(Goodland, Kans.)—Burlington—Limon—Colorado Springs—Buena Vista—Leadville—Tennessee Pass—Mount of the Holy Cross Glenwood Springs—Rifle—Grand Junction; US 24. Kansas Line to Grand Junction, 484.8 miles Gravel-surfaced road between Trout Creek Pass and Buena Vista, elsewhere oil processed. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. parallels route between Burlington and Colorado Springs; Midland Terminal R.R. between Colorado Springs and Divide; Denver & Rio Grande Western R.R. between Buena Vista and Grand Junction. Good accommodations.           

Crossing the seemingly limitless High Plains, barren and semiarid land devoted to cattle raising and dry farming, US 24 ascends to the base of the mountains at Colorado Springs. West of this sophisticated center, with its surrounding vacation area, the highway skirts Pikes Peak and traverses a rugged region of great natural beauty. Tales of Indian battles, gold strikes, and subsequent "rushes" lend glamour to the hills and old towns along the way. The tour winds through four of the State's national forests before entering the fertile Grand Valley, nestled in the semi-mountainous plateau country of the western part of the State.

Section a. KANSAS LINE to COLORADO SPRINGS; 168 miles US 24

The eastern section of this tour traverses a vast area of plains once matted with short curly buffalo grass, the home of the Indian "buffalo tribes," who depended for a livelihood upon their skill in hunting. The buffalo provided meat, hides to cover bodies and tepees, and something to barter with white men.

US 24 crosses the KANSAS LINE, 0 miles, 19 miles west of Good-land, Kans. (see Kansas Guide). In the 1870's and 1880's the plains along the boundary were overrun by herds of cattle; now agriculture is practically the sole occupation.

BURLINGTON, 12 miles (4,166 alt., 1,647 pop.), an attractive community in the center of a rich grain area, was for a time the largest grain-shipping point between Omaha and Denver. It occupies the site of ancient Indian camp grounds. Arrowheads, artifacts, and bones of prehistoric animals have been found here in great numbers.

BETHUNE, 20.5 miles (4,294 alt., 70 pop.), a dry farming settlement, was founded during the World War when high grain prices brought an influx of farmers. Farmers in this section of eastern Colorado are mostly of English, Scottish, Dutch, and German stock, with some Irish. Slavs and Latins are few. Dry farms range from 80 acres to 640 and more. Wheat and corn are the principal crops; oats, rye, barley, beans, and forage crops are also grown.

Not so very long ago, fall wheat threshing took on the color of a festival. Farmers and their wives traded help when a thresher moved through the countryside harvesting grain at a few cents a bushel or at a flat price for a field. The men worked hard in the fields, and ate prodigious meals of meat, vegetables, and pie provided by hard-working housewives. But threshing machines are fast being replaced by combines that thresh the grain as -it is cut; outmoded threshers stand rusting among high weeds on many farms.

Corn harvesting is still performed almost exclusively by hand. After the first freeze, through November and December, sometimes as late as February, wagons move slowly through the fields, and their high bang-boards resound to thumps of ears of corn as deft huskers move between rows of brittle yellow stalks. To husk 70 bushels of corn a day is good work; to husk 100 bushels gives one high standing among one's fellows. Work begins before sunup and continues until after sundown, or, as the phrase is, "from can see to can't see."

When the corn has been harvested, plains farmers look forward to a winter of rest. They play pitch, attend dances, and cheer at the basketball games in which their children participate. When warmth again floods the prairies, crop planting begins.

The country west of STRATTON, 29.5 miles (4,404 alt., 507 pop.), a dusty prairie town, was settled during the late 1890's when thousands homesteaded on what had been grazing land. Irrigation is impossible, but careful dry farming has permitted cultivation of an area once known as the Great American Desert.

When this region was young, many frauds were perpetrated by men who "homesteaded" under false pretenses, solely for the purpose of selling their claims. Some would place four sticks around a hollow square and file notice with the land office that foundations for houses had been laid. "Improvements" often consisted solely of such a foundation of logs, but the owner would appear at the land office with a witness and swear that he had erected a habitable dwelling. In other cases, alleged homesteaders swore that the dwelling upon their claim was of the required dimensions, but failed to explain that the measurements were in inches, not feet, the structure being a doll's house. A house had to have at least one window, and men sometimes thrust beer bottles into knot holes or placed glassless sashes in cabins so that witnesses might swear that windows were in evidence. In several recorded instances a cabin was wheeled from claim to claim at a rental of $5 a day to those who wished to preempt land with it.

GENOA, 79.5 miles (5,598 alt., 306 pop.), on the crest of the divide separating the South Platte and Arkansas drainage basins, was presumably named for the Italian city. From an OBSERVATION TOWER (adm. 25¢) can be seen a vast stretch of plains and the distant Rockies.

The highway traverses miles of prairie carpeted with white and yellow daisies, golden pea, and butterweed during spring; later, with loco weed, prickly poppy, and sunflowers. Large areas are covered with Russian thistles, more commonly known as "tumbleweeds," native to Russia and transported to this country by seeds mixed with imported grains. With the sandbur, it is the chief vegetable pest of the arid West.

The thistles grow in thick mats, sending down many roots and entangling their branches until a whole field seems to be covered by a single plant. Bushes are roughly globular in shape, some attaining great size, and the upcurving stems are studded with tiny thorns. They are green with streaks of lurid purple during spring and early summer, but turn brown as the season progresses. When completely dry, they break away from their roots, to be caught up by the wind and tumbled along over hills and plains, leaping and twirling in a grotesque parody of a spring song. Scattering seeds as they go, they eventually come to rest, heaped in fence corners, ditches, or sand blows. Their high inflammability when dry has resulted in miles of weed-covered prairie going up in sheets of flame.

At 88 miles is the eastern junction with US 40, which unites with US 24 for 3.5 miles (see Tour 7). To the southwest, the blue Rockies are visible in clear weather. Pikes Peak, ahead and slightly to the south, stands as a guardian sentinel detached from the massive barrier that fades away in the haze to the north.

Passing MATHESON, 108.8 miles (5,591 alt., 351 pop.), the highway crosses the last of the plains country, and the prairies give way to broken rocky knolls spotted with scrub pine.

SIMLA, 115 miles (5,768 alt., 351 pop.), and RAMAH, 119 miles (6,094 alt., 175 pop.), settled in the late1880's when the Rock Island Ry. was extended through this territory, are said to have been named by the wife of a railroad official who happened to be reading a book on India.

At the head of Big Sandy Creek, CALHAN, 128 miles (6,508 alt., 399 pop.), was founded in 1888 by a contractor who built this section of the Rock Island and perpetuated his name. The route continues across miles of level barren country cut by numerous arroyos, dry for the greater part of the year. In the early 1880's this district grazed many cattle, and PEYTON, 138 miles (6,789 alt., 123 pop.), was named for the owner of a large ranch.

COLORADO SPRINGS, 163 miles (5,900 alt., 33,237 pop.) (see Colorado Springs), is at the junction with US 85 (see Tour 12).

Right from Colorado Avenue (US 24) on Ridge Road, passing the granite UTE TRAIL MONUMENT, 2.6 miles, marking the spot where an Indian trail crossed the ridge toward Ute Pass, to the ENTRANCE OF THE GARDEN OF THE GODS (municipal park; free), 52 miles Framed in a natural gateway between GRAY ROCK (L) and RED ROCK is an excellent view of Pikes Peak.

The Garden of the Gods, a hilly area studded with a variety of grotesque rock masses of red Morrison sandstone, with a few upthrusts of gypsum, has several pinnacled and grottoed ridges of impressive size. The highest (300 alt.) is broken by numerous lofty crannies in which doves and swallows nest. The sandstone formation here is a part of the outcrop that extends from the highlands of Wyoming southward across Colorado for more than 300 miles.

The name of the park originated in a remark made in 1859 by R. E. Cable, a Kansas City lawyer, who visited the site in company with a Mr. Beach. "This would be a fine place for a beer garden!" exclaimed the latter. "Beer garden?" replied Cable, "why, this is a fit place for the gods to assemble—a garden of the gods!" Helen Hunt Jackson, American novelist, described it as a wonderland of "red rocks of every conceivable and inconceivable size and shape . . . queer, grotesque little monstrosities looking like seals, fishes, cats, and masks . . . colossal monstrosities looking like elephants, like gargoyles, like giants ... all motionless and silent, with a strange look of having been stopped and held back in the very climax of some supernatural catastrophe." But Julian Street, in his Abroad At Home, called it "a pale pink joke."

The road runs along the foot of Red Rock, which almost overhangs the highway; at one point its top has been eroded to form figures of the KISSING CAMELS. Red Rock can be climbed by a series of hand-hewn steps, but inexperienced climbers are advised not to attempt it.

HIDDEN INN (R), 5.3 miles, at the foot of Red Rock, contains a collection of Indian jewelry, blankets, and novelties. From the balconies is a good view of the slender towering CATHEDRAL SPIRES, south across the Garden. South from the inn at the base of Gray Rock (L) is a NATURAL AMPHITHEATER, in which annual Easter sunrise services are held under the joint sponsorship of Colorado Springs churches. The attendance in 1939 was estimated at 20,000.

Formations along the road are, in order, the THREE GRACES, INDIAN HEAD, BEAR AND SEAL, BUFFALO, HARRY LAUDER ROCK, SIAMESE TWINS, SLEEPING GIANT, PUNCH AND JUDY, WASHERWOMAN, BEEHIVE, AND TURTLE. To distinguish most of them requires a guide.

The road passes between BALANCED ROCK (R) and STEAMBOAT ROCK (parking space), 7.8 miles; from the summit of the latter is an excellent view of the Garden, with the Kissing Camels plainly visible. West of Balanced Rock is a small area known as MUSHROOM PARK for the hundreds of rock formations resembling that fungus.

At the western entrance to the garden, 8.1 miles, is the junction with Manitou Boulevard; R. on this road to RED CRAGS MANOR, 8.3 miles, a frame and red sandstone structure built on a high crag by Henry Van Brunt, an architect who designed some of the buildings at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Unoccupied for many years except by caretakers, it was once said to be haunted. An engineer solved the mystery when he discovered that the rock stratum on which the manor rested extended under a street car track, and passing cars caused the building to vibrate.

At 9 miles is the junction with US 24 in MANITOU SPRINGS (see below).

Section b. COLORADO SPRINGS to LEADVILLE; 137.0 miles US 24

The highway enters the mountains through Ute Pass, skirting the northern base of Pikes Peak, and crosses the wide expanse of South Park as it approaches the Continental Divide. Along this route thousands of miners thronged to the gold fields of Cripple Creek and Leadville.

West of COLORADO SPRINGS, 0 miles, US 24 follows FOUNTAIN CREEK, a stream known to pioneer fur traders as Fontaine qui Bouille (Fr. fountain that boils), now lined with tourist camps and cottages.

MANITOU SPRINGS (Ind. Great Spirit), 6 miles (6,336 alt., 1,205 pop.), a resort lying in the forested foothills that swell upward toward Pikes Peak, was founded in 1872 by Dr. William A. Bell and General William Palmer, railroad builder (see Colorado Springs). The proposed name of Villa la Font was changed to Manitou when a resort hotel was opened, then to Manitou Springs in 1912 when the town enjoyed its greatest popularity. Restaurants, curio shops, and the usual variety of resort amusements line the main thoroughfare. The town hibernates from October to June when the majority of hotels and shops are closed.

The great springs here were long known to the Indians, who marked off the area surrounding them as a sanctuary; the neutral ground is said never to have been violated. French traders visited the region during the late 1730's; Fremont stopped here in 1843 and made an analysis of the waters, which for a time were known as Fremont Soda Springs. Of the numerous developed springs three claim to be the original Manitou Spring for which the community was named: NAVAHO SPRING (free), in front of the Navaho Hotel on Manitou Ave.; SODA SPRING (private), at the rear of the Manitou Mineral Water Co. plant on Manitou Ave.; and MANITOU SPRING (free), at the Manitou Bath House (bathing 25c), Central Plaza.

An inclined railway (every half hour, June 15 to Sept. 30; 50c round trip) runs between the town and the top of Mount Manitou (9,455 alt.). A cog road runs to the summit of Pikes Peak (dally, 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.; $4.00 round trip).

Right from Canon Avenue on an oiled and graveled road (one way only) into WILLIAMS CANYON, a rugged gash cut through layers of white Sawatch sandstone and dove-gray Manitou limestone; at THE NARROWS, 1 miles, the cliff walls almost overhang the highway.

The CAVE OF THE WINDS (adm. $1.10; guides), 2 miles, has been hollowed out of the western limestone wall of Williams Canyon by underground waters. Numerous stalactites and stalagmites are in all seventeen compartments of the cave. One chamber is known as OLD MAIDS KITCHEN, and legend has it that if a girl leaves a hairpin here she will be married within a year; thousands of hairpins are heaped against the walls. Left from the Cave of the Winds the road continues along SERPENTINE DRIVE to the junction with US 24, 4.4 miles, at the western edge of Manitou Springs.

West of Manitou Springs, US 24 ascends by easy grades, crossing the eastern boundary of PIKE NATIONAL FOREST, 7.5 miles, one of the largest forest preserves in Colorado. Of its 1,417,903 acres, 1,220,544 are owned by the Federal government, the remainder by the State, municipalities, and private individuals. This section of the forest is included within the Pikes Peak State Game Refuge, in which hunting is forbidden. The first unit was established by President Harrison in 1892, and in 1929 mountain areas north and west of South Park were added. Englemann spruce trees are most numerous; other species are Western yellow pine, Douglas fir, and lodgepole pine. Foot and bridle trails thread the forest, and many streams offer good trout fishing.

A hundred yards west of the boundary is RAINBOW FALLS, spanned by a concrete bridge and surrounded by a dense stand of pine. Blue and white columbines, the State flower, grow profusely in the vicinity.

The highway enters UTE PASS, 8.5 miles, walled in by dark granite cliffs. Except at midday, the canyon is dark and forbidding. Even before the advent of white men, this was one of the important mountain passes of the region. The Ute, who held the mountain country successfully against the Plains Indians, fell back only when the gold rush began in 1859. Until 1920, Ute outposts, small forts with walls five feet high, stood in the neighborhood of the pass.

In the winter of 1860, H. A. W. Tabor (see Leadville), hearing rumors of gold strikes, sold his cow to buy supplies, and with his wife and several boarders, left Denver in a battered old wagon drawn by oxen. They reached Fontaine qui Bouille, prospected there for a time, but finding little "color," hired out as laborers on a toll road being built up Ute Pass. News of fresh strikes beyond sent them up the pass. The grade was so steep, and travel so slow, that they often saw the "smoke sent up by the dying fire of the camp of the night before."

Travel along this rutty wagon trail was often perilous; during the late 1860's the route was infested with outlaws who preyed on travelers going to and from the mining camps. Through it prowled the "Bloody Espinosas," two brothers who declared that they had been inspired by the Virgin Mary during a dream to kill all Gringos. Twelve of their 32 victims were murdered in and near Ute Pass. This reign of terror ended when Tom Tobin, frontier scout, walked into Fort Garland (see Tour lib), carrying the head of the last of the brothers; the other had been killed by a posse of miners.

Ute Pass has been the scene of many mysterious deaths. In 1866 a neighbor visited the cabin of a Mrs. Kearney, to find the table set for three persons, the food untouched, and no trace of the occupants. A search revealed the woman's decapitated body hidden in a barrel and her grandson's body in a grain sack. Neither the murderer nor his motive was ever discovered. In 1873 a four-horse stage carrying five passengers and $40,000 in gold is said to have entered the pass and to have disappeared without a trace. Four years later J. T. Schlessinger, secretary to General William Palmer, rode into the pass and did not return. Several days later his body was found with a bullet through the heart. The ground near by had been marked off as for a duel, and on the body lay a woman's glove and silk handkerchief; his slayer remains unknown.

The highway continues through the narrowest part of the pass, winding along Fountain Creek, here a brawling stream. A series of dams prevents flood waters from damaging Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs.

CASCADE, 11.5 miles (7,773 alt., 50 pop.), a resort with cabin and cottage accommodations, was founded by Kansas promoters in 1886. Thomas Cusack, head of a billboard advertising company, purchased the town in 1930, and the yellow stucco Community House was built by his estate as a memorial to him. General William T. Sherman, Elihu Root, and John Hay spent many summers in this vicinity; Hay wrote much of his Life of Abraham Lincoln here.

Cascade is the locale of an interesting lawsuit in irrigation history. When farmers on the plains attempted to divert water from the river above the town, the promoters of Cascade resisted, claiming that they had first utilized the water, for the spray from the waterfalls had irrigated trees in the canyons, an important factor in the development of the resort. The Colorado Supreme Court held that the resort's use of the water was prior in time, but as the method used—that of allowing the cascades to spray a fine mist over the trees—was wasteful, the farmers could appropriate the excess water.

Cascade is at the junction with a graveled road (see Tour 5A), which leads to the summit of Pikes Peak.

The route crosses a wide park-like valley, its grassy floor ending abruptly in red forested hills. Many Colorado Springs families have summer cottages here.

At 13.5 miles is the junction with a graveled road.

Left on this road is GREEN MOUNTAIN FALLS (tennis, golf, boating, swimming, and riding), 1 miles (7,694 alt., 41 pop.), named for a series of cascades (L), about 200 feet in length, which cut a silvery swath through the forest.

WOODLAND PARK, 20.5 miles (8,500 alt., 500 pop.), is a shipping point for railroad ties and mine props. The log and frame houses of the village are set in a wooded valley overlooked by Pikes Peak on the south, the Front Range on the east, and an irregular ridge of hogbacks on the north.

Swinging south, the highway traverses foothill pasture country to DIVIDE, 27 miles (9,183 alt., 30 pop.), in the early 1890's the terminal of a toll road into the Cripple Creek district. The town ships lettuce, potatoes, and hay grown on the surrounding slopes.

Divide is at the junction with State 67 (see Tour 5B).

The highway follows the abandoned grade of the Colorado Midland, until 1918 the shortest rail route through the mountains. Keeping the track open during winter proved expensive, and when mining of ore dwindled, the tracks were torn up.

FLORISSANT, 35 miles (8,178 alt., 26 pop.), once a busy division point on the Midland, now depends upon local and tourist trade for its existence. Several dude ranches are in the vicinity.

Left from Florissant on State 143 to the PETRIFIED FOREST (adm. 35¢), 2.5 miles Delvers into the past relate that giant Sequoias, similar to the huge trees in California, once grew here. During the Tertiary era an upheaval caused silica-laden water to overspread the living forest, and wood cells were changed in time to red sandstone. Another disturbance came, the lake drained away, and the forest appeared as trees of stone. Men looking for gold first found this petrified forest. Then came curio hunters, and so many souvenirs were broken off and carried away that now little more than stumps remain. One measures 74 feet in circumference; another, 61 feet. This region won additional scientific attention when insect fossils of many species were discovered. Dr. T. D. A. Cockerell assembled a valuable collection of Florissant fossils, now on display in the University of Colorado Museum (see Boulder). An early trapper who visited this forest graphically described it to his companions upon returning to Taos, New Mexico, "Pa'dners, I seed a pewtrified forest of pewtrified trees, with their pewtrified limbs chock-full of pewtrified birds a-singing of pewtrified songs."

The route crosses a boundary of the Pike National Forest, 37.3 miles, and continues along the abandoned railroad grade to LAKE GEORGE, 42.3 miles (7,963 alt., 100 pop.), center of an extensive potato-growing area. Brands of various ranches in this region are burned into the door jam of the CATTLEMEN'S TRADING POST.

At Lake George is the junction with State 77 (see Tour 15a).

Left from Lake George on a rough dirt road (difficult) to ELEVEN MILE RESERVOIR, 11 miles (picnic grounds; trout fishing above dam), an azure lake lying between precipitous canyon walls. The lake (8,564 alt.), a part of the Denver water supply system, was created by damming the South Fork of the South Platte River and holds a maximum of 26,393,000,000 gallons

West of Lake George the highway ascends WILKERSON PASS, 53.3 miles (9,524 alt.), crosses the western boundary of Pike National Forest, 54.8 miles, and descends into SOUTH PARK, a flat grassy basin some 40 miles from north to south, with an average width of 30 miles, the favorite hunting ground of the Ute. Early frequented by the Mountain Men, it was a scene of great excitement during the gold rush days (see Tour 15a).

HARTSEL, 68.4 miles (8,875 alt., 50 pop.), is a resort near a number of hot springs.

At 69.4 miles is the junction with State 9 (see Tour 16).

At 77.3 miles is the junction with a graveled road.

Right on this road to ANTERO RESERVOIR (R), 2.5 miles, another of the chain of reservoirs of the Denver water supply system. The lake, formed by damming the South Fork of the South Platte, has a capacity of 10,843,000,000 gallons. The soil around the lake is streaked with white patches of alkali, evidently seepage from underground waters.

On the McQuaid Ranch, 4.8 miles, are (L) the boilers and high smokestacks of an old SALT MILL (open), which supplied gold camps during 1861.

The road rejoins US 24, 7.2 miles

At 81.2 miles is the junction with US 285 (see Tour 15a), which unites with US 24 for 15.5 miles.

West of the junction is an impressive view (R) of the Mosquito Range. From south to north the jagged peaks of the range are MOUNT SHERMAN (14,037 alt.), MOUNT DEMOCRAT (14,142 alt.), MOUNT BROSS (14,170 alt.), MOUNT LINCOLN (14,284 alt.), and QUANDARY PEAK (14,256 alt.).

TROUT CREEK PASS (9,346 alt.), 85.2 miles, the dividing point between the drainage basins of the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers, was once used by both the Colorado Midland and the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroads. The eastern boundary of COCHETOPA NATIONAL FOREST (see Tour 9b) is crossed at the pass, west of which lies the BUFFALO PEAKS STATE GAME PRESERVE embracing 192,640 acres. The highway continues through a deep canyon and traverses a region of barren hills. At intervals are miners' log cabins. Now abandoned, their roofs have fallen in, and their doors creak in the wind. Concrete and stone abutments (R) are all that remain of NEWETT, 86 miles, once a railroad town.

West of Newett the route enters the Arkansas River Valley, a level winding basin producing large crops of hay and vegetables. On the west (L) are the majestic peaks of the COLLEGIATE RANGE, one of the highest in the State. The chief peaks were measured in 1869 by Prof. J. D. Whitney and his party, who named MOUNT HARVARD (14,399 alt.) in honor "of the university to which most of the members belonged as teachers or students." MOUNT YALE (14,172 alt.) was named for the university from which Whitney was graduated. MOUNT PRINCETON (14,177 alt.) was named a few years later by Henry Gannett, also a member of Whitney's party. The highway crosses a boundary of Cochetopa National Forest, 92.1 miles, to the western junction with US 285, 96.7 miles (see Tour 15a).

US 24 turns sharply north (R) up the Arkansas Valley, here devoted to mountain lettuce cultivation. Little was grown until 1918 when G. D. Isabel of Buena Vista (see below) planted an experimental 10 acres that netted him $7,000. By 1926 more than 13,000 acres were under cultivation, averaging 100 crates an acre. The best mountain lettuce is grown between altitudes of 7,000 to 9,000 feet on sandy soil rich in leaf mold, preferably land from which aspens have been removed. Seed is planted in June; after thinning, plants stand about a foot apart. Irrigation during the growing season is essential. During late August and September the lettuce is harvested and shipped in refrigerator cars to eastern markets. Preferred varieties are Western and Mountain Iceberg. The Colorado crop is marketed when production in eastern states is at a minimum.

The COLORADO STATE REFORMATORY (open daily by permission), 97.6 miles, a gray stone, green-roofed building, was established in 1891 for offenders between 16 and 26 years of age. The 150 inmates grow much of the foodstuffs they use, and make their own clothing and shoes in the institution's shops.

A STATE FISH HATCHERY (open 9-5 daily), with spawning beds and nursery ponds,, occupies a portion of the reformatory grounds. This is one of 16 State-owned-and-operated hatcheries with a combined annual capacity of 75,000,000 trout. Brood fish are "stripped" by hands; the eggs are fertilized by "milt" from the males stirred in water, and are then left in trays from 30 to 60 minutes until the adhering stage is passed. A two-year-old fish produces 500 to 700 eggs; those six years old, some 1,500. Eggs for near-by hatcheries are transferred immediately; others are held at the point of collection until reaching the "eyed" stage, a period of three days when eyes of the developing embryo are discernible. Trays covered with wire cloth are submerged in troughs of running water until the eggs are hatched, requiring from 25 to 50 days, depending upon the temperature of the water. The fish are then placed in open ponds, or nurseries, and are fed six times a day, usually ground beef heart and liver. When four to seven inches long, they are termed "fingerlings" and are transplanted to streams and lakes throughout the State. If the journey takes less than 10 hours, fingerlings are transported in ordinary 10-gallon milk cans; for longer trips, motor tank trucks are used; in these specially built tanks compressed oxygen flows through ice-cooled compartments to aerate the water. The State maintains three large reservoirs for egg-spawn purposes, replacing the natural lakes used in former years. In addition to State and Federal hatcheries, numerous private hatcheries supply local markets.

BUENA VISTA (Sp. good view), 99.2 miles (7,800 alt., 750 pop.), at the confluence of Cottonwood Creek and the Arkansas River, six miles northeast of the base of Mount Princeton, is a shipping point for products of mines and farms. The town, founded in 1879 by silver prospectors, became the seat of Chaffee County later that year when a group of citizens chartered a locomotive and flat car and one night removed the county records from Granite (see below], where they had been stored in a hall above a brewery. Buena Vista was, and still is, the center of productive mining country. In 1881 a smelter and ore-sampling works were erected and remained in operation during the silver boom days. The town was the terminus of the railroad before its extension to Leadville and was headquarters for gamblers, bunco men, and desperadoes, who were driven out by the "respectables" in 1880. MUNICIPAL PARK contains a community house and library. Lettuce Day, combined with a rodeo, is celebrated annually in September.

North of Buena Vista the valley is walled in by rough hills. The eastern wall is of pink granite; the western is a glacial terrace of conglomerate rock and unconsolidated gravel, covered by a dense growth of sagebrush.

The highway passes RIVERSIDE, 106.7 miles (8,374 alt., 8 pop.), where the valley narrows. Directly east is MARMOT MOUNTAIN (11,841 alt.), containing a solitary outcrop of limestone and quartzite in a region otherwise composed of granite. Glacial debris is deposited in long ridges across the valley.

The highway crosses a boundary of Cochetopa National Forest, 109.2 miles, and then skirts CLEAR CREEK RESERVOIR (fishing, boating, and near-by camping facilities), 114.2 miles, which supplies water to the valley farms.

GRANITE, 116.5 miles (8,943 alt., 50 pop.), a collection of weathered frame houses at the bottom of a ravine, was the scene in 1859 of the first gold discoveries in this section. The diggings along Cache Creek and at Kelley's Bay were later abandoned in favor of richer deposits up the Arkansas at California Gulch. Dredges have successfully reworked the creek sands.

At 121.5 miles is the junction (L) with State 82 (see Tour 5C).

North of this junction appear (L) the twin peaks of MOUNT ELBERT (14,431 alt.) and MOUNT MASSIVE (14,418 alt.). The first-named has been officially measured by the U. S. Geological Survey as the highest peak in Colorado, but Mount Massive appears to be the higher of the two; residents here continue a long-standing feud over their relative altitudes. Elbert is a sharply pointed peak, while Massive, standing a little to the north and west, is a double-peaked mountain marked by a great semicircular gash. Livestock is grazed on the mountain sides during the summer and wintered in the valley, protected by the surrounding mountains against severe cold. In late summer and fall the fields along the river are dotted with brown hay stacks.

At the head of the valley is MALTA, 133 miles (9,570 alt., 25 pop.), a railroad junction point for Leadville. During the 1880's this was the prosperous and populous center of an extensive charcoal-burning industry that supplied the fuel needs of the smelters of the Leadville district. A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FISH HATCHERY (open 9-5 daily), one of two in the State, is the largest in the United States used exclusively for the propagation of trout, shipping four to six million fingerlings annually. In addition, it furnishes approximately 4,00,000 eggs to other hatcheries, transporting them in special Department of Commerce railroad cars.

The road swings sharply east and traverses the lower end of CALIFORNIA GULCH, the ravine that first made this region famous as a mining center. Prospectors, disgusted with their luck in Clear Creek Canyon (see Tour 7b), stopped here early in 1860 to dig through four feet of snow and pan some of the frozen sand. Few traces of color were found, and the men prepared to move on, when suddenly Abe Lee shouted, "I've got Californy right in my pan!" The rich strike brought a rush to the new diggings. The straggling settlement in the gulch was known first as Boughtown, later as Oro City (Sp. gold). At the end of 1860 the camp sheltered 5,000 persons and in 1861 was the most populous in the region.

The usual miscellany of miners, speculators, gamblers, and prostitutes descended upon the camp; saloons, gambling houses, and brothels lined the streets. "Money was of no account here," wrote Augusta Tabor (see Leadville) of that time. "Ordinary workmen were paid $6 in gold and spent it before morning." The placers were so rich that some mine owners reported taking out "a panful of almost pure gold a day." Before the claims were exhausted, California Gulch produced more than $5,000,000 in gold. By 1870 the gulch was almost abandoned; today the few houses along the road are occupied by workers at the smelter.

The ARKANSAS VALLEY SMELTER (open 1-3 daily; guides), 135.3 miles, established in 1877, is Leadville's greatest industrial plant. The huddle of smokestacks and blackened buildings are shut off from the road by great dikes of dark gray slag. Drab and forbidding by day, the cooling lava sends up streamers of white flames that turn vivid orange-red and light the scene with a weird glow at night when the molten slag is trundled from the furnaces by electric trams and dumped, to run down the blackened slopes. Ore from the mines is crushed and carried to the hearth furnaces to be roasted, or "sintered," a process that reduces the sulphur content so as not to interfere with subsequent smelting operations. Mixed with a flux of iron ore and limestone, roasted ore is fed into blast furnaces. The metallic contents run out in liquid form to be caught in crucibles, drawn off in molds, and allowed to cool. The waste is carried to the dumps. The ingots are shipped to Omaha, Nebr., to be refined; there the gold and silver are removed, and the lead is cast into bars known as "pigs."

In LEADVILLE, 137 miles (10,152 alt, 3,771 pop.) (see Leadville), is the junction with State 104 (see Tour 5D).

Section c. LEADVILLE to GRAND JUNCTION; 184.8 miles US 24

This section of the route ascends the Askansas Valley by easy grades through a region of glacial moraines to the crest of the Continental Divide, traverses three of the State's national forests, descends the Eagle River to its junction with the Colorado, and enters the rich horticultural area of the Grand Valley.

North of LEADVILLE, 0 miles, the highway climbs through rolling wooded country to TENNESSEE PASS, 9.9 miles (10,427 alt.), a high saddle between pine-covered hills. Although the pass was long used by Indians, the first recorded crossing by white men was made by Lieutenant John C. Fremont and his party on their way to California in 1845. A marker here indicates the boundary between Cochetopa and Holy Cross National Forests. At the western portal of the DENVER & Rio GRANDE WESTERN RAILROAD TUNNEL, 9.7 miles, helper engines are stationed to assist heavy freight trains over the "hump."

The road descends into the valley of the EAGLE RIVER, tributary to the Colorado, passing abandoned kilns, 12.5 miles, once used to burn charcoal for the Leadville smelter. Following the Eagle River, the highway descends by hairpin curves to the floor of Eagle Park, in prehistoric times the bed of a lake. Along the valley wall (L) is an outcrop of glassy white quartzite laid down as sand on the lakeshore and formed by deposits of silica in the pores of the early sandstone.

PANDO (cabins; good fishing), 19 miles (9,200 alt., 60 pop.), has a sawmill operated by water power set back in a grove of pines.

MOUNT OF THE HOLY CROSS (13,978 alt.) is visible directly ahead, 21 miles, the only view from US 24 of the northern or cross-face of the noted peak. The outlines of the cross are seen most distinctly in late spring and early summer. The peak, scarcely known before 1869, was not named until several years later. Longfellow's poem and the widely published sketches of Thomas Moran made the unique formation known to the world. The upright of the cross is 1,500 feet in length, and the arms extend 750 feet on each side. In spring the ravines forming the cross are filled with snow drifts 50 to 80 feet deep. Other drifts form an image of the SUPPLICATING VIRGIN, at the foot of which is a body of water known as the BOWL OF TEARS.

The route passes the HOMESTAKE CAMPGROUND, 23.5 miles, maintained by the Forest Service, to the junction with a dirt road, 24.1 miles, with a marker pointing to Mount of the Holy Cross.

Left on this unimproved road to GOLD PARK, 10 miles, a ghost town, one of the nearest automobile approaches to Mount of the Holy Cross.

Right 9.8 miles on a trail from Gold Park to Camp Tigiwon (see below), at the foot of Mount of the Holy Cross.

North of the junction, US 24 traverses a narrow canyon to REDCLIFF, 25 miles (8,598 alt., 554 pop.), a mining settlement. Many of the weathered houses, set on the steep slopes, are reached by long stairways from the highway. The important deposits in the vicinity are silver, lead, and zinc. The surrounding area offers excellent hunting and fishing (guides; equipment).

Climbing 400 feet in less than three miles, the highway ascends BATTLE MOUNTAIN (10,956 alt), named for an encounter between the Ute and Arapaho in 1849. The granite and quartzite cliffs, capped with a layer of Leadville limestone rich in zinc, are honeycombed with tunnels driven in search of gold. Perched precariously on the slopes of the mountain is OILMAN, 28 miles (9,000 alt., 300 pop.). Drifts of the EAGLE MINE, producing gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper, crisscross the interior of the mountain; the shafthouse and mill are partially underground. Ore and supplies are carried by aerial trams from the railroad station at the foot of the mountain; passengers reach the town by a series of stairs.

At 31 miles is the junction with a dirt road, marked with a sign-indicating the Mount of the Holy Cross.

Left on this road to CAMP TIGIWON, 3 miles, a community house established by the Forest Service. An annual pilgrimage is made in July to Mount of the Holy Cross by the Mount of the Holy Cross Association (registration $1; meals 50c; horses $2 a day).

Right 9 miles on a trail from Camp Tigiwon to NOTCH MOUNTAIN (shelter house), from which the arms of the cross are a half-mile distant.

The highway crosses the northwestern boundary of Holy Cross National Forest on the outskirts of MINTURN, 34 miles (7,825 alt., 400 pop.), a railroad lumbering town (guides, horses). Northwest of Minturn the route winds through a narrow canyon and traverses a valley intensively farmed to the MOUNTAIN EXPERIMENT STATION (open daily 9-4), 40 miles, established in 1924 by the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Here crops are grown to demonstrate efficient methods of farming at high altitudes and to discover other crops that might be grown in such regions.

AVON, 40.5 miles (7,465 alt., 200 pop.), lies in a broad grassy valley at the foot of RED AND WHITE MOUNTAIN (L). Along the ranges of the Continental Divide (R) the harder rock strata are overlaid with darker volcanic material, soft and easily washed by rain, which has slipped down the hillsides to give them a soft rolling appearance. Grain and cattle raising are the chief occupations.

Before construction of the Moffat Railroad through northwestern Colorado, WOLCOTT, 51.3 miles (6,975 alt., 115 pop.), was an important supply point for ranches to the north.

In Wolcott is the junction with State 11 (see Tour 7b).

The road continues through a narrow canyon in which the vividly colored Triassic sandstone walls resemble masses of red-hot iron. Willows, cottonwoods, and spruce border the river. The route descends a broad valley dotted with farms to EAGLE, 61.5 miles (6,602 alt., 341 pop.), seat of Eagle County and center of an agricultural and ranching district. Hay and potatoes are the principal crops.

West of Eagle the highway leaves the mountains and traverses the high plateau country of western Colorado, described as "the badly weathered western roof of the Continental Divide." Vegetation becomes sparse, evidence of a diminishing amount of rainfall. South of GYPSUM, 69 miles (6,325 alt., 186 pop.), a potato-growing community, rise the high limestone cliffs for which the community was named.

Right from Gypsum on a dirt road to the SWEETWATER LAKE COUNTRY (camp grounds and accommodations at Sweetivater and Gypsum Lakes), 8 miles, noted for its excellent hunting and fishing.

A stratum of black rock (R), 74.2 miles, is one of the best examples of lava flow in the State.

DOTSERO, 75.5 miles (6,155 alt., 25 pop.), is the junction point of the Royal Gorge and Moffat Tunnel routes of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The Dotsero Cutoff, completed in 1935, links the D. & R. G. W. with the Denver & Salt Lake (Moffat) Railway at Orestod (see Tour 7b), the latter name being Dotsero spelled in reverse.

From the broad valley formed by the junction of the Eagle and Colorado River, White River Plateau is visible (R), a high level country visited by Theodore Roosevelt on one of his many western hunting trips. The Colorado River, once known as the Grand above its junction with the Green River in Utah, rises in Middle Park and flows alternately across flat treeless areas and through numerous canyons. In Gore Canyon (see Tour 7b) it becomes a roaring torrent, falling 360 feet in 5 miles, the greatest drop in the upper river below its headwaters.

The highway swings southwest between slate-colored cliffs as it follows the valley of the Colorado to the mouth of Glenwood Canyon, trenched through sedimentary rock and underlying granite for 15 miles, one of the outstanding scenic attractions of Colorado. Sheer walls here and there rise 1,000 feet above the foaming river as it cascades down a series of rapids. Throughout the canyon are alternate bands of limestone, granite, and red sandstone. High on the serrated walls pine trees cling precariously. Frequenting the sheer precipices are the canyon wren, mouse-like in color but eloquent in song, and colonies of white-throated swifts, birds possessed of such tremendous powers of flight that they have developed wing feathers stiff as steel needles.

The route crosses the eastern boundary of WHITE RIVER NATIONAL FOREST, 81.2 miles, the first national reserve created in Colorado (1891) and the second in the United States. It embraces 918,234 acres, all but 23,311 owned by the Federal Government. Within the forest is the White River Plateau, or Flat Tops, embracing 400 square miles. Much of the plateau is bordered by rimrock, but at intervals gradual slopes permit easy ascent.

At 83.5 miles is HANGING LAKE PARK (restaurant accommodations; burros).

Right from the park on a trail to HANGING LAKE, 1 miles (one hour each way on foot), where a spring has formed its own natural cup in the face of a cliff. The spring pours directly from an underground channel through a hole in the cliff and plunges downward into the basin, 500 feet wide. The mineral content of the extremely blue water is such that plant life touching it becomes petrified.

A concrete dam, 84.5 miles, diverts water through a 2.7-mile tunnel to the SHOSHONE HYDROELECTRIC PLANT of the Public Service Company of Colorado, 86.9 miles, which supplies light and power for Denver. Between the dam and the powerhouse are precipitous rapids.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, 93.5 miles (5,756 alt., 1,825 pop.), at the western end of Glenwood Canyon, seat of Garfield County, is a resort, ranching center, and outfitting point for sportsmen. The Flat Tops rise to an altitude of almost 10,000 feet on the northern edge of town, and the conical bulk of MOUNT SOPRIS looms across the valley of Roaring Fork River to the south. The community is built around numerous hot mineral springs flowing from limestone formations. An annual attraction is Strawberry Day in June when free berries are served visitors from tables set along one of the streets.

The town, originally known as Defiance, for a near-by fort, was laid out in 1883, four years before the arrival of the railroad. It was later named for Glenwood, Iowa, the birthplace of one of its founders. An English syndicate, interested in the region as a health resort, built the open-air swimming pool and bathhouse in 1891. Previously, the bath tubs of early settlers had been holes scooped in the ground and shielded by pine boughs, an idea borrowed from the Indians who brought their sick here for treatment. The Ute continued to visit the springs long after they had been removed to their reservation, and Chief Colorow was a familiar figure in the town. Although usually in feathered head dress, buckskin trousers, and a red blanket, he paraded the streets on occasion in a tall plug hat and a black frock coat split up the back to accommodate his girth.

The 600-foot SWIMMING POOL (open daily; adm. 25c-35c), on the northern edge of town, is fed by hot and cold sulphur springs, and is used the year round; the thermal springs, the most copious in the State, flow 3,000 gallons a minute. Adjoining are several VAPOR CAVES (adm. 75c-$1.25).

In Glenwood Springs is the junction with State 82 (see Tour 5C).

West of Glenwood Springs, US 24 skirts Red Mountain, noted for its coloring and strange formations, and traverses an irrigated valley to NEWCASTLE, 108 miles (5,552 alt., 470 pop.), a one-time coal camp.

Fire in the underground workings of the Wheeler Mine led to its abandonment.

West of SILT, 112.5 miles (4,452 alt., 264 pop.), a cattle- and potato-shipping point, is the beginning of a semiarid region, the true mesa country of western Colorado. In isolated spots some vegetables and alfalfa are grown by irrigation, but the greater part of the section is a desolate area of sage and cacti. An early visitor described this land as worthless waste, where "rattlesnakes are numerous and deadly species of centipede and beetles stand on.their heads and wave their tails at you . . . beetles that dissolve themselves into a liquid which they squirt at you in retreating. . . . These are the curses of this accursed country."

RIFLE, 120 miles (5,310 alt., 1,287 pop.), a Saturday-night town for a large sparsely-settled cattle-raising area, is at the junction with State 13 (see Tour 17).

The road parallels the Colorado River, its banks fringed with cottonwoods and willows, and skirts the foot of BATTLEMENT MESA (10,000 alt.). On the north the precipitous white BOOK CLIFFS, topped with evergreens, resemble a row of gigantic volumes standing on the desert floor.

GRAND VALLEY, 136.5 miles (5,104 alt., 209 pop.), an agricultural town, lies in an area known locally as the Parachute Creek Oil Mining District, part of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve that includes 67,440 acres. Shale strata from a few to fifty feet in thickness extend westward to the Uinta Basin and contain an estimated 400,000,000 barrels of crude oil and 300,000,000 tons of ammonium sulphate, a fertilizer.

DE BEQUE, 149.5 miles (4,956 alt., 400 pop.), is a trading center for a large section of Roan Creek Valley.

Left from De Bequc on a dirt road to the DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, 6 miles, where well-preserved fossils have been found by scientists of the Field Museum, Chicago. Most notable of the remains were those of a brancheosaurus, a giant variety of dinosauria, measuring 30 feet high at the shoulder, 140 feet long, and estimated to have weighed more than 100 tons.

The route traverses Colorado Canyon to the GRAND VALLEY DAM, 163 miles, which diverts water from the river into the High Line Canal (R) and irrigates 50,000 acres in the valley below; approximately half of the first six miles of the canal is tunneled through solid rock.

At 164.5 miles is the junction with State 65 (see Tour 5E).

West of the junction the highway follows the bluffs along the river to the junction with a dirt road, 170.5 miles

Right on this road across the Colorado River to CAMEO, 0.2 miles (4,774 alt., 75 pop.), a coal town, named for the peculiar formation of the surrounding cliffs.

The road descends into Grand Valley, 50 miles long and 20 miles wide, a fertile irrigated area of more than 200,000 acres, noted for its peach orchards which extend to the surrounding mesas. Approximately two thirds of the State's peach crop is raised here. In mid-August thousands of workers, often with their families, converge here from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and other States. Rooming houses are filled; many workers pitch their tents on the outskirts of small towns; some occupy trailers. These workers, often referred to as "fruit tramps," are paid both by the day and on a piece-work basis. Peach "fuzz" is the bane of pickers; many of them dust their necks and shoulders with starch or powder to counteract the irritation, and take several shower baths daily to relieve the intense itching produced by the fuzz.

There are two types of packing: the "field pack," in which each grower does his own grading and packing; and the "shed pack," performed in a centrally located plant. Packers, both men and women, earn from $6 to $7 a day; exceptional workers earn as much as $12. During the peak of the season some 225 refrigerator cars are daily packed and dispatched from the valley. Most popular of the peaches are the Elberta, averaging 60 to a crate, and the Hale, a larger variety, which runs as low as 20 to a crate.

In the midst of this orchard area is PALISADE, 172.2 miles (4,739 alt., 851 pop.), an important fruit-shipping center, named for the high serrated cliff of white shale extending for miles along the northern rim of the valley. During the picking season carnival companies follow the workers to set up street and tent shows in the small valley towns.

West of CLIFTON, 178 miles (4,800 alt., 304 pop.), the highway follows the Book Cliff Mountains, a continuation of the palisades extending westward 190 miles, far into Utah; they form the southern rim of the trough known as the Uinta Basin.

GRAND JUNCTION, 184.8 miles (4,602 alt., 10,247 pop.) (see Grand Junction), is at the junction with US 50 (see Tour 9c).