USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 32
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334
HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
and the first houses built, and while the immediate results to these original explorers were of no material significance, it was from this slender thread that grew the mighty consequences developed in the last thirty years of our annals.
The fact that no official records of this county prior to 1864, can be found at this time, is explained by the following report accepted by the county commissioners-Syl- vester Richardson and John L. Boggs-at a meeting held January 28th, 1864:
"On the 31st day of December, 1863, all the records pertaining to my office, as also all the records of the county commissioners; also all the books and papers belonging to the county, and all the official bonds of the different officers in and for the county of Douglas, were destroyed by fire. I do submit the above as a true report.
"Signed, JAMES F. GARDNER, County Clerk."
Notwithstanding this unfortunate loss, we have Mr. Gardner's memories of the intervening years as briefly sketched on a previous page, together with many incidents relating principally to difficulties with Indians, hairbreadth escapes, battles and depri- vations common to the early settlers on the border, for which we are unable to find space.
John H. Craig, Jack Johnson and Charles Holmes settled in Happy Canon, eight or ten miles north of Castle Rock in 1859, where they engaged in mining and in stock- raising. "We had no flour most of the winter," said Mr. Craig, while relating the details of these early events, "nor had we any money with which to purchase it had there been any, for flour was worth $40 a sack, and bacon twenty-five cents a pound. Therefore we subsisted mainly on wild game which was abundant. When our clothes wore out, we began to wear buckskin. We next moved up near the Oakes sawmill that had been placed in Riley's Gulch by Major D. C. Oakes, one of the first lumber mills brought to the county. About twenty-five or thirty men were there, and John Nash who came out in 1859, died there that winter." Others arrived the same year and began to settle in the pineries and along the streams, but Mr. Craig regards the settle- ment at Oakes' Mill about the second of any importance that occurred in the county. The present town of Sedalia, Mr. Craig avers, he located as the "Round Corral" in 1865, which he owned until about 1870, when he sold it to Jonathan House; a little later it was known as Plum Station. One of the most prominent citizens of the county from first to last, is J. F. Gardner. As we have seen by his narrative, he was early joined by George M. Chilcott (Ex-Senator, now of Pueblo), where they conducted the business of making shingles, at a point a few miles north of the present Castle Rock. Mr. Gardner has represented the county in Territorial and State legislatures without number, and it never was and could not be represented by a better man.
Every old resident of Colorado remembers Major D. C. Oakes, who brought out the mill to which reference has been made. He was not only a pioneer in the Pike's Peak region, but was one of the vast procession of emigrants to California in 1847. He engaged in mining on Feather River, having for a partner A. R. Colton, who had been a member of Congress from Iowa. Oakes returned to the latter State in 1853, and resided at Glenwood until 1858. In September (14th) of that year, he, in company with Abram Walrod, H. J. Graham, Charles Mills and George Pancoast, started for the Rocky Mountains, and October 10th arrived at the mouth of Cherry Creek. He pros- pected until November, when he went back to Iowa, and together with Captain Smith
335
HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
began publishing the " Pike's Peak Guide and Journal," at Pacific City. In the spring of 1859 he started from Iowa with his sawmill, which was finally located in the pineries of Douglas County. He sold it in 1865, when he was appointed Indian Agent by Pres- ident Andrew Johnson, which position he retained until 1869, when he took up the profession of United States Land Surveyor.
In November, 1860, Judge P. P. Wilcox of Denver, as he relates it, together with William Liptrap and son, established a cow ranch about two miles above Frankstown, which they owned and managed until 1874, when the herd becoming much larger, they moved over to Big Sandy, near River Bend, some seventy miles to the eastward.
Among the others who came in 1859, and the following year, were John A. Koontz, Charles Parkhurst, George Engle, Wm. Van Andert, George W. Hertel, John H. Jones, John Jones, Jack Platt, Matt Crawford; Judge D. H. Goodwin, a veteran of the war of 1812, who became Probate Judge; Wm. Garrison, J. C. Ingersoll, L. N. Wells, Ben- jamin Quick, M. L. Jones, Peter Brannon, George Ratcliffe, John Tallman; Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester Richardson, whose place was known as " Pretty Woman's Ranch," for it was decided that Mrs. Richardson was the handsomest woman in the Territory; Mr. and Mrs. Coberly, the latter said to have been the first white woman to locate in the Pike's Peak country; Mr. and Mrs. John L. Boggs, Edward Van Endert, I. P. Van Wormer, N. T. Webber, Rev. John L. Dyer, the pioneer Methodist preacher; W. F. Carey, Jacob and Benedict Schultz, David Gregory, Wm. Crull, John Iron, Presley Talbot, Dean Holden, Elias Gibbs, George Redman, Joseph Huber, Jacob Frick, John Russell, W. W. Cantril, Travilla Wilhite, the Hungates and Deitermans (killed by Indians), John Gilliland, George Frainey, S. P. Butler, D. N. Boggs, F. C. Johnson, and many others.
As no valuable mines were found in Douglas County, the early settlers turned their attention to ranching, raising cattle and to the wood and lumber business, which have ever since been prominent features of industry and commerce. When the settlers in Denver had consumed all the available timber in that vicinity, along the Platte and Cherry Creek, the greater part of their fuel supply came from the pine woods of Douglas, for which they paid $16 to $18 a cord. Most of the frame houses built in Denver were of lumber obtained in the same region, but the early discovery of coal in Boulder and Jefferson Counties soon destroyed the wood market, at least greatly restricted the traffic. Nevertheless, those pineries have ever since furnished a great deal of sawed lumber, and at the present day this pursuit supports from 300 to 500 people in the county.
Many of the early ranch houses also became country hotels, where the traveler could pass the night and feed his stock in the ample corrals. These primitive people had old-fashioned, hospitable ways of entertaining their guests. Every respectable person was made royally welcome in these isolated, infrequently visited farmhouses, located along the stage road between Denver and Pueblo. The small herds of cattle began to increase, the stockraising industry grew into great prominence, and many of those who came in poverty found themselves enriched as the years passed by, and almost without serious effort. In 1889 it was estimated that Douglas County possessed 40,000, and Elbert, its neighbor, 90,000 head of cattle. Again, sheep raising was added, and their numbers multiplied, affording another source of rapid accumulation. But in recent years the settlement of the public domain has divided the great ranges into
336
HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
farms, and agriculture is now the predominant business, stockraising falling back to a mere incidental auxiliary.
Although deposits of coal have been discovered, none have been systematically opened and worked as yet. The quarrying and shipment to Denver and other points of immense quantities of lava rock for fine buildings, has become one of the leading pur- suits. To some of the quarries branch railways have been extended, notably from the Denver & Rio Grande main line. There are four quarries on Seller's Creek, near Castle Rock. The same class of stone is also quarried at Douglas Plateau and other places. The average shipments are about twenty-five cars a day.
The Denver & Rio Grande, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth lines of railway traverse the county from north to south.
The contest between Frankstown and Castle Rock for possession of the county seat, forms a memorable event in the annals of the county. By an act approved February 13th, 1874, the county commissioners were granted full power to provide for laying off the county seat, and for selling lots to the highest bidder, the funds so realized to be used for the construction of a courthouse and jail. The town plat of Castle Rock was filed April 25th, 1874, as drawn by J. D. McIntyre. Jeremiah M. Gould, P. P. Wilcox and John H. Craig, laid out the site of 120 acres, and placed a deed in escrow to re- convey to the people when Castle Rock should be officially proclaimed the county seat. The latter won over its several competitors, when an auction sale of lots ensued, from which several thousand dollars were realized. The town was named for the castellated promontory near at hand. The town of Douglas, about three miles south of Castle Rock, was platted by the National Land & Improvement Company, July 28th, 1880, through its vice-president, Charles B. Lamborn, and the secretary, W. B. Gaskell. Greenland, some fifteen miles south of Castle Rock, was located by Mr. Fred Z. Salo- mon of Denver, in September, 1875. Acequia, near the line of Arapahoe County, was platted June 28th, 1881, by the National Land & Improvement Company. The same company also platted Sedalia, formerly called Plum Station, May 15th, 1882.
The town of New Memphis, which was formed March 27th, 1874 (two miles from Castle Rock), is now a cornfield, the houses having been moved to the county seat.
The town of Castle Rock was incorporated June Ist, 1881; Irving S. Morse, mayor, George A. Triplett recorder, and Dr. A. Johnson, Thomas J. King, David Owens and John G. Baldwin trustees. Its population is about 500. A fine stone courthouse was completed in 1890, at a cost of $24,000. The Castle Rock " Journal," now in its twelfth volume, is its newspaper representative. The office was removed from Monu- ment, by George B. Armstrong. It was at different times owned by C. C. Holbrook, A. B. Johnson, W. F. Waller, Keith Pierce, R. N. Hancock, Willis A. Brainard, and at last by its present owner, W. I. Whittier.
The Douglas County "News" was instituted in February, 1890, by John A. Cheely, who sold in July to the Douglas County Publishing Company, H. L. Barter, editor. The old " News Letter," brought from Frankstown many years ago, succumbed to fate, and the material was taken to Buena Vista.
Of secret societies, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Patriotic Order Sons of America, and J. G. Blunt Post G. A. R., form the entire list.
337
HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
The Methodist society built a church some three years ago; the Catholics in 1889. The Episcopalians have an edifice on West Plum Creek.
Among other points in the county are Larkspur, Hill Top and Rock Ridge. The population of the county is 3,002, being an increase of 516 over the census of 1880.
County Superintendent P. H. Hammond reports thirty organized school districts for 1889-'90, with twenty-eight schoolhouses, two of logs, twenty-three frame, two of brick and one of stone, the whole valued at $19,700. The school population was 835, with an enrollment of 612, and an average attendance of 420.
The total assessed valuation of taxable property in the county for 1890, is $2,003,- 434, thus divided: Agricultural lands, 12,955 acres, valued at $56,135; grazing lands, 275,096, valued at $421,504; land improvements, $161,944; and on public lands, $26,- 723; town and city lots, $21,238, improvements thereon, $35,535. The 108.3 miles of railroad are assessed at $905,692; horses, 3,844, at $114, 151; cattle, 13,928, at $126,380.
" Many years ago," says Mr. Gardner, "the farmers turned their attention to dairying, and finding it profitable, that industry has continued to grow in advance of the increase of population. Large numbers engaged in butter and cheese making, which has continued to the present day, until Douglas is looked upon as one of the foremost dairy counties in the State. Aside from this, many excellent crops are pro- duced along the divide, which is especially favorable for the growth of potatoes, where the yields are very large, and the quality unsurpassed."
While this county is situated in what is termed the plains country, it is traversed by a spur of the Rocky Mountain Range which separates the head waters of the tributaries of the South Platte and the Arkansas Rivers. This divide is an elevated range lying in northern El Paso, southeastern Douglas and southwestern Elbert, having an average altitude of about 7,000 feet and embracing an area of 500 to 600 square miles.
The pioneers of Douglas County were among the truest and bravest that came to Colorado ; none were so frequently exposed to Indian depredations, horse and cattle thieves. Widely scattered, they became an easy prey to both. But they were generally equal to the emergency. For defense against savages they built forts and stockades for the protection of their women and children, and with trusty rifles themselves drove their enemies across the border. As for the white desperadoes, they were pursued and shot, or if captured, hanged to the nearest tree.
In the fullness of time all these harassments have disappeared, and the people have laid the foundations broad and deep for an enduring prosperity.
22 III.
338
HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
EL PASO COUNTY.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION-MOUNTAIN PEAKS AND STREAMS-FAUNA AND FLORA-FOSSIL REMAINS-LIST OF MINERALS-COAL MINES-FIRST SETTLERS-COLORADO CITY- MASSACRES BY INDIANS-COLORADO SPRINGS-ITS DEVELOPMENT TO 1881-THE FIRST THEATER-COLORADO COLLEGE.
El Paso County received its name from nature's highway, Ute Pass-The Pass of the region. One of the central counties, it lies west of longitude 103º 57', and east of longitude 105° 13' 40", and between the parallels of 38° 31' 18", and 39° 7' 49" north latitude, save that seven townships in the southwest belong to Fremont County. Its area is 2,640 square miles, of which 1,890 miles are east of the mountains, 567 miles are mountainous, 189 square miles pasture and farm lands in mountain valleys and table lands, and the remaining 546 miles are timber lands .*
The general altitude of the county varies from five to seven thousand feet above sea level, while its peaks rank from 10,000 feet in height to the monarch Pike's Peak, with an elevation of 14,147 feet. In El Paso, the great plains and mountains meet, thus combining lowland and lofty beauties. Where the lowlands join the mesas, the picturesque boundaries of the plain, they break into buttes or bluffs, and in these ridges are found fantastic formations of rock, worn by erosion and set in clusters of pine. The southwest is occupied by a group of mountains, commonly known as the "Cheyenne Spur." In the center Pike's Peak lifts its lofty head; Monte Rosa, Red Mountain, Mount Garfield, Pisgah and other inferior peaks cluster about the knees of their king to do him honor. The southern boundary of this range is Chey- enne, rising in scorn from the lowly plain without intervention of bluff or foothill-the " broadest mass of blue and purple shadow that ever lay on the easel of nature." The northern boundary of El Paso is the purplish green line of the pineries of the divide, separating the tributaries of the Arkansas and Platte. "Crystal Peak" and "Slim Jim," are the well-known summits of this elevated region. The county contributes its quota of those high, level tracts of land, hill-surrounded, which are known as parks. Manitou, and Hayden Park are representative of these. In considering the topography of El Paso, invalids in especial should recall the fact that the eastern portion of the district is tilted to the south, with an angle of two degrees, so it receives rays of the sun with less obliquity in winter. This is thought to make a difference in temperature, equal to two degrees south latitude.
El Paso has a fair supply of water, though none of its streams are large. The * Se. Judge A. Z. Sheldon's History of El Paso.
339
HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
South Platte River flows through its northwestern corner and receives as tributaries Twin Creek, West Creek, Rule Creek and Trout Creek. Four Mile Creek, which has its source amid Pike's Peak snows, after describing a very irregular course, empties into the Arkansas. But the chief tributary which the Arkansas receives from this section is the "Fontaine-qui-Bouille" (thus christened by French missionaries), with its boiling bubbling, foaming waters, the clearest and most picturesque of El Paso streams, and the most valuable to agricultural interests. The Fontaine's sources are 14,000 feet above the sea, and at Pueblo it joins the Arkansas. Ruxton Creek and the "Muddy Monument" are its important tributary streams.
The intermittent streams are the Big Sandy, Horse Creek, Black Squirrel Creek, Chico, Jimmy's Camp and Sand Creeks. These are tributaries of the Arkansas. A chain of seven small glacial lakes is to be found near timber line on the flank of Pike's Peak. Their outlet is Beaver Creek, which flows to the Arkansas.
Lake Moraine of glacial formation covers some ten acres in area, and lies to the east of Pike's Peak at an altitude of about 10,000 feet, and is eight miles from Colorado Springs-this and Palmer Lake on the divide's crest are spoken of on another page. Several artificial lakes have been recently constructed, notably those at Cascade Cañon, the Ute Pass Park, and Cheyenne Lake, near the canons of that name.
This county, like the rest of the State, has lost almost all its game. Colorado Springs extends over the old feeding ground of the antelope of eighteen years ago, and Manitou's cottages are perched where Ruxton saw the Rocky Mountain big horn on the heights, and sheep pasture on the buffalo plains, rabbits and prairie dogs, coyotes and swifts continue to people these last, but antelope on the plains, and deer and elk in the mountains are rare, and rarer still when a brown, black, or silver tipped bear, or a mountain lion-even a lynx or wild cat, ventures down from the peaks.
Hayden's Survey printed in 1874 a synopsis of the "Flora of Colorado," by T. C. Porter and John W. Coulter. The latter in 1885 issued a manual of the botany of the Rocky Mountain region. From the earliest lilac anemone to the late gentian, the " procession of flowers in Colorado" has been painted in glowing word pictures by a writer whose home was in El Paso County, but whose fame is world-wide. The artist, Alice Stewart Hill of Colorado Springs, was the first to make a complete series of water color sketches of the Colorado flowers.
The mesas of El Paso are dotted with a plant of historic interest, the bristling yucca, commonly known as the "soap weed," or Spanish bayonet. Aside from the beauty of its stately cream white blossoms, it furnishes an excellent soap, and its fibre, resembling hemp, can be manufactured into paper. The Pueblo Indians were used to register dates by knots in the yucca. The aboriginal race of Colorado employed it for rope, sandals and cloth. The yucca is supposed to be the "Fusang" of the ancient Chinese books, which tell the legend of the "Empire of the Fusang" far to the westward.
The indigenous trees of El Paso are the yellow pine, foxtail pine, piñon, Engle- mann's or white spruce, Douglas spruce, blue or silver spruce, white fir, balsam, red cedar, junipers, dwarf maple, scrub oak, willow, diamond willow, sandbar willow, wild plum, Chickasaw plum, wild red cherry, thorn, black birch, speckled alder, cotton- wood, white cottonwood, narrow-leaved cottonwood, and aspens. In Ute Pass, the red-
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
hearted and white-hearted cedar, the oriental and the occidental, found respectively on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes, here meet and are seen growing side by side.
The grasses which feed the stock include buffalo grass, bunch grass, sand grass and gramma grass.
Said Professor Hayden: "Around Colorado Springs is a tract of ten miles square, containing more materials of geological interest than any other area of equal extent in the West." This region is rich in fossils, particularly in saurian, baculites and insects. Here learned professors may chase extinct lepidoptera, hymenoptera, as boys do butter- flies. The rampart or front range of the Rocky Mountains extends north and south through the center of the county with a gradual slope toward the eastern boundary. The mountains are of metamorphic granite formation, with the exception of Mount Pis- gah and Rhyolite Peak in the southwestern corner, which are eruptive rocks of rhyolite. In the northeast we find the tertiary formation and from the center to its eastern boun- dary, according to Hayden's survey, extensive beds of Laramie shales or coal formation, and to the south of these beds is a Colorado cretaceous area, triangular in shape, the upper angle including Colorado City and Colorado Springs. In the southern part is a small silurian area, red beds, of the jura-triassic and the Dakota groups of the creta- ceous. By far the most interesting geological formations are found about Pike's Peak. Here from the cretaceous we come to the jura-triassic. Then the upper and lower car- boniferous, and an area of about nine square miles of the silurian. Manitou is situated upon these last three formations. The quaternary cenozoic is seen in Lake Moraine, and Seven Lakes. Thermal springs are found at Manitou. At Florissant we see the tertiary formation. Seven of the sixteen known fossil butterflies have come from Florissant.
Remarkable specimens of smoked quartz are found in Crystal Park, Cameron's Cone, and on Crystal Peak on the Divide.
In an opal bed at Austin's Bluffs several opals large as beans have been taken out. There is another opal bed near Florissant.
In the Bijou Basin are beautiful specimens of wood jasper, and opalized and agat- ized woods. A " petrified forest " exists near Florissant,-sequoia trees turned in the tertiary to stone. In a sunny morning of the by-gone world nature took some photo- graphs, prepared her negatives, and then forgot about them. Near the "Petrified Stumps" they are stowed away in thin, laminated plates. They can be drawn out from the crumbling shale, marked with some odd leaf, never more to dance with its fellows in the morning breeze, or a bug, fly, or fish, with bony frontlet and fan- shaped fins.
About fifteen miles from Falcon are curious colored shales of the uppermost Lar- amie formation, known as the "Paint Rocks," or " Pink Rocks,"-iceberg-like pin- nacles of rose, gray or salmon, fringed with stalactitic points, rising from a depressed area of white sand to the smooth green level of the prairie. These have been worked for mineral paint.
Near Colorado City are found large gypsum beds, and quarries of red and gray sandstone. Also beds of green and gray magnesian limestone, and lithographic stone is found at Manitou. The stones (semi precious and precious) found in El
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
Paso are chalcedony, topaz, chrysolite, garnet, Amazon stone, fluorite, phenacite, sardonyx.
Columbite is found near Pike's Peak. There have been discovered on Cheyenne Mountain the minerals astrophyllite, arfvedsonite, bastnasite, tysonite, thomsenolite, and cryolite, which have never before been found save in limited areas in Norway, Sweden and Greenland.
The following full list of minerals that are of any note, found in El Paso County, has been supplied through the courtesy of Mr. J. G. Hiestand of Manitou:
I Amazon stone.
26 Agatized wood.
50 Hornblend in quartz.
5I Gothite in quartz.
52 Calcite var. dog tooth spar.
53 Calcite var. Iceland spar.
54 Calcite var. nailhead spar.
6 Cassiterite.
31 Gypsum var. alabaster.
7 Phenacite.
32 Gypsum var. satin spar.
8 Florite.
33 Gypsum var. selenite.
9 Gadolinite.
34 Milky opal.
58 Jet
10 Epidote.
35 Hyacinth.
II Mica.
36 Hornblend.
12 Zircon.
37 Albite.
13 Astrophyllite.
38 Galenite.
14 Tysonite.
39 Pyrite.
63 Chalcedony.
15 Bastnasite.
40 Chalcopyrite.
64 Dendrite.
16 Arfvedsonite.
41 Azurite.
65 Moss agate.
17 Cryolite.
42 Chrysocolla.
66 Milky quartz.
18 Thomsenolite.
43 Stilbite.
19 Elpasolite.
44 Göthite.
68 Bituminous coal.
20 Ralstonite.
45 Hematite.
69 Sardonyx.
21 Aragonite.
46 Simonite.
70 Fayolite.
22 Barite.
47 Magnetite.
71 Gearksutite.
23 Celestite.
48 Titanic iron.
72 Molybdenite.
24 Strontianite.
49 Amethyst.
73 Marcasite.
25 Agate.
27 Opalized wood.
3 Smoky quartz.
28 Jasperized wood.
4 Topaz.
29 Silicified wood.
5 Columbite.
30 Clear quartz.
55 Calcite var. stalactite.
56 Calcite var. stalagmite.
57 Calcite var. Travertine.
59 Argentiferous galenite. 60 Xenotime.
61 Tourmaline.
62 Pach nolite.
67 Sphalerite.
At Franceville and McFerran are mines of lignite coal, which are extensively worked, and much of this coal is consumed in the county. Their limitations are unde- fined, but it has been stated by experts that they extend from the southern part of the county northward for some sixty miles. These beds were discovered by Matt France, from six to fourteen feet below the surface. Hayden's last survey reported over one- third of El Paso as a coal area. Such are manifestations of the varied development of the region, from laurentian granite in Ute Pass, to glacial boulders on the Fontaine's banks.
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