 192 pop.), founded in 1859 and named for the stone formation west of the town.

Left from Monument a graveled road, known as the Mount Herman Road, crosses the eastern boundary of Pike National Forest (see Tour 6b), 1.5 miles, and passes (L) the MONUMENT NURSERY (open), 2.8 miles, maintained by the U. S. Forest Service. Approximately 5,500,000 pine, spruce, and cedar seedlings are planted here each year, and are transplanted when they are from two to four years old. Early pine tree growth is slow, as evidenced by the fact that seedlings several years old resemble small tomato plants.

Ascending a high ridge west of the nursery, the road reaches (R) the great MOUNT HERMAN BURN, 7.4 miles, which has been entirely reforested from the Monument Nursery. Here 10,000 acres of forest were burned in 1879, but young and hardy evergreens are now growing between the stumps.

Mount Herman Road continues to WOODLAND PARK, 19 miles, at the junction with US 24. (see Tour 6b).

2. Left on State 50 to the BLACK FOREST, 6 miles, an extensive area of rolling hills and gulches covered with heavy stands of pine. Indian tribes once found this spot ideal for summer encampment, and today many residents of eastern Colorado have summer houses on the shaded hills. Most of the clearings made by lumber operations have been utilized as fox farms.

Right on this road is WOODMEN, 3 miles, a small community built around the MODERN WOODMEN OF AMERICA SANITARIUM (open 8:30-11, 1-4 daily; guides). The Modern Woodmen of America is a fraternal society with 529,000 members who carry $742,000,000 of insurance underwritten by the order. Tubercular patients are cared for here in 180 individual tent-cottages, painted red, white, and green, the colors of the order. The community has its own post office; water, sewer, heating, and refrigeration systems; store, laundry, dairy, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, and auditorium. The expense of building and maintaining the sanitarium costs each member of the order less than 4^ a month. Since its establishment in 1909, approximately 11,000 patients have been treated here.

In COLORADO SPRINGS, 71.8 miles (5,900 alt., 33,237 pop.) (see Colorado Springs), is the junction with US 24 (see Tour 5).

Right here through a suburban district to the CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN SCHOOL, 2.4 miles, a public school with an unusual curriculum embracing sports, folk dancing, and dramatics. Students give performances of folk dancing throughout Colorado and in States as distant as California.

The route follows Cheyenne Canyon to a toll gate (50¢ per person), 3.7 miles. The waters of South Cheyenne Creek break over ledges of a narrow gorge in a series of cascades known as SEVEN FALLS, 4.5 miles; a stairway of 295 steps leads to the top of the falls. On INSPIRATION POINT, 200 yards southeast, is the FORMER SITE OF HELEN HUNT JACKSON'S GRAVE. Before the body was removed to Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs in 1894, hundreds visited this spot. It was the custom to leave a stone on the grave, and the cairn reached great proportions.

Left from the hotel 0.3 miles on Walnut Avenue to a junction with a graveled road; R. here to a toll gate (adults 50¢, children 25¢), 4.3 miles, at the beginning of the Cheyenne Mountain Highway. Just inside the toll gate is (L) the CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, established in 1921 when a Hindu rajah contributed an elephant named Tessie. In the zoo are camels, lions, leopards, kangaroos, elephants, and zebras, 36 species of snakes, and 52 of birds; back from the road are game parks pasturing buffalo, elk, and deer.

South of the gardens the road, electrically lighted, passes between two great masses of granite known as HELL'S GATE, 52 miles, and makes a stiff zigzag climb up the face of Cheyenne Mountain to (L) the WILL ROGERS SHRINE OF THE SUN MEMORIAL, 6.3 miles, on a knoll about 200 yards from the highway, reached by a side drive. The tower of rose-pink local granite, 100 feet high, resembles a medieval donjon keep, erected by the late Spencer Penrose in memory of the noted journalist and actor. No wood or nails were used in construction of the tower, which contains 15,000,000 pounds of steel reinforcement. In one of four rooms in the tower, reached by a spiral staircase, is a bust of Will Rogers by Jo Davidson. The interior walls are adorned with frescoes of western American life by Randall Davey, of Santa Fe, N. M. The tower is surmounted with an observation balcony that affords a good view of Colorado Springs and the plains. A sodium mercury light, visible at night for 125 miles, is intended to burn perpetually; the entire memorial is floodlighted after dark.

From the SUMMIT OF CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN, 10 miles, is a wide view of mountains, foothills, and plains.

Right here to the MYRON STRATTON HOME (open 9-5 daily), 0.8 miles, built in 1913, eleven years after the death of Winfield Scott Stratton, mining millionaire and philanthropist, who founded the home in memory of his father. The greater part of his fortune, approximately $4,000,000, was willed to this institution, established to care for those physically incapable of earning a livelihood. On the 5,000-acre estate is a 98-acre landscaped tract on which stand a hospital, administration building, community house, dormitories for boys and girls, and housekeeping cottages for aged married couples. About 100 adults and 85 children, ranging from 5 to 20 years of age, reside here. To be eligible for admission, a child's parents must have lived in El Paso County for six years; aged persons must have lived in the county for five years, and must have been residents of the State for 10 years. Children are offered an education through senior high school.

On the grounds is the bronze WINFIELD SCOTT STRATTON STATUE, erected as a memorial by Colorado Springs citizens. Born in Indiana in 1848, Stratton was a carpenter and contractor in several parts of the Middle West before coming to Colorado Springs in 1872. He prospected throughout Colorado for many years, but not until 1891 did he make his rich strike at Cripple Creek (see Tour 6B). After his first strike, it is said, he sent a $1,000 check to a friend who had once given him a dollar when he was hungry. He gave a coachman an equal amount for averting a runaway, and on another occasion bestowed a bicycle upon every laundry girl in Colorado Springs. Stratton died in Colorado Springs in 1902.

The highway crosses FOUNTAIN CREEK, 77.5 miles, named Fontaine qui Bouille (fountain that boils) by early French fur traders, because of the bubbling mineral springs at Manitou Springs that feed it.

Left on this road to the FOUNTAIN VALLEY SCHOOL FOR BOYS (open 8:30-5 weekdays), 4 miles, a private boarding school for youths between 16 and 18 years old; it attracts students from many States. Several of the interior walls are decorated with murals by Boardman Robinson, art master of the school.

FOUNTAIN, 84.9 miles (5,500 alt., 577 pop.), one of the oldest settlements in central Colorado, is the only town of importance between Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Once its only trade was with surrounding ranches, but today it is an important shipping point for alfalfa and sugar beets grown in the irrigated section of the valley. On May 14, 1889, a car loaded with dynamite broke loose in the railroad yards at Colorado Springs and rolled down the tracks, exploding at the Fountain depot; four persons were killed, and the village was almost leveled by the blast.

South of Fountain the route crosses windy arid country, in places almost devoid of vegetation, to BUTTES, 92.9 miles, a railroad station named for the conical hills in the vicinity. South of the railroad station in WIGWAM, 96.4 miles, are (L) the remains of a STAGE STATION CORRAL. The extensive forests of pinon that once covered the hills southwest of PINON, 102.6 miles, were long ago cut down by charcoal burners who supplied fuel for Pueblo steel mills. When oil was struck near Florence and Canon City in the 1870's, oil was piped to refineries here. Near EDEN, 109.2 miles, a train of four cars was caught in a flood in 1893 and washed downstream for three miles. Many passengers were drowned; one of the cars, buried in quicksands, was never found. South of Eden the highway traverses a desolate region spotted with yucca and sagebrush. The Wet Mountains (R) are a dark shadow against the western horizon; smoke from the Pueblo mills rises directly ahead.

In PUEBLO, 115 miles (4,700 alt., 50,096 pop.) (see Pueblo), are junctions with US 50 (see Tour 9), State 96 (see Tour 8), and State 273 (see Tour 8A).

South of Pueblo, US 85 passes through a region touched with the romance and legends of early Spanish occupation. The Spanish-American people, representing a large proportion of the population of this section, retain many of their old traditions and customs. There are few towns of importance.

In PUEBLO, 0 miles, the highway proceeds south by Lake Avenue, skirting (R) the tree-fringed shore of LAKE MINNEQUA, a municipal playground. The blast furnaces and high smokestacks of steel mills are visible at this point. On the open prairie slag dumps parallel the road for some distance. At night the molten dross, tipped along the dump by ladles carried on railroad cars, lights the sky with a red glare. The countryside is windy, arid, and desolate, broken by abrupt small hills and rocky outcroppings.

CROW, 27 miles (5,100 alt., 25 pop.), occupies the site of one of the first ranches in southeastern Colorado. Alex Hicklin, the founder, came with Kearney's Army of the West in 1846 and remained to marry the daughter of Charles Bent, then Governor of New Mexico. As a wedding present from his father-in-law, Hicklin received a large tract of land on the Greenhorn River; for years his ranchhouse stood alone in this region. Hicklin dug one of the first irrigation ditches in Colorado to water his fields. One of the old adobe buildings of the Hicklin Ranch, now used as a cow barn (R), stands just south of the general store.

Right on State 165 is a STATE FISH HATCHERY (open daily), 3.5 miles, where trout and other fish are raised (see Tour 6b) for stocking streams in this vicinity.

Left (straight ahead) at Rye on a graveled road to the junction with a dirt road, 0.5 miles.

The graveled road becomes a wagon trail, 2 miles, and continues to the base of GREENHORN MOUNTAIN, 5 miles.

Left here 1 miles to CAMP CROCKET, a summer camp for boys maintained by the Pueblo Y.M.C.A.

State 165 traverses the deep CANYON OF THE MUDDY, its walls fantastically carved and honeycombed with caves, and descends by a series of serpentine curves to the junction with a dirt road, 13.1 miles.

State 165 crosses the St. Charles River below ST. CHARLES DAM, 13.8 miles, which impounds the waters of LAKE ISABEL (boating and swimming), in the heart of the St. Charles Recreational Area (cabins, stables, boat houses, ski course, community camp), developed by the C.C.C.

SAN ISABEL CITY, 14.1 miles, was once known as Willow Creek. The road crosses GREENHILL DIVIDE, 17.1 miles, and descends through Davenport Gulch, where unusually large aspen trees are found, to the junction with State 76 (see Tour 8A), 20.5 miles.

US 85 crosses GREENHORN CREEK, 28.6 miles, where a monument commemorates the battle in which Cuerno Verde (Sp. Greenhorn), a Comanche war chief, was killed by Governor Anza of New Mexico in 1779. The name "greenhorn" was bestowed upon the chieftain because bull elk or deer are bold when their new antlers are growing and still "green." Cuerno Verde was the fiercest of all Comanche chiefs of his time and so troublesome to the Spanish that Anza determined in 1778 to end his power, following him through the lower San Luis Valley and across the Sangre de Cristos, finally overtaking him here at Greenhorn Creek. In the battle that followed the Indian leader was killed, with four of his sub-chiefs, his high priest, his eldest son, and 32 followers.

GREENHORN, 30 miles (6,200 alt., 15 pop.), was an early stagecoach station. A white frame house (R), south of the general store, was at one time the GREENHORN INN (open), frequented by Kit Carson and other notables of the frontier. In a Zoo (open) are animals native to this region.

The highway crosses the HUERFANO RIVER (Sp. orphan), 41.2 miles; HUERFANO BUTTE (L), an almost perfect cone of volcanic rock, long a landmark, was so named because it stands isolated and alone.

WALSENBURG, 51 miles (6,200 alt., 5,503 pop.), seat of Huerfano County, was originally a small Spanish village known as La Plaza de los Leones (Sp. square of the lions), named for a prominent Spanish family. In the seventeenth century the Conquistadores visited this region in search of gold. Later, Spanish-American farmers and American traders and trappers settled along the Cuchara River and its tributary creek. Much of the land was held by titled hacendados under the seal of the governor of Santa Fe; but increasing numbers of Americans finally dealt a death blow to the rule of the landed gentry.

The present city was laid out in 1873 by Fred Walsen, a pioneer German merchant, and was given his name. On a visit shortly after the town's founding, Helen Hunt Jackson noted caravans of "white-topped wagons, each drawn by 10 mules," and described them as "a pageant of epic proportions." Construction of the railroad and development of bituminous mines in the vicinity caused the town to prosper. Today, the vicinity produces large crops of beans, wheat, hay, and corn; cattle and sheep provide substantial revenues to neighboring ranchers.

The highway follows the foothills to AGUILAR, 69 miles (6,700 alt., 1,383 pop.), on the APISHAPA RIVER (Ind. stinking water), so named because its waters are stagnant during certain seasons. Southwest (R) of Aguilar, across several miles of broken hill country, are the SPANISH PEAKS, which the Indians and the Spanish called Huajatolla, or breasts of the world. They were held in awe by the Ute Indians, who believed them to be the home of fearsome gods. In 1811 a traveler from Mexico reported that gaping fissures from which fumes arose indicated a recent earthquake in these mountains.

Many stories have been told of gold discoveries here. "Many years ago," according to an Indian legend recorded in the Mexico City archives, *'before the first white man stepped ashore, even before the alliance of the three kingdoms, Alcolhua, Aztec and Tepance, gold was already an eagerly sought article. But it was not coined in those days, nor was it used in barter; it was offered to the deities only, and with it the shrines of Huitzilopochtli were decked. The bulk of it was taken to the cities of Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan. But when Nezhuatcoyotl reigned in splendor at Tezcuco, the gods of the Mountain Huajatolla became envious of the magnificence of his court, and they placed demons on the double mountain and forbade all men further approach."

Three monks and other followers of Coronado were left behind when the explorer returned to Mexico after his fruitless search for the mythical cities of Quivira, according to another legend. Two of the monks endeavored to teach the natives the doctrines of Christianity, and both died as martyrs. The third, Juan de la Cruz, so the story goes, overcame the evil spirits of the twin mountain and gained access to their hidden treasures. Indians of the Pecos region reported that their people were compelled by torture to enter subterranean passages here and bring forth the gold; when these slaves had served their purpose, all were killed. Juan de la Cruz, with his followers and a number of pack animals heavily laden with treasure, left the demon-haunted region at last, bound for the city of Mexico, but they never reached their destination. Gold nuggets that might possibly have been part of their treasure were found in 1811 by a Mexican traveler scattered along an ancient trail some distance south of the double mountain, far from any mine or mineral-bearing lodes. If fabulously rich mines once existed here on the Spanish Peaks, all traces have been obliterated by rock slides.

Right on this road to LUDLOW, 1 mile, where a monument commemorates the strikers and their families who lost their lives in the so-called "Battle of Ludlow," during the Colorado coal strike of 1913-14. The strike was called on September 23, 1913, after mine operators had refused demands for an eight-hour day, a check weighman, the right to trade in other than company-owned stores, a 10 per cent increase in wages, and recognition of the United Mine Workers of America. Here striking miners and their families, union officials, organizers, and sympathizers established a tent colony. At the request of county officials of Las Animas and Huerfano Counties, Governor Elias M. Ammons sent units of the Colorado National Guard to the scene and declared martial law. Ill feeling grew until a conflict was precipitated between striking miners and the militia. During hostilities several strikers were killed; on April 20, 1914, the tents were burned, causing the deaths of two women and ii children, probably from suffocation. The monument stands on the site of the "tent dugout" where the women and children died. The "Ludlow Massacre" was heatedly debated; while the strike was lost, the issue aroused public opinion and brought about improvement of working conditions and civil liberties in the coal camps.

Skirting the foothills, the road follows the general route of the old Goodnight cattle trail, leading south to New Mexico and Texas. FISHERS PEAK, named for Captain Fisher, a German artillery officer in General Kearney's Army of the West during the Mexican War, looms in the foreground. To the west, the peaks of the CULEBRA RANGE (Sp. snake) of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (see Tour 11B), snow-covered most of the year, rise in purple and silver splendor.

Turning west, US 85 enters the PURGATOIRE VALLEY. In 1594-96 a band of Conquistadores, believed to have been in search of the fabulous Seven Cities of Cibola, or the village of Quivira, left Mexico on an ill-fated trek northward. A quarrel arose between Francisco Bonilla and Juan Hermana, leaders of the expedition; the former was slain and Hermana assumed command. A priest accompanying the expedition refused to continue under the leadership of a murderer, and turned back with a handful of followers. Hermana and his men went on, and nothing was heard of them until a second expedition, following much the same route, came upon the bones of Hermana and his followers along the banks of the Purgatoire River. The expedition apparently had been massacred by Indians. As no priest accompanied the party, the men died without administration of the last rites of the Church, and their souls were presumably wandering forever in purgatory. The Spaniards therefore named the stream El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio (the river of the souls lost in purgatory), a title shortened and subsequently corrupted, with the result that the names of Las Animas, Purgatoire, and Picketwire, the cowboy version of Purgatoire, are used interchangeably.

Until recently throughout this valley, and even now in some communities, festivals were held to celebrate episodes in the early history of the region. Along the upper Purgatoire River the pageant of Los Comanches, held by settlers who made their way here from Taos, celebrated the victory of the New Mexicans over the Comanche Indians. Young men formed into two groups, representing the New Mexicans and the Indians, the former in military dress, the latter painted and feathered, and engaged in a spirited battle in which the Indians were always defeated.

Old World marriage customs are followed by Spanish-Americans in this vicinity. Courtship and marriage are attended with little sentiment. When a young man decides that the time has come, his parents are the first to know of his intentions. They escort him to the family of the girl of his choice and make formal application for her hand. She is consulted, and if her answer is favorable, a time is arranged when the two can meet and agree upon the wedding date. The bans are announced in church on three consecutive Sundays or Holy Days. Weddings are invariably gay, and as lavish as the parents of the bridegroom can afford. The offering to the priest is made by the best man, valedor, who also usually presents the bride with her wedding bouquet. After the ceremony the couple, their families, and their guests engage in feasting, singing, and dancing, sometimes lasting for several days.

In TRINIDAD, 89.5 miles (5,999 alt., 11,732 pop.) (see Trinidad), are junctions with US 160 (see Tour 11), US 350 (see Tour 10), and State 12 (see Tour 11A).

1. Right from Trinidad a road winds northwest to SIMPSON'S REST, 0.5 miles, a small hill containing the rock-bound crypt of George S. Simpson, pioneer. Simpson once sought refuge from an Indian war party here, hiding in the caves that honeycombed the crest; he was buried here in 1885. An electric sign near the crypt bears the word "Trinidad" in 8-foot letters.

2. Left from Trinidad on a wagon road across grassy prairies to MARSH'S MINE, 3 miles, now in part abandoned, at the foot of Fishers Peak (9,586 alt.) (see below).

Right from the mine a trail strikes upward through the foothills to FIRST SPRING, 2 miles, where icy mountain water bubbles from among the rocks, and wood violets grow profusely. From here can be seen a stretch of the Purgatoire Valley, the Spanish Peaks, and a wide sweep of the Sangre de Cristos. The trail ascends through heavy oak brush where grouse are often flushed from the undergrowth. A small lake, edged with iris in spring, is passed, and the trail turns steeply through loose gravel to the SUMMIT OF FISHERS PEAK, 9 miles (the trip by foot or horseback requires a full day). On the summit a surveyor's marker indicates the northeastern corner of the MAXWELL LAND GRANT, a large tract granted to Guadalupe Miranda and Charles Beaubien by Governor Armijo of New Mexico in 1843. When formal ownership was given, a magistrate took the grantees by the hand and "walked with them, caused them to throw earth, pull up weeds, and show other evidences of possession.'' After the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States in 1848, the Congress confirmed the owners' title to some 1,700,000 acres. Title soon passed to Beaubien's son-in-law, Lucien B. Maxwell, western trader and scout. Maxwell later sold out to an English syndicate, the Maxwell Land Grant Company, for more than $1,000,000. Squatters, pioneer farmers, and ranchers settled on the grant and in 1888 they resisted attempts of agents to dispossess them. Captain Richard D. Russell, who had taken up a homestead in the Stonewall Valley in 1871 and made many improvements, including a large lake for irrigation purposes, was ordered after 16 years of settlement to pay for his homestead or move off. United States marshals arrived and put up at a small hotel in Stonewall. Settlers burned the hotel in an effort to rid the country of the "varmits" who were annoying them, an act that precipitated hostilities between Government agents and Stonewall settlers, who barricaded themselves in their houses. Captain Russell was slain during a fight on August 28, 1888. His widow later purchased their homestead from the Maxwell Land Grant Company. The greater part of the Colorado section of the Maxwell Land Grant is now owned by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation.

The highway traverses a foothill area and winds over the route of the Mountain or Military Branch of the Santa Fe Trail to STARKVILLE, 92.3 miles (6,500 alt., 945 pop.), an old Mexican settlement. Many Spanish-American people still occupy adobe houses in the Lower Plaza. Sitting in the shade on warm days strumming their guitars, they sing "La Cucaracha," "La Paloma," "Rancho Grande" or other native songs in exchange for a glass of beer.

MORLEY, 100 miles (7,200 alt., 600 pop.), a model coal camp, has neat cement houses surrounded by attractive gardens; the company offers prizes each year for the most attractive yards.

WOOTTON, 101.2 miles (7,534 alt., 20 pop.), stands on the SITE OF THE OLD WOOTTON TOLL GATE, where, in 1865, Richens L. ("Uncle Dick") Wootton, a frontier scout with a good eye for business, built a road over Raton Pass and collected tolls, often at the point of a gun. He divided his patrons into five groups—stage companies, freighters, military authorities, Mexicans, and Indians. The last were usually allowed to pass free, at which "Mexicans" invariably but futilely protested. Entries in an account book show the following charges: "two wagons, $3; three horsemen, 75¢; one meal, 75¢; hay and meat, $5.50; for blanket of Mexican, $1.75; for knife, 50¢; for whiskey, 40¢, and for one candle, 10¢."

Wootton was one of the great figures of the mountain frontier. As a youth, he had trapped beaver with the Mountain Men and later served in the Mexican War. Times becoming dull, he established a buffalo farm near Pueblo, capturing buffalo calves and pasturing them with his cattle. During the gold rush to California he started overland with 9,000 sheep, and notwithstanding Indians and bad weather, succeeded in bringing 8,900 of them safely to Sacramento. In 1858, as the Pikes Peak gold rush gained momentum, Wootton opened the first saloon and general store in Denver; soon tiring of a merchant's life, he returned to southern Colorado to build his toll road. When the railroad entered the country in 1878, he sold his rights and retired.

From Wootton, by easy grades, the road climbs to RATON PASS (8,560 alt.), named by the Spanish for the small rock rats found here. The pass, originally on an old Indian trail that followed Raton Creek to the summit of the Raton Range, was later used by the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail, which replaced the Cimarron Branch when the latter was abandoned because of its dangerous desert stretches. In 1718 and 1719 expeditions sent north by the governor of New Mexico to check the advance of the French, probably used the pass, as did La Lande, a French Creole from Kaskaskia, Ill., and James Purcell, of Bradstown, Ky., in 1803 and 1804. As early as 1846 much traffic between the Missouri River and Santa Fe passed this way, and the volume increased after the Mexican War. There had been little vehicular traffic until the supply trains and artillery of Kearney's Army of the West passed this way in August 1846.

The coming of the railroad was marked by a two-year controversy between the Denver & Rio Grande and Santa Fe Railroads. In February 1878, the Rio Grande sent a construction crew to the pass on a train from Pueblo, to begin work extending the line from El Moro. A few hours later the Santa Fe chartered a special train for its working crew. They reached El Moro at 11 o'clock at night, and were immediately sent into the mountains, where the Rio Grande crew found them on their arrival the next morning. After some conflict a compromise was reached; the Rio Grande gave up its designs on Raton Pass and the Santa Fe agreed not to contest the right-of-way through the Royal Gorge (see Tour 9b).

At 104 miles US 85 crosses the NEW MEXICO LINE, 11 miles north of Raton, New Mexico (see New Mexico Guide).