USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 32
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 32
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 32
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15 The legislature of 1887 enacted a law providing that narrow gauge roads should be assessed at $6,000 per mile, and standard gauge $10,000 per inile. This settled the question for the assessors who had been taking such property at the valuation of the owners; but a better law would have been to assess them at their actual value, and tax them at as low a figure as the public interest required.
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PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
taken by any company to parallel the Central Pacific through Nevada. Neither was there much mileage added to the local railways, for until interoceanic roads should parcel out the great area of the state between them, there would be little use for merely local lines.
But whatever drawback there may have been to the progress of the silver state, which I have or have not pointed out, its honor has never been assailed ; its representatives in the national legislature have been men of mark ; its people loyal to the American idea of progressive government. The republican legislature of 1887 16 elected William M. Stewart to succeed James G. Fair in the United States senate, making him the colleague of John P. Jones, both strong on the silver question in which the state had so great an interest, and on which the best financial talent in the country still remained at variance. By their united efforts, joined with those of Teller of Colorado, and a few other friends of bi-metalism, the demonet- ization of silver was prevented. Stewart also effected some important changes in the mining laws of con- gress, desirable from the standpoint of the miner. 17
At the general election of 1886 William Woodburn was elected to succeed himself in congress. C. C.
16 The republican majority in the senate in 1887 was 8; in the assembly 22.
17 As the law was amended, the amount of work necessary to hold a placer claim was reduced to $50 per annum, and the amount of land which might be included in a patent to 160 acres. It fixed the hour of noon on the Ist day of August as the commencement and close of the year for annual work, instead of midnight on the 31st of Dec., darkness and cold having proven favorable to perjury. Relocations by the same persons were forbid- den, thus preventing the fraudulent practice of making a new location on the same ground to avoid doing the amount of work required by law. Right of way was reserved through or over any mining claim for roads, ditches, tunnels, canals, or cuts, the damages oocasioned to be assessed and paid in the manner provided by statute for the condemnation of private property for public use ia the states and territories in which the mines are situated. No person should acquire in any manner more than one mining claim on the same vein. This restriction was meant to be in the original law, which was so worded, however, that it was often construed otherwise. Other minor changes made the mining law clearer and stronger in the interest of the actual miner.
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POLITICAL AFFAIRS.
Stevenson,18 who for many years had been closely iden- tified with the political history of Nevada as senator, as chairman of numberless committees, and as a leader of the republican party, was elected governor after a sharp but friendly contest with J. W. Adams, 19 not
18 Charles C. Stevenson is a native of Ontario co., N. Y., whencc in 1830, being then four years of age, he went with his parents to Canada, a few years afterward removing to Michigan. In 1859 he joined a party bound for Pike peak, but on account of discouraging reports decided to push on to Nevada, and was one of the first to arrive on the Comstock. At this date, July, 1859, Virginia City-then called Ophir-consisted of a single tent and a brushwood saloon, while Gold Hill contained one log-house and two miners' cabins. After mining for a time at the latter point with fair success, he pur- chascd in 1861 a half interest in the first quartz-mill erected in Nevada, known as the Coover and Stevenson mill, and has ever since been engaged in mining and milling. In 1867, and again in 1869 and 1873, he was a mem- ber of the state senatc, serving also in the first of these years on the state central committee. In 1872 he was elected a delegate to the national con- vention at Philadelphia, and in 1875 a member of the board of regents of the state university. It was largely through his efforts as governor and ex officio one of the regents that this institution was afterward placed on a solid foun- dation. Through his instrumentality an appropriation of $20,000 was secured for the proper representation of the state at the centennial exhibition, and as chairman of the board and superintendent of the department he gave his services free of charge, returning to the state treasury $1,000 of the appro- priation. In 1880 and also in 1884 he was chosen a delegate to the national convention at Chicago, in the latter ycar being appointed chairman. For a number of years, as chairman of the Storey county and state central com- mittees, he was one of the most active workers in the interests of his party. As chairman of the Nevada silver convention, held at Carson City in 1885, and of the Nevada silver association, he rendered good service to the statc. By the latter thousands of documents were published and distributed in all parts of the union, advocating the free coinage and restoration of silver to its former standard. As president of the state agricultural society, which office he held for several years, he devoted his time and means to the farm- ing and stock-raising interests of Nevada, introducing at his own expense the best grades of blooded Jersey cattle. Governor Stevenson is widely esteemed, not only as a ruler and statesman, but also as one of the most public- spirited men in his adopted statc.
19 Gov. Adams was born in Vermont, Aug. 6, 1835; came to California in 1852, and to Nevada in 1864; was married in 1878 to Miss Emma E. Lcc; was among the early Comstock pioneers, coming there from Mariposa co., Cal., and engaged in the various phases of mining industry until elected lieut-gov. in 1874. A kecn active politician, yet a thoroughly clean, hon- est citizen. For cight years lieutenant-governor and president of the senate, during which period he was in the most intimate relations with Gov. Bradley, as adviser, and on many important occasions the chief executive, in fact; also, during his own four years of gubernatorial control, hic was, at all points, the actual servant of the people. In all matters of an economic nature, especially as a member of various boards, having in charge the dis- bursement of the state funds, he looked exclusively to the best interests of the people, regarding their affairs as a sacred trust in his hands, and hence ignoring every distracting consideration of partisan feeling or personal affil- iation. He served the state faithfully and with honor. His friends are numerous and as intense in their regard for him as he has shown himself in his loyalty to them, but in this his fourth candidacy it was found, as is true HIST. NEV. 21
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PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
a single unkind word or act marring the friendship which had long existed between the rival candidates; H. C. Davis was chosen lieutenant-governor; J. M. Dormer secretary of state; George Tufly treasurer ; J. F. Hallock comptroller; J. F. Alexander attorney- general, and W. C. Dovey superintendent of public instruction. O. R. Leonard was chief justice of the supreme court, and C. H. Belknap and Thomas P. Hawley associate justices. In this placidly prosper- ous condition I leave the silver commonwealth, whose greatness, although it makes haste slowly, is march- ing forward to meet and crown her none the less surely.
in the experience of all men of his positive character and uncompromising . temper, his enemies had become sufficiently numerous to defeat him by a small majority. Mrs Adams, a most refined and worthy lady, was in every sense the ornament of the Governor's mansion, and continues to occupy a warm place in the esteem and affections of the best men and women of the silver state.
Philetus Everts, a native of New York, born 1830, came to Cal. in 1852, where he engaged in various branches of business until 1869, when he went to White Pine and engaged in merchandising at Hamilton. Mr Everts took an active interest in the welfare of the town, and in the affairs of the Eureka and Palisade railway, of which he was superintendent. He was also a large owner in the Eureka Lumber company. His health failing, Mr Everts dis- posed of his interests in Nevada, and after a trip to Europe went to Oakland, Cal., to live, where he built a business block on Broadway. Mr Everts has large interests elsewhere. He is a man of sterling character, and is highly respected by all who know him.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
MOUNTAIN SYSTEM-PRIMEVAL WATERS-UPHEAVAL, EVAPORATION AND GLACIAL ACTION-DRY RIVERS-FLORA AND FAUNA-PRIMITIVE MAN- CANONS AND RIVER SYSTEMS-SERIES OF PARKS-CLIMATE-SOIL- FORESTS-GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS-MINERALS AND METALS-GOLD AND SILVER-COAL AND IRON-PRECIOUS STONES-LAND AND WATER ELE- VATIONS.
IN the gradual upheaval of the continent from a deep sea submersion, the' great Sierra Madre, or mother range, of old Mexico first divided the waters, and presented a wall to the ocean on the west side. The San Juan range of Colorado is an extension of the Sierra Madre, and the oldest land in this part of the continent. Then at intervals far apart rose the Sangre de Cristo range, the Mojada or Greenhorn range, and lastly the Colorado, called the Front range because it is first seen from the east; and northeast from this the shorter upheavals of Wind river and the Black hills, each, as it lies nearer or farther from the main Rocky range, being more or less recent.
The longer slope and greater accessibility of the mountains on their eastern acclivity has come from the gradual wash and spreading out of the detritus of these elevations in comparatively shallow water, while yet the ocean thundered at the western base of the mother range. The salt waters enclosed by the bar- rier of the Rocky mountains, and subdivided after- ward by the later upheavals into lesser seas, were carried off through the canons which their own mighty force, aided by other activities of nature, and
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
by some of her weaknesses, opened for them. For uncounted ages the fresh water of the land flowed into the inland seas, and purged them of their saline flavor, washing the salts and alkalies into the bed of the ocean on the west, where. after the emergence of the Sierra Nevada, and the elevation of the interven- ing mountains of the great basin, they largely remained, having no outlet. Gradual elevation and evaporation, with glacial action, completed the general shaping of the country. Subsequent elemental and volcanic action has left it with four parallel mountain ranges, from which shoot up 132 peaks, ranging from 12,000 to 14,500 feet above sea level, and from 9,000 to 10,000 feet above the general level of the state, with many lesser ones; with large elevated valleys called parks, walled about with majestic heights, covered with luxuriant grasses, threaded by streams of the purest water, beautified by lakes, and dotted with groups of trees; with narrow, fertile valleys skirting numerous small rivers, fringed with cottonwood and willow; with nobler rivers rushing through rents in the solid mountains thousands of feet in depth, and decorated by time and weather, with carvings such as no human agency could ever have designed, their wild imagery softened by blended tones of color in harmony with the blue sky, the purple-gray shadows, and the clinging moss and herbage; with forests of pine, fir, spruce, aspen, and other trees, covering the mountain sides up to a height of 10,000 or 12,000 feet; with wastes of sand at the western base of the Snowy range, or main chain, and arid mesas in the southeast, where everything is stunted except the enormous cacti; with grassy plains sloping to the east, made gay with an indigenous flora, and other grassy slopes extending to the mountains toward the west, each with its own distinctive features. It is, above all, a mountain country; and with all its streams, which are numerous, it is a dry one. In the summer many of its seeming water-courses are merely arroyos-dry creek beds ;
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PRESENT AND PRIMEVAL.
others contain some water flowing in channels cut twenty or more feet down through yellow clay to a bed of shale ; and still others run through cañons, with narrow bottoms supporting rich grass, and wil- low, thorn, cherry, currant, and plum trees. Sloping up from these may be a stretch of rolling country covered sparsely with low, spreading cedars; or a table-land, with colonies of prairie-dogs scattered over it, and moving about upon it herds of wild horses, buffaloes, deer, and antelopes. Up in the mountains are meadows, having in their midst beaver-dams over- grown with aspens, and little brooks trickling from them. Several other fur-bearing animals are here, also. In still other localities are fine trout streams, and game about them is abundant, elks, mountain sheep, bears, lynxes, wolves, panthers, pumas, wild-cats, grouse, pheasants, ptarmigans, and birds of various kinds having their habitat there.
But these were not the first inhabitants of these mountains. In the bed of one of the ancient seas west of the San Juan mountains, before mentioned, in a deposit three thousand feet thick, now hardened into rock, are the fossil skeletons of the first verte- brates of the American continent, species until recently unknown to science. As their bones are very numer- ous, being scattered over three thousand square miles, it is safe to conclude that Colorado supported a vast amount of animal life at that period when the rivers now dry washed down their remains to that ancient receptacle.
Here, too, about the shores of this primeval lake, which was encircled by upturned ridges of white gyp- sum and sandstone of various colors, yellow, vermilion, gray, and blood red, on sharp ridges, with precipitous sides, sometimes hundreds of feet high, dwelt the first men who inhabited this region of whom there is any trace. Their dwellings were of unhewn stones, ce- mented with a mortar containing a large portion of volcanic ashes. Their form was oval, like a bee-hive,
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
and they enclosed usually a cedar stump, the use of which is purely conjectural. So numerous were these dwellings, that the population must have been dense which occupied them; yet all were in these inacces- sible situations. About them were scattered a few domestic implements, including large water-jars sunk in the ground, and some arrow-heads. But as no water can now be found within twenty-five miles of the cliff-dwellings, a long time must have elapsed to account for the change of climate which has taken place. Why this ancient people found it necessary or desirable to dwell on the top or in the face of the cliffs is unanswerable, unless we accept the almost in- credible theory that, like the lake-dwellings of Swit- zerland, these houses were erected when the water of the now dried-up lake reached up to them. This be- lief might go far to account for the great number of bones of animals found in the lake bed, for they must have subsisted upon animal food. The few human bones found have been fossilized, which is in itself evidence of the long period of time since they were clothed in flesh.
I should be afraid to say this primitive race were capable of comparing the beauties of the great cañons over which modern Coloradans grow enthusiastic; or that they would understand what to-day is meant by Garden of the Gods, the place being conspicuous for the absence of both garden and gods; yet more strik- ing, perhaps, than the Olympic mount, as here we have, if the imagination be strong enough, sandstone columns sculptured by the elements into the simili- tude of giant human forms, divinely tall if not divinely fair. Of the eight or more principal cañons which were opened for the waters in the infancy of this early world, the most wonderful and beautiful are west of the main range; and Black cañon, on Gun- nison river, which is a branch of Grand river, itself a branch of the great stream of the west, with the longest and deepest cañon in the world, is the grand-
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PRESENT AND PRIMEVAL.
est of them all. So many aspects has it that any mood may be satisfied in regarding its varied features. The walls have an average width of three hundred feet, the rock being stratified, and continuing for miles. In places it rises one, two, or three thousand feet, with level summits, surmounted by a second wall of prodigious height. The level of the Gunnison river at Mountain creek, above the cañon, is 7,200 feet above the sea, that of the mesa on the north side 8,000, the wall of the cañon here being 1,600 feet, and a little lower, on the opposite side, 1,900. Still further down, the wall rises 3,000 feet, the lower 1,800 being of gneiss rock. The elevation of the mesa at this point is 9,800 feet. But these figures represent only height and depth; they convey no im- pression of the gorge itself, which sometimes narrows down to the width of the river, and is all gloom and grandeur, and again broadens out into a park, with waterfalls dashing down its inclosing walls, needles of highly-colored sandstone pointing skyward, trees growing out of the clefts in the palisades, huge rocks grouped fantastically about, curious plants sheltering in their shadows, and the brilliant, strong river dart- ing down in swift green chutes between the spume- flecked boulders, dancing in creamy eddies, struggling to tumble headlong down some sparkling cataract, making the prismatic air resound with the soft tinkle as of merry laughter. Again, it surges along in half shadows, rushing as if blinded against massive abut- ments, to be dashed into spray, gliding thereafter more smoothly, as if rebuked for its previous haste, but always full of light, life, and motion. The grand- eur, beauty, and variety of the views in Black cañon make doubly interesting the reflection that through this channel poured the waters of that great primal sea which once spread over western Colorado. A rival to it is the cañon of the Uncompahgre, in the same division of the state; and on the eastern slope are
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
those of Boulder, Clear, and Cheyenne creeks, and the Platte and Arkansas rivers.
The western slope is drained entirely, excepting some small streams falling into the San Luis lakes, by the affluents of the Rio Colorado of the west. All of the principal of these, except the main river and some of the branches of Green river, have their sources in the Rocky ranges, in the state of Colorado, most of them in the Park, the Saguache, the Elk, or the San Juan mountains. The Grand river rises in the Middle park, and after receiving the tributaries that drain Egeria park, and the northern slopes of the Elk mountains, cuts its way in mighty cañons through the plateaus of western Colorado, while its two chief affluents, the Gunnison and Rio Dolores, with their branches, drain all the western slopes lying between latitude 37° 30' and 39° north. In the ex- treme southwest the Rio San Juan and its tributaries perform this office for a large extent of country.
On the east side of the great divide, the South Platte river, with about forty tributaries, rises well up among the peaks of the Front, or Colorado, range, and flowing north-northeast and easterly, drains a large extent of country, while the North Platte, ris- ing in the Park range, drains the whole of the North park toward the north. The eastern slope of Colo- rado is watered and drained by the royal river Ar- kansas, with its sixty or more tributaries, some of which are of considerable volume. It heads in the high region of the Saguache range, interlacing with springs of the Grand river, quite as the Columbia and the 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 summits of the same range which feeds the Gunnison branch of Grand river on the opposite side, flows toward the
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VALLEYS AND PARKS.
gulf of Mexico. Such is the river system of Colo- rado.
The series of high valleys, to which in Colorado are given the name of parks, and of which I have spoken, are of various dimensions. North park has a diameter of thirty miles, and an elevation of 8,500 feet. Middle park has a length of sixty-five miles by a breadth of forty-five, with an altitude of 8,000 feet. South park is but little less in size, and is 842 feet more elevated than its neighbor. San Luis park, still further south, is nearly as large as all the other three just named, and has an altitude of 7,500 feet. In it are the San Luis lakes. These elevated valleys are separated from each other, and surrounded by the several mountain chains, and their spurs or cross- ranges, except San Luis, which is opened toward the east. Through them course the tributary streams which feed the great rivers. Egeria, Estes, Animas, and Huerfano parks are small valleys of great beauty, at a general elevation of 8,000 feet.
What, then, shall be said of this country so grandly organic and so interesting in its cosmical history ? That it illustrates the condition of the lower valleys and plains when they shall be as old as these oldest lands in America? For with all its numerous streams as I have said, Colorado is a dry country. The 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 sum- mer mean temperature ranges from 64.6° to 69.2°, and the winter mean from 31.3º to 32.8°. The maximum heat of summer ranges from 93° to 99°, with from six to thirty days above 90°; and the minimum of winter from 3° to 12°, with from six to ten days when the mercury is below zero; which gives an extreme range for the year from 96° to 110°; and the rain- fall averages 18.84 inches. With a surface composed of mountains and plains, ranging in altitude from
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
about 3,000 to more than 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, Colorado possesses many varieties of climate. The sharp extremes of heat and cold are perceptible to the senses only in a limited degree, on account of the large preponderance of sunny days and the dryness and tonic properties of the atmosphere, which is at once healthful, bracing, and exhilarating. The winter is the season of greatest charm, for then the bright sunshine gives balminess to the air, while in the blue dome of the sky is no cloud to stain its purity.
From the small amount of moisture distributed over the surface, and the great general elevation, it is nat- ural that the agricultural area should be limited, and that only by a good system of irrigation could the soil be made to produce food enough to supply a dense population. Yet the soil is exceedingly rich with its mineral constituents of plants, and also deep, and must yield, when supplied with water, large and fine crops of cereals. On the eastern slopes of the state, in the parks, and west of the mother range, are graz- ing lands for countless herds of herbivorous animals. By and by all this will be changed ; the herds will give way to the superior demands of the soil, a way meanwhile having been found to overcome the ster- ility of nature.
The effect of climate is visible in the forests of Colorado, which cover perhaps a tenth part of the area. The trees are not majestically tall and straight, like those of the more northern and western regions, but squat and branching, and of no great size. Neither are they in any great variety, but they will serve for fuel and lumber as well as the trees of many of the trans-Missouri states.
To find out where the natural wealth of this won- derful and beautiful country is hidden we must search beneath the soil and break open the rocks. The geology of the plains is cretaceous, or post-cretaceous, with the exception of areas of tertiary formation in the northern portion and on the Arkansas divide. At the base of the mountain the strata are turned
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GEOLOGY.
up, forming hog-backs in which the cretaceous and Jura trias are exposed, coal being found in the latter. All this is very simple ; but in the mountains all the formations known are represented, and the arrangement is complex. The Front, most of the Park, all of the Mojada, and part of the Sangre de Cristo ranges are of granite and allied metamorphic rocks. The southern portion of the Sangre de Cristo is carboniferous, with here and there an intruded vol- canic rock. The San Juan mountains are volcanic, with an area of quartzite peaks in their midst, and flanking the range on the south is an area of carboniferous and cretaceous rocks, while the Elk mountains are a medley of volcanic peaks thrown up among the silurian and carboniferous, flanked by cretaceous areas.
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