THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
[Illustration: PICTURESQUE BRIGHT ANGEL TRAIL, GRAND CAÑON, ARIZONA]
THE LAND OF
ENCHANTMENT
From Pike's Peak to the Pacific
By LILIAN WHITING
Author of "The World Beautiful," "The Florence of
Landor," "Boston Days," etc.
"_The Fairest enchants me;
The Mighty commands me._"
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1909
_Copyright, 1906_,
By LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved._
Printers
S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.
TO
THE UNFADING MEMORY
OF
MAJOR JOHN WESLEY POWELL
THE GREAT EXPLORER
Whose name is inseparably linked for all time with the "Titan of
Chasms," the entire length of which he penetrated, revealing its weird
and mysterious grandeur; whose fidelity to scientific survey has
signally advanced the progress of our country; whose wise foresight in
advocating water supplies for arid lands, whose heroism amid hardships
and whose persistence of energy and noble purpose forever endear his
name to every American and to all who revere the loftiest achievements
of science,
These pages are inscribed by
LILIAN WHITING.
"_The sun set, but not his hope;
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up._"
"_What's life to me?
Where'er I look is fire, where'er I listen
Music; and where I tend bliss evermore._"
BROWNING.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
It is a special pleasure to the author to gratefully present her
acknowledgments to Mr. W. H. Simpson, of the Santa Fé; Mr. S. K.
Hooper, of the Denver and Rio Grande; Mr. David Cameron Mac Watters, of
the Short Line, and Mr. Croycroft, the artist of Santa Fé, New Mexico,
for their kind courtesies in facilitating the choice of subjects for
illustration and for their sympathetic encouragement in the effort to
interpret something of the sublimity and the loveliness of this land of
enchantment between Pike's Peak and the Pacific.
THE BRUNSWICK
BOSTON, October, 1906
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. WITH WESTERN STARS AND SUNSETS 3
II. DENVER THE BEAUTIFUL 15
III. THE PICTURESQUE REGION OF PIKE'S PEAK 51
IV. SUMMER WANDERINGS IN COLORADO 94
V. THE COLORADO PIONEERS 157
VI. THE SURPRISES OF NEW MEXICO 182
VII. THE STORY OF SANTA FÉ 207
VIII. MAGIC AND MYSTERY OF ARIZONA 228
IX. THE PETRIFIED FOREST AND THE METEORITE MOUNTAIN 270
X. LOS ANGELES, THE SPELL-BINDER 298
XI. GRAND CAÑON; THE CARNIVAL OF THE GODS 311
INDEX 339
ILLUSTRATIONS
Picturesque Bright Angel Trail, Grand Cañon, Arizona _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Acoma, New Mexico. Two Miles Distant 13
Summit of Pike's Peak, Colorado 55
Williams Cañon, near Manitou, Colorado 64
Seven Falls, Cheyenne Cañon, near Colorado Springs, Colorado 66
St. Peter's Dome, on the Cripple Creek Short Line 71
Approaching Duffield 72
Portland and Independence Mines, Victor, Colorado 75
View from Bull Hill, Richest Gulch in the World 76
The Devil's Slide, Cripple Creek Short Line 80
Colorado Springs and Tunnel No. 6, Cripple Creek Short Line 83
Gateway of the Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado 92
Cathedral Spires, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado 92
The Walls of the Cañon, Grand River 99
The "Fairy Caves," Colorado 101
Marshall Pass and Mt. Ouray, Colorado 103
The Wonderful Hanging Lake, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado 112
Cathedral Rocks, Clyde Park, Cripple Creek Short Line 137
Sultan Mountain 150
Acoma, New Mexico 183
The Enchanted Mesa, New Mexico 184
Laguna, New Mexico 186
Cliff Dweller Ruins, near Santa Fé, New Mexico 191
Stone Tent. Cliff Dwellers, New Mexico 191
San Miguel Church, Santa Fé, New Mexico 211
"Watch Tower." Cliff Dwellers, New Mexico 215
Cliff Dwellers. Within Twenty-five Miles of Santa Fé,
New Mexico 215
Petrified Giants, Third Forest, Arizona 228
Collection of Cacti made by Officers at Fort McDowell, Arizona,
for this Picture 232
Looking through a Part of the River Gorge, Foot of Bad Trail,
Grand Cañon 240
Suwara (Giant Cactus), Salt River Valley, Arizona 267
San Francisco Peak, near Flagstaff, Arizona 276
Grand Cañon, from Grand View Point 316
Zigzag, Bright Angel Trail, Grand Cañon 318
A Cliff on Bright Angel Trail, Grand Cañon 320
THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
CHAPTER I
WITH WESTERN STARS AND SUNSETS
"_The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills, and the plains--
Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns?_"
TENNYSON
"_It may be that the gulfs will wash us down._"
TENNYSON
"_My father's kingdom is so large that people perish with cold at one
extremity whilst they are suffocated with heat at the other._"
CYRUS TO XENOPHON
The good American of the Twentieth century by no means defers going to
Paris until he dies, but anticipates the joys of Paradise by making a
familiarity with the French capital one of the consolations that tend
to the alleviation of his enforced terrestrial sojourn. All Europe,
indeed, has become the pleasure-ground of American tourists, a large
proportion of whom fail to realize that in our own country there are
enchanted regions in which the traveller feels that he has been caught
up in the starry immensities and heard the words not lawful for man to
utter. Within the limits of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern
California there are four centres of sublime and unparalleled scenic
sublimity which stand alone and unrivalled in the world. Neither the
Alps nor the Himalayas can offer any parallel to the phenomena of the
mountain and desert systems of the Southwest as wrought by the march
of ages, presenting unique and incomparable problems of scientific
interest that defy solution, and which are inviting the constant study
and increasing research of many among the most eminent specialists of
the day in geology and metallurgy. The Pike's Peak region offers to
the traveller not only the ascent of the stupendous Peak, but also the
"Short Line" trip between Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek, which
affords forty-five miles of marvellous mountain and cañon effects.
The engineering problem of the ascent of St. Peter's Dome,--a huge
mass of granite towering eleven thousand feet into the air, around
which the steel track winds in terraces, glory after glory of view
repeating itself from the ascending vistas as the train climbs the
dizzy height,--the engineering problem that is here at once presented
and solved, has attracted scientific attention all over the world as
the most extraordinary achievement in mountain transportation. The
Grand Cañon of the Colorado in Arizona, two days' journey from the
Pike's Peak region, the Petrified Forests that lie also in Arizona,
seventy-five miles beyond the border of New Mexico, and that Buried
Star near Cañon Diablo, make up a group that travellers and scientists
are beginning ardently to appreciate. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona,
and Southern California offer, all in all, a landscape panorama that
for grandeur, charm of climate, and rich and varied resources is
unrivalled. Imagination falters before the resources of this region and
the inducements it offers as a locality in which to live surrounded
by perpetual beauty. The air is all exhilaration; the deep blue skies
are a miracle of color by day, and a miracle of shining firmament by
night; the land offers its richly varied returns in agriculture, fruit,
mining, or grazing, according to the specific locality; the inhabitants
represent the best quality of American life; the opportunities and
advantages already offered and constantly increasing are greater than
would at first be considered possible. This entire Southwest can only
be accurately defined as the Land of Enchantment.
"Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world,"
exclaims Tennyson's Ulysses, and the wanderer under Western stars that
hang, like blazing clusters of radiant light, midway in the air, cannot
but feel that all these new experiences open to him vistas of untold
significance and undreamed-of inspiration.
"It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,"
is the haunting refrain of his thoughts when, through the luminous
air, he gazes into the golden glory of sunsets whose splendor is
forever impressed on his memory. Every hour of the journey through
the Southwest is an hour of enchantment in the intense interest of the
scenes. One must not miss the outlook when descending the steep grade
down Raton Mountain; nor must he fail to be on the alert in passing
through the strange old pueblos of Isleta and Acoma; he must not miss
Cañon Diablo when crossing that wonderful chasm on the wonderful
bridge, nor the gleam of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff on its
pine-clad hill-slope, nor fail to gaze on the purple Franciscan peaks
on which the lingering sunset rays recall to him the poet's line,--
"Day in splendid purple dying."
Like a modern Telemachus he sees "the baths of all the western stars."
Between La Junta in Colorado and Los Angeles in California there lies
a journey which, in connection with its side trips, is unequalled,
because there is only one Grand Cañon, one Pike's Peak with its
adjacent wonderland, and because, as a rule, elsewhere in the United
States--or in the world, for that matter,--forests do not turn into
stone nor stars hurl themselves into the earth with a force that buries
them too deep for resurrection. Through the East and the Middle West
the mountains do not, on general principles, attempt any competition
with the clouds, but content themselves with the gentle altitude of
a mile or so; the stars stay decorously in the firmament and are not
shooting madly about, trying fantastic Jules Verne experiments to
determine whether or not they can shine better from the centre of the
earth than from their natural place in the upper air; the stars of the
Eastern skies "stand pat," so to speak, and are not flying in the face
of the universe; so that, altogether, in these regions it would seem
quite evident that
"The world is built in order,
And the atoms march in tune."
These exceptional variations to the established order, however,--these
wonderful peaks and cañons and forests and gardens of gods,--all these
enchanted things lie, naturally, within the Land of Enchantment, within
this vast territorial expanse replete with many other attractions. From
La Junta let the traveller journey into Colorado with its splendor of
resources, and in gazing upon the stately, solemn impressiveness of the
Snowy Range he cannot but feel that Nature has predestined Colorado for
the theatre of noble life and realize the influence as all-pervading.
Infinite possibilities open before one as an alluring vista, and he
hears the refrain,--
"My spirit beats her mortal bars
As down dark tides the glory slides
And star-like mingles with the stars."
With the excursions offered,--grand panoramas of mountain views where
the tourist from his lofty perch in the observation-car looks down
on clouds and on peaks and pinnacles far below the heights to which
his train climbs,--with the cogwheel road ascending Pike's Peak,
the fascinating drives through Cheyenne Cañon, the Garden of the
Gods, Ute Pass, and around Glen Eyrie, and with the luxurious ease of
life at "The Antlers," the traveller finds fairly a new world, rich
in suggestion and wide outlook. This attractive region is, however,
only one of the central points of interest in Colorado. Denver, the
brilliant and fascinating capital; Pueblo, the metropolis of Southern
Colorado; Glenwood Springs, the romantic and fashionable watering place
and summer resort high up in the mountains on the beautiful "scenic
route" of the Denver and Rio Grande; Boulder, the picturesque mountain
town, with its State University so ably conducted; Greeley, the town of
the "Union Colony," whose romantic and tragic story is a part of the
great history of the Centennial State, and where an admirable normal
school draws students from all over the country, even including New
England,--these and a wealth of other features offer interest that is
coming to engage the attention of the civilized world.
New Mexico has been more or less considered as one of the impossible
and uncivilized localities, or has failed to establish any claim to
being considered at all; yet here is a territory whose climate is
simply delightful by virtue of its altitude,--cool in summer and mild
and sunny in winter,--whose mines of amethysts and other precious
stones suggest developments yet undreamed-of; whose ethnological
interest, in the marvellous remains of Cliff-dwellers and of a people
far antedating any authentic records, enchains the scientist; a
territory whose future promises almost infinitely varied riches in many
directions of its development.
Arizona is simply a treasure land. If it offered only that enthralling
feature, the Grand Cañon, it would be a central point of pilgrimage for
the entire civilized world; but even aside from this,--the sublimest
vision ever offered to human eye,--even aside from the Grand Cañon,
which dominates the world as the most sublime spectacle,--Arizona
offers the fascinations of the Painted Desert, the Tonto Basin, the
uncanny buttes that loom up in grotesque shapes on the horizon, the
dreamy lines of mountain ranges, the strange pueblos, the productive
localities where grains and where fruits and flowers grow with tropical
luxuriance, the Petrified Forests, and the exquisite coloring of sky
and atmosphere.
Southern California, with its brilliantly fascinating metropolis, Los
Angeles; the neighboring city of Pasadena, the "Crown of the Valley";
with an extensive electric trolley-car connection with towns within a
radius of fifty miles, and other distinctive and delightful features,
almost each one of which might well furnish a separate chapter of
description; with mountain trips made easy and enjoyable by the swift
electric lines,--all this region fascinates the imagination and
indicates new and wonderful vistas of life in the immediate future. The
vast and varied resources of the great Southwest will also, as they are
developed, increasingly affect the economic aspects of the country.
To the traveller one fact stands out in especial prominence, and that
is that the traditional primitive conditions in this region hardly
continue to exist. The picturesque aspects of nature form the stage
setting to very-much-up-to-date life. The opportunities and advantages
already offered and constantly increasing are greater than would at
first be considered possible. In isolated homes on the desert the
children of the family will be found studying the higher mathematics,
taking music lessons, or receiving lessons in languages (classic,
or the romance languages) from some one in the neighborhood who is
able to give such instruction. If any traveller expects to encounter
the traditional "cow-boy" aspects of life, he will be very much
disappointed. There is no refinement of life in the East that is not
mirrored and duplicated in the West. There are no aspirations, no
ideals, no fine culture in the East that have not their corresponding
aspects in the great West. In fact, in many ways the West begins where
the East leaves off. For instance, the new towns of the West that have
sprung up within the past twenty years have never known what it was to
have gas or horse-cars. They begin with electric lights and electric
transit. Their schoolhouses are built with up-to-date methods, and
the houses, however modest, are constructed with a taste and a beauty
unknown in the rural regions of the East. The square white house with
green blinds and a straight stone-paved pathway to the front gate,
so common in New England, is not seen in the West. Instead, the most
modest little structure has its piazza, its projecting bay window
thrown out, its balcony--something, at all events, tasteful and
beautiful to the eye.
The journey from La Junta (in Colorado) to Los Angeles offers a
series of enthralling pictorial effects that are invested with
all the refinements of civilized life delightfully devoid of its
commonplaceness. These long transcontinental trains with two engines,
one at the front and one at the rear, with their different grades
of the Pullman, the tourist, and the emigrant car service, are as
distinctive a feature of the twentieth century as the "prairie
schooners" were of the early half of the nineteenth century. The real
journey begins, of course, at Chicago, and as these trains leave in
the evening the traveller fares forth in the seclusion of his berth
in the Pullman. The nights on a sleeping-car may be a very trance of
ecstasy to one who loves to watch the panorama of the skies. Raise the
curtain, pile up the pillows to the angle that one can gaze without
lifting the head, and what ethereal visions one is wafted through! One
has a sense of flying in the air among the starry spaces, especially
if he chances to have the happy fortune of a couch on the side where
the moon is shining down,--a midsummer moon, with stars, and filmy,
flitting clouds,--when the panorama of the air becomes the enchantment
of a dream.
It is, literally, "such stuff as dreams are made of," and when one
drops off into slumber, he utilizes it for his fancies of the night.
Miss Harriet Hosmer, the famous sculptor, once related a story of a
night journey she took with a party of congenial spirits on horseback
between Rome and Florence. By way of "a lark" they rested by day and
rode by night, and the beauty of the effects of light and shade sank
into her mind so that she drew on them thirty years or more later for
the wonderful designs in her great "Gates," which even rival those of
Ghiberti. "The night hath counsel" and suggestion of artistic beauty
as well, and the effects that one may get from a flying train are
impossible to obtain under any other condition. After all, is it not a
part of the fine art of living to take the enjoyment of the moment as
it comes, in whatever guise, without lamenting that it is not something
else?
These splendidly equipped trains of the Santa Fé service admit very
little dust; the swift motion keeps up a constant breeze, and some
necromancy of perpetual vigilance surrounds the traveller with
exceptional cleanliness and personal comfort. One experiences a certain
sense of detachment from ordinary day and daylight duties that is
exhilarating.
[Illustration: ACOMA. TWO MILES DISTANT]
Kansas City, the gateway to the great Southwest, might well claim
attention as an important manufacturing and distributing centre; Kansas
itself, once the bed of an inland sea, is not without scientific
interest for the deposits of gypsum and salt that have left the
soil so fertile, as well as for strange fossils revealing gigantic
animals, both land and aquatic, that have lived there,--the mastodon,
rhinoceros, elephant, the crocodile and shark,--many of whose skeletons
are preserved in the National Museum in Washington. The prosperous
inland cities with their schools and colleges, their beautiful homes
and constant traffic,--all these features of Kansas, the state of
heroic history, are deeply impressive. But it is Colorado, New Mexico,
Arizona, with which these pages are chiefly concerned, and the
especially picturesque aspects of the journey begin with La Junta.
Entering Colorado, the plateau is four thousand feet above sea level,
and constantly rising. This altitude renders the climate of New Mexico
particularly invigorating and delightful.
The most romantic and poetically enchanting regions of the United
States are entered into on this journey, in which easy detours allow
one to visit that mysterious "City in the Sky," the pueblo of Acoma,
near Albuquerque in New Mexico; to make excursions to Montezuma's Well;
to the mysterious ruin of Casa Grande; to the Twin Lakes (which lie on
a mountain crest); and to study other marvels of nature in Arizona. The
splendors of Colorado, with the myriad mountain peaks and silver lakes,
the mysterious cañons and deep gorges, the rose-flushed valleys lying
fair under a sapphire sky in the luminous golden atmosphere, and the
profound interest inspired in the general social tone of life in its
educational, economic, and religious aspects, invest a summer-day tour
through the Land of Enchantment with all the glory and the freshness of
a dream.