History of Larimer County, Colorado, Part 31

Author: Watrous, Ansel, 1835-1927
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Fort Collins, Colo. : The Courier Printing & Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 678

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a commodity that was in great demand in the min- ing camps, often bringing from $100 to $150 per ton. The hay was hauled to Central City and Black Hawk by oxen and it required about ten days to make the round, trip. The road was long and for a part of the way the hills were steep and rough. A ton or ton and a half of hay made a big load for four yoke of oxen. Usually two or three men would make the trip together, so they could help each other in case of a breakdown or other trouble. On their return they brought home from Denver such sup- plies, provisions, clothing, etc., as were needed to last until another trip could be made, and would also execute errands for their neighbors. The re- turn of the hay peddlers was always a welcome event, and those interested gathered at the cabins of the home-comers to get the news from the out- side world and to retail the gossip of the community in exchange. The early day settlers in the two val- leys had practically the same experiences and labored under the same adverse conditions for the first few years of their frontier life.

Of the settlers who came to the Big Thompson in 1860, but few remain. Some of them thought a tract of land several miles in extent was too small for a white man and when their holdings began to be restricted by newcomers, they moved on. The ranches were then located by the claimant stepping off a certain number of paces along the stream and then drawing an imaginary line from bluff to bluff at each end of the measured spaces, and calling his all the land thus enclosed. With the advent of the "Claim Club" squatters' claims were restricted to 160 acres. After the lands had been surveyed in 1864, locators made homestead filings and most of them subsequently proved up and secured title from the government to their individual tracts. When the government survey was made some of the claims were found to be short, while others con- tained more acres than they were entitled to, one in particular having enclosed 320 acres for a quarter section.

All the bottom land was mowed or cultivated that year and the succeeding few years, that portion lying nearest the stream being used for raising vegetables, potatoes principally. Irrigation was not resorted to, only the grass that matured from rain- fall being cut and cured for hay. This was cut with hand scythes and raked by hand. Mowers and horse rakes were unknown on the Plains in those days. The raising of grain was not at- tempted, the settlers depending on Denver for flour and other provisions. There were often times

when bread was not to be had for days and when antelope meat was the main stay of life. Flour was hauled across the Plains from the Missouri river, a distance of 600 miles, with ox teams, and this staple at times of scarcity in Denver com- manded fabulous prices. Sometimes it could not be obtained at all. Forty dollars a sack was the usual price for flour and on occasions as high as $100 per sack was paid for it. However, the pioneers made the best of the situation and en- joyed themselves with their dances and public gatherings. There was more of a community of interest in those days than exists now, and if one had a supply of provisions and his neighbor had none, a division was promptly made so that the neighbor should not go hungry. As fast as means permitted many of the first settlers began to buy cows and to accumulate herds of cattle. There was a wide extent of the finest kind of pasturage tor stock as all the bluff lands were open and un- occupied and cattle and horses thrived and grew fat on their rich, nutritious grasses.

In 1862, after the route of the Overland stage had been changed from the North Platte to the South Platte and the stages began making daily trips from Denver to the north and west, a post- office was established at Mariana's crossing and called Namaqua, and James Boutwell was the first postmaster. In 1864 the route of the stage was changed and crossed the Big Thompson at the John Washburn place, about a mile south of the present City of Loveland.

A postoffice called the Big Thompson was opened at this crossing, with Mr. Washburn as postmaster. The stage station at Mariana's was opened by James Boutwell who is still living and is a resident of Denver. Later he sold the station to Ryan & Acker who conducted it until the stage route was changed to Washburn's crossing. In 1861 the settlers began to construct small ditches through which to conduct water from the stream to their gardens, potato patches and hay fields. That was the introduction in the Big Thompson valley of farming by irrigation. Ordinarily good crops of hay could be produced on the bottom lands without artificial aid, but there were years when the rainfall was insufficient and the tonnage of hay was light and in 1861, was one of those years. The partial failure of the crop that year, due to lack of moisture, is what stimulated ditch building. The result of the application of water to the fields by artificial means was so surprising and so encourag- ing that the settlers formed companies and com-

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binations and constructed larger ditches from which greater areas could be watered and bigger crops produced. Vegetables of all kinds were in good demand in Denver and the mining camps and brought high prices, potatoes at one time com- manding 12 cents a pound, and settlers engaged largely in raising them, but not a bushel of grain was raised in the valley until 1865. That year William B. Osborn secured a half bushel each of seed wheat and barley and sowed the grain on his farm. He cut the grain with a cradle and threshed it with a flail. Taking part of his wheat he went to Douty's grist mill on South Boulder creek and had it made into flour. Douty's mill was a prim- itive affair, the burrs used having been chiseled out of granite found in the canon.

Mr. Osborn's success at wheat growing stimu- lated others to engage in it and from that time on wheat has been one of the staple crops of the valley. So much wheat was grown in 1866-7 that a mill became indispensible and in the fall of 1867, Andrew Douty moved his mill to the Big Thomp- son valley and sat it up at a point on the stream about a mile east of the present City of Loveland. This was the first flouring mill put in operation in Larimer county. Mrs. Elizabeth Stone and H. C. Peterson began the erection of a mill at Fort Collins in 1867 but did not finish and get it in operation until a year later.

Douty's mill was 30 x 50 feet ground dimen- sions and three stories high. It had only one set of burrs and could grind but about 75 bushels of grain per day. The mill cost about $10,000 and proved not only a good investment, but also a great con- venience to the people of the county. About 10,000 bushels of wheat were raised in the Big Thompson valley in 1867, and one-half of it was made into flour at the White Rock mill on Boulder creek. The Big Thompson mill was operated by Andrew Douty, George W. Litle and J. A. Litle, first one and then another until Mr. Douty's death in 1874. After the settlement of the estate the mill was sold to A. Leonard & Son, who improved it and successfully operated it for several years.

The first settlers in the Big Thompson valley had their Indian scares in the early days when they gathered at some central point for mutual pro- tection, but it does not appear that the savages ever killed any white people on that stream. The Indians swooped down in the valley from the moun- tains now and then on horse stealing expeditions or on begging trips, but they never killed anybody on their raids, except in one instance and he was

a Mexican. This was in the summer of 1864. A band of Utes came down from North Park on a horse stealing raid and as they emerged from the mountains they met a Mexican who was hauling stone for Mariana. They surrounded him and filled his body with arrows. His scalp was hung on a cottonwood stump and the red-skins pro- ceeded on down the valley scattering fear and con- sternation among the settlers. However, they made no attempts. upon the lives of any of the settlers, their object being to gather up and run off as many horses as they could. They secured several horses from Mariana and started for the hills. The story of their raid and what came of it, as told by Abner Loomis, one of the pursuers of the band and who helped to recover the horses, is related elsewhere in this book.

At another time during the same year a band of Utes took Mariana's horses and fled to the hills in the direction of Middle Park. With a couple of friends Mariana pursued them, coming up with the band early one morning just as the Indians were eating breakfast. Instructing his companions to be careful not to kill an Indian, but to keep out of sight and fire at the ground, Mariana rode toward the camp on the dead run, yelling and shooting as his horse bounded toward them. The Indians were taken by surprise and supposing a lot of white men were after them, mounted their ponies and went tearing away at full speed and without turning around to look back. Mariana and his friends gathered up the stolen horses and few things about the camp and returned to their homes. This is believed to be the last time the Indians raided the Big Thompson settlement.

As early as 1871 George W. Litle, for the pur- pose of solving the question whether fruit could be grown in the valley, planted an acre to apple trees. He had such good success with his experi- ment that others soon followed his example and now the farm without an orchard is an exception. Mr. Litle was the first man in the county to pro- duce apples.

Murder of John Matson

On November 1st, 1878, Frank Marvin, a half lunatic hermit who had been a county charge for a good many years, shot and killed John Matson, just as the latter was entering the Ritchie home about five miles west of Loveland. The tragedy resulted from a quarrel the two men got into a few days before over a mule belonging to one of Mat-

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son's neighbors, that Marvin had taken up and claimed as his own. From words the two men came to blows and in the fight Marvin got decidedly the worst of it. It was then thought that the trouble between Marvin and Matson was over after the drubbing the former received, but not so. Marvin "nursed his wrath to keep it warm" and borrow- ing a Winchester, watched his chance to get even with. Matson, following the latter to Mr. Richie's

Estes Park

Estes Park, one of the most important as it is perhaps the most beautiful scenic center in Colo- rado, is situated at the foot of Long's Peak in the southwest corner of Larimer county. The Park proper ranges from one to three miles in width and about twelve miles in length, and em- braces some of the grandest and most inspiring mountain views to be found on the continent.

ENTRANCE TO ESTES PARK

PHOTO BY F. P. CLATWORTHY

house towards which the victim fled on seeing Marvin with a gun in his hand. Just as Matson was crossing the threshold in search of refuge, Mar- vin fired and Matson fell dead. Marvin then dis- appeared and was not seen or heard of again in Colorado until January, 1882, when he was ap- prehended in Denver by Sheriff James Sweeney who brought the murderer back to Fort Collins and lodged him in jail to await trial on the charge of murder. Marvin was convicted of lunacy and committed to the State Insane asylum where he died several years ago.

Nature seems to have reserved its best efforts in planning to beautify the earth for man's delight and concentrated them upon the forming of Estes Park. Perhaps the best description of this beauti- ful inter-mountainvale ever written is that con- tained in "Life in the Rocky Mountains", a book written by Miss Isabella L. Bird and published by G. P. Putman & Son in 1879-80. Miss Bird was an English lady and a thoroughly disciplined and observant traveler. She spent several weeks in Estes Park in the autumn and early winter of 1873, and her description of the manifold beauties of the Park has never been excelled. She says:

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"Among the striking peculiarities of these moun- tains are hundreds of high-lying valleys, large and small at heights varying from 6,000 to 11,000 feet. The most important are North Park, held by hostile Indians; Middle Park, famous for hot springs and trout; South Park, rich in minerals, and San Luis Park. * *

But parks innumerable are scattered throughout the mountains, most of them unnamed and others nicknamed by the hunters and trappers who have made them their temporary resorts. They al- ways lie within the flaming foot hills, their exquisite stretches of flowery pas- tures dotted artistically with clumps of trees sloping down-like to bright swift streams full of red waiscoated trout, or running up in soft glades into the dark forest, above which the snow peaks rise in their infinite majesty. *

* Estes * Park combines the beauties of all. The Park is most irregularly shaped, and contains hardly any level grass. It is an aggregate of lawns, slopes and glades. * * The Big Thompson, a bright rapid trout stream, snow-born on Long's Peak a few miles higher, takes all sorts of magical twists, vanishing and reap- pearing unexpectedly, glancing among lawns, rushing through romantic ravines, everywhere making music through the still, long nights. Here and there the lawns are so smooth, the trees so artisti- cally grouped, a lake makes such an ar- tistic foreground, or a waterfall comes tumbling down with such an apparent feeling for the picturesque, that I am almost angry with Nature for her close imitation of art. But in another hun- dred yards, Nature glorious unapproach- able, inimitable is herself again, raising one's thoughts reverently upward to her Creator and owner. Grandeur and sub- limity, not softness, are the features of Estes Park. The glades which begin so softly are soon lost in the dark primeval forest, with their peaks of rosy granite and their stretches of granite blocks piled and poised by Nature in some mood of fury. The streams are lost in canons nearly or quite inaccess- ible, awful in their blackness and darkness; every valley ends in mystery; seven mountain ranges raise their frowning barriers between us and the

Plains, and at the south end of the Park, Long's Peak rises to a height of 14,700 (14,276) feet, with his bare granite head slashed with eternal snows. The lowest part of the Park is 7,500 feet

ODESSA LAKE, ESTES PARK PHOTO BY F. P. CLATWORTHY

high, and though the sun is hot during the day, the mercury hovers near the freezing point every night of the summer."

Describing her first view of Estes Park, Miss Bird goes into ecstacies. She says: "From the ridge on which this (Muggins) gulch terminated

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ať a height of 9,000 feet, we saw at last Estes Park, lying 1,500 feet below in the glory of the setting sun, an irregular basin, lighted up by the bright waters of the rushing Thompson, guarded by sen- tinel mountains of fantastic shape and monstrous size, with Long's Peak rising above them all in un- approachable grandeur, while the Snowy Range, with its outlying spires heavily timbered, come down upon the Park slashed by stupendous canons lying deep in purple gloom. The rushing water was blood-red. Long's Peak was aflame, the glory

GEM LAKE, ESTES PARK

of the glowing heavens was given back to earth. Never, nowhere, have I seen anything to equal the view with Estes Park. The mountains 'of the land which is very far off' are very near now, but the near is more glorious than the far and reality than dreamland."

Early History

The name of the first white man to set foot in Estes Park is not disclosed by the records. He may have been an independent trapper and hunter, or an employe of either the Hudson Bay company or of the American Fur company. Certain it is, that agents of these companies explored and estab- lished trapping camps on all the streams flowing out of the eastern base of the mountains, from the British Possessions as far south as the Arkansas river, as early as 1810. It is therefore highly prob- able that some of them penetrated the hills to the sources of the Big Thompson and its affluents in search of fur bearing animals, in which event they must have explored Estes Park. The records do show, however, that Kit Carson and a band of trappers spent the winter of 1840-41 in Estes Park gathering furs. They went in with pack animals

and probably followed the course of the Big Thompson as near as they could. From that time until in October, 1859, a period of nineteen years, Estes Park was an unknown land, so far as the records show.

For the following account of the early settle- ment of Estes Park, I am indebted to a charming little book called the "Story of Estes Park", written by Enos A. Mills, the noted mountaineer and guide, and published in 1905, from which I am kindly permitted to copy at will, many thanks to the author. In this book Mr. Mills says:

"The Park was named in honor of the first settler, Joel Estes, who visited it in October, 1859. It was named by W. N. Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News, in 1864. When Estes first came to the Park, he saw new lodge poles and other recent Indian signs, but so far as known, there never was an Indian in the Park since the white man came. In the summer of 1860, in a gulch about one-half mile south of Mary lake, Milton Estes captured a black Indian pony. Straggling arrow heads have been found over its Parks and not far from Sprague's is what is called the ruin of an old Indian fort.

Mr. and Mrs. Joel Estes moved into the Park early in 1860 and built their cabin on Fish creek, about a half block north of the "ranch house". Except while away on a visit to Arkansas in 1863, the Estes made the Park their home until the summer of 1866. In the spring of 1861 Milton Estes, then twenty-one, journeyed to Fort Lupton and wedded Miss Mary L. Flemming, who had come to Colorado in 1859, at the age of seventeen. They moved to the Park alone and on the birth of Charles F. Estes, February 10, 1865, became the parents of the first white child born in the Park. Mr. and Mrs. Estes still live, and from their lips I heard the story of their Estes Park life. * * *

Joel Estes, like Boone, enjoyed being far from neighbors, and one day while hunting, came to where he could look down into the Park, and being delighted with the view, at once moved into it for "hunting and prospecting." Supplies were packed in until 1861 when they were brought in a two-wheeled cart. The Estes families lived the simple life. Twice each year they went to the Denver postoffice for their mail. On these event- ful trips, which were made during the spring and fall, they took a small quantity of fish, game or hides to market. Reviewing her pioneer life, from a distance of forty years, Mrs. Milton Estes said : "We kept well, enjoyed the climate, had plenty of

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fun, were monarchs of all we surveyed, had no taxes to pay, and were contented as long as we remained, but I wish I had pictures of ourselves in those old days; and clothes, how we must have looked."

Among the campers who came in during the summer of 1865, were Rev. and Mrs. Richardson and one August day of that summer he preached in the Estes cabin to ten listeners. Rev. Richardson was a Methodist. The next religious services were by United Brethren, Revs. E. J. Lamb and Ross, in August, 1871. In the spring of 1866 the Estes sold their holdings in the Park and moved away, and none of them have ever been back. Joel Estes died in New Mexico in 1875, his wife in Iowa, in 1882. "At this date, January 1905" says Mr. Mills, "Mr. and Mrs. Milton Estes are alive and for the past few years have been dividing their time in their comfortable homes in Denver and El Paso, Texas." A few months later a Mr. Jacobs bought the Estes claim for $250.00, but in a short time it was acquired by Hank Farrar, known as "Buckskin". Mr. Farrar is a brother of Clinton and Martin Farrar of Fort Collins, and Laporte. Late in 1867 the Estes claim came under the con- trol of Griffith Evans, and in due course, lost its identity by becoming a part of the Lord Dunraven estate. Mr. Evans founded the first permanent settlement by remaining in the Park for nearly twenty years. In 1868 "Rocky Mountain Jim", James Nugent, who five years later, met a tragic death at the hand of an assassin, built a cabin in Muggins' gulch and that same year Israel Rowe, hunter and discoverer of Gem lake, established a home a short distance southwest of the base of Mount Olympus. That year Charles W. Denni- son, who was the unwilling victim of the first death in the Park, built a log house about midway between the cabins of Rowe and Evans, and George Hearst (Muggins) pastured his cattle that year in Muggins' gulch on the present Meadow Dale stock ranch. A flock of sheep was brought into the Park that year, but they did not remain long for mountain lions loved mutton too well to make the venture a safe and profitable one.

Long's Peak, that grim sentinel of the Contin- ental Divide, which marks the southwestern corner of Larimer county, caught the eye of Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike one day in November, 1806, while on his exploring expedition which resulted in the discovery of the Peak that bears his name. The first mention of Long's Peak occurs in the report of Major Stephen H. Long who had been sent out by

President Madison to explore the great Plains and the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. He came in sight of it on June 30th, 1820, as his ex- pedition slowly wended its way up the South Platte and while still far out on the Plains on July 3. Three days later, while his party was in camp at the mouth of the Cache la Poudre river the name the Peak now bears and will continue to bear while time shall last, was bestowed in honor of Major

BEAR LAKE, ESTES PARK PHOTO BY F. P. CLATWORTHY

Long, the intrepid Commander of the expedition. Neither Major Long nor any of his party ever scaled the mountain that bears his name, nor did Lieutenant Pike ever climb Pike's Peak, but four- teen years later, E. James, a botanist in Major Long's party ascended that mountain and was the first man known to have reached a summit of the Colorado Mountains. He also measured it, giving it height as 11,500 feet. The Peak was named in his honor, a title it retained for several years and was then changed to Pike.

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What is claimed to have been the first attempt to climb Long's Peak was made in August, 1864 by W. N. Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News. With three companions, Mr. Byers scaled Mount Meeker and went some distance through Keyhole on the trail now used. The attempt was unsuccessful. Four years later Mr. Byers led a

have gazed out upon the wonders of the Rocky Mountain regions from the lofty summit of the noted mountain. Miss Anna E. Dickinson, the celebrated lecturer, was probably the first woman to make the ascent. She made the climb as the guest of Prof. E. Hayden of the United States Geological survey in 1871. In August, 1871, Rev.

ESTES PARK IN WINTER COPYRIGHT BY F. P. CLATWORTHY

party of climbers to the top. On August 23,

1868, the first ascent of Long's Peak was made.

The persons who made it were, Major J. W. Powell, W. H. Powell, L. W. Replinger, Samuel Gorman, Ned E. Farrell, John C. Summer and William N. Byers. There was not the slightest indication that human foot had ever trod the sum- mit before. This party, says Mr. Mills, made barometric and other observations and built a stone cairn on the southeast corner of the summit. It is safe to say that since then, thousands of people

E. J. Lamb, the first regular guide made his first ascent, and in coming down, descended the "east precipice" a feat but once repeated and then by Enos A. Mills in 1903. Early in October, 1873, the mountain was scaled by four persons, not un- known to fame. They were Miss Isabella L. Bird, the noted English traveler, Ex .- Mayor Platt Rogers, of Denver, Judge S. S. Downer, of Boulder, with "Rocky Mountain Jim" as guide. On September 23rd, 1884, Miss Carrie J. Welton, a wealthy young lady from Massachusetts, perished

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at Keyhole on her way down from the summit. She gave out at the top of the trough, but the guide, Carlyle Lamb, succeeded in getting her as far down as Keyhole, when at her urgent request, he left her and went to the Long's Peak House for help to bring her down the mountain. He left her about 9 o'clock at night, making all possible haste, but it was almost morning before he could get back to her through the cold, windy night with help. He found her dead .. Over-exertion together with the cold, had cut short her life. The body was tenderly borne to the foot of the mountain and shipped thence to her former eastern home for burial. The first death in Estes Park appears to have been that of Charles D. Miller, for whom the Miller Ford was named, who was accidentally shot and killed by Charles W. Dennison. Later a climber of Mount Olympus accidentally shot and killed himself. He was buried on the south side of the Thompson, just below the mouth of Fall river.

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History of Larimer County, Colorado, Part 31

Author: Watrous, Ansel, 1835-1927 Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Fort Collins, Colo. : The Courier Printing & Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 678

Author: Watrous, Ansel, 1835-1927
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Fort Collins, Colo. : The Courier Printing & Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 678