History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 12

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080

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" In September, 1865, the glad order came that the regiment, or, rather, what was left of it, should

proceed to Fort Leavenworth and be mustered out. In October, 1865, the muster-out took place-the last farewell grasp of hand in soldierly companion- ship was given. Three cheers for the Second Col- orado Cavalry, the flags and guidons were furled, six hundred and seventy-three men stepped out, and the strife was ended. For the dead, who peacefully sleep at Honey Springs, farewell. Apache Cañon, Cabin Creek, Westport, Newtonia, and on the Osage we can say :

"' How glorious falls the radiant sword in hand, In front of battle for their native land.'"

CHAPTER XV.

SKETCH OF THE THIRD COLORADO.

TN August, 1862, Gov. Evans was directed to raise a regiment to be called the Third Colorado Volunteer Infantry. On the 22d he appointed a number of recruiting officers. Recruiting offices were opened in Denver and elsewhere, but very few enlisted until the mining season was over. Headquarters for a long while were on Larimer street, where the First National Bank now stands, and the camp named Camp Elbert, after Gov. Evans' popular and efficient Secretary of the Terri- tory. In December, headquarters was removed to Camp Weld. Lieuts. Holloway and Norton opened offices in Gilpin County, Lieut. Harbour in Sum- mit, Lieut. Crocker in Lake, Lieut. Elmer in Park, Lieuts. Moses and Post in Clear Creek, and Lieuts. Wanless and Castle in Denver. In the latter part of October, recruiting had become active. By the 1st of February, 1863, troops had been mustered in and the First Battalion organized with commis- sioned officers as follows :

Lieutenant Colonel, commanding, S. S. Curtis. Company A, R. R. Harbour, Captain ; Company B, E. W. Kingsbury ; Company C, E. P. Elmer ; Company D, G. W. Morton ; Company E, Thomas Moses, Jr.

Company A came mainly from Summit County, Company B from Arapahoe and Boulder, Com- pany C from Park and Lake, Company D from Gilpin, and Company E from Clear Creek.

The announcement for Colonel and Major of the regiment, when organized, was James H. Ford, Colonel, and Jesse L. Pritchard, Major.

Orders had been received from department headquarters as early as January for the battalion to march as soon as organized. Considerable delay was caused by want of sufficient transportation, and it was not till the 3d of March that the troops left Camp Weld on the march for the States by way of the South Platte Valley. The command passed Fort Kearney April 1, reaching Fort Leav- enworth on the 23d, where it went into camp, near the post. On the 26th, orders were received to go to St. Louis, and, having transportation by steamboat and rail, were landed at Sulphur Springs, a station on the Iron Mountain Railroad, twenty miles below St. Louis, where the men went into camp for instruction. On the 21st, the command was ordered to Pilot Knob, where it formed part of the First Brigade, Second Division, Army of : the Frontier. On the 2d of June, the infantry in

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

this command were ordered to Vicksburg, but just as the Third Colorado was ready to march, orders were received assigning them to post duty at Pilot Knob, under Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk. Here the men were put to severe fatigue duty and assisted very materially in the construction of Fort Hamilton, a stronghold which the rebels, during the Price raid, found impossible to carry by assault. September 8, Companies C and E were ordered along the line of the railroad, while A, B and D remained on post and provost duty at Pilot Knob. In October, information reached the command that the Second and Third Regiments were to be

consolidated and form the Second Colorado Cavalry, and the First Battalion was ordered to proceed to Rolla, Mo., without delay.

The command left Pilot Knob October 23, marching across the country to Rolla, where it arrived on the 28th and went into camp near Fort Wyman. It remained here, performing post duty, until December 7, when it was ordered to St. Louis, arriving there on the evening of the 8th, and on the 9th went into quarters at Benton Barracks and ceased to exist as the Third Colorado Cavalry, Companies A, B, C, D and E becoming Companies H, I, K, L and M of the Second Colorado Cavalry.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE GEOLOGY OF COLORADO.

G Y EOLOGY, asthe science treating of the struct- ure of the earth on which we live, is one of man's most fascinating studies. The various changes that have occurred during the vast expanse of time that stretches into the infinite and dim dis- tances of the past, attract some minds with mag- netic influence, and a lifetime is all too short to complete the study of the rocks wherein we find traced the gradual but undeviating progress of the earth from the Azoic Age to that of our own time. The story, as told by the mighty mountain ranges whose jagged edges present fire-forged surfaces to the sun, or by the bowlders whose wonderful smoothness indicates the powerful action of water and ice, is an almost unending one. He who can read it understandingly, can find something more than a sermon in a stone; he can trace from the very infancy of the world's history-almost from the time when it was "without form and void ; " when but the highest points of the Sierras were as rocky islands in the midst of an ocean, forward through its successive stages as the earth's form assumed a habitable shape, and life, in its lowest form, began to appear upon its surface, and sea, land and air became full of activity, until he

beholds it in its present condition, yet still moving forward under the mysterious laws of nature, that so slowly and yet so surely evolve changes, trans- forming barren wastes into cultivated fields, build- ing up islands in mid-ocean, lowering the levels of continents on one side of the globe, and uplifting vast reaches of mainland on the other. It is a study in which the mind can find an unlimited range of facts, illustrating the creative force exist- ing about us, though one we are hardly able to grasp in all its infinite variety and illimita- ble power. He who runs may read a few of the wonders that are visible upon the face of nature ; but he who stays and ponders, with his hammer in his hand, unfolds rock-pages one by one, whose story becomes legible at once, and remains forever open to the eyes of man. It has been aptly said that " the structure of the earth has been of inter- est to man from the earliest times, not merely on account of the useful materials he obtained from its rocky formations, but also for the curiosity awakened by the strange objects presented to his notice." Earthquakes have changed the position of sea and land ; volcanoes have added layers of molten rock to mud and sand filled with the shells

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

of inland seas ; the hills present strata abounding in evidences of marine life now far removed from the sea-border. "These phenomena could not escape the attention of the philosophers among the ancient Egyptian and Indian races, and their influ- ence is perceived in the strange mixtures of cor- rect observations and extravagant conceit's which make up their cosmogonies or universal theories of the creation."

And of all countries in the world, Colorado presents within its area of mountain ranges a field so deep and wide as to seem almost inexhaustible for all coming ages. Its system of parks alone once vast inland seas-as they become better known and their resources made plain to the material eye -- is attracting the attention of scientists more and more every year. "In this new world, which is the old," one stands within the inner temple of the world's history. We note the weird working of the wind in the fantastic shapes that stand upon the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountain range, while here and there we see evidences of volcanic action ; hut on the western slope lies a vast volcanic region, stretching for three hundred miles and expanding in some places to one hundred miles in width, revealing a naked plain, giving indubitable evidence of the fiery forces that once were in full play, but have now died out, leaving their story written in letters of lava over the entire surface. From the highest peaks to the lowest valleys, the hieroglyphics of antiquity are far plainer in the world of nature than are those engraven on obelisk and wall in the ruined cities, that tell of bygone skill in the arts and sciences in the cities of the eastern world. But here Geology opens her wonderful book and we pause to linger, look and finally long to know more of that strange, mysterious past, those ages long gone by, those eons enveloped in mystery -save as strata after strata are exposed, evoking the panorama of progress startling in its insignificancy, stoutly enunciating the truths of science and adding new force to that expressive sentence of Holy Writ, that a thousand years are but as a day in His eyes, who is maker and ruler of the world.

It is but natural that the opinion should prevail that our State is too young to have much of a his- tory. Yet it has one, it will be seen, older than that of the race which inhabits the globe. It stretches out through the ages, from the very incip- iency of the creation of the globe, of which it forms so uplifted a portion, and is impressed on the rocks which compose it as with an indelible pen of fire.

The ranges of Colorado are unquestionably as old as the Silurian period and doubtless even reach- ing to the Azoic era. It is not, however, to be taken for granted that they were as high or as broad as they are at present. The bar- ren pinnacles-save where crowned with the eternal snow-of the mighty peaks resting upon the ridges forming the backbone of the continent, were indi- cated but did not present the bold front they now do. The elevation of the mountain chains was gradual, and the snow-crowned summits and rocky buttresses give evidence of far-apart geologic ages. The cooling of the globe and the shrinkage of its crust had much to do with their formation, and immense periods of time must have been consumed in the task of lifting these stately peaks to their present position upon the surface of the globe. The general outline was, no doubt, similar to that we see to-day, but with features marked by lines giving clear hints of what they were to be, each bare, ragged ridge of quartz and granite a mere indication-as the child is of the man-of the lordly mountain, now towering into upper space and forming a part of the crest of a mighty conti- nent.

As early as the period known as the Silurian, these mountains consisted of separate chains, and inland seas marked the spots where the great parks now are. The ocean swept over what is now the valley of the Rio Grande, passing up to the head of the San Luis Valley, then much wider than it is now, at the same time laving both eastern and western slopes, and probably communicating with the inland seas between the two ranges. It will be thus seen that the Rocky Mountains were long,

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

rocky islands, wearing down continually by the flow of a thousand streams, caused by incessant rains. With the ocean on every side, evaporation, owing to the thinness of the earth's crust, proceed- ing much more rapidly than it does now, the rains must have been constant and violent.

The conglomerates in the Middle Park and San Luis Valley attributed to the Silurian age, consist of large pebbles and bowlders, principally of gran- ite, gneiss and quartz. They are indicative of the force with which water swept down from some old mountain chain occupying a position at one side of that held by the present mountains, and carried them into the ocean ; their fragments constituting a large portion of their successors. A process of upheaval and degradation must have been carried on simultaneously for many millions of years. Just as in a forest the individual trees die and fall, and from their dust arise new trees and the forest continues for ages, so has it been with our broad Sierra ranges, pulled down, on the one hand, by torrents sweeping over them with resistless force, and, on the other hand, continually upheaved by contraction of the earth's crust. And as it has been, so it will probably continue to be, though the process will necessarily be a slower one in the future.

During the succeeding period-that of the Devonian-it would seem as though the earth's surface was treated with less violence; smaller peb- bles are found contained in the conglomerates, while the limestones and shales indicate seas that were peaceful in motion and quiescent in action. To this a more abundant life therein gives indis- putable evidence. Lucoidal impressions abound in a water-line of this age.

The mountains were steadily growing, princi- pally in an easterly and westerly direction. Slowly the great parks lifted their broad, expansive bosoms to the sunlight; the water drained off, swamps were exposed where only the deep, deep seas had been, until, in the Carboniferous period that fol- lowed, an abundant vegetation sprung up, whose accumulated remains, buried by the inflowings of

the ocean, formed, in the course of time, vast beds of carboniferous coal.

During the Permean and Oolitic periods, but little is as yet known of the history of the mount- ainous portion of Colorado. But eastward of the mountains, the sea covered the country, depositing limestones of great thickness, abounding with char- acteristic shells.

Of the Cretaceous period we can write more fully. The ocean waves swept up and down both sides of the mountains, laving their rugged sides. The ranges were evidently several miles narrower than they are at present, for rocks formed at the sea bottom during this period can be found occupy- ing summits two and three thousand feet above the level of the plain. Inland seas once again swept over the surface of the great parks, for the eleva- tion of the higher mountains does not seem to have been by steady uplift; they appear to have been followed by subsidences many times repeated, before the ranges settled into permanence. The Middle Park probably communicated with the western ocean through Gore Pass, then a strait similar to the Strait of Babelmandel, between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Three-fourths of Colorado was covered by the waves of ocean, in which abounded fishes and shells of many species ; the wonderful profusion of their remains along the base of the mountains, stretching southward from Colorado Springs to the Spanish Peaks, abundantly testify of the life that swarmed in the warm and shallow waters. The plains to the south and south- east of Colorado Springs, are strewn for an hun- dred miles with fossil shells of the Cretaceous period, especially baculites, better known as fossil fishes by persons unacquainted with their nature. Near the Sangre de Christo Pass, thin beds of calciferous or limy sandstone alternate with the limestones and contain immense numbers of bones and teeth of fishes. Weathered slabs may be seen at the foot of the Sierra Mohada or Wet Mountains, on which a hundred perfect teeth could be counted, many of them flat and folded teeth, which formed a pave- ment for the jaws, enabling their possessors to

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

crush the shells and crustaceas on which they fed. The sea which occupied the Middle Park and communicated with the great Western Ocean, con- tained many baculites and some conchifers. To- ward the latter part of the Cretaceous period, the parks seem to have been again elevated and the communication with the exterior ocean cut off, never to be resumed; brackish lakes, abounding with fish, took the place of the previous interior seas, subsequently becoming fresh-water lakes.

During the Tertiary period, where now stand Denver and Golden, a large swamp existed, extend- ing for hundreds of miles, north into British Columbia and south into New Mexico. In this swamp, a rank vegetation flourished for a long period, vegetation of a much more modern char- acter than that of the coal measures, consisting largely of coniferous trees. In the course of time, as can well be imagined, an immense mass of vege- table matter accumulated, eventually to be covered with the clay, sand and pebbles that were swept down from the neighboring mountains. Thus was produced the Tertiary coal formations, which may be seen at Golden, Coal Creek, and other places in the vicinity, with their coal beds, under-clays and iron ores, bearing a great resemblance to the car- boniferous coal measures. Here are revealed the largest development of the Tertiary coal-bearing strata west of the Mississippi.

On the western side of the mountains a similar condition of things seems to have existed, and coal beds were formed resembling those on the eastern slope, but changes of level seem to have caused the formation of a greater number of coal beds of less thickness. After the deposition of the coal measures, lakes of fresh or brackish water covered most of the western and central parts of Colorado, as well as the valley at the foot of the eastern range. At this time, the higher grounds were adorned with palms and trees indigenous to a tropical country, many of them resinous and of a strange aspect, while some were of more modern appearance, especially those on the moun- tains.

The quiet of the Cretaceous and of the early Tertiary periods must have continued for ages. But there came a change at last. The rocks of this age show strongly and distinctly the evidence of a stormy time, in which fire and water united to leave an indelible impression upon the land. Once more the mountains were elevated, carrying with them the beds made at the sea bottom during the preceding age. Earthquakes rent the mountains in twain, and volcanoes poured out molten streams of fire. A greater part of Middle Park was a sea of fire. During this time were formed the traps whose frowning battlements are visible near the Hot Sulphur springs, and that cover so large a por- tion of the park.

Previous to this, but during the same period, west of the western range successive beds of lava were poured out over a large area, some under water, until their aggregate thickness amounted to thousands of feet. Largely swept off by denuding agencies, these beds lie exposed, presenting an enormous wall, having a height of at least three thousand feet above the valley and a length of more than twenty miles. These beds also extend westward, forming the Gore Range. It would be interesting to know where the volcanoes, are from which flowed the lava that formed these immense beds.

Along the base of the eastern range similar streams were poured out; but these have been denuded to a still greater extent. A portion of what must have been an immense bed can be seen near. Golden, forming a small mesa or table-land, known as Table Mountain. The lava here is 250 feet thick. Similar beds must have extended over the country between Pike's Peak and the Spanish Peaks, though all have utterly disappeared since that time, save one outlying mass in the valley of the Huerfano, which is a striking object for a radius of many miles, looking, as it does, like an immense pillar erected in the valley. It has given the name of Huerfano (which is the Spanish name for orphan) to the stream that glides so quietly by it, to the lovely park in which the stream

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

rises, and to the pleasant valley through which it runs.

Connected with these volcanic disturbances were numerous hot springs, the water of which, con- taining silica in solution, traversed the ground everywhere, and petrified the wood that was buried in its vicinity. To this source are we indebted for the beautiful specimens of petrified wood so com- mon throughout Colorado, and for the solid trees silicified to the heart.

A large lake covered Western Colorado, extend- ing into Utah, during the middle part of the Ter- tiary period. Into it flowed numerous streams, carrying fine mud, and at one time immense quan- tities of petroleum issuing probably from numerous and powerful springs. Trees, bearing great resem- blance to oak, maple, willow and other modern trees, together with a large number that are now extinct, covered the surface of the land. Hosts of insects filled the air about the margin of this vast expanse of water, while in it swam turtles and aquatic pachyderms, somewhat resembling the tapir in appearance, lived in the rivers that sup- plied it, and fed upon the plants that grew in great abundance on the margins. The water of the lake was, in all probability, brackish in its character, containing but few mollusks, but abound- ing in turtles possessing thick, bony shells. Beds from two to three thousand feet in thickness were formed at the bottom, so great was the amount of sediment that was continually being carried into it. This must have been brought about by the grad- ual sinking of the lake bottom, giving room for such enormous deposits, which sinking probably coincided with the elevation of the mountain ranges upon the east and west of it.

The Glacial or Drift period followed, in due course of time, the Tertiary period. But there are little, if any, evidences of drift action upon the plains proper, and it is rare that unequivocal evi- dences are met with even along the base of the mountains, on the eastern side. It is when we find ourselves far up among the majestic gorges that we begin to perceive abundant proofs all about

us of "glacial action." On the Fontain qui Bouille, eight miles above Colorado Springs, and at the foot of Pike's Peak, at what is now known all over the country as Manitou, are immense granite bowlders, lying near soda, sulphur and iron springs, whose healing qualities attract thousands to them every year. Below there are to be found some lateral moraines, principally composed of large bowlders, left by some glaciers that once passed down a small valley and joined, near that point, a larger one which traversed the valley of the Fontain qui Bouille. In this latitude, the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains are barren of snow during the months of July and August.

There are bowlder-beds of large extent, and from thirty to forty feet high, in a beautiful park on South Boulder Creek, in the northern part of the State. They lie about six miles below the snowy peaks, cut through and exposed on each side of the stream which takes its name from them. The bed is full of them, running quite down into the val- ley. On South Clear Creek, not many miles above the city of Georgetown, many rocks were exposed at the time the road over the Berthoud Pass was being constructed. On the surfaces of some of these, glacial striæ are distinctly visible; this is the only place in the State east of the snowy range where they have been seen, and their general ab- sence is remarkable. Evidences of glacial action increases as one ascends to the higher altitudes. No longer are the valleys bordered by rocks that are rough and craggy, as they are in the lower portions; but they are nearly as rounded and smooth in their outlines as are the chalk downs of England or the glacier-planed hills of the old Bay State.

West of the Middle Park, on the flat summit of the Gore Range, can be found rocks planed and plowed into deep furrows with a due westerly direction. These can be found continuing down the mountain-side until they reach the valley of the White River, wherein are to be found numer- ous terminal moraines, brought by contributary glaciers proceeding from the highlands on both

....

New Shaft.

Old Shaft.

THE DENVER CITY MINE, LEADVILLE, COLO.

W. G. SHEDD, Manager.

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

sides, but principally on the south. These moraines are also abundantly visible at the mouths of the various small streams that flow into White River, for a distance of nearly one hundred miles from the top of the range.

It would seem to be a fact established beyond question that, during the Drift period, the vast ex- panse of the Rocky Mountains was not only cov- ered with snow on its highest summits, but that the valleys were filled with ice and snow which did not melt, but kept continually pressing down the mountain gorges toward the plain. These were thickest and most glacial in their character as they neared the mountains and upon the western slopes ; they became thinner and occupied but the bottoms of the valleys as the glaciers descended, melting, at last, into numerous streams laden with debris that finally found a resting-place upon the plains below.

But since that icy era, wonderful changes have been evoked. The climate has been remarkably modified, especially on the western range has it changed. Once possessing a most rigorous climate, now pines grow on it two thousand feet higher up than they do upon the eastern side. The glaciers are gone from the valleys and only the snowy patches upon the highest points remain in witness of the immense ice-fields of the far-away ages of the past.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 12

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 1080

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080