of ruined strata, these sportive, wind-cut ghosts of the old _regime_
here, these fanciful images of things seen and unseen, which stand
thickly over hundreds of acres like the moldering ruins of some
half-buried city of the desert, if he would fully understand.
Out of the many other sources of enjoyment near Manitou, the visitor
will by no means neglect the Cave of the Winds. Though you may ride, if
you wish, it is just a pleasant walk up Williams' Cañon, one of the
prettiest of the gorges that seam the rugged base of the great Peak. The
walls are limestone, stained bright red and Indian yellow, lofty,
vertical, and broken into a multitude of bastions, turrets, pinnacles
and sweeping, hugely carved façades, whose rugged battlements tower
hundreds of feet overhead against a sky of violet. At their bases these
upright walls are so close together that much of the way there is not
room for one carriage to pass another, and the track lies nearly always
in the very bed of the sparkling brook. You seem always in a cul de sac
among the zigzags of this irregular chasm, and sometimes the abundant
foliage, rooted in the crevices above, meets in an arch across the
brightly-painted but narrow space you are tortuously threading.
Half a mile up the cañon, at the end of the roadway, a trail goes by
frequent turnings up the precipitous sides of the ravine to where a
sheer cliff begins, about three hundred feet higher. Floundering up
this steep and slippery goat-path, we arrived breathless at a stairway
leading through an arch of native rock into a great chimney, opening out
to the sunlight above, and found opposite us a niche which served as
ante-room and entrance to the cave.
The history of this cave is entertaining, for it was the discovery, in
June, 1880, of two boys of Colorado Springs, who were members of an
"exploring society," organized by the pastor of the Congregational
Church there to provide the boys of his Sunday-school with some safe and
healthful outlet for their adventurous spirits.
The cave, as we saw it, is a labyrinth of narrow passages, occasionally
opening out into chambers of irregular size (and never with very high
ceilings), into which protrude great ledges and points of rock from the
stratified walls, still further limiting the space. These passages are
often very narrow, and in many cases you must stoop in crowding through,
or, if you insist upon going to the end, squirm along, Brahmin-like, on
your stomach. The avenues and apartments are not all upon the same
level, but run over and under each other, and constantly show slender
fox holes branching off, which the guide tells you lead to some stygian
retreat you have visited or are about to see. In remote portions of the
cave there are very large rooms, like Alabaster Hall, some of which are
encumbered with fallen masses and with pillars of drip stone.
The cave is not remarkable for large stalactites and stalagmites, but
excels in its profusion of small ornaments, produced by the solution of
the rock and its re-deposition in odd and pretty forms. From many of the
ledges hang rows of small stalactites like icicles from wintry eaves,
and often these have fine musical tones, so that by selecting a suitable
number, varied in their pitch, simple tunes can easily and very
melodiously be played by tapping. In some parts of the cave, the
stalactites are soldered together into a ribbed mass, like a cascade
falling over the ledges. Elsewhere the "ribbon" or "drapery" form of
flattened stalactites recalls to you the Luray Caves, though here it is
carried out on a smaller scale; while in this particular, as in many
others, reminding one of the magnificent Virginia caverns only by small
suggestions, in one respect this cave far surpasses in beauty its
Eastern prototype. The floors of many rooms are laid, several inches
deep, with incrustations of lime-work, which is embroidered in raised
ridges of exquisite carving. Again, where water has been caught in
depressions, these basins have been lined with a continuous, crowding
plush of minute lime crystals,--like small tufted cushions of yellow and
white moss. Such depressed patches occur frequently; moreover, the rapid
evaporation of these pools, in confined spaces, has so surcharged the
air with carbonated moisture, that particles of lime have been deposited
on the walls of the pocket in a thousand dainty and delicate
forms,--tiny stalactites and bunches of stone twigs,--until you fancy
the most airy of milleporic corals transferred to these recesses. Here
often the air seems foggy as your lamp-rays strike it, and the growing
filigree-work gleams alabaster-white under the spray that is producing
its weird and exquisite growth. In this form of minute and frost-like
ornamentation, the cave excels anything I know of anywhere, and is
strangely beautiful.
[Illustration: RAINBOW FALLS.]
This cavern, however, is sadly deficient in a proper amount of legendary
interest. No human bones have been found, and no lover's leap has been
designated. This misfortune must be remedied; and I have selected a
dangerous kind of a place at which, hereafter, the following touching
tradition will cause the tourist to drop a tear: Many, many years ago an
Indian maiden discovered this cave while eagerly pursuing a woodchuck to
its long home; the home proving longer than she thought, she crept quite
through into the unsuspected enlargement of a cave-chamber, and a
startled congregation of pensive bats. She told no one of her discovery,
because she had not, after all, caught the woodchuck, and went without
meat for supper. A noble warrior, who had done marvelous deeds of valor,
loved the maiden. He wooed and she would but the swarthy papa wouldn't.
Sadness, anger, surreptitious trysting where the fleecy cottonwood waves
melodiously above the crystal streamlet, etc., etc. The irate old
warrior brings an aged brave, who has spent his whole life in doing
nothing of more account than cronifying with the heart-sick girl's
father. This man she must marry, and the young suitor must go. Refusals
by the maiden, loud talk by the youth, sneers from the old cronies,
flight of the lovers to the woodchuck's hole, vermicular but
affectionate concealment, like another Æneas and Dido. The woodchuck,
stealing forth, sees a wolf outside, trying to make him pay his
poll-tax; so he sits quietly just inside his safe doorway, obscuring the
light. Endeavoring to find their way about in the consequent darkness,
the imprisoned lovers pitch headlong over the precipice I have referred
to. Guide-books please copy.
* * * * *
Our train bore a pensive party down the valley of the Fontaine, as it
headed for Pueblo. The Musician drew a plaintive air from his violin,
and as the friendly mountain range receded and dipped away in the West,
we fell to wondering when, if ever, we should tread those vales again.
[Illustration]
IV
PUEBLO AND ITS FURNACES
In Steyermark--old Steyermark,
The mountain summits are white and stark;
The rough winds furrow their trackless snow,
But the mirrors of crystal are smooth below;
The stormy Danube clasps the wave
That downward sweeps with the Drave and Save,
And the Euxine is whitened with many a bark,
Freighted with ores of Steyermark.
In Steyermark--rough Steyermark,
The anvils ring from dawn till dark;
The molten streams of the furnace glare,
Blurring with crimson the midnight air;
The lusty voices of forgemen chord,
Chanting the ballad of Siegfried's Sword,
While the hammers swung by their arms so stark
Strike to the music of Steyermark!
--BAYARD TAYLOR.
It is a fortunate introduction the traveler, fresh from the Eastern
States and weary with his long plains journey, gets at Pueblo to the
lively, progressive, _booming_ spirit of Colorado. Here are the oldest
and the newest in the Centennial State--the fragments of tradition that
go back to the thrilling, adventurous days of fur-trapping and Indian
wars; the concentrated essence of later improvements; and the most
practical present, mingled in a single tableau, for a telephone line
crosses the ruins of the old adobe fort or Spanish "pueblo," which gave
to the locality its name when it was an outpost for the traders from New
Mexico.
In its modern shape the town is one of the longest settled in the State,
and a great flurry began and ended there years ago. Then, neglected by
men of money, Pueblo languished and was spoken chidingly of by its
sister cities in embryo. Now all this has changed, and, perhaps aroused
by the prosperity of Leadville, Pueblo began about three years ago to
assert herself, and to-day stands next to Denver in rank both as a
populous and as a money-making center. No business man or statistician
could find a more deeply entertaining study than the investigation of
how this rejuvenation has arisen and been made to produce so striking
results. Such an inquirer would find several large industries claiming
to have furnished the turning point; but it is evident that the few who
faithfully stood by the comatose town, and steadily struggled toward its
commercial revival, were prompt to seize upon the altered flood and take
advantage of the tide which led to fortune. The impression once
advertised that Pueblo was shaking off her lethargy and about to become
a second Pittsburgh, a thousand men of business were quick to catch the
idea and make the "boom" a fact. Thus from 5,000 inhabitants in 1875 she
has come to over 15,000 in 1883.
It is undoubtedly true that the Denver and Rio Grande railway has done
more to aid this advancement than any other one agency; but an important
impetus was given to Pueblo in 1878, when a company of gentlemen decided
to build a smelter here. The work was put under the charge of its
present superintendent, and ninety days from breaking ground the furnace
was in operation. There was only a single small one at first; but
fourteen are running now. Then there was a diminutive shed to cover the
whole affair; now there are acres of fine buildings. Then a dozen men
did all the work; now from 380 to 400 are employed, and the pay-roll
reaches $375,000 per annum. That's the way they do things in Pueblo.
This smelter is on the northern bank of the river, just under the bluff.
From a distance, all that you can discern over the trees is a collection
of lofty brick and iron chimney-stacks, and wide black roofs. Coming
nearer, the enormous slag-dump discloses the nature of the industry, and
testifies to the quantity of ore that has passed through the furnaces.
Though on the banks of a swift river, the works are run by steam, which
can be depended upon for steady service, and on which winter makes no
impression. A thousand tons of coal and seven hundred tons of coke a
month are used, the cheapness and proximity of this fuel forming one of
the inducements to place the smelter here. Cañon City and El Moro coals
are mixed, but the coke all comes from the latter point. At the start an
engine of 60-horse power supplied all needs, but a new one of 175-horse
power has been found necessary, and Denver was able to manufacture it.
As for the machinery, it is not essentially different from that in other
smelters, except in small details, where the most approved modern
methods are made use of. There are great rooms full of roasting-ovens,
immense bins where the pulverized and roasted ore cools off, elevators
that hoist it to the smelting furnaces, and all the usual appliances, in
great perfection, for charging the furnaces, drawing off and throwing
aside the slag, and for casting the precious pigs of bullion. All walls
and floors are stone and brick; everywhere order and neatness prevail.
This plant has already cost the firm $200,000, and they have enough more
money constantly put into ore and bullion to make $750,000 invested at
the works. The ore is bought outright, according to a scale of prices
which is about as follows: Gold, $18.00 per ounce; silver, $1.00 per
ounce; and copper, $1.50 per unit.
[Illustration: GARDEN OF THE GODS.]
This is reckoned by "dry" assay, being two per cent. off from "wet." For
the lead in the ore, 30 cents per unit up to 30 per cent., 40 cents up
to 40 per cent., and 45 when over 40 per cent.; but both lead and copper
will not be paid for in the same ore. From the total is deducted $20.00
as fee for treating it. For the assaying a capital laboratory of several
rooms is provided, where two assayers and two chemists are continually
busy. Every lot, as purchased, is kept separate and subjected to a
homeopathic process of dilution, until a sample is obtained that
represents most exactly the whole. The arrangements for crushing and
sampling the ore are very complete, and a large number of lots can be
handled at once. When the final sample has been reached it is subjected
to a very careful assay, not only to determine what shall be paid for
it, but to find out what are its qualities in relation to the process of
smelting. This process requires a certain percentage of lead, a certain
amount of silica, and a certain proportion of iron and lime in each
charge. It is the duty of the assayers and chemists to ascertain
precisely the proportions of these ingredients in the ore under
consideration, in order to know how much lead, iron, lime or silica, to
add in order to make a compound suitable to fuse thoroughly, even to the
dissolution of the desperately refractory zinc and antimony; and which,
also, shall yield up every particle of silver and gold. The iron and
lime have usually to be added outright in this smelter; but the proper
proportions of lead and silica are obtained by combining an ore
deficient in one of these elements, but containing an excess of the
other, with ores oppositely constituted. It is one of the advantages of
the smelter at Pueblo, that, being centrally placed and down hill from
every mining district, it can draw to its bins ores of every variety;
thus it is able to mix to the greatest advantage, and in this economy
and the attendant thoroughness of treatment, lie the possibilities (and
actuality) of profit.
The lime for flux is procured three miles from town, and costs only
$1.00 a ton, while every other smelter in the State must pay from $2.50
to $5.00. Its building-stone is a splendid quality of cream-tinted
sandstone procured in the mesa only a short distance away. So widely
satisfactory have been its results that the Pueblo smelter does the
largest business of any in Colorado. I saw ore there from away beyond
Silverton; from Ouray and the Lake City region; from the Gunnison
country and the Collegiate range this side; from Leadville (competitive
with Leadville's own smelters); from Silver Cliff and Rosita; and,
finally, from numerous camps in the northern part of the State. The last
was surprising; for it meant that all that weight of ore had been
brought hither past the furnaces at Golden and Denver, because the
owners realized more for it, in spite of excess of freight, than they
could get at home. The superintendent told me that they handled more ore
from Clear Creek county than all the other smelters of the State; and he
explained it by showing how his nearness to fuel, and consequent saving
in this important item, with his cheap labor, permitted him to bid and
pay more than any other smelter could for choice ores, for which a
premium is given. These facts were held in mind when, encouraged by the
railway, the smelter was placed here, and the expectations of its
projectors have been more than gratified. The present capacity of the
establishment is 125 tons of ore a day in the fourteen blast furnaces,
and 100 tons a day in nine large calcining furnaces. Expensive
improvements, and of the most solid character, are being made constantly
in all parts of the works. The most important of these has been the
erection of machinery for refining the bullion, which has a capacity of
twenty-five hundred tons a month, and is constructed on the best known
principles. It has been customary in the West to send to New York the
lead which results from silver refining; it is made into sheet-lead and
leaden pipe, in which form it is bought by wholesale houses in Chicago
and St. Louis, to be again sent to Colorado, at the rate of perhaps a
thousand tons a year. Now it is proposed to keep at home the profits and
freightage of this costly and heavy material in house construction.
Machinery has therefore been added to make up all the lead into sheets,
bars, and piping. This is done so cheaply, that Pueblo can now send it
across the plains and undersell Chicago and St. Louis in the Mississippi
valley. The supply largely exceeds the home demand, and a new export for
this State has thus been created. Utah will henceforth yield a large
portion of the bullion to be refined. Another experiment will be the
refining of copper. There are various mines in New Mexico and
Arizona--many of them worked in ancient days by the Spaniards--which
supply a base form of metallic copper. This crude copper is now nearly
all sent to Baltimore, and there refined and rolled. The New Mexico
division of the Denver and Rio Grande will soon penetrate the region of
some of these mines, while the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe makes
others accessible. Side-tracks from both these roads run into the
smelter's enclosure. To bring the copper here will therefore be an easy
matter: and it can be produced in shape for commercial use much more
cheaply than any Eastern factory is able to turn it out.
Another large factor in Pueblo's revival was the establishment there of
the steel works. These are the property of the Colorado Coal and Iron
company, composed of the leading men in the Denver and Rio Grande
railway, so that, though the two corporations are distinct, their
interests are closely allied. This powerful association was formed in
1879 by the consolidation of two or three other companies having similar
aims, and it became the owner not only of the steel and iron works here,
and of a great deal of real estate, but also of nearly all the mines of
coal and iron now being developed in this State. Its capital is ten
millions, and its principal offices are located at South Pueblo. It
employs over two thousand men in its various enterprises, and is
constantly enlarging its operations and perfecting its methods. Many of
its coal banks will be referred to in other paragraphs of this volume.
The ore derived from all its iron mines is exceptionally free from
phosphorus, and therefore well adapted to the manufacture of steel. The
subjoined analyses exhibit the character of these ores:
Metallic Phos- Mag- Manga-
Iron. Silica. phorus. Lime. Alumina. nesia. nese. Sulphur.
Placer 52.2 12.64 .051 5.70 3.6 3.12 .34 Trace.
Salida 65.8 5.78 .015 .34 1.5 .81 .22 .014
Villa Grove 57.3 5.03 .019 1.87 .006
A conservative estimate places the amount of iron ore the company has
developed at over two millions of tons. Besides these high-grade ores,
there are others of an inferior grade, which, being mixed with
mill-cinders, will produce the commoner sorts of pig-iron, suitable for
foundry-work. Limestone, valuable as flux, is quarried from a ledge
within seven miles of the furnace, with which it is connected by rail,
and the supply is practically inexhaustible. Gannister and fire-clay,
also, are found in abundance in the vicinity. With coal, coke, iron and
all the furnace ingredients radiated about this point, which, at the
same time is nearest to the Eastern forges whence must be brought the
massive machinery to equip the works, it requires no second thought to
perceive that South Pueblo offers altogether the most profitable site
for vast factories like these.
Immediately following this decision, in the spring of 1879 a large tract
of mesa-land was secured, beside the track of the Denver and Rio Grande
railway, about a mile south of the Union Depot, where not only the
foundations of the mills, but a village-site was laid out and numerous
side-tracks were put down. Very soon the tall chimneys of the blast
furnaces began to rise into the ken of the people of Pueblo.
Simultaneously a large number of fine cottages were built as homes for
workmen, and other structures were set on foot, among them a commodious
hospital, for joint use of the mills and the railway company. It is a
very pleasant, well-ordered and growing little town, known as Bessemer,
and even now the space between it and the city is rapidly filling up.
The present daily output of the blast furnaces is one hundred tons of
pig-iron, but soon a twin furnace will double the productive capacity of
the works. Besides the furnaces, the plant includes Bessemer steel
converting works, a rolling and rail mill, 450 by 60 feet, a nail mill,
a puddling mill and foundry. All of these establishments are in every
way equal to the best of their kind in the East. The blast furnace is
fifteen feet base and sixty-five feet high, with fire-brick, hot-blast
stoves, and a Morris blowing engine. In the steel-converting works the
arrangement of the plant is similar to that of the new Pittsburgh
Bessemer Steel Company, which has given exceptionally good results. The
rail mill plant consists of Siemen's heating furnaces and heavy blooming
and rail trains, and the puddling and nail mills are equipped with the
best modern machinery. At Denver the same company owns a rolling mill,
where bar and railroad iron and mine rails are manufactured: these in
the future will mainly be supplied from South Pueblo. The effect upon
Colorado of this forging of native iron for home consumption must be
very important. All iron and iron ware is nearly doubled in value by the
necessarily high rates of freight across the plains. Manufacturing, now
that the crude material can be obtained on the spot, is cheaper than
importing, and in the wake of the blast furnace must follow a long train
of iron industries. Already negotiations are on foot for the
establishment of extensive stove works (a million of dollars was sent
East last year from Colorado in payment for stoves alone), and the
erection of car-wheel shops is also contemplated. Indeed, in this mining
country, which also is a region that is rapidly filling up with large
towns, the demand for manufactured iron of all sorts is very large. It
is another step in the gradual movement of trade-centers westward.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO CAVE OF THE WINDS.]
A still clearer idea of the great value of its interests to the State,
and of its local works to Pueblo may be obtained from the report of the
productions of the Colorado Coal and Iron company for the year 1882
which, briefly summarized, aggregates as follows: Coal, 511,239 tons;
coke, 92,770 tons; iron ores, 53,425 tons; merchant iron, mine rails,
etc., 3,883 tons; castings, 2,752 tons; pig-iron, 24,303 tons; muck bar,
in four months, 1,253 tons; steel ingots, eight months, 20,919 tons;
steel blooms, eight months, 18,068 tons; steel rails, eight months,
16,139 tons; nails, four months, 16,158 kegs; and spikes, six months,
5,022 kegs.
The economy of location, and the successful results attending the
establishment here of the great enterprises referred to, are attracting
many others. During the past season one of Leadville's largest smelters,
having been destroyed by fire, has been rebuilt at Pueblo, and more will
naturally follow.