COLORADO.
It is a mistake to believe that, because Colorado has a high elevation,
the mercury in the thermometer drops down below zero in the winter
season and stops there, and that the snow mounts up with the altitude.
The fact is that the average precipitation of moisture at Denver during
the entire year is only 14.77 inches. With such a slight precipitation
there is practically no danger of snow blockades on the railroads, save
at a few points exposed to drifts, and these points have been amply
protected. This is especially true of the through line of the Denver &
Rio Grande Railroad from Denver to Salt Lake City and Ogden.
Facts speak louder than words, and the fact is that travel over "the
Scenic Line of the World" has gone on with less interruption from snow
during the last five winters than it has on the plains lines, which are
popularly supposed to be more free from such delays than the mountain
systems.
A winter's residence in Colorado will banish forever the false
impression that this is a boreal region, given over to inclemency and
snow-drifts. There is more sunshine in Colorado than in Florida; there
is less snow than in any State east of the Missouri River. A single trip
over the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from Denver to Ogden, in
midwinter, will disabuse the mind of the tourist or transcontinental
traveler of the erroneous notion that mountain railroads suffer from
delays by snow to any greater extent than do the trains upon the less
attractive, and by far more bleak, plains.
The glories and pleasures of a summer trip by rail through the Rocky
Mountains have been lauded _ad infinitum_, and, indeed, too much can not
be said in this direction; but winter adds new grandeur to the scene,
lends a new charm to the massive bulwarks of the gigantic ranges, and
introduces a new element of variety and beauty to these unsurpassed and
unsurpassable wonders of nature. These sights can be enjoyed, these
wonders witnessed, with no dangers of delay and no anticipation of
vexatious detentions. There are those, however, who, knowing that the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad climbs great passes over the mountains, are
apprehensive of snow blockades at these points. Here facts come to the
rescue. The trains are not delayed, for the exposed places of this
character have been amply protected, and the experiences of years prove
that delay of trains from snow is a rarer event on this
mountain-climbing system than on the level, and in fact more exposed,
lines of the East.
For the benefit of those who are unacquainted with the peculiarity of
the mountain-base climate, it may be well to mention some of its
characteristics. In summer the days are seldom hot, and it is rare to
see the thermometer reach 90° at Manitou. The farther one moves eastward
from the foot-hills, the greater are to be found the extremes of
temperature. Omaha, although much lower in elevation, experiences far
greater extremes of heat and cold.
In the dry air of the Colorado plateau the feeling of heat and cold is
much less marked. One is not oppressed at all by a temperature of 90°,
nor does almost any amount of cold produce the chilliness in the open
air, which is really the distressing and objectionable feature of a low
temperature. The nights in summer are always cool and refreshing.
It must not be supposed that the climate of Colorado is an equable one,
or that there is a distinct dry and rainy season, as in California and
on the Pacific Coast. The contrary is true. The diurnal range of
temperature, as in all high countries, is great; and there are rains
throughout the warm parts of the year and snows in winter, but both are
moderate in quantity.
A glance at the reports compiled by the United States Signal Service
shows the remarkable fact that 340 out of 365 were "sunny days" in
Colorado.
It is not necessary to add an elaborate argument. The conclusion is
self-evident and inevitable. The winter climate of Colorado, on the
whole, presents advantages for the invalid and the pleasure-seeker that
can not fail to command attention. The Denver & Rio Grande is not alone
a summer road. Its trains run on schedule time all the year round, and
give to the travelling public all the comforts, conveniences,
elegancies, and luxuries to be found on any line, with the added
attraction of scenery the grandest in the world.
Climate and health go together so closely associated that they have
become almost synonymous terms. So beneficial have been found the
climatic influences of Colorado that her fame as a sanitarium has become
world-wide, and this reputation has been so well-founded in recent years
that thousands of people from all parts of America and Europe--from many
parts of the world, in fact--are now coming annually to Colorado for
recuperation or permanent residence. The dryness and lightness of the
air, and its invigorating character, together with the almost constant
prevalence of sunshine, impart new energy to the well and a fresh lease
of life to those whose constitutions are impaired. All the conditions of
life to the newcomer in Colorado are fresh and inspiring, and even
wasted and shattered constitutions are restored to vigor. This is
illustrated daily by the experiences of thousands who have sought the
benign influences of Colorado climate with scarcely a hope, in the
beginning, of recovery. These climatic influences are especially
beneficial to persons suffering from all kinds of lung diseases, except
to those in the last stage of consumption. That the climate itself is a
preventative of consumption is evidenced in the fact that phthisis does
not originate here. The places of peculiar advantage in seeking health
are the towns and cities on the plains, and parks and pleasure resorts
on the mountains. The plains in some instances are the most beneficial
for a permanent residence, while in other cases the mountains are
preferable. There are not exceeding an average of sixty-five cloudy days
per year in Colorado, while there are scarcely twenty days that the sun
is all the day invisible at any given point. Summer weather usually
continues till October, and the autumn till January. Usually the winters
are mild, followed by an early spring. In summer the temperature rarely
reaches 90° and is normal at 70°. Colorado climate is beneficial not to
consumptives alone, but persons of kidney and liver and kindred diseases
are benefited both by climate and the mineral waters which everywhere
abound in the State, and are especially numerous and available on the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad lines.
The supply of coal in Colorado is inexhaustible, the lignite or brown
coal area extending from St. Vrains on the north to the Raton Mountains
on the south, about 220 miles in length and varying from twenty to
twenty-five miles in breadth, along the eastern base of the mountains.
Large portions of this field have been swept away by floods resulting
from melting glaciers. The principal developments of this vast field
have been made in the vicinity of Trinidad and Walsenburg, Cañon City,
Coal Creek, Colorado Springs, Golden, Loveland, Erie, and Boulder.
Lignite also exists in North Park and at various points on the divide
between North and Middle parks. Jet, or the black variety of coal,
occurs in seams from one-half to six inches in width in the shale about
Cañon City and Little Fountain Creek. The most important mines of
bituminous coal are the Trinidad group and the mines at Crested Butte.
Anthracite coal appears to be confined mainly to the coal basins in the
Elk Mountain. Native coke is found near Crested Butte, where a dyke of
lava has intruded the coal strata. Official geological surveys give a
coal-bearing strata of 40,000 square miles, or one-third of the entire
area of the State. In 1873, when coal-mining began to take shape as an
industry, the output was 69,977 tons; to-day the output is 2,373,954
tons, which comparison gives the reader some idea of the rapidity of its
growth.
It has been said, with a great deal of truth, that all of Colorado is a
health resort. With its gorgeous peaks and lovely valleys, its beautiful
cities on the plains, its forests and its streams, its broad green parks
and charming crystal lakes amid the mountains, with its sunshine and
pure air, it is certainly a land for man's health and pleasure. The most
desirable resorts in the world are upon the lines of the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad. Only eighty miles from Denver, or five miles from
Colorado Springs, and nestling at the foot of Pike's Peak, is situated
Manitou, that delightful resort for health and pleasure seekers, as
popular to-day as Newport or Saratoga, attracting tourists from all
parts of the United States and Europe. It has wonderful effervescent and
medicinal springs, and is surrounded by more objects of attraction than
any other spot in the world, including the Garden of the Gods, Glen
Eyrie, Red Rock Cañon, Crystal Park, Engleman's Cañon, Williams Cañon,
Manitou Grand Caverns, Cave of the Winds, Ute Pass, Rainbow Falls, and
Bear Creek Cañon, all places of great attraction to the visitor. Palmer
Lake is a local pleasure resort. Poncha Springs, five miles from
Salida, are the noted hot springs--altitude, 7,480 feet--a great health
resort. Wagon Wheel Gap, in the picturesque San Luis Valley; hot springs
of great curative qualities. It is a favorite health and pleasure
resort; the best place in the West for trout fishing. Glenwood Springs
is a fine town and a watering place and health resort, having extensive
hot springs of great curative properties. Formerly the Mecca of the
Indians. Elevation 5,200 feet. Twin Lakes, a beautiful body of crystal
water, a pleasure resort and place of entertainment; fine boating and
fishing; near Leadville, and reached by the Denver & Rio Grande. Trimble
Hot Springs, nine miles from Durango; hot springs noted for remedial
qualities. Ouray, hot and cold mineral springs; summer resort. The Great
Salt Lake, the famous hot springs of Albuquerque, and numerous other
attractions are reached by the Denver & Rio Grande.
The number of irrigable acres in Colorado is placed at 35,000,000 in
round numbers, an area fully one-seventh larger than the State of New
York. Ten years ago there were but 600 miles of irrigating ditches; now,
including canals and laterals, there are 34,000 miles, and $9,500,000
have been expended in their construction. With these figures one can not
but be impressed with the possibilities of the future, and believe with
the most enthusiastic in the ultimate reclamation of the so-called arid
land. It has been by the aid of irrigation that agriculture has been
made to vie with mining as the chief industry of the State, and in the
future, through its agency, the waters of the mountains will be more
generally distributed by reservoir systems. The first of these
reservoirs is now being constructed on the line of the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad, between Castle Rock and Palmer Lake. It will irrigate a
large portion of the divide country. Of so vast an extent is this
reservoir that the projectors contemplate the erection of a hotel and
the various appurtenances of a mountain resort. When the Government puts
into execution its vast plan of irrigation the seed so modestly planted
ten years ago will have its fruition. The number of square miles and the
acreage under irrigation are found in the following table:
================================+============+============
| Sq. Miles. | Acres.
--------------------------------+------------+------------
San Luis Valley | 3,096 | 1,981,440
Southwestern Colorado | 1,080 | 691,200
Grand River Valley | 360 | 230,400
Gunnison and Uncompahgre Valleys| 720 | 460,800
Northwestern Colorado | 1,980 | 1,267,200
North Central Colorado | 720 | 460,800
Small areas | 3,600 | 2,304,000
Eastern Colorado | 41,868 | 26,795,520
+------------+------------
| 54,000 | 34,560,000
--------------------------------+------------+------------
In addition to these irrigated lands may be placed the Arkansas Valley,
from Pueblo to the Kansas State line, and the country between Cherry
Creek and the foot-hills, and from Cherry Creek Cañon to Denver. During
the past twelve months there has been an increased activity in this sort
of construction. It is a record unprecedented in irrigation, and taken
in connection with the organization of new companies, this fact
indicates no limit to this species of development.
Even the people of Colorado do not comprehend that in this State may be
grown fruit of a superior quality to that raised in the orchards of
California. The pears and peaches are more luscious, and all the boasted
varieties of California grapes are here grown successfully. The truth of
these statements was satisfactorily demonstrated at the recent State
fair in Pueblo, and by the fruit exhibit made by the Bureau of
Immigration and Statistics at Chicago last fall. The apple, for
luxurious growth and flavor, is without a superior in any State, and the
orchards of this fruit alone aggregate half a million trees. The success
with which grape culture has been conducted indicates for the future a
great vintage industry. Fruit-tree planting is progressing at an
enormous rate. It is profitable. In 1891 the number of trees planted was
200,000, the yield of apples was 60,000 bushels, and the largest yield
from a single orchard of 2,000 trees was 15,000 bushels. The yield last
year almost doubled that of the year previous. Strawberries,
raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and currants are prolific, and
for size and flavor are unsurpassed. They grow on the highest mountain
and in the lowest valley, and the yield is from 3,000 to 6,000 quarts
per acre. One of the most profitable of the recent plantings, in the
direction of fruit-plants, is that of the watermelon. In the Arkansas
Valley they grow in great abundance, and are of superior merit to the
Georgia melon. In fact most varieties of fruit indigenous to the
temperate zone are successfully grown in Colorado. Fruit culture is no
longer an experiment; it is a great success, and in the future will take
its place as a distinctive and most profitable industry.
Colorado's future as a great manufacturing State is assured. In her
hills, upon her mountain sides, on the plains, and in the valleys, her
deposits of raw material abound, both in variety and richness, second to
no other State in the Union. In fact she stands alone in this respect.
At present these resources are undeveloped; the surface has been merely
touched, and yet this superficial view reveals to the observer
possibilities beyond conception. As this empire, of which Colorado is
the geographical center, becomes settled more thickly, the demand upon
these resources will increase, and with this increasing demand
manufactures will multiply, and soon every article known to the trade
will be furnished direct from her vast deposits. Not only will she
supply the wants of her own and contiguous territories, but in time
markets remote will come to Colorado for supplies. The abundance of the
raw material and the economy in manufacturing will level competition,
and the high quality of the product will place her supreme in the
world's commercial marts. The results of last year, aggregating
$50,000,000 in the reported values of the manufacturing product in
eighteen cities, give some conception of Colorado's manufacturing
future; and it has only been a very short time since, in the whole
breadth of the State, when not a single article was manufactured, and
everything used was shipped from eastern cities at enormous prices.
Within the past year the following manufactories have been added: A
paper-mill, a match factory, a cotton-mill, a woolen-mill, a boot and
shoe factory, an overall factory, and a knit-underwear establishment.
The manufactured product of 1892 will not fall below $75,000,000.
Colorado continues to be the paradise of the sportsman. Its myriads of
streams teem with mountain-trout; the forests are, as ever, the domain
of the elk, deer, and other game; and its many lakes, while abounding in
fish, are the haunts for the wild feathery tribe, and offer great
attraction for both rod and gun. Everywhere on the various lines of the
Denver & Rio Grande the tourist and the pleasure-seeker at home may find
a field of sport to his liking. Should he choose a day of recreation
after small game, he may stop off in the valleys among the farms, and a
bag of birds and rabbits will be his trophy. For elk and deer he may
follow the valley of the Upper Arkansas, deploying to the near-by hills,
or go to the valleys and mountains of Southern Colorado, or follow the
line of the Denver & Rio Grande down to Gunnison, or cross the range to
Glenwood, and search the wooded hills and the glens and valleys of the
Yampa and the Grand; thence southward, via Ouray, he may follow the
Dolores from the San Miguel to the San Juan and Muncos, following the
footsteps of the Indians, now departed, upon their favorite
hunting-grounds. For the angler, as has been stated, fish are abundant
in all the streams and lakes reached by the Denver & Rio Grande; but for
the best sport and most enjoyable entertainment Wagon Wheel Gap, on the
Rio Grande del Norte, in Rio Grande County, is conceded to be the choice
of all places. This is both a pleasure and a health resort, affording at
the same time rest and recreation for the sick and weary, and rare
amusement for the invalid and the tourist alike. At this point the
finest of mountain-trout are always abundant, and the angler may enjoy
himself with the speckled beauties to his heart's content. The Gunnison
River likewise abounds in fine trout, and there are many points of
advantage on this as many other streams along the line of the Denver &
Rio Grande.
Ores are found under all conceivable conditions in Colorado, and, as a
rule, in sufficient quantities to admit of their profitable extraction.
In the metamorphosed granite mountains of the main range the typical
fissure veins, with well-defined and nearly perpendicular walls, are
found often aggregated in great numbers, and universally mineralized to
a profitable degree. In the trachytic and porphyric districts rich
fissures also prevail, running very high in silver as a rule, while
occasionally the precious metals are associated with such quantities of
lead or copper ore that the base metals more than pay all cost of mining
and treating the ore. In other sections, again, where there have been
large overflows of porphyry upon the carboniferous or silurian
limestone, great deposits of silver lead ore are found, often covering
many acres of ground like vast coal-beds. To this latter class belong
the mines of Leadville, which in the past ten years have yielded over
$100,000,000. Also the mines about Aspen, Robinson, Red Cliff, Monarch,
White Pine, and Rico. Wherever the deposits, however, and whatever the
character of the mineral, the result is the same--an increase in the
wealth of the State where developed. A number of valuable and important
discoveries of gold and silver have been made this year (1892). The
enormous deposits of silver at Crede promise to make it a rival of
Leadville, while the immense gold-fields at Cripple Creek, near the line
of this road, will add millions of dollars to the yellow metal wealth of
the country. Rico, in the San Juan country, will produce millions of
dollars more this year than ever before in its history. The quantity of
the precious metal and the prosperity of the mining sections are only
measured by the energy of the communities themselves and the extent of
the capital employed. The record of the mining industry last year can be
gleaned in the subjoined table:
1889. 1890.
Silver, ounces 21,119,613 25,788,819
Gold, " 194,908 4,016,229
Lead, tons 3,166,970 3,932,814
Copper, pounds 3,127,739 2,422,000
The estimate for 1889 does not include the metals contained in the ore
shipped out of the State, while that for 1890 does include them.
Colorado has exceeded every other section in the growth of her farming
industry. This growth has been phenomenal. In 1880 the State imported
500,000 bushels of wheat, 2,000,000 bushels of corn, 500,000 bushels of
potatoes, 1,000,000 bushels of oats, and 100,000 tons of hay. Last year
there were produced in the State about 10,000,000 bushels of cereals,
and instead of importing, the State exports; and in eastern markets
Colorado wheat and oats command a premium. So great has been the
development that authorities on agriculture assert that the agricultural
output exceeds that of mining, which assertion is contradicted by mining
people. But be this as it may, no other section presents a parallel to
the rapid advance of agriculture in this State. One-half of the
66,880,000 acres of land in Colorado is estimated as agricultural land,
of which 12,000,000 acres can be turned to the plow. There are now
2,000,000 acres under cultivation. The remarkable feature of this
progress is the success attained by the "rain belt," which only a few
years since was considered irreclaimable land. All over the State
farming has been profitable, and by the contiguity of markets prompt
returns for the products are the rule. This has induced immigration, and
is one of the contributory causes of the influx of settlers into every
section where cheap lands may be obtained.
IRON.--The largest deposit of iron in Colorado is in Gunnison County,
and when taken in connection with the fact that in this locality cheap
fuel abounds, it is a deposit of magnitude unequaled anywhere in this
country. By this fortuitous combination of deposits, No. 1 Bessemer pig
iron can be produced at Gunnison for a cost not exceeding $12 per ton,
or 50 per cent less than the price at Pittsburg. The deposit is near
Sargent, on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. With an outcrop that is
enormous and high in grade, it extends at intervals for a mile on the
mountain side. A number of openings have been made, one of which is a
tunnel run across the vein ninety-seven feet and an open cut exposing a
face of forty feet all in solid iron. There are about fifty acres in
the five iron claims which compose the White Pine deposit. There are
iron beds on Gold Hill and Cebolla rivers. At the latter place the iron
lies in an immense ledge of unknown depth. Iron abounds in other
portions of the State, especially in Chaffee County, where the Colorado
Coal & Iron Company of Pueblo have been drawing material for the
manufacture of railroad iron, merchant bar, and steel. Iron and steel
can be manufactured as cheaply in Colorado as in any other section of
the United States, and the advantages that contribute to the State's
superiority in this respect are the increasing demands, which can not be
affected by the overproduction of the East and South; no rival point
west of the Rocky Mountains claiming competitive facilities and an
advantageous position as the geographical center of a vast territory; an
intelligent class of labor; an abundance of building material and the
most extensive fields of coking and fuel coal, and the only anthracite
found west of Pennsylvania.
The annual production of 1,000,000 tons of crude pig iron, representing
a value of say $14,000,000, the evolution of that 1,000,000 tons of pig
iron into its higher products of bar iron, and steel, and sheets, and
plates, and machinery, and cars, and locomotives, and pipes, and plows,
and other farm implements, and all the long list of appliances and
commodities of iron and steel, aggregating in value, at a lower
estimation than can be legitimately placed, more than $50,000,000, means
more for Colorado than many of her most sanguine advocates have
anticipated.