USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 3
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On the east side of the great divide, the South Platte river, with about forty tributaries, including the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson rivers, rises well up among the peaks of the Front, or Colo- rado range, all flowing north, northeast and easterly, drains a large extent of country, while the North Platte, rising in the Park range, drains the whole of the North Park toward the north. The Arkan-
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sas river, with its sixty or more tributaries, some of which are of considerable volume, drains a large portion of the territory south of the divide between the South Platte and Arkansas valleys. It heads in the high region of the Saguache range, interlacing with springs of the Grand river, quite as the Colum- bia and Missouri rise near each other farther north. Republican river, an affluent of the Kansas, itself having four tributaries, flows northeast down the long descent to its union with the main stream, near its junction with the Missouri; and in the south the Rio Grande del Norte, starting from the summit of the same range which feeds the Gunnison branch of Grand river on the opposite side, flows towards the Gulf of Mexico. These streams form the river sys- tem of the eastern slope of Colorado. With all of its numerous streams, Colorado is a dry country. Her air has little humidity in it. The summer heat of the Plains is excessive by day, but owing to the altitude the nights, even in midsummer, are cool. The summer mean temperature ranges from 64.6 degrees to 69.2 degrees, and the winter mean from 31.3 degrees to 32.8 degrees. The maximum heat of summer ranges from 93 degrees to 99 degrees, with from six to thirty days above 90 degrees, and the minimum of winter from 3 degrees to 12 de- grees, with from six to ten days when the mercury is below zero, which gives an extreme range for the year from 96 degrees to 110 degrees. The annual rainfall in Larimer County, as measured at the State Agricultural College in Fort Collins, averages about 14 inches.
Indian Tribes of Colorado
Previous to the occupation of Colorado by the whites, the Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians held almost complete dominion over the Plains country for many miles to the east of the mountains, espe- cially that section watered by the Platte and its tributaries. The Arapahoes made their home near the present site of the City of Denver. Here they conducted a sort of a fair, exchanging articles pro- cured from the Spanish on the south for furs from the north. The word Arapahoe is said to mean "he who buys or trades." As the Cache la Poudre valley seems to have been their favorite hunting grounds they spent a good part of the hunting season along the river and their tepees were familiar sights to the early explorers and emigrants. Their camping grounds were mainly on both sides of the river near the mouth of the Boxelder creek and at or near Laporte. Antoine Janis says he found 150 lodges
of them at Laporte when he located there in 1844. A brief sketch of the history of these tribes, so far as it is known, is herewith given. It is taken mainly from Randall Parrish's story of the Great Plains. The writer says:
"Leaving the valley of the Missouri and moving westward to the eastern and southern base of the Black Hills, the traveler entered the country of the Cheyennes, who were of Algonquin stock. How long this people occupied that district, or from whence they came, is uncertain. That they were kindred to the Arapahoes seems probable, and as early as 1820 many of the tribe seceded and joined the other. By 1840 all the remainder had moved south, whence they also became affiliated with their kindred. Misfortune had made of them wanderers, but they were always a virile race, magnificent horsemen and superb warriors. While ever at war with the Utes who were known as mountain In- dians, with the whites they were usually at peace, although when they took the war-path they proved dangerous enemies. Their principal traffic was in horses, and their trade led them to become great travelers across the prairies. Closely associated with them in the earliest days of white exploration were the Kiowas, who were also a Plains tribe. For many years the Kiowa warriors roamed freely over the en- tire Arapahoe and Comanche country, extending from the South Platte to the Brazos. Their favorite rendezvous seems to have been the valley of the Ar- kansas near the mouth of the Purgatoire river. The Kiowas were little known by name in the early fur trade, but probably many an atrocity charged to the Comanches or Arapahoes was really committed by these wanderers. A late authority refers to them as being 'the most predatory and blood-thirsty' of all the prairie tribes. They have probably killed more white men in proportion to their numbers than any of the others."
I have not been able to learn that the Arapahoes ever committed any serious depredations or cruel atrocities upon the white settlers of Larimer County beyond the stealing of horses and running them off when they thought they would not be found out. They seemed disposed to be friendly and peaceable toward the whites. Their Chief, Friday, was an educated man, having been taken to St. Louis when a boy and sent to school, where he acquired a knowl- edge of books and a wholesome appreciation of the numbers, strength and power of the white race. He could read and write and converse quite intelligently upon most subjects. He had a kindly regard for the white people, being wise enough to know that they
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belonged to a superior race who would eventually possess and control his country. He gravely ac- cepted the situation and his demeanor toward the whites had a marked influence over his tribe.
"There was a report," says Maj. Frank Hall in his excellent history of Colorado, "that the Arapa- hoes were descended from the Blackfeet; that a hunting party accompanied by their families came down from the north to the Platte about eighty-five years ago, and being cut off by a severe snow storm, wintered near the present site of Denver. The season in this latitude being mild and pleasant, the country abounding in game, and generally a better region to live in than the one they had left, they de- cided to remain. How much truth there may be in the story, if any, we are unable to say. We found them here and know that they roamed the Plains in large numbers from the country of the Pawnees to the base of the mountains and down into the val- ley of the Arkansas river."
In 1861 the Cheyennes and Arapahoes ceded to the Government all their lands east of the moun- tains, which included the eastern part of Larimer County. The Indians soon afterwards repudiated the treaty and combining with other Plains tribes, entered upon and waged a vicious war against the whites which continued for several years. In the summer of 1864 mail communication with the East was cut off; mail bags containing letters, money, drafts, land patents, newspapers and other miscel- laneous matter were cut open and their contents scattered over the prairie. But one station was left standing on the Overland stage route for a distance of 120 miles. Trains were robbed, emigrants killed and it was estimated that there was not more than six weeks' supply of food in the Territory. For thirty days there had been no mail from the East. No stages or emigrants or supply trains were al- lowed to move except under escort. The situation was really critical. Caravans conveying merchan- dise and food supplies from the Missouri river to Denver and other Colorado towns, all that were on the way for hundreds of miles, were seized, their conductors killed and the property appropriated. Early in September, the hundred days' regiment was completed and dispatched by Colonel Chivington to points on the Overland route to open communica- tions; while a portion of the home-guard under Henry M. Teller, Major General of the militia, patroled the road between Denver and Julesburg, the First Colorado cavalry being employed chiefly on the Arkansas. These prompt and active move- ments on the part of the military authorities pro-
duced two results, the opening of communications with the Missouri river late in October, and the surrender of a small portion of the Cheyenne and Aparahoe tribes, who had hitherto refused to make a permanent treaty with the Superintendent of In- dian affairs. When the outbreak first occurred, Governor Evans issued a proclamation to the friendly Indians to repair to posts which he named, to be taken care of by the agents. In response to the invitation 175 Arapahoes, under Chief Friday, took up their residence at Fort Collins where they remained until the trouble was over. These In- dians were camped part of the time on the Coy farm and part of the time on the Sherwood farm. F. W. Sherwood was commissioned by President Lincoln to supply Chief Friday and his band with food while they were here.
The following story of a tragedy which occurred between two quarrelsome Indians is told by Mrs. Varah A. Armstrong of this city, a daughter of the late Captain Geoorge E. Buss :
"In the early winter, closing the year 1866, Chief Friday's band of Arapahoes, consisting of a few lodges, lived a few rods up the river from the Sherwood ranch. A much larger band of Chey- ennes camped on top of the bluff across the river, near the home of 'Ranger' Jones. They were led by a chief named Spotted Tail.
"Friday had a son whom he called Jake, a hot- headed, quarrelsome fellow, with a keen appetite for bad whiskey. He and some of the other young braves visited the Cheyenne camp, got into a quar- rel and Jake killed Spotted Tail.
"Thus, for a brief time, the few settlers were menaced by the horrors of an Indian war, but Fri- day, knowing that he could not hope to win, told his son to go away, which he did, taking his three wives with him.
"A few days after the tragedy, my father was building a log barn and he borrowed a cross-cut saw, with which he and my mother were cutting out the doorway. Three or four Cheyennes came down and sat around watching operations. My father told my mother to stop and he signed for one of the Indians to take hold of the handle, and the Son of the Wilds made a very fair hand for the short time that it took to finish the job. When they stopped to rest, my father said, 'What did you do with Spotted Tail?' The Indian stooped, and with his hand scooped out a little hollow in the soil to show that they had buried him, and my mother said there were tears in his eyes.
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"The next June, when the river was an im- passable torrent, one day the Jones signaled for the boat that was kept for use by the two families. A little Crow Indian boy was frantically waving his blanket, and when he had been ferried across, and considered himself safe from pursuit, he told Friday's band how he had been held as a slave by Jake and his wives; how the party had started to return to the home camping grounds on the Poudre, of their seeing another band of Indians in the dis- tance; of Jake waving a white flag to which the advancing party paid no attention. When they were near enough to recognize their quarry, they began singing the death song. The little Crow knew what that meant. All started to flee. One of Jake's wives rode a lazy pony and begged the little Crow to run behind and whip the horse, but he was intent on saving himself, which he suc- ceeded in doing. It is quite possible the Cheyennes did not try to capture him after taking vengeance on Jake and his family. As no other word ever came to the Poudre country, it is not known in what way they met their deaths. It must always be one of the secrets of 'The Lone Prairie.' "
The Cheyennes and Arapahoes hated the Utes with bitter hatred, and the latter just as intensely hated the former tribes. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were Plains tribes and the Utes a Moun- tain tribe. The Plains Indians could do nothing except on horseback; the Utes, though owning and valuing ponies, was essentially a foot tribe. A single Indian of either tribe on his own ground counted himself equal to three of his enemies. The Utes sometimes wandered on the Plains raiding the camps of their enemies and driving off their ponies when they thought the situation and condition favorable, but it was with fear and trembling. The Plains Indians seldom ventured at all into any country so broken as to prevent them operating to advantage on horseback. Though constantly at war with each other, few were killed in their bat- tles, because neither would venture far into the domain of the other.
Speaking of the Indian trouble of 1864-5, Gen- eral Frank Hall in his history of Colorado says: "On one occasion a merchandise train was attacked on the Cache la Poudre emigrant road near the Colorado line, the men attending it killed, and the train destroyed. One of the attaches was cap- tured alive, and after being cruelly tortured was bound with chains to a wagon wheel, his arms and legs stretched out, large quantities of brush piled up around him and fired. As the flames executed
their hellish purpose, the Indians danced and howled about him in savage glee until he was burned to a cinder."
The Trappers the True Pathfinders
Most of the operations of the organized fur com- panies were carried on in the West through traders and trappers located at central points in Western Wyoming and Eastern Idaho. They had extensive headquarters, depots and camps on Green, Snake and Yellowstone rivers at which they carried on an enormous trade with the Indians and from which these trappers were sent out into the moun- tain wilds to snare beaver and other fur-bearing animals. Yet there is much in the records pre- served, incomplete and defective as they are, in con- nection with other evidence, which go to prove that every important stream in Larimer County had been explored and worked by independent trappers as early as in the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury. Remains of their camps and cabins were found on the borders of these streams by the early settlers, and Fremont declares in his report of his second expedition that he expected to find trappers who were known to have been in this region, to act as guides in conducting him through the passes of the mountains west of here, but that they had all disappeared, having probably been killed by the In- dians. Referring to these trappers, Randall Par- rish, in his interesting work on the "Great Plains," says :
"While the Government was virtually neglecting this western region of the plains, private enterprise had been slowly prying open its secrets, and indi- viduals were finding their uncertain way along its water-courses, or across its sun-browned prairie. The fur trade was the powerful magnet which thus early drew westward hardy adventurers by the score. Very few of the names of those who first trod the plains have been preserved even upon the records of the great fur companies. They were generally obscure, illiterate men, possessing little except their rifles and traps, living for long years in the depths of the wilderness, only occasionally ap- pearing amid the haunts of pioneer civilization with their packs of furs. Sometimes they traveled in in- dependent parties for protection against Indian treachery ; some were free trappers, others were en- rolled upon the lists of organized fur companies and worked under orders. In either case they neces- sarily had hard, wild lives, continually filled with adventure and personal peril. These men, roughly
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clothed, living on game, their safety constantly menaced, were the true western pathfinders, dig- ging continuously deeper year by year into the vast wilderness, and from their ranks came those com- petent guides who were later to lead organized ex- peditions to the Western ocean. During the forty years following the purchase of Louisiana by the United States the people of the East possessed hardly the slightest conception of its immense value. The one considerable commercial attrac- tion it offered during this period was its wealth of furs, and during nearly half a century this was its sole business of importance. In the language of Chittenden, introducing his history of the Ameri- can fur trade :
"The nature of the business determined the character of the early white population. It was the roving trader and the solitary white trapper who first sought out these inhospitable wilds, traced their streams to their sources, scaled the mountain passes, and explored a boundless expanse of terri- tory where the foot of white man had never trodden before. The far west became a field of romantic adventure, and developed a class of men who loved the wandering career of the native in- habitant rather than the toilsome lot of the indus- trious colonists. The type of life thus developed, though essentially evanescent and not representing any profound national movement, was nevertheless a distinct and necessary phase in the growth of this new country. Abounding in incidents picturesque and heroic, its annals inspire an interest akin to that which belongs to the age of knight-errantry, for the fur hunter of the west was, in his rough way, a good deal of a knight-errant. Caparisoned in the wild attire of the Indian and armed cap-a-pie for instant combat, he roamed far and wide over deserts and mountains, gathering the scattered wealth of those regions, slaying ferocious beasts and savage men, and leading a life in which every footstep was beset with enemies and every moment pregnant with peril. The great proportion of these intrepid spirits who laid down their lives in that far country is impressive proof of the jeopardy of their existence. All in all, the period of this ad- venturous business may justly be considered the romantic era of the west.
"So valuable was this preliminary work in ex- ploration that the historian of the movement is fully justified in the statement that these often un- known men were the true pathfinders, and not the official explorers who came later, yet have been ac- corded the proud title. Nothing in western
geography was ever discovered by government ex- plorations after 1840. It was every mile of it known previously to trader and trapper. Brigham Young was led to the valley of the Great Salt Lake by information furnished by men like Jim Baker, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and their colleagues; in the war with Mexico the military forces were guided by those who knew every trail and moun- tain pass; they were veterans of the fur trade who pointed Fremont the way to the Pacific, and when the rush of emigration finally set in toward Ore- gon and California the very earliest of these trav- elers found already made for them a highway across the continent."
A Story of Colorado Told in Short Paragraphs
The first American (Anglo-Saxon) who ven- tured into the wilds of Colorado, then a part of Louisiana Territory, was James Pursley (or Pur- cell), a Kentuckian, who spent some time on the Plains and in the mountains in 1804 or about that time.
The first United States officer to lead an expe- dition to Colorado was Captain Pike. They trav- eled up the Arkansas valley and penetrated the Rockies in 1806-7.
The first white men (American citizens) who traversed the site of Denver, in 1820, were Dr. Edwin James and other members of Long's expe- dition.
The first men to scale the summit of Pike's Peak were James and two companions, who tramped to the top July 14, 1820. The first woman to ascend the peak was Mrs. Julia A. Holmes, in July, 1858.
The first house built by whites was erected by Maj. Jacob Fowler and other trappers near Pueblo, Jan. 3-5, 1822.
The first permanent white settler in Colorado was William Bent, who, in 1824, had temporary quarters about twenty miles west of the present site of Pueblo; he founded a trading post there in 1826.
The first fort was built, in 1828-32, by the Bent brothers and Ceran St. Vrain on the Arkansas river. It was called Bent's fort, and stood about half way between the present towns of Las Animas and La Junta. In 1852 it was destroyed by its owner, Col. William Bent.
The first settlement or trading post at the forks where Pueblo stands was made in 1842 by James P. Beckworth (a noted frontiersman) and a num- ber of trappers and hunters-Americans, French
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
and Mexicans-who built a rude adobe structure, sometimes called "Fort Napeste" and the "The Pueblo." The place had a floating population for a dozen years.
The first American settler in Northwestern Colo- rado was Jim Baker, of Illinois, who came to the Rocky Mountain country about 1836 and erected a log cabin, in the early '40s, near the north border of Routt county.
The first military post for United States troops in Colorado was Fort Massachusetts, a log affair at the base of Sierra Blanca, established in 1852. Fort Garland was built nearby in 1858.
The first party of gold seekers who prospected Colorado within the memory of men was that of the Cherokees, who are said to have looked for placer gold along the Cache la Poudre, near the foot of the mountains, in August, 1849. To these Cherokees belongs the credit of originating the so- called Green-Russell expedition that discovered float gold near the site of Denver in the month of July, 1858.
The first important discovery of gold was made by a party of Georgians led by Russell, in July, 1858. They prospected Fountain creek, Cherry creek, the South Platte river and other streams. They obtained about $500 worth of gold dust in the sands of the Platte and Dry creek, a little distance south of Denver. The camp of prospectors and miners that grew up near the confluence of Cherry creek and the Platte was the beginning of Denver.
The first discovery of silver by Americans, in 1860, was made in Clear Creek County. The first paying silver mine was the Piquot Belmont lode on Mount Mcclellan, discovered and opened in Sep- tember, 1864, by Robert W. Steele, James Huff and Robert Layton.
The first hostelry, called the "Denver House," was put up early in 1859. It was constructed of cottonwood logs, and had at the start a canvas roof.
The first child claiming Denver as its native place was William D. McGaa, born March 3, 1859.
The first stage reached Denver May 7, 1859. It was a big Concord coach, drawn by a six-mule team. It came from Leavenworth via Fort Riley, across the heads of Beaver, Bijou and Kiowa creeks. The length of the stage route then was 687 miles; fare $100, meals included.
The first attempt at political organization was the provisional government of the "Territory of Jefferson," called into being in November, 1859.
This spontaneous commonwealth had a brief exist- ence, being superseded by Colorado Territory in 1861.
The first Governor of Colorado Territory was William Gilpin, of Missouri, who was appointed by President Lincoln March 22, 1861.
The first Federal census of the Territory was taken in the summer of 1861, showing a population of 25,331.
The first sawmill was built on Plum creek, not far from Denver, by D. C. Oakes, late in the spring of 1859.
The first frame house put up in Denver was built for the residence of "Uncle Dick" Wooton in the summer of 1859.
The first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the new Territory was Benjamin F. Hall, ap- pointed March 25, 1861.
The first Superintendent of Public Instruction was William J. Curtice, appointed by Governor Gilpin in 1861.
The first delegate to represent Colorado in Con- gress was Hiram P. Bennet.
The first session of the first legislative assem- bly was held in the fall of 1861 at Denver.
The first seventeen counties of Colorado Terri- tory were Arapahoe, Boulder, Clear Creek, Cone- jos, Costilla, Douglas, El Paso, Fremont, Gilpin, Huerfano, Jefferson, Lake, Larimer, Park, Pueblo, Summit and Weld. These counties were created by act of the First Territorial Legislature, ap- proved Nov. 1, 1861.
The first capital was Colorado City. The Terri- torial Legislature met there four days in 1862, and then adjourned to Denver.
The first flag was made by the patriotic women of Denver for the First Colorado regiment of volun- teers, organized in 1861.
The first private school was opened by Prof. O. J. Goldrick, Oct. 3, 1859, with thirteen children. The pupils, two of them half-breeds, gathered in a little log cabin on the west bank of Cherry creek. Miss Indiana Sopris was Denver's first "school- marm."
The first schoolhouse proper was a one-room frame building erected at Boulder in 1860. The organized public school system of Colorado had its beginning in 1861.
The first meeting of the Colorado Teachers' As- sociation was held in 1875.
The first school of higher learning was "Colo- rado Seminary," opened in 1864. That was the
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
beginning of the University of Denver. The same year Loretto Academy was started.
The first school of the University of Colorado was opened in Boulder, in 1875.
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