Leaving Durango via the Rio Grande Southern line, the tourist is
whisked across the Rio de Las Animas up Lightner Creek, past the
silver and gold smelters with their seething furnaces and smoke and
dust-begrimed workmen, and shortly past the famous coal banks where the
black diamond is dug from the bowels of Mother Earth, and from there
hauled to the smelters where it is used for the reduction and refining
of its more exalted, but not more useful brethren.
Up through the valley the train speeds along among huge pines which
thus far have escaped the woodman's axe, and which will be free from
such invasion as long as Uncle Sam claims this particular spot as the
especial reservation for the military post at old Fort Lewis.
From Fort Lewis the line passes through seemingly endless forests of
pine trees, and after the reservation is passed an occasional saw-mill
is sighted from its emitting unearthly screeches, which the knowing
ones say is merely the head sawyer sharpening up.
[Illustration: CLIFF DWELLERS.]
Descending the mountain into the valley, the beholder looks out on a
broad expanse of fertile, well-watered country, surrounded on all sides
by snow-capped mountains, and dotted with the rancheros of the hardy
pioneer, who has been well repaid for his daring in locating in this
far-away but beautiful valley, by its productiveness, and now that the
railroad, that greatest of all civilizers, has come, he has abundant
opportunities for the disposition of his produce.
In the center of this valley lies Mancos station, which is the junction
with the main line of the proposed extension of this road into Arizona.
To the south of Mancos station within a day's drive, and easily
accessible, are the ruins of the strange habitations of an extinct
and mysterious race known as the Cliff Dwellers. To those seeking
curiosities and wonders, the great Cañon of the Mancos, the great
Montezuma Valley, the McElmo Cañon, the Lower Animas Valley and the
Chaco Cañon are the wonderlands of the world. They contain thousands
of homes, and a town of the ancient race of Mound Builders and "Cliff
Dwellers," that has attracted the curious ever since the discovery of
America. The great Mancos Cañon contains hundreds of these homes which
were built and occupied hundreds of years ago. Yet many of them are in
a good state of preservation, and in them have been found hundreds of
specimens of pottery, and implements of husbandry and warfare. This
cañon is twenty miles south of Mancos, over a good wagon road. The
cañon is cut through Mesa Verda, a distance of thirty miles, and the
walls on either side rise to a perpendicular height of two thousand
feet. These cliff dwellings are built in the sides of this cañon,
as shown in the illustration. Fifteen miles farther west from the
Mancos is situated the great Montezuma Valley, where thousands of fine
specimens of pottery have been found among the ruins of that ancient
people. On the west side of this valley is the great McElmo Cañon, also
full of the ancient homes of the "Cliff Dwellers." Thirty-five miles
south of Durango, in the valley of the Animas, are some extensive ruins
of the Aztecs, and fifty miles further south are the wonderful ruins
in the Chaco Cañon. These ancient Pueblos are, without doubt, the most
extensive and the best preserved of any in the United States. Of these
Prof. Hayden, in his report of the Geological Survey of the United
States for the year 1866, says: "The great ruins in the Chaco Cañon are
pre-eminently the finest examples of the works of the unknown builders
to be found north of the seat of ancient Aztec Empire in Mexico." There
are eleven extensive Pueblos in this cañon, nearly all in a good state
of preservation, and their appearance indicates that they were once the
home of fifteen hundred to three thousand people each. They are the
most accessible from Mancos of any point on the line of railroads. From
the thousands of ruins of cities, towns and families found throughout
this great San Juan Valley, it is evident that once this great valley
was the home of hundreds of thousands of this extinct race. That they
were a peaceful and agricultural race of people is evidenced by the
large number of their implements of husbandry and specimens of corn and
beans found in these ruins, besides irrigating ditches and reservoirs
for the storage of water.
[Illustration: SULTAN MOUNTAINS.]
Leaving Mancos, the road winds up the sloping sides of a flat-topped
mountain, and there on its summit, among huge pines centuries old,
bubbles up a clear, cold spring of sparkling water, forming the stream
that flows down through the beautiful Lost Cañon, and is called by the
unpoetic name of "Lost Cañon Creek."
Lost Cañon is a novelty in itself, as its sides are densely wooded
and softly carpeted with a thick bed of moss and leaves, beautifully
colored by millions of Colorado wild flowers whose delicate beauty is
unrivaled.
Emerging from Lost Cañon the traveler is whirled up to the beautiful
valley of the Dolores River, with its many ranches and farms, past
the town of the same name. Off to the left, flowing to the eastward,
comes bubbling down the mountain side into the larger river, the West
Dolores, and no more famous or prolific trout stream exists than this.
Continuing on up the main river, the valley begins to narrow down,
until we are once more within the walls of a cañon which takes its
name from the stream flowing through it. While this cañon is not
particularly deep, its natural beauties are manifold and are sure to
make a lasting and delightful impression on the beholder.
Rushing out of the cañon the tourist is now landed at Rico. Rico is one
of the most important mining towns of the State, whose mines dot the
mountain sides, and whose product is packed in the cars on the backs of
the ever-patient and faithful burro, without which no mining camp can
be complete. The town is located in what was at one time the crater of
a large volcano. Precipitous mountains with poetic names arise upon all
sides of it, gradually widening, until by describing a circle of their
summits they appear as the top of a huge funnel. Among them is the
famous Telescope Mountain, a freak of nature only to be seen to form a
proper realization of the aptness of its name. The place has much of
historic interest, as evidences of early Spanish discoveries are found
on many sides.
Leaving Rico, the line continues up the Dolores, which grows smaller
and smaller, until it becomes a mere silver thread winding in and out
among huge rocks and boulders. Thirteen miles north of Rico, and after
climbing many miles of three and four per cent, grades, the summit
of the Lizard Head Pass is reached at an elevation of nearly 11,000
feet. From the summit and to the left will be seen the Lizard Head,
a peculiar rock formation capping a tall, bare mountain. This rock
derives its name from its resemblance to the head of a mountain lizard,
though at the same time it may be said to resemble the shaft of some
large monument.
[Illustration: OPHIR LOOP.]
Descending the pass through the mountain gorges over rushing mountain
streams, one finds one's self at Trout Lake. No more graphic
description of this sheet of beautiful blue water can be given than a
verse from a poem by "H. H."
"The mountain's wall in the water;
It looks like a great blue cup;
And the sky looks like another
Turned over, bottom side up."
Here the sport-inclined tourist may spend a few days, for the lake is
inhabited by thousands and thousands of mountain trout.
Shortly after leaving Trout Lake, the famous Ophir Loop is passed. Here
the skill of the engineer was taxed to its utmost, for the track winds
in zig-zags down the mountain side, rushing through a deep cut here,
over a mountain torrent and a high bridge there, darting around sharp
curves, in and out of snowsheds, until on the opposite mountain and
high above us is to be seen a line of freshly-turned earth, which the
knowing ones say is the track over which we have just passed.
From Vance Junction, a side trip of ten miles, which will well repay
the tourist, can be made to Telluride, a mining town of some 2,500
inhabitants, nestling among snow-capped mountains, rising to stupendous
heights and rich in gold and silver.
From Vance Junction the journey is continued down the San Miguel
River, past Placerville, until the river leaves the rail, and again
we commence to go up; this time over the Dallas Divide. This pass
resembles Marshall Pass, though not quite so long. After reaching the
summit, the line runs down the eastern slope along Leopard Creek, high
above it on the mountain side, giving a most magnificent view of the
Uncompahgre Range to the south with its gentle slopes softly colored by
the deep, dark foliage of dense pine and fir forests, gradually rising
until the mountains develop into a huge mass of shattered pinnacles,
their topmost points covered with the everlasting snow.
Arriving at Ridgway, a city of some 1,500 inhabitants, the journey is
again resumed on the original route via the Denver & Rio Grande.
[Illustration: ILIUM CURVE.]