History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 4

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

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Across this mighty mountain range the State sits, as Mr. Hollister says, like a man on horse- back, a homely but apt comparison. It would be more expressive still if the plains of the western slope corresponded with those of the east, which they do not.

The eastern plains occupy more than one-third of the entire State. Though largely arid and apparently unproductive, they are the source of immense wealth, and it is even questioned now whether their reclamation would add to the actual production of the State. To drive the cattle trade and stock interests generally from the State would be to deprive Colorado of its most profitable industry, whereas the production of crops by artificial irri- gation is attended with great expense and not a little risk, and it is doubtful whether Colorado could ever compete with Kansas and Nebraska as an agricultural region.

The third grand division of the State is the Park country, and to this may very properly be added the great valleys over the range, which are really parks, inasmuch as the mountains rise round about them, though not always in circular or semi- circular form. Of the parks proper, there are too many to be enumerated in detail, but the principal ones are North, Middle, South and San Luis, the latter being in fact the Valley of the Rio Grande.

The park lands are pastoral rather than agri- cultural, but some farming is conducted in South Park, and still more in San Luis. All are well watered, mountain streams flowing through them from the mountains above to the valleys below. They were once alive with game-the happy hunt- ing grounds of the Utes and Arapahoes-and not infrequently the scene of severe conflicts between the rival tribes, although mainly held by the Utes, while the Arapahoes held the plains country. Game, however, has almost entirely disappeared from South and San Luis Parks, and is seldom seen in Middle Park, except in the winter season, when heavy falls of snow on the range drives the game into the Park and adjacent valleys. North Park, however, is still stocked with game. It is almost uninhabited, seldom visited save by hunt- ers, and is more a terra incognita than almost any part of Colorado, outside of the Indian Reserva- tion. This is accounted for by its lack of attract- ive features, and the fact that the country is comparatively valueless either for agriculture or

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

stock-raising. It is said to be the poorest part of the State, and so little is thought of it that even now it is in doubt which contiguous county shall exert jurisdiction over the Park.

Hunters, however, find themselves richly repaid for the trouble and expense of reaching the Park. The usual route is from Laramie, on the Union Pacific Railway, though the Park is easily accessi- ble from Denver and all points in Northern Colo- rado. Bear, black-tailed deer, bison, mountain sheep, antelope, mountain lions, etc., are found there. Grouse abound, and the streams are full of trout. The bison referred to above is not the "buffalo" of the plains, but a distant cousin, of a type essentially different, dwelling only in the mountains. Bruin is found in two species-the black and grizzly, the latter being most dangerous when he shows fight, which he is not slow to do if attacked or molested.

The amount of game in North Park may be greatly exaggerated, but there is certainly plenty of it upon occasion, and hunters have even found more than they wanted. A few years ago, some

friends of the writer were crossing the Poudre range into North Park, when they suddenly came in sight of seven bears nearly in front of them. A coun- cil of war was held, and an attack was resolved on. The party were to creep forward in single file and as noiselessly as possible to within rifle range, and then fire all together at a signal from the leader. One of the party had no gun, but insisted on bearing the rest company. When the leader turned to give the signal for firing, the gunless individual was the only biped in sight. The rest of the erstwhile brave battalion had turned back to camp. This example was soon followed by the others, and the bears never knew how narrowly they had escaped slaughter.

Doubtless, some sanguinary reader will have been terribly disappointed at the tame termination of this story, but long observation on the frontier has shown that bear hunts are usually bloodless. The old settlers seldom bother themselves about Bruin, so long as he leaves them alone, and never attack one without being exceptionally well armed. .

CHAPTER V.

LO! THE POOR INDIAN.

W ESTERN COLORADO, though, undouht- edly, the finest part of the State, is practi- cally unproductive, owing to Indian occupation. The Indian Reservation is an immense body of fine mineral, pastoral, and agricultural land, larger than the State of Massachusetts twice over-nearly three times as large, in fact. It is nominally occu- pied hy about 3,000 Ute Indians. Of this land, and those Indians, Gov. Frederick W. Pitkin wrote, in his message to the Legislature of 1879, as follows:

nearly three times as large as the State of Massa- chusetts. It is watered by large streams and rivers, and contains many rich valleys, and a large number of fertile plains. The climate is milder than in most localities of the same altitude on the Atlantic Slope. Grasses grow there in great lux- uriance, and nearly every kind of grain and vege- tables can be raised without difficulty. This tract contains nearly one-third of the arable land of Colorado, and no portion of the State is better adapted for agricultural and grazing purposes than many portions of this reservation. Within its limits are large mountains, from most of which explorers have been excluded by the Indians.

" Along the western borders of the State, and on the Pacific Slope, lies a vast tract occupied by the tribe of Ute Indians, as their reservation. It contains about twelve millions of acres, and is | Prospectors, however, have explored some portions

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

of the country, and found valuable lode and placer claims, and there is reason to believe that it con- tains great mineral wealth. The number of In- dians who occupy this reservation is about three thousand. If the land was divided up between individual members of the tribe, it would give every man, woman, and child a homestead of between three and four thousand acres. It has been claimed that the entire tribe have had in cul- tivation about fifty acres of land, and, from some personal knowledge of the subject, I believe that one able-bodied white settler would cultivate more land than the whole tribe of Utes. These Indians are fed by the Government, are allowed ponies without number, and, except when engaged in an occasional hunt, their most serious employment is horse-racing. If this reservation could be extin- guished, and the land thrown open to settlers, it will furnish homes to thousands of the people of the State who desire homes."

The picture is not overdrawn. Though not particularly quarrelsome or dangerous, the Utes are exceedingly disagreeable neighbors. Even if they would be content to live on their princely reserva- tion, it would not be so bad, but they have a dis- gusting habit of ranging all over the State, steal- ing horses, killing off the game, and carelessly firing forests in the dry, summer season, whereby thousands of acres of fine timber are totally ruined.

The Utes are actual, practical Communists, and the Government should be ashamed to foster and encourage them in their idleness and wanton waste of property. Living off the bounty of a paternal hut idiotic Indian Bureau, they actually become too lazy to draw their rations in the regular way, but insist on taking what they want wherever they find it. But for the fact that they are arrant cowards, as well as arrant knaves, the west- ern slope of Colorado would be untenanted by the white race. Almost every year they threaten some of the white settlers with certain death if they do not leave the country, and, in some instances, they have tried to drive away white cit-

izens, but the latter pay little attention to their vaporings.

It is related of Barney Day, a well-known Mid- dle Park pioneer, that when a party of Utes vis- ited him at his cabin, and gave him fifteen min- utes to leave the country, he answered not a word, but solemnly kicked them out of doors and off his premises. They not only offered no resistance to the indignity, but, from that time forth, treated Mr. Day with great consideration. It is not every man, though, who has the nerve to act as he did in such an emergency.

The degeneration of the Utes has been very rapid ever since the first settlement of the coun- try. Formerly, they were a warlike tribe, and held their own with the fierce Arapahoes of the east and the savage Cheyennes of the north, whether upon the mountains or the plains. As civilization advanced, the plains Indians retreated before it, and after the Sand Creek fight, in 1864, the plains werc almost deserted by the wild hordes which, until then, had been the terror of all trav- elers to and from Pike's Peak and California. The Utes also retreated to the mountains, making occasional forays to hunt buffalo on the plains, but maintaining a wholesome respect for the old Colo- rado Cavalry, which kept them from annoying travelers. They would occasionally stampede a stock train and run off the animals, but they grad- ually abandoned the scalp trade, and devoted all their talents and energies to begging and stealing. They were the original "tramps" of the country, and soon developed all the meanness and utter worthlessness of their white prototypes. As Theo- dore Winthrop wrote of the border savages he met in his journey " On Horseback into Oregon," "with one hand they hung to all the vices of barbarism, and with the other they clutched at all the vices of civilization." The Government might, with almost, if not quite equal propriety, plant a colony of Communists upon the public domain, maintain- ing them in idleness at public expense, as to leave the Colorado Utes in possession of their present heritage and present privileges.

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

The continuous and ever-increasing intercourse between Colorado and the East has long since dis- pelled the ancient idea that Denver was situated in the heart of the Indian country, but the pres- ence of Indians in the State still constitutes an obstacle to the advancement of Colorado, for even those who do not fear the Utes dislike them, and would be glad to see them banished to some more appropriate retreat than the garden of our growing State.

To this end, Congress and the Interior Depart- ment have been, and are continually, besieged to provide for the extinguishment of Indian title to the reservation lands, and in this movement the military commanders on our frontier are earn- estly interested. Gen. Pope, commanding the department, is particularly anxious to have the Utes massed at a more convenient point. At present they have three agencies on their reservation. Both the White River and Uncompahgre agencies are remote from railways and supplies, as well as from the military posts, which are so necessary to keep the savages in check. Removed to the Indian Territory, the Utes could be fed and clothed for about one-half what it now costs the Government.

Philanthropists down East and abroad may mourn over the decadence of this once powerful tribe of Indians, but even a philanthropist would fail to find any occasion for regret if he came to Colorado and made a study of Ute character and habits. Though better in some high (and low) respects than the Digger Indians of Arizona, or the Piutes of Nevada, the Colorado Utes have nothing in common with the Indians of history and romance, whose "wrongs" have been so tear- fully portrayed by half-baked authors. The strongest prejudices of Eastern people in favor of the Indians give way before the strong disgust inspired by a closer acquaintance.

Hon. N. C. Meeker, the well-known Superin- tendent of the White River Agency, was formerly a fast friend and ardent admirer of the Indians. He went to the agency firm in the belief that he

could manage the Indians successfully by kind treatment, patient precept and good example. With rare fidelity, he labored long and hard to make "good Indians" out of his wards, but utter failure marked his efforts, and at last he reluctantly accepted and acknowledged the truth of the border truism that the only truly good Indians are dead ones. To those who know Mr. Meeker's kindness of heart and gentle disposition, his conversion to the doctrine of gunpowder treatment will be suf- ficient testimony to the utter worthlessness of the pestiferous tribe which inhabits the best portion of. Colorado, to the exclusion of enterprising white settlers, in whose hands the wilderness would soon blossom as the rose, while richer mines than the richest previous discoveries might soon be devel- oped in Colorado's Utopia "over the range."*

The history of the San Juan silver country, which will be found set forth in detail elsewhere, shows the long and hard struggle of our people to have that wonder-land thrown open to settlement and development. Very early in the history of Colorado, the San Juan mountains were found to be rich in mineral, but whoever penetrated them took his life in his hands, and generally laid it down before he came back. So many went and so few returned, that even the boldest pioneers pres- ently abandoned the idea of prospecting south of the Arkansas River. As time went on, however, and as the country became more settled and better protected, the advance in that direction was renewed, and rewarded by the discovery of some of the richest mines in the whole range of mount- ains. Tempted by cupidity, the Utes finally con- sented to sell a slice of their abundant territory. It was long ere the transfer was made, and, when completed, it included only a narrow strip project- ing into the heart of the Indian country, a por- tion of which could only be reached by crossing a corner of the reservation.

Happily, no bad effects have yet resulted from this arrangement; but it is easy to see that in the

* Since the above was written, Mr. Meeker has been cruelly murdered by the Indians.

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event of an Indian war or any trouble whatever with the tribe, this road would be blockaded and the settlers beyond cut off, unless they could escape across an almost impassable mountain range. While there is little or no danger to be apprehended from this source, the fact remains that no such advantage should have been conceded to the Indians against the white settlers of the new country.

The same perplexing questions which attended and obstructed the acquisition of the San Juan country are again presented in connection with the Gunnison region. This new mining center, lying southwest and not very distant from Leadville, has been opened to the 107th Meridian, the eastern limit of the Indian reservation; and the pros- pectors are clamoring for the right to follow their fortunes across the line.

Some rich discoveries of both mineral and coal have been made within the reservation. Of course, no· title to property can be acquired there until the Indian title is extinguished. The new district has been named after Gov. Frederick W. Pitkin, and that gentleman, as well as the Colorado delegation in Congress, is besieged with applications to have the Indians removed out of the way of ever- advancing. civilization.

The Utes must go. Uncle Sam can feed them as well and much cheaper elsewhere, and the income he would derive from their Colorado estate would support them in affluence. Indeed, it is asserted even now that the Utes could be boarded at a first-class hotel in Chicago or New York, cheaper than at the present cost of their subsist- ence.

Ouray, Chief of the Colorado Utes, resides at the Los Pinos Agency. He is a man possessed of some ability and native shrewdness, but his power over the tribe is far from omnipotent. Few of his followers dispute his authority, but his rule is tol- erant rather than vigilant, and, when out of his sight, his people are prone and pretty apt to do as they please. Occasionally, he goes a-gunning for some recalcitrant member of his tribe, and shoots the offender on sight, but this is of rare occur-

rence. Generally, he remains at home, where he lives in good style on an alleged farm, consisting of a few acres of arable land and an immense pony- pasture, well stocked. The farm is mostly tilled by Mexican cheap labor. Ouray is said to be rich, having absorbed the lion's share of Uncle Sam's liberal contributions to the Ute treasury from time to time. This seems all the more probable from the fact that Ute despotism vests the administra- tion of government entirely in his hands, and dis- penses with both single and double entry book- keeping in the matter of public finances. The " central despotism " and " one-man power" about which we hear so much of late years, is here beau- tifully exemplified.

Let it not be understood, however, that the Col- orado Utes, useless as they are, are without their uses. They educate Eastern people who come West to a fine abhorrence of Indian character, which must soon put a quietus on sentimental mourning over the decay of the ill-fated race. They also tan buffalo hides in better style than the utmost ingenuity of white men can compass. An Indian-tanned robe is the ne plus ultra of the furrier's art. The secret of their process, if there be a secret, is well kept from the eyes and ears of rival operators, but it is generally believed on the border that there is no secret worth knowing, and that the superiority of their robes is due almost entirely to the patient labor of the gentle but unlovely squaw. She it is who bends her uncom- plaining back over the buffalo skins, day after day for weeks, scrubbing and rubbing them into that soft and pliable condition which is their peculiar char- acteristic, and which appertains to them through all exposure to the elements.

Another of their uses is to afford entertainment to strangers from afar, to whom the sight of a lousy Indian is an interesting study. Wandering bands of Utes may be seen, at or near Deuver, very frequently during the latter part of each sum- mer, " swapping " surplus ponies or the proceeds of their hunt, for supplies, such as they " hanker " after, generally provisions or clothing, the sale of firearms

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HISTORY OF COLORADO.

and fire-water to Indians being prohibited. An Indian family out shopping is a disgusting picture of connubial infelicity. The poor squaw carries every- thing that is bought, and is usually burdened with two or three children besides. She rides the sor- riest sore-backed pony of the pair that carries the outfit, and, when the purchases are deftly packed upon the pony's back, she climbs up to her giddy perch atop of the pyramid, pulls up her offspring and distributes them around to balance the cargo, gathers up the reins and sets sail after her lord

and master, who rides gaily ahead, carrying naught except it be his gun or a plug of tobacco.

Even this poor show is seen less frequently of late years than of yore, and will soon disappear forever from the streets of Colorado's capital. The buffalo have almost deserted the plains between the South Platte and the Arkansas, with all other kinds of game, and the Indians will prob- ably hunt no more in this direction, even if they should remain longer in the State, which is doubtful.

CHAPTER VI. THE MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO.

T THE chief charm of Colorado being her magni- ficent mountain scenery, it seems proper to describe, with more particularity, the prominent features of this American Switzerland, though language would fail to give any definite idea of its sublime grandeur.

We have already traced the general course of the Sierra Madre Range, through Colorado, from north to south. Its total length is nearly five hundred miles within the limits of the State, and diverging ranges reach a grand total almost as large, making nearly 1,000 miles of "Snowy Range," so called in Colorado. In point of fact, however, there is no snowy range proper in the State, and all the magniloquent utterances touch- ing "eternal snow" on our mountains is figurative, except that patches of snow are visible here and there throughout the year. These, however, occur only in sheltered spots where neither sun nor wind attack them vigorously, else they, too, would disappear during the summer months, as does the snow from any exposed position.

The snow line, in this latitude, would probably be six or seven thousand feet above the line of timber, which averages about 11,800 feet above the sea. The highest peaks in Colorado are less than 3,000 feet above timber line, and none of

their summits are enveloped in eternal snow, though often enough "snowed under" in midsum- mer. In the whole course of his considerable ex- perience in peak-climbing, the writer has never yet ascended an Alpine peak in Colorado, without en- countering a snow-storm of greater or less violence, even in July and August. But the snow which falls in summer is quite ephemeral, often disap- pearing in a day, and never lingering long in exposed positions. The wind, more than the sun, is the author of its destruction. At this great distance from the sea, or any considerable bodies of water, the air is almost destitute of moisture, and every wind that blows seems as thirsty as a caravan crossing the Desert of Sahara.

Snow that has successfully defied the direct rays of the sun, often disappears, as if by magic, when a gentle wind blows over it for a few hours, leaving the ground beneath perfectly dry.

The Rocky Mountains, as their name implies, are extremely rugged and broken. From the very verge of the spreading plains, where centuries or, perhaps, eons ago, the waves of a mighty sea broke in ceaseless rise and fall, up to the very dome and crown of the mighty peaks which mark the height of our continent, gigantic and fantastic rocks rise higher and higher, wilder and more wild, in every

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

direction, save here and there where they sud- denly give place to peaceful parks, whose car- pet of velvet grass is unbroken by the tiniest pebble.

Let us imagine ourselves entering the moun- tains for the first time from the eastward-lying plains. As we approach the rocky walls which, at a distance, appear smooth to the eye as the plain itself, we find the foot-hills, for the most part, covered with disintegrated rock, through which a scanty vegetation rises. The grasses have a lean and hungry look, strangely belying their nutritious qualities, and the dwarfed piñon pines grow scrag- gily here and there, or cease entirely, leaving the hillsides bleak and bare. We follow the windings and turnings of some stream, for mountain roads must accommodate themselves to the cañons through which mountain streams seek the valley, as affording about the only means of ingress and egress to and from the heights before us.

If the stream be a small one and the road little developed, they cross and recross each other every few rods-indeed, the road often lies in the bed of the stream itself, where the latter rounds some rocky point in a narrow gorge, where bolder and more precipitous rocks rise on either hand. As we go on, the rocks and hills greaten rapidly; new and grander scenes are revealed at every turning; the timber itself, sheltered from sun and storm, stands out more holdly in pristine beauty, and soon we think ourselves at least fairly within the far-famed Rocky Mountains. It is an idle thought, for these are the foot-hills still. Beyond each rocky ridge rises a higher, nobler elevation. " Alps on Alps arise," and we go onward and upward still.

Ever and anon the hills open to the right and left, and we pass through a pleasant valley, where the grass grows green and tall, and a cabin stands beside the stream, which here glides gently along, in striking contrast to its wild, impatient haste, where it roars and rattles over its rocky bed above and below. Again we climb up a steep ascent, and, looking backward down the valley, see the

spreading plains opening out behind us, like a summer sea, all smooth and placid. But for the murmuring waters, the silence would be oppress- ive. Animal life in the mountains is the excep- tion rather than the rule. Some chattering mag- pies herald our approach with characteristic gar- rulity, and pretty little chipmunks scurry away over the rocks, uttering their shrill but feeble cries, and that is all, except on rare occasions, or in remoter regions " over the range," where beasts and birds abound in many localities.

Still ascending, the quiet beauty of the scene changes to wilder grandeur, and the view widens and greatens in every sense. The mountains rise higher and still higher on each hand, and the val- leys open right and left like great grooves wrought out of the mountain sides by centuries of slow attrition. Vegetation, which had attained its greatest luxuriance at an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet above the sea, shrinks again; the stately pines, with trunks "fit for the mast of some great admiral," give way to dwarfed and stunted trunks, strangely resembling an old fruit orchard in the decline of life. Only the flowers in- crease and multiply-the Alpine flowers which lend to Colorado peaks their wildest, sweetest charm.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 4

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