USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 41
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The discovery of silver, a metal which had not been sought and very little of which had been mined, as none knew how to treat the ores, was first brought into prominence by the opening of the Whale lode on the lower end of Spanish Bar, in 1861, by Dr. and Roland Carleton. The vein was very large and extremely promising. The quartz was taken to a stamp mill below Idaho. As the amalgam rolled up in great ridges upon the plates, it became a source of won- der that material could be so rich in gold, but the astonishment gave way to something like dejection when the mass was retorted and found to be a white metal new to the experience of the period. Neverthe- less there was sufficient gold to slightly color the silver and it went to the bankers for judgment and sale, by whom material reductions were made in the usual price for gold bullion. But it was not until several lots had been disposed of that the true value of the " Whale Gold,"
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as it was termed, was ascertained by assay, after which the further development of this famous property was suspended.
The beginning of the great inpouring which created a large and extremely brisk settlement at the head of South Clear Creek occurred in the autumn of 1865. In September of the previous year ex-Provis- ional Governor Steele, James Huff and Robert Layton, while prospect- ing on the eastern slope of McClellan Mountain, discovered a vein of mineral-afterward christened the "Belmont." Specimens taken to Cen- tral City for assay, were found to be remarkably rich in silver. A com- pany was formed to work the mine and some great results were obtained. The locality of this great strike was about eight miles from Georgetown. Reports of this and other discoveries spread with the usual rapidity, and various colors of exaggeration to the uttermost parts, bringing a multi- tude. As the discoveries multiplied through the industry of the groups scattered over all the slopes of the region, the excitement increased. The Georgetown Silver Smelting Co., John T. Herrick, Manager, estab- lished in 1867, a few rudely constructed furnaces at a cost of about twenty-five thousand dollars, which ran intermittently until 1869. The value of the bullion produced is given by Cushman at fifty-five thousand dollars. Various appliances for concentrating, reducing and extracting, followed, as in Gilpin County, each endeavoring to enforce a greater yield of the precious metal, than its competitor, and at less cost. Only a few were successful. After a brief spurt of wonderful activity, in which the principal mines were sold to investors in Eastern cities, the customary litigation succeeded in putting a wet blanket upon all things, and reducing the camp to the last stage of depression. No material advances were made thereafter until the arrival of the Colo- rado Central railway some years later, when the bulk of the mining product found its way to the Boston & Colorado works at Black Hawk.
Spanish Bar, in the year 1860, was the center of a numerous population, nearly all engaged in extracting gold from the alluvial sands and gravels along the old channels of Clear Creek. A few locations, or claims were rich, but the majority were unproductive. On one of
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the latter the author took his primary lesson in mining, without other result than a valuable experience gained. Here, as elsewhere, until after the territorial organization, justice was administered by people's courts. At one of these meetings an incident occurred which is worth repeating, since it is a fair illustration of the primitive methods of protecting the "honest miner " from the criminal class.
It has been stated that among the early settlers theft was the one unpardonable sin. A man might do many things out of the lawful order with perfect impunity, but "thou shalt not steal" was an irrevo- cable edict. To violate this injunction was to invite swift vengeance. No miner locked the doors of his cabin, though there might be hun- dreds or thousands in gold dust within, and wholly unguarded. Every man was put upon his honor. One day there came to the Bar one of the roughest characters I have ever beheld, a young man apparently about twenty years of age, whose appearance and demeanor indicated long service in several grades of crime. He stole something, exactly what, is not now recalled. He was instantly pursued, captured, taken before the court, Judge Turnley presiding, George Griffith, from whom Georgetown was named, acting as clerk, and duly arraigned before a jury of six, for trial. When the court asked his name, he answered, " It's none of your d-d business what my name is. If you must have a name, call me Brown, Jones or Robinson, anything, it matters not to me." His face was red and freckled, his head covered with a heavy shock of red, matted hair; his lips were thick and repulsive, and more- over, discolored by tobacco stains. Throughout the trial his manner was insolent, reckless and exasperating, as the evidence unfolded the nature of his offence. The jury retired, and after a brief consultation, found a verdict of "Guilty," and as it was also a part of their duty to fix the punishment, it was decided to give him thirty-nine lashes upon his bared back, to shave one side of his head, and banish him from the district. This determination having been rendered to the court, it was accepted and immediate execution of the judgment ordered, with this
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addenda :- " If the prisoner ever returns to this bar, the residents thereof are hereby authorized and empowered to shoot him on sight."
Thereupon the prisoner was taken to a neighboring tree, stripped to the waist, his hands bound together with a strong cord, and stretched up until his toes barely touched the ground, when the juror, a man named Davis, who had been appointed to do the thrashing, pro- duced a large and long black-snake whip. Standing at a distance which would enable him to strike cutting blows with the cracker end of the lash, he proceeded to his duty of laying on the ordered thirty- nine. When the blows began to fall thick and fast, the bravado which until then had been maintained, began to express itself in piteous appeals for mercy, penitence for his sins, and promises to lead a correct life in future. But there was no pause. The blows rained upon him until the full measure had been meted out, when the victim was unbound, and on his solemn asseveration that he would go and sin no more, the part of the sentence which required one side of his head to be shaved bare to the scalp, was suspended. Notwithstanding his protestations of reform, profiting nothing from the severity of the lesson he had received, he soon fell into his old habits, and, as we learned some time afterward, was caught and hanged in one of the mining camps over the Range.
A day or two later, another thief was caught on Grass Valley Bar, when he was stretched up and unmercifully thrashed, the flesh of his back being literally cut to shreds. The reader will at once comprehend that these salutary admonitions were calculated to produce a happy effect. At all events, no more robberies were committed in those regions until after the institution of orthodox courts, which afforded offenders more avenues of escape.
For a year or two the district of Trail Run, located on a small stream which debouches into Clear Creek from the southwest, near the head of Spanish Bar, enjoyed great prosperity. A riot occurred there in 1863 through the refusal of some of the citizens to submit them- selves to the forms and processes of the " new fangled courts," which,
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from its violence and duration, compelled Governor Evans to send a troop of cavalry from Denver to suppress the malcontents.
Mines were discovered and small settlements made at Fall River, along Mill Creek above, and at Downieville, still beyond toward the Snowy Range. In 1861, near the town of Empire, situated twelve miles west of Idaho, some brilliant prospects were opened which caused hundreds of miners to locate there. Large quantities of gold were sluiced from the decompositions of the quartz veins, for one or more seasons, when the richer ground being exhausted, the usual hegira took place,
While dealing with these reminiscences of the early days, it is a pleasurable duty to include a brief sketch of the career of one whose excellences of character, her many misfortunes, trials and afflictions, elicited tender sympathy from every one, for all the people knew and admired her no less for her sublime Christian zeal and fortitude than for her patient industry. "Aunt Clara Brown" was the first of her race to reach the Pike's Peak region. She was born a slave in the Old Dominion in the year 1800. Her master subsequently removed to Kentucky, taking with him his goods and chattels, Clara, then nine years old, among the latter. She was married at the age of eighteen. The fruits of this union were three daughters and a son. At the death of her owner in 1835, she and her children were sold to different parties, Aunt Clara going to Russellville, Kentucky, and the children elsewhere. At the death of this new master she became the property of still another purchaser by whom she was manumitted, and in 1859 emigrated with the grand column marching to the Pike's Peak gold region, maintaining her- self by cooking and washing for the party she had joined. Locating in Central City, and discovering an opportunity to accumulate funds for the execution of the great purpose of her life, which was to find and rescue her children from bondage, she opened a laundry. The hearty sympathies of the generous miners being enlisted in her cause, every one befriended her, so that in a few years by incessant toil and the judicious investment of her earnings, she accumulated a modest fortun ..
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In 1866 the search began, and was continued unremittingly until her relatives and children were found and brought to Colorado. With the means still remaining she educated her daughters. Unhappily, misfor- tunes came, and deprived her of everything, and during the last years of her melancholy life she was aided by the Pioneers' Association, and at her death was buried by it.
At many periods in the course of the author's life in Colorado, he has been asked how and when the series of magnificent scenic wonders called the "Garden of the Gods" received its christening, whether it antedated the coming of the Pike's Peak emigrants, or was attached after the location of the Colorado Springs colony by General R. A. Cameron and associates. It is believed by many that Fitzhugh Ludlow is entitled to the honor, but in a letter to a Boston paper written by Lewis N. Tappan about the year 1870, we find the facts related substan- tially as follows: Tappan, with three others, left Denver in August, 1859, to select a town site near the base of Pike's Peak. The place afterward known as Colorado City, was chosen. The location having been made, the party went out to explore the suburbs ; chased a large wolf over the town site, and shot an antelope. Proceeding a mile to the northward they found themselves among the picturesque monuments and towering rocks, where a panorama of transcendant beauty lay spread out before them. Standing upon one of the rocky prominences, one of the party named Cable, after taking in the wondrous prospect, broke the silence by exclaiming, "Wonderful ! a fit Garden for the Gods !" to which his companions responded, "Amen ! We will christen it 'The Gar- den of the Gods.'"
The name has been perpetuated to our time, and will endure with the ages, because of its appropriateness. The vision embraced within its scope is one of the loveliest in all the Rocky Mountain region, ex- citing the reverence of all beholders, and forming an enchanting resort for the thousands who seek the delicious waters of Manitou during each recurring summer.
We close the chapter with an extract from Ruxton, the English
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traveler and sportsman who visited what is now Manitou in 1847, and in the course of his wanderings jotted down in his notebook the fol- lowing: "The Indians regard with awe the medicine waters of these springs, as being the abode of a spirit who breathes through the trans- parent water, and thus by his exhalations causes the perturbation of its surface. The Arapahoes especially, attribute to this water god the power of ordaining the success or miscarriage of their war expeditions ; and as their braves pass often by the mysterious springs when in search of their hereditary enemies, the Yutes (Utes) in the valley of Salt (South Park), they never fail to bestow their votive offering upon the water sprite in order to propitiate the 'Manitou' of the fountain." At the time of his visit the "basin of the spring was filled with beads, and wampum, and pieces of red cloth and knives, while the surrounding trees were hung with strips of deerskin, cloth and moccasins. * *
The 'sign' too around the spring, plainly showed that here a war dance had been executed by the braves. This country was once pos- sessed by the Shoshone, or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the plains are a branch, and although many hundred miles now divide their hunting grounds, they were once, if not the same people, tribes of the same grand nation."
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
1870-72-FURTHER HISTORY OF THE DENVER PACIFIC-OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS FOR 1870-GOVERNOR EVANS' DONATION TO ARAPAHOE COUNTY-DRIVING THE SILVER SPIKE-THE LOCOMOTIVE D. H. MOFFAT-GREAT MASONIC DEMONSTRATION-LAYING THE CORNER STONE OF THE UNION DEPOT-BUILDING THE KANSAS PACIFIC- CONSTANT ANNOYANCE FROM INDIANS-THE TOWN OF KIT CARSON-GRADING FROM DENVER EASTWARD-BRISK WORK BY EICHOLTZ AND WEED-FINAL COM- PLETION OF THE ROAD-OPENING A NEW ERA OF PROGRESS-REAL ESTATE IN DENVER-STATISTICAL DATA-FIRST THROUGH PULLMAN CAR-FREIGHT TARIFFS -DENVER & BOULDER VALLEY R. R .- THE DENVER & RIO GRANDE RAILWAY- ITS FIRST TRAINS-UTOPIAN CHARACTER OF THE ENTERPRISE-FOUNDING COL- ORADO SPRINGS AND MANITOU-FITZHUGH LUDLOW'S DREAM-DESCRIPTION OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS-EXTENSION OF THE RIO GRANDE TO PUEBLO-RECEP- TION AND BANQUET-EFFECT OF RAILWAY CONNECTION ON THE TOWN.
Continuing the subject of our first railways, with the object of making the history of these enterprises complete down to the period embraced in this volume, we find that on the 18th of January, 1870, the stockholders of the Denver Pacific elected as directors for the ensuing year, John Evans, John Pierce, Walter S. Cheesman, William M. Clayton, Frank Palmer, and D. H. Moffat, Jr., of Denver, with Robert E. Carr, R. H. Lamborn and William J. Palmer, who repre- sented the Kansas Pacific interest in the company. These directors, at a meeting held soon afterward, elected John Evans President ; John Pierce, Vice-President ; R. R. McCormick, Secretary ; D. H. Moffat, Jr., Treasurer, and Col. L. H. Eicholtz, Chief Engineer. Cyrus W. Fisher was made Superintendent of the road. The Kansas Pacific representatives, though in the minority, held, nevertheless, through arrangements made with it for the completion of the Denver Pacific a
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strong position, the men selected being well calculated by virtue of their energy and ability to exercise a powerful, if not a controlling influence, in the direction of its affairs.
Governor Evans, in his report rendered in January, 1870, stated that the Union Pacific company having failed them, the company of which he was President issued, as authorized by the act of Congress of March, 1869, two and a half millions of first mortgage gold bonds, bearing seven per cent. interest, the lien covering also eight hundred thousand acres of land granted it by Congress.
Under this arrangement fifty-eight miles of the road was com- pleted-Cheyenne to Evans-and turned over to the company Decem- ber 16th, 1869. The contract for the balance was perfected in August of that year. The road had three locomotives, two passenger cars, and sufficient freight cars to accommodate the then rather limited traffic. The first division was opened just after the fall trade of the Territory had been quite fully provided for, yet the gross earnings for the remaining fourteen days of December amounted to four thousand nine hundred dollars, yielding a net profit over operating expenses of two thousand five hundred and ninety-nine dollars and eighty-four cents.
In an address to the Board of Trade, his active and influential coadjutor, early in April, 1870, the Governor, after reviewing the gen- eral history of the Denver Pacific, said, "When, last summer, the board of trustees of the railway company, this Board of Trade, and the county commissioners each unanimously urged me to take a contract to build the Denver Pacific railway, I unhesitatingly accepted. Before taking the contract, however, the board of trustees made an effort to reduce the capital stock of the road from four millions to two millions, which would have enhanced the interest of the county of Arapahoe one hundred per cent. But it was discovered that this act, if consum- mated, would prevent the company from borrowing enough money to complete the road, for the law prohibits the indebtedness from exceeding the amount of the capital stock of the company. There- fore, the only alternative, if we proceeded to complete the work in
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hand, was to leave the capital stock at its existing amount-four millions. The stock represented all the value then existing, and it was an absolute necessity that the stock should all be given to secure the prosecution and completion of the work. Even then it was doubtful if it could be made to answer the purpose, for it must either be sold for cash enough, or the assets it represented be made to serve the purpose of borrowing enough money upon, to pay for the entire work. Nothing but cash will build railways.
" I took the contract, therefore, to build the road with the remaining stock. The county bonds in hand, at the best price that could be obtained for them, were barely sufficient to finish the grading and pay the pressing indebtedness already incurred for ties and other material. While the contract was thus pressed upon me, and while there were serious doubts as to the success of our efforts to make the means accomplish the end in view, I held in mental reservation a determination to so manage the matter as to make enough out of the contract to enable me to donate to the county an additional half million of the capital stock of the road.
" This purpose I did not at first allow myself to express to any one, for fear of disappointment in making the necessary profit on the contract to enable me to do so, and in my negotiations, I found it absolutely necessary to place the half million capital stock in trust, to be voted in perpetuity, but reserving to myself and my assigns the entire right of property in the same, and all profits and dividends arising therefrom.
"I will, therefore, have, to all intents and purposes, the whole intrinsic value of said stock in my possession and ownership as soon as the road shall be completed, and I now for the first time publicly declare, that it is my full purpose and intention to donate the same to Arapahoe County, as soon as I shall become entitled to it by com- pliance with my contract to complete the road to the city of Denver. This I do on the condition that the people shall go forward with the other enterprises so necessary to our prosperity."
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It may be stated in this connection, that the venture proved suc- cessful and, in the end, highly profitable, therefore the stock was, in due time transferred by the Governor to the Board of County Commis- sioners and formally accepted by them on the conditions prescribed.
The Denver Pacific was fully completed and formally accepted June 24th, 1870, though as already stated, the first locomotive, named the D. H. Moffat, arrived with the construction train on the fifteenth of that month. This engine previous to its purchase by this company, had been known as number twenty-nine of the Union Pacific road, and had something of a history. It was the first to enter the town of Cheyenne, the first to cross the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains, the first to signal its presence in the valley of Salt Lake, the first to enter Colorado, and finally, with the veteran engineer, Sam Bradford, the first to announce to the people of Denver the completion of their first railway.
The driving of the last spike, frequently an important event, was deferred until St. John's Day, June 24th, on which occasion all the Masonic bodies in the city turned out to assist in celebrating the final act. In the course of their long line of march they proceeded to the site of the proposed Union depot, where a large concourse awaited them to witness the imposing ceremony of laying the corner stone of that edifice. An excursion train came up from Cheyenne, bearing a large number of Masons from that town and from Greeley.
The spike used was of pure silver, six inches in length, presented to Governor Evans by W. E. Barton and L. J. Fay on behalf of the people of Georgetown, with their hearty congratulations on the auspi- cious completion of the road. On one side was engraved-"George- town to the Denver Pacific Railway," and on the opposite, "John Evans, President, June 24th, 1870." Later in the day Col. L. H. Eicholtz, Superintendent of Construction, was presented with a fine gold watch and chain by the officers of the road, Governor Evans making the presentation speech.
Let us turn now to the Kansas Pacific and recount as briefly as
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possible the progress of the work in that direction. About the middle of March, 1870, General William J. Palmer and Colonel W. H. Green- wood made preparation for grading their road from this end of their located line eastward, to connect with the grading forces then push- ing forward from the Pond Creek terminus. General F. M. Case was made Chief Engineer, and Col. Eicholtz Superintendent of Construction. Having sold six and a half millions of its securities in Germany, the company was now equipped for continuous and rapid work, and every effort was put forth for its extension to Denver. Soon after crossing the Colorado line, the town of Kit Carson was founded, the first and only settlement of any prominence that has been erected along its lines within our boundaries. It was situated on the Big Sandy, on a perfectly level plain. The town of Sheridan near the western line of Kansas was uprooted and removed bodily to Carson. Two or three hundred houses of different kinds, mostly temporary, were erected. It was one hundred and eight miles from Pueblo, and four hundred and eighty-seven miles west of Kansas City. We speak of it in the past tense, for it disappeared a few years later, and noth- ing more substantial than an isolated railway station now marks the spot where once stood a rather busy frontier village, bristling with life and commercial activity under the stimulus of railway traffic and large disbursements for labor and supplies. When the base came to be removed further toward the mountains, Carson died of inanition, its isolated position affording it neither commerce nor the aid of develop- ments in the surrounding country, since there were few settlers and nothing to attract them.
During the spring and summer of 1870 the Cheyenne Indians, venomously hostile to the construction of a railroad through their favorite resort for winter quarters, made frequent attacks upon the engineers and graders, driving off their stock, attacking trains and kill- ing the drivers and herders. The annoyance becoming intolerable, General John Pope, then in command of the department, was com- pelled to send out troops. Four companies of cavalry and three of
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infantry were stationed at the more exposed points, but even this force was scarcely sufficient to repress the hostiles. The raids were con- tinued at intervals until the line was finished.
Grading from Denver eastward, began May 26th, 1870, from a point near the Denver Pacific just north of the Fair Grounds of the Colorado Agricultural Society, under the direction of Col. Eicholtz, with the intention of meeting the force approaching from Carson. The first train entered this city August 15th following. On the night of the 12th a gap of only ten and a quarter miles remained. Then ensued a brisk rivalry between Colonel Weed, Superintendent of the Eastern Division, and Eicholtz of the Western, as to which should first reach the central station between, where a flag had been placed to mark the spot. In the course of operations, Weed ran out of iron, but was soon supplied from the Western section by hauling it in wagons. It had been resolved to finish the road on the 15th, hence every energy of the working crews was bent to this purpose. Word was passed to the men, and the promise of a sumptuous banquet given to stimulate them to do their utmost. Then followed some of the most extraor- dinary work ever witnessed in the history of railway construction. The coveted flag was reached and taken by Weed at precisely one o clock and ten minutes. Eicholtz in turn ran out of iron, which being slow to arrive, delayed him until three o'clock P. M., at which hour the junction was made. The ten and a quarter miles were laid in ten hours. Col. Eicholtz acquired his experience in rapid construction during the War of the Rebellion, as chief engineer of General W. W. Wright's division of Sherman's army from Chattanooga to Atlanta. It will be remembered that as the Confederates under Johnston fell back from the resistless force of our arms, they destroyed the railways and bridges. Eicholtz restored them. In 1866 he was stationed at Topeka as resident engineer of the Kansas Pacific road. The year following he made the survey of the 32d parallel from Kansas to Cali- fornia when the company contemplated building to the coast by that route. A part of the line thus located is now used by the Southern
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