ACROSS THE PLAINS.
Until now I had expressed a valise, with extra baggage, along to the
different cities, but found I could carry everything I needed in the
knapsack; and so, leaving the rubber suit behind with the valise,
for I was entering a rainless district, and putting on a thinner pair
of trousers, I left Denver on the 24th of June.
We started on again, in a northerly direction, accompanied for
several miles by Mr. J. W. Bryant, and reached Longmont, after a ride
of thirty-five miles over miserable roads, rendered more miserable
by the water that overflows them from the numerous ditches along the
way. Here we found that a ride back to the southwest, to Boulder, and
into the mining regions of Boulder County, would make a pleasant little
side excursion, and so the next noon we rode over to Boulder, twenty
miles, and stopped an hour or so at one of the sampling works. Here
large quantities of ore are bought off the miners, and crushed and
ground fine as flour, ready to be shipped to the smelting works at
Denver and other points.
The process of finding the amount of gold or silver in a sample of
ore is very interesting. After the ore is reduced to a fine powder,
a small quantity of it, perhaps a teaspoonful, is nicely weighed out,
and put into an earthern saucer, with perhaps ten times that amount
of lead ore in the same powdered state. The saucer is placed in a
furnace, and the lead soon absorbs the gold and silver and settles
to the bottom, leaving the worthless part of the powder to rise to
the top in the shape of dark-colored glass. This button of lead,
with the gold and silver absorbed in it, is then placed in a little
cup made of burnt bone. This cup is then placed in the furnace and
the bone absorbs all the lead, leaving a speck of the precious metal
about as large as the head of a small pin. The gold and silver are
then separated by placing this speck in nitric acid, which absorbs
the silver, and the pure gold is left in the bottom of the glass. I
understand that this process, on a small scale, is practically the
same as that employed at the large smelting works. In this way miners
can find out at a very little expense just what their ore is worth
per ton from a comparatively small sample.
We started up Boulder Cañon, a gorge in the mountain that is very
picturesque, but whose sides are not so perpendicular as those of
Williams Cañon at Manitou. We rode and walked up this cañon nine miles
to Salina, where we stayed at night. A large stream comes roaring
down the cañon, and the narrow gauge track of the Colorado Central
Railroad goes up at a very steep grade. The course of the stream is
so crooked and the cañon so narrow, that in the nine miles there
are over fifty railroad bridges. All along up the cañon the sides
of the mountain are fairly honey-combed with holes, dug during the
mining excitement in 1859, and since, but now the holes, shanties,
and everything about the region seems to be deserted.
Salina is a genuine mining town of perhaps a hundred inhabitants,
and entirely different from anything that I expected. I supposed that
even now a man took his life in his hands when he visited one of these
mining towns, but during the evening, and all the time we were there,
the place was as quiet and peaceable as any New England town--decidedly
more so than any factory village. I saw many well-dressed young ladies
and gentlemen all going in one direction, and found it was the night
for the temperance lodge to meet, and that the members include all
but about a dozen persons in the community. During the evening two
little boys at the boarding-house seemed to want to get acquainted,
and so I asked one how old he was. "My brother is eight years old,
and I am ten days older than he is," he answered. How that could be
the little fellow was unable to explain, and so am I.
The next morning we visited the First National Mine, which, to all
outward appearances, is nothing more than a small shanty up the
side of the mountain, with a heap of rocks thrown out to one side of
it. Inside is a hole in the floor just large enough for a half barrel
bucket to go through, and beside this hole is a trap-door just large
enough to let a man's body down. The rocks are raised by a windlass
run by horse power outside.
With old coats and hats on and a lighted candle in our hands, we
followed the overseer down through the trap-door. The ladders down
which we climbed were straight up and down, and about all I could see
as I followed the others was the light of their candles. About once
in fifty feet we came to a platform and then started down another
ladder. The ladders went close to one side of the shaft, which was
protected with heavy timbers on the sides, and on the other side was
the hole down which the bucket went, two hundred and fifteen feet,
to the bottom. It was rather awkward holding on to the rounds of the
ladder with a candle in one hand, but I kept a firm grip till the
rounds began to get slippery from the mud and water, and then the
descent was anything but pleasant. Sometimes the ladders, instead
of going straight down, leaned over from the top a little, and then
it was hard work to keep my feet from slipping off. It was so dark
in there I could only see the black bucket hole on one side and the
two lighted candles beneath me, and how far down a fellow would go,
should his hands or feet slip off the slimy rounds, I had no idea; only
I know every nerve in my body was strung up and every muscle was hard.
At last, and it seemed an age, we got down to where the men were
working. Two hundred feet down, tunnels, just large enough for men to
work in, were run out in opposite directions, and at the ends of these
tunnels the men were drilling and blasting. And what were these men
after, down in this hole in the solid rock, over two hundred feet from
the surface? Simply to get out a little narrow streak of dark-colored
rock, not over two or three inches wide. This little streak went
nearly straight down into the earth, and these men were following it
wherever it went, excavating probably fifty tons of refuse rock in
order to get one ton of the ore sufficiently valuable to work up.
Then we started up, and as I was the last to go up I was wondering all
the way if I could keep my hold on the rounds if one of the others
should slip and drop on me; but they did not have occasion to test
my grip in that way, and we reached the top all right, only I had
to stop and rest once, more because of the nervous excitement than
anything else, and then you can imagine my feeling, suspended over
that black hole with just strength to keep from falling, but with
none to go higher. The memory of that experience will never be very
pleasant to me.
Up three miles farther into the mountains and we came to Gold Hill,
another mining town, full of saloons, but otherwise harmless, then down
Left Hand Cañon, over a very fair road, out upon the plains again,
and back to Longmont. On our way back we stripped off our clothes
and took a bath in one of the ditches near the road.
A pleasant ride the next day of thirty miles brought us to Fort
Collins, where I found many former residents of Connecticut.
The mosquito record of thirteen killed at one slap has been broken
several times since reference was last made to the subject. The
mosquitoes, which swarm everywhere, rarely trouble us about the
hands or head, but the revolving motion of the legs seem to attract
them, and they collect on our stockings in regular military array,
every one headed toward the knee--of all the hundreds, and perhaps
thousands, that have alighted on us, we never have seen one headed
the other way--and many of them in straight lines, four and six in a
row. Once, after enduring the pricking sensation as long as I could,
I jumped off my wheel, and with a single slap on each stocking put
thirty-two of the sweet singing little creatures on their way to the
place where everybody sings. This was the result of the first two
blows, and there were several outlying sections to be heard from that
increased this number somewhat, for a Colorado mosquito that escapes
death the first slap is sure to wait for the second one. In fact,
one could almost tell the size of my hand by the area of crushed
mosquitoes on my stockings, which was almost entirely surrounded
by those still waiting and working. The reader may say the habits
of these mosquitoes are of little interest to him, but to me the
mosquitoes had points of keen interest about them.
The number of light complexioned men in Colorado is very noticeable. I
began to observe it at Denver and at Colorado Springs, and at Manitou
it was even more marked, till it seemed as if every man, woman,
and child had light, very light-blue eyes, and a light moustache;
that is, every one that wears a moustache of any color. Wheelmen,
guides, cowboys, they all had the same smiling blue eyes that seemed
to win one's confidence at the outset. Denver is noted for having many
confidence men and bunco steerers, but there is no class of men I would
sooner trust myself with than the ranchmen, guides, and cowboys of
Colorado. They like to open one's eyes by telling what they have done
in the past, but in the mountains, mines, or on the plains a traveler
is as safe in their hands as he would be in any city in the East.
There is a decided improvement in the general aspect of the country
north of Denver, through Longmont and Fort Collins, upon what
we saw south of that city for seventy-five miles. There is less
stock-raising and more farming. We passed many fields of wheat,
corn, and alfalfa. The latter is of the same nature as red clover and
grows nearly as high as herdsgrass. Once sown it never needs to be
restocked, and three and sometimes four large crops are cut from it
during the season. It is almost impossible to plow it up when once
it is thoroughly rooted, and one person told me the roots would go
down into the ground nearly fifty feet in search of moisture. I give
this as a Colorado li--statement. But the only thing that will kill
it out is water, too much of it, for it can be drowned out, finally.
This brings me to the most important interest of Colorado, and that is
water. Nearly all through the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
Iowa, through which I have ridden, States from seven to eleven times
as large as Connecticut, the great question that directly interests
all the farmers, and that indirectly concerns every one dependent upon
the success of farming, is how to get rid of the water. In some of
those States great ditches, six, eight, or ten feet deep, and miles in
length, are dug, and smaller ditches and tile drains lead into these
main channels, and thus in the spring the water to a great extent is
drained away, so that the land will dry off and be fit to cultivate.
But the cost of this system of drains and ditches is very great,
amounting on some farms to ten dollars an acre. But in Colorado,
a State over twenty times as large as Connecticut, water is the one
subject uppermost in the minds of the people, as it is farther east,
but here it is how to get it, not how to get rid of it. There is the
same system of large ditches running for miles and miles through the
country, and these are tapped at convenient points by smaller ditches,
so that the water is spread out over the sandy, barren-looking
country, till by reversing the means used in those other States,
the land is brought up into a high state of cultivation. And it does
seem as if they even reverse the laws of gravitation, and make the
water run up hill, for many and many a ditch seems to go up over and
around a hill that is higher than the head of the ditch. There is
one advantage, too, the farmers here have over those farther east,
and that is, they can have a wet or dry season, just as they choose,
for the supply of ditch water is never failing. These main ditches
are dug by stock companies, and the stock is in the market just
as other stocks are. The water privileges are sold to the farmers,
and in some cases the price is twelve to fifteen dollars an acre for
perpetual lease. It is singular that in one section of the country
it should cost nearly as much per acre to get rid of the water as it
does in other sections to procure it.
But this ditch water is a great boon to the people in other respects
than for agricultural purposes, and that is for drinking. At first I
always preferred the well-water, but as I traveled up into the alkali
districts the ditch water was much more wholesome to drink, and now I
shun everything else. To be treated to ice-water at a farmer's house,
appeared at first rather extravagant on their part, but the ditch
water in summer gets so warm, ice-water is almost a necessity. Still,
a barrel full of this roily water bailed up in the morning and placed
in the shade or down cellar and allowed to settle, will remain pure
and palatable for a long while. At one ranch where we stopped, the
drinking water was brought nine miles, although a well of alkali water
was near the house. At another house I was pulling up the bucket over
a pulley, and thought the bucket would never reach the top, when the
rope broke, and down went the bucket, 140 feet to the bottom of the
well that was not even curbed or stoned up. It is needless to say we
did not stop to get the bucket out or to get a drink.
The annual rainfall is not only increasing in Iowa and Nebraska, but
in Colorado also. It is a true saying, civilization brings rain. In
the former States it is the natural result of the breaking up of so
much prairie land. That clay soil packed down hard by centuries of
rain would formerly shed water like a duck's back, but once loosened
and broken up, it tends to retain the water like a sponge, and the
more moisture retained, the greater the rainfall. In Colorado, the
extensive irrigation practiced tends to produce the same result; the
dry, sandy soil is becoming moist and filled with vegetable matter,
till in some instances the land needs only the usual rains to produce
good crops. This increased moisture in the atmosphere has another
effect, and that is upon the health of consumptives. Instances are
occurring where these invalids are leaving the plains with their net
work of ditches and are going up into the dryer mountain air.
Leaving Fort Collins, or "Collins" as it will shortly be called, we
tarried Monday night at a large sheep ranch on the way to Laramie,
where shearing commenced the next morning. The owner has nearly
10,000 sheep in his different camps, and six California shearers
began shearing at the rate of about 150 sheep a day for each man. The
sheep were caught by the hind leg and sat upon their haunches between
the legs of the shearer, and, commencing at their necks, the white
and cream-colored fleeces rolled off the sheep with surprising
rapidity. Occasionally, a piece of flesh would go with the fleece,
and hardly a sheep escaped without some bright red streaks or spots
upon it, the blood making a sharp contrast in color against the clean
white appearance of the naked sheep.
After watching the operation for an hour or more, we started up across
the foot-hills to get to the Laramie road on the other side, passing
a stream where the water was as red as blood from the red mud or sand
being washed down. These foot-hills are immense ledges of rocks that
look very much as I have seen ice packed up against the banks of the
Connecticut River when the ice breaks up in the spring. Looking at
these foot-hills toward the west, they present the appearance of so
many rounded hills of gravel and sand; but go up into and pass through
them, and turn about and look at them in the opposite direction,
and it seems really as if, ages ago, the crust of the earth had been
broken up, as ice is in the spring, and the immense cakes of red
and white sandstone had been jammed and forced up against the broad
shoulders of the Rocky Mountains, till these slabs of stratified rock,
several hundred feet thick, overlapped each other, and some of them
were even forced up into almost perpendicular positions.
Wherever I have passed through these foot-hills, whether at Manitou,
Boulder, or at Fort Collins, the country has the same general
appearance: that of some immense rock-jam forcing the cakes from
the east up on the banks of the Rocky Mountains. Much of the red
sandstone is very red, and the contrast between that and the white
sandstone is strongly marked, the red and white hills being mixed up
promiscuously. We followed a very good road up through the foot-hills
for awhile, but the wagon tracks grew fewer and fewer, as they
branched off in different directions, till we struck a common trail,
and as we wound around the north side of a high rocky hill this trail
disappeared entirely, and we found ourselves off among the barren and
sandy foot-hills without the slightest road, trail, or habitation
in sight for miles. We debated some time which direction to take,
but finally I left my knapsack and wheel and climbed up the rocky
side of that hill to get a better view, when behold, there was the
Laramie road, just over the hill about a mile away. We had a hard
job to get our machines over, but were soon on our way, spinning
over a fine mountain road that remained good for fifty miles to
Laramie, furnishing some of the finest coasting I ever had. This
road for many miles was probably 8,000 feet above the sea, so that
this elevation had the effect to dwarf the mountains that rose only
a little higher. In fact, it is generally remarked by travelers that
the Rocky Mountain scenery west of Cheyenne is very tame. Many of the
hills are perfectly level on top, looking at them against the horizon,
and the sides slant off, the angles being as sharp and clean cut as
if the hills were built by hand.
Just before reaching Laramie we noticed, off to the east on the plains,
another Garden of the Gods, that far exceeds in every way the one
near Manitou. It was with regret that I could only look at it from
a distance of two miles or more, but the perpendicular position,
the height, and the curious shape of the roads, standing up out of
the level plains, was certainly very interesting.
Arriving at Laramie I inquired of the first man I met, who happened to
be a good-natured Dutchman, where a certain friend of mine lived. "I
don't know," he said, "but Johnny Wilson is the one you want to see. I
will go find him for you. Any one coming so far as Conneckticut must
be taken care of. Wilson knows the whole beezness," and he ran into
his store, seized his coat and escorted us up the main street of
Laramie, calling out to every one he knew, "These two fellows came
from Conneckticut on a bicycle," and then he would haw-haw and laugh
as if he had secured the greatest prize in the country. In vain I told
him I wanted to find my friends before dark, but "Mr. Wilson is the
one to take care of you. He knows the whole beezness." We stopped on
the corner to find Wilson, who, it will be surmised, is a wheelman,
and men and boys, old and young, ran to that corner as if there was
a fire, and in less time than it takes to write it, the sidewalk was
blocked and the crowd extended out into the street. Really, Laramie
was more excited at the arrival of two tired wheelmen than any place
through which I have yet passed. The next morning we left the line
of the Union Pacific and followed the old emigrant trail across the
plains. The country is the dryest, sandiest, and most barren looking
of any I had yet seen. Hour after hour we rode over a treeless and
grassless country that would have been less disappointing if it had
been more level, for as we slowly reached the crest of one long,
gentle swell, through the deep sand, another billow, higher still,
came in sight, and when we had perhaps walked to the top of that,
still another, just a little higher, appeared ahead. Then over a
long, level space, and we came to a shallow basin, perhaps eight
miles across, on the other side of which could be seen the slender
thread of our future course. Then the same rolling country with not
a ranch in sight for hours.
That day we passed but one stream of water, and what made our thirst
more severe was a strong head wind that dried and parched our open
mouths till the flesh almost cracked open. About two o'clock we got
some milk at a ranch, but that only satisfied our hunger, it did not
quench our thirst. All day long we expected to come in sight of the
railroad again at the top of every long hill, but every time we were
disappointed, and we were doomed not to see railroad or telegraph
pole for two days longer.
About 7 o'clock that night we came in sight of a ranch, (ranches out
here are all slab huts), but there was no one at home, so we laid down
and rested, as the next ranch was eight or ten miles farther on, and
it was no use thinking of reaching it that night. Still no one came,
and about dark we began to investigate. Flour, sugar, lard, coffee,
salt, baking powder, and other things were found in the cupboard,
but not a thing cooked. Well, now, with all these things before them,
two half-starved boys would not go to bed hungry, "you bet."
Hasley started out with a tin pail to milk a cow, but the cattle
ran off as wild as deers and he concluded they were "all steers,
any how." Plenty of whole coffee, but no coffee-mill. I was on
the point of pounding up some of the kernels with a hammer when
the coffee mill was found. The smell of boiling coffee soon put a
keen edge upon our already ravenous appetite, but what could we cook
besides? Griddlecakes! Somehow I remembered lard was sometimes put into
griddlecakes to make them short, and in a jiffy I was trying to mix
three tablespoonfuls of lard into two quarts of flour with a spoon,
but the ingredients would not mix well so I used my hands, forgetting
that I had just used a greasy rag with which to clean the lantern
globe, and that some of the thick coat of soot might have remained
on my hands. Then two tablespoonfuls of Dr. Price's baking powder was
sprinkled in, and the whole wet up with water, but I must confess it
was very lumpy. But if those griddlecakes, covered thick with sugar,
didn't taste good! They were light and tender, and after a few trials
I could turn one, the size of a dinner plate, over without a break.
Beds of hay and plenty of blankets made us comfortable for the
night, and we did not lie awake listening for the folks to come home
either. Some more griddlecakes and coffee for breakfast, a card,
telling who we were and where we were going, and asking them to write,
was left on the table, and, man like, we left the log hut that had
given us such a kind shelter, without washing up the dishes.
That forenoon, we traveled over the same desolate dry country, and by
one o'clock saw no signs of getting anything to eat, when suddenly we
came to the edge of a high bluff, and below was a sparkling stream of
cold water and several houses, a most beautiful looking spot to us. We
were soon eating heartily at a ranchman's well-set table, and he not
only would take no pay, but urged us to stay longer. That afternoon
we overtook and passed an emigrant train of six or eight teams, but
the usual head wind prevented us from leaving them very far behind,
and it was not unpleasant having them so near.
Through Colorado, we saw plenty of harmless snakes by the roadside,
and would occasionally stop and kill one to add variety to the trip,
but for several days we had seen none of any kind. During the afternoon
I was pushing my machine along in the sand rut, leaning my arm on the
saddle, and had been trudging along with my head bent down against
the gale for some time, when about three feet in front of the wheel
I saw a rattlesnake wriggling slowly across the road. He stopped and
so did I. The reptile turned his head toward us, ran out his tongue
and crept along into the sage brush with his tail sticking up, and
disappeared. For a long while after that, I saw a snake behind every
bush, and never turned out into the sage brush to avoid the sand again
as I had often done before. Thin stockings are not the most effective
armor in which to attack one of these snakes, and since I have always
allowed them to go in peace. There are plenty of dead ones along the
road too, and for a few seconds, when they are curled up naturally,
there is as much "business" in a dead snake as a live one. It works
upon the nerves in the same powerful way.
We met another emigrant with a very sick boy in his wagon, and the
anxiety was plainly depicted on the father's face when we told him
the nearest ranch was about ten miles back, and no one knew whether
they had any kind of medicine there or not. I never once thought of
being ill myself off there, but fully realized the danger of a bite
from a rattlesnake so far from any medical help.
That night we found good accommodations, and the next forenoon came
in sight of the railroad once more, and crossed the bridge over the
Platte River on the ties to Fort Fred Steele.
There was one thought that was uppermost in my mind, during this
tramp of three days, and 110 miles, across the plains from Laramie to
Rawlins, and that was the utter insignificance of a human being in
such a place. One crossing these plains in the cars is too closely
connected, in his immediate surroundings, with the improvements of
modern civilization, to fully realize the utter helplessness of
a person left to his own resources on these deserts. The worldly
possessions of one going afoot across these plains, no matter
how rich and extensive those possessions are, dwindle into mere
worthlessness. All the gold in the world would not purchase him a
drop of water. His brain, no matter how active or ingenious, cannot
devise anything to satisfy his cravings of hunger. There is absolutely
nothing to eat. Emigrants, to be sure, start across prepared with
a good supply of food and water; but let one go, as we did, without
the slightest preparation in that line--for we supposed there were
small places every few miles, whereas there were only two ranches
together at one place, and the others averaged ten miles apart--and
he will soon realize that the only thing in this world that is of
any real value to him, is good muscle and a strong will to back it
up. Nothing else is of the slightest account to him, and nothing he
can do will give him a mouthful of food or a drop of water, if he has
not the strength to go where food and water are. Of course every one
has to do that as a general thing, but here it is a question of hours
of hard traveling over a desert without any sort of relief till the
end. Although we did not suffer for food or water to any great extent,
yet I never before fully realized the helplessness of a human being
when suddenly cast upon his own resources in such a place.
There is another thing that I begin to realize, but I never expect to
be able to fully grasp it, and that is the size of this country. Such
a trip, although it is only as yet through a very small portion of
the country, helps one to faintly comprehend the Infinite. Niagara
gives one an idea of the immense power of nature in motion; here one
can comprehend the vastness of nature in repose. In either place
the same feeling of awe and reverence comes over one, and his own
insignificance stands out very prominently.
The last ten miles to Rawlins was the most discouraging of any since
leaving Laramie. The road was aggravatingly level, smooth, and hard,
and ran close by the railroad, but those regular trade-winds that we
had faced for the last three days prevented any riding. After a while
we came to a section-house, and remained there two or three hours,
till the wind died down at sunset, and then we easily pushed on to
Rawlins. The only bright spot in that day's experience occurred just
before reaching Fort Fred Steele. I came upon a pasteboard box, about
the size and shape of those used for expressing suits of clothes,
lying in the road. A wagon wheel had crushed one corner, but inside,
what a sight for hungry wheelmen! Nicely packed in rows were two
dozen fresh, even warm doughnuts, all frosted with sugar, and four
dozen cookies, looking equally tempting. Then did we not go down by
the river where water was plenty and have a feast! What we could not
hold the knapsack did, and not a crumb was wasted. We felt sorry for
the ranchman who probably lost his stock of pastry on his way home,
but our sorrow did not seriously affect our appetites.
Distance on the wheel, 2,467 miles.