USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 38
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
EL PASO COUNTY.
(CONTINUED.)
MOUNTAIN RESORTS-TOWNS AND SETTLEMENTS-MONUMENT-PALMER LAKE-FOUN- TAIN-FALCON -- FLORISSANT-JOURNALISM-STATISTICS.
Ute Pass Resorts,-Where a few years ago the Indian on his tough little mustang came down from the mountain parks to drink from the Manitou Springs, -and later a handful of hunters encamped,-now glide the Colorado Midland trains carrying thou- sands who make this pass the Mecca of their summer saunterings. While Manitou two years ago was the only celebrated resort in this vicinity, the building of the Midland Railroad has created several mountain resorts above these world-famous springs, where the air is yet more bracing, the scenery primitive and wilder, the flora more luxuriant and where one can nearer commune with Mother Nature-and she lures us higher and deeper among the mountain recesses.
Cascade Cañon is five miles above Manitou, near the base of Pike's Peak. Sur- rounded with crystal falls and beautiful glens, lovely parks and health-giving springs, it is a romantic spot. From this point in 1889, the Pike's Peak carriage road was built, by Hundley and Carlisle. One by this road may reach the summit within six hours, and enjoy one of the most picturesque drives in the world.
For a score of years Bob Correy, in the pioneer days, hunted, fished and prospected, here enjoying nature's plenteousness, and happiness, until as civilization's limits came near he sought more distant wilds, and sold his squatter claim to Mrs. E. N. Hewlitt, who, with her son, here started a small cattle ranch. In the summer of 1886 Mr. D. Severy, a Kansas capitalist, recognized the place's prospects, knew the railroad soon would be built through it, and opened negotiations with Mrs. Hewlitt. This resulted in the organization of "The Cascade Town Company," with Mr. Severy as president, and Mrs. Hewlitt and several wealthy Kansas men as directors. Within a year a town site was platted, cottages built, waterworks put in and sewer pipes laid through the main streets. A large hotel costing $65,000, has been built, and has received successful patronage.
Ute Park, Green Mountain Falls, and Woodland Park (which is also the station for Manitou Park), are on the Midland Railroad, as it darts up Ute Pass, and their history is similar to that of Cascade Canon. Green Mountain Falls is nine miles from Manitou, while Woodland Park lies five miles still farther up the pass, and is twenty miles from Colorado Springs.
Ute Park is a new resort, and its hotel (W. J. Douglas architect) was christened the Ute in August, 1890, when a magnificent banquet was tendered by its proprietors
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to the press and railroads of the State. Back of the hotel extend twenty-three miles of mountain boulevards, through the pines, and in the valley is a pretty lake with a foun- tain jet spurting one hundred and thirty-five feet heavenward. Ute Park is a creation of the summer of 1890, combined with natural attractions and capital and energy directed by Louis R. Ehrich, Frank White, J. J. Hagerman and Dr. N. S. Culver of Colorado Springs. The company includes several New York men who are erecting cottages here.
Green Mountain Falls, as well as the other resorts in the pass, may also be reached by carriage road from Manitou. Numerous beautiful waterfalls are in the vicinity of this resort, and a $25,000 hotel was erected in 1889 by a Colorado Springs company, of which F. E. Dow is president, and I. J. Woodworth secretary, treasurer and attorney.
Woodland Park is situated on a high, broad plateau, 8,484 feet above sea level, and has a protected and sheltered situation. It affords a fine view of Pike's Peak, and near by are Iron and Sulphur Springs, almost hidden by native shrubbery and wild flowers. During the past year a hotel and several cottages and stores have been erected as well as a church and school. Here is also a good-sized lake. The town company is headed by W. J. Foster of Colorado Springs. From this station one can make a delightful coaching trip to Manitou Park, formerly Bergen Park, where, in the old days, when its hotel was kept by Mrs. Lyman K. Bass, lovers of hunting and fishing were wont to pass the summer months. But the old hotel was accidentally burned down by the rolling out of a blazing log from the fireplace, in 1887. Dr. Wm. A. Bell of Manitou, laid claim for the credit of this happening. "I just idled about all that day," he said, "and didn't accomplish anything to speak of. I merely went up to Manitou Park and burned down the hotel." But a new and better hostelry was erected here in 1889, and many tents dot the picturesque surroundings. Its lakes have been plentifully stocked with trout, and form a regular supply for the neighboring markets.
Florissant .-- The Castello family may justly be regarded as the pioneers of Florissant. In fact, the town site was once the Castello Ranch, which occupied a picturesque valley in the northwestern part of El Paso County, thirty-five miles from Colorado Springs, at an elevation of 8,096 feet. The valley is watered by excellent springs, and in the neighborhood are opal beds, fossiliferous shales, and the great sequoia stumps of the Petrified Forest. Here in the month of June, 1870, Judge James Castello came to settle, naming the tract Florissant, after his old home in Missouri. During the month of November following, he brought his wife and two sons from Fairplay. Mrs. Catherine Castello came to Colorado in 1863, crossing the plains in a wagon drawn by oxen, despite the rigors of winter, to join her husband in the wilderness which is now Park County. Mrs. Castello was one of the brave women of those dauntless days. She kept the home for husband and children in the utter solitude (her nearest neighbor eleven miles away), and often remained alone with her boys for days at a time in that Indian- haunted region, when her husband was absent for supplies. Now, at the age of three- score and ten, she has lived to see that wilderness blossom into scores of homes, where hers once stood alone.
In 1868 an early Indian encounter is remembered, when a band of forty Arapahoe Indians came from the plains to South Park on a raid. On Twin Creek near Floris- sant, they met Surveyor General Lessig and party, who were returning to Denver via
2.08. Mainly
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
Colorado City. The hostiles took possession of the horses of Lessig's party, but after examination concluded they were too poor to serve their purpose, and returned them. They possessed themselves, however, of General Lessig's fine Navajo blanket, the provisions, and even the horse feed.
Among other early settlers who were "neighbors" were E. J. Smith, five miles distant on the Platte Crossing, Milton Pulver, eleven miles west (who came in 1867). R. Marcott and family, John Westal, and M. Riggs were settled on Four Mile Creek, having come there in the autumn of 1870.
A postoffice was established at Florissant in 1873. Before that, any traveler who chanced to come from Fairplay, fifty miles away, was impressed as mail carrier.
In the winter of 1874-'75 Ouray with a band of six hundred Utes camped at Floris- sant for several months. One day, Mr. Marksberry, a ranchman living on Tarryall Creek, rode up to the postoffice, tethered his horse, and went within the building. The pony attracted the attention of an Indian named Antelope, who claimed the animal as his own, slipped off saddle and bridle, and jumping on its back, rode away.
Marksberry and a friend determined to recover the pony, followed the band to their new camp, in Beaver Park, south of Pike's Peak. Marksberry found his pony with the Indian herd, caught it, and was turning away, when Antelope, hidden behind a tree, shot and instantly killed him. Chief Ouray, always ready to "travel the white man's road," gave up Antelope to justice. He was afterward acquitted by Denver authorities.
For a number of years the Castello Ranch was a stopping place for travelers to South Park and many tourists sought the neighborhood because of the mineral wonders in the vicinity. Such gathered round the Castellos' hospitable board, graced with the famous silver and Bohemian glass caster-a well known heirloom. But with the advent of the Midland Railroad. Florissant became a town (though not yet incorporated.) It has a population of two hundred persons, a good school with two teachers and eighty scholars. Florissant has two hotels, two general merchandise stores, two drugstores, two meat markets, two feedstores, one shoe shop, three blacksmith and wagon shops, two livery stables, one restaurant and several boarding houses, one barber shop, two doctors and one lawyer. The Order of Modern Woodmen of America has been estab- lished recently with a membership of twenty-five. The Odd Fellows have also organized, with forty members.
The M. E. Church is the only one in town at present, and the school building is used as a place of worship. The Crystal Park "Beacon," a weekly newspaper, has been started.
Situated in a lumber district, Florissant has several sawmills in operation, shipping an average of 20,000 feet of lumber each. Florissant is now the Midland's principal town, between Manitou and Buena Vista.
Edgerton has always been the halting spot for tourists who visit Monument Park. The park formations were described by Fitz Hugh Ludlow, better possibly, than by the innumerable pens which have followed him. He says: "I found the formation to con- sist of peculiar friable conglomerate. Some of the pillars were nearly cylindrical, others were long cones, and a number were spindle shaped, or like a berry set on end. They were surmounted by capitals of remarkable projection beyond their base. The
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conglomeration of the shafts was an irregular mixture of fragments from all the hypogene rocks of the range, including quartzose pebbles, pure crystals of silex, various crystalline sandstone, gneiss, solitary hornblend and feldspar, nodular iron stones, rude agates and gun flint, the whole loosely cemented in a matrix, composed of clay, lime, and red oxide of iron. The disk which formed the largely projecting capital seemed to represent the original diameter of the pillar, and apparently retained its proportions in virtue of a much closer texture and larger per cent. of iron in its composition." The park occupies a tract nine miles long and about two miles wide. A similar formation is found at Austin Bluffs. The monuments are from fourteen to twenty feet high, and appear like yellowish white statues; a troop of soldiers forms a guard round a ruined temple. Here is an anvil, and a priest with attendant men. At the "Quaker Wedding," hatted preacher weds hatted groom to a bride with a crumbling coiffure, and friends in broad brims throng near.
A ranch near Edgerton was the scene of the most terrible and mysterious murder ever committed in El Paso. In 1886 lived there an elderly lady, Mrs. Kearney and her six-year old grandson, James Hand. His widowed mother left him with his grandmother, while she was studying for the stage in Boston. The two lived quietly together, and occasionally Mrs. Kearney took her grandson to Denver, and the ranch was closed. So its air of desertion created no comment, until it was noticed by the scattered neighbors that Mrs. Kearney came no more to buy eggs, etc. The house was searched, and found vacant. The seekers proceeded to the barn; it was observed that the door, which had been secured inside, had been burst in from without. Inside the door lay the body of Mrs. Kearney, her skull cleft with an ax. In a grain box beyond was found the mutilated body of the child. It was supposed the murderer had attacked his victims in the house, and that they had vainly sought safety in the barn, but were there pursued and killed.
A table spread for a meal in the house was set for three. The murderer has never been traced, and it is a discreditable fact in El Paso's annals that no public reward was offered for his apprehension (the Hand family offered five hundred dollars reward), and that such a crime has heretofore gone unpunished.
In early days Edgerton suffered much from Indian depredations. A small fortified house was constructed there as a refuge for women and children.
Monument .- The first settlement was made at this agricultural town, which now ranks fourth in the county and is situated twenty miles north of Colorado Springs, in 1869, by a party of surveyors, prominent among whom were Henry Limbach and Charles Adams. The earliest settlers of Monument were David McShane and family; Colonel F. E. Ford and family; David, Henry and J. M .. Guire, Simpson Brothers and C. S. Agnew. They endured many pioneer hardships, and were at various times driven from their homes by the Indians, their houses plundered, and their lives threatened. Monument was incorporated as a town in 1873, and depends mainly for its life upon the potato crop which is grown without irrigation. It is the main shipping point for the "Divide" country for a radius of fifteen miles, between Denver and Colo- rado Springs. The Denver & Rio Grande, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, Missouri Pacific, Colorado Midland and the Rock Island Railroads run through the town. During 1889 Monument exported one hundred and twenty-eight carloads of potatoes,
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one hundred of lumber, seventy-five of wood, and sixteen of miscellaneous produce. Husted and Pring sidings which are tributary to Monument, shipped in the same year, one hundred and ninety-nine and two hundred and twenty-three carloads of agricul- tural produce, respectively. The Monument "Mentor" was published here, weekly, so far back as 1878, but was discontinued in 1880, the editor, A. T. Blackly removing to Gunnison. The government geological survey of 1889 reported favorably on two locations in this region where water could be stored and a vast area thereby irrigated. During 1889 indications of coal and oil were here discovered. Monument has a good school system, a Presbyterian church, a weekly paper, the "El Paso Register" founded in 1886, and some twenty business buildings. The population is about three hundred.
SMALLER TOWNS AND SETTLEMENTS.
Roswell and Roswell City sprang up in a day, born in 1889 of the junction of the Rock Island and Rio Grande Railroads, on the Monument Creek two and a half miles north of Colorado Springs. At Roswell City is situated the Rock Island's round house and shops. Roswell is a suburban residence site. The city is an addition to Colorado Springs and is a prohibition railroad town, and although but little more than a year old now boasts handsome residences, stores and a hotel. Roswell was named after Honorable Roswell P. Flower of New York.
Franceville is a coal mining town in the eastern part of El Paso, named in honor of Honorable Matt France of Colorado Springs, who has large interests here.
Mc Ferran, five miles northwest of Franceville, is another busy coal mining town, where besides stores, hotels, etc., are well conducted schools.
Settlements of lesser note in El Paso are, Aroways, Bassett's Hill, Big Sandy, Bijou Basin, Cheyenne Peak, Chico Basin, Colorado House, Crystal Peak Park, Easton, Elsmere, El Paso, Divide, Four Mile, Granger, Gwillemville, Highland, Hursleys, Husted, Jimmy Camp, Lake Station, Little Buttes, McConnellsville, "O. Z." Peyton, Petrified Stumps, Quarry, Sidney, South Water, Suffolk, Summit Park, Sun View, Table Rock, Turkey Creek, Twin Rocks, Weissport, Wheatland, Widefield, Winfield and Wigwam.
Palmer Lake .- On the summit of the watershed which divides Platte and the Arkansas Rivers, fifty-two miles south of Denver, and on the Rio Grande & Santa Fe Railroads, is a beautiful natural lake, close shut in by mountains on either side. It is some ten acres in area, and its altitude is 7,238 feet above sea level. Not many years ago this sheet of water was known as Loch Katrine, but out of compliment to General Palmer, the lake and site were christened (by Kate Field) "Palmero," in the presence of prominent officials of the Rio Grande Railroad, and others. To the ears of Colo- radoans this must have carried an unpleasant foreign twang, for custom since has altered the appellation to plain Palmer Lake.
Along the shores of the lake, stone approaches and walls have been built, a lively fountain jet plays from its center, tempting little boats invite the tourist as well as the prairie schooner voyageur, and the many eyes which peer from countless passing cars shine forth a thankful, gratified expression as they admire the beauties of the waters and the reflections of the everlasting hills.
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
Close by the lake is Glen Park, well known as the meeting place of the Colorado Chautauqua Association which first assembled here in 1887. The association in 1889 erected an auditorium which seats nearly 1,000 people (at an expense of $100,000). Many cottages and a large hotel have been built, and surrounding sites are dotted with tents during the hot months. It is estimated that 20,000 tourists visited Palmer Lake in 1889, for its climate and beautiful features have made it a popular resort.
Dr. W. Finley was appointed the first Mayor, and the town was incorporated in 1889. The town plat contains about six hundred acres, and the real estate transfers of 1889 aggregated $100,000. Ice houses have been erected at the south end of the lake. The railroads have erected handsome eating houses here, and during the past year many improvements have been made.
Fountain .- In a fertile and well watered valley, twelve miles southeast of Colorado Springs, early in El Paso County's history, was the little Quaker hamlet of Fountain founded, taking its name from the Fontaine-qui-Bouille. It has prospered, for not only does the surrounding country produce good crops of grains and vegetables, but dairying is a profitable interest here. The wool clip is large, and small fruits, peaches, apples and pears are being grown to good advantage. During 1888 this happy village was almost completely destroyed by the explosion of a car of giant powder, but through the generous settlement of all claims by the railroad on which the awful accident hap- pened, Fountain was enabled completely to rebuild herself. The Denver & Rio Grande, the Santa Fé, the Missouri Pacific & Rock Island Railroads reach this point, which now has a population of two hundred.
Falcon .- Falcon is a baby town not yet two years old, with a population of some- thing less than two hundred. It is situated fifteen miles east of Colorado Springs, near the summit of the divide between the Platte and the Arkansas Rivers,-seventy miles south of Denver-and at the junction of the Rock Island & Fort Worth Railroads, is attracting the shipping business of the near country. It is surrounded by good agri- cultural and grazing land, is only three miles from a large tract of timber land, and less than five miles from the Franceville and McFerran coal mines. There are many living springs in and about Falcon, and water is found at a depth of from ten to twenty feet. The Falcon Town & Land Company was organized and incorporated September, 1887, with Louis R. Ehrich of Colorado Springs as president; F. H. Russell, vice-president; L. Falkenau, secretary and treasurer; and these officers, together with J. A. Hayes, Jr., Henry Vietell, Robert Moreheimer and R. F. Kavenaugh, constituted the board of directors. The capital stock of this company is $100,000, in one hundred equal shares. Falcon now boasts over two hundred inhabitants, a weekly paper, a $6,000 hotel and over forty substantial buildings.
Fournalism in El Paso .- This county, being one of the earliest settled in Colorado, has a respectable newspaper record. Even in 1872, "Out West," published by J. E. Liller, had for correspondents men widely known in church, literature and politics, as Rev. Charles Kingsley and Hon. Wm. D. Kelley. "Out West " was a model of style, editorially and typographically; it was devoted to Western interests. In December, 1872, it announced that a local paper had become necessary, and that it would also publish "The Gazette and El Paso County News," beginning early in 1873, in order that "Out West's " pages might entirely be given to Territorial information. It there-
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after soon died, but the "Gazette " grew to be a respected force throughout the country. In 1874 Judge Price became celebrated all over Colorado for his humorous hoaxes upon Eastern residents in the columns of his " Mountaineer," also issued at Colorado Springs, and an able paper popularly circulated among the people of the county. The pioneer El Paso journal, though printed in Denver, was the short lived " Colorado City Journal," which made its appearance in 1861, under the direction of Benjamin F. Crowell, now a citizen of Colorado Springs. May Ist, 1858, Mr. Crowell came from Boston, a boy of nineteen, in company with A Z. Sheldon and others. The party had varied experiences in crossing the plains, one of their chief dilemmas being to ascertain each morning before harnessing which was the "nigh" and which the "off" ox. From the days of the El Paso "Journal " till the present, Mr. Crowell has been con- nected with every important movement, political or otherwise, in El Paso.
Colorado Springs "Gazette " inaugurated the county's record in daily journalism, and ever has been a prominent factor in the building up of this region. It is one of the six papers of the State owning associated press dispatches, prints daily over five thou- sand words of telegraphic news, and is a four page eight column paper. It has a large job department, fifty men on its pay roll of $600 per week, and is erecting a fine block on a principal avenue. The chief stockowners are B. W. Steele, Hon. W. S. Jackson and Dr. B. F. D. Adams. Mr. Steele has been editor of the "Gazette" for the past several years, and came to Colorado in 1877, from Providence, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Brown University. Mr. Steele's policy iu conducting the "Gazette " has been fearless and judicial. His editorials show a remarkably sympathetic compre- hension and prevision of public feeling.
The "Gazette " is about to build a fine new edifice on Pike's Peak avenue, a sharp contrast to its present dilapidated structure of historic fame. The material is to be St. Louis pressed brick with stone trimmings, and basement of stone. Besides the rooms used in the printing and binding departments of the journal, there will be eighteen offices. The building is supplied with fire-proof vaults and a Crane elevator.
The Colorado Springs " Republic" is the second paper of the county, and was first issued in 1880 (being the regular successor of the " Free Press " and the " Mount- aineer,") as a daily evening journal, after as a weekly, and again as a daily under its present direction by Mr. L H. Gowdy. Its interests are mainly local, and together with an excellent job department, it has become a successful property.
El Paso's growth may well be shown by an enumeration of the papers now pub- lished. While the county boasted but ten papers in 1888, in 1890 we find the list swelled to double the number. The El Paso " Register" is the representative paper of the Divide region, and is published at Monument. The Manitou "Journal" is issued four months of the year as a daily, and began its career in 1886. The Colorado City "News," under the able direction of J. Addison Cochran-present postmaster of that city-achieved, two years since, first place among the papers of El Paso's manufacturing center. Other papers issued in the county are: "Pike's Peak Herald," "Saturday Mail," the "Methodist," the "Lever," and "Deaf Mute Index," at Colorado Springs, -the last two named being school papers,-Colorado City "Chieftain," Colorado City " Iris," Palmer Lake "Herald," Green Mountain Falls " Echo," Fountain " Dis- patch," Woodland Park " News," and Crystal Peak " Beacon " (at Florissant).
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
To the Colorado Springs "Gazette " and " Republic," both of which publish weekly as well as daily editions-we are indebted for valuable reports which have freely been used in this sketch.
Railroad Connections .-- El Paso County's railroad connections reach in every direction. They are remarkable in that she has five great lines connecting her with Denver and Pueblo, Colorado's largest cities, and these lines make El Paso their center of trade between these points, and Colorado Springs the third city in the State. The Denver & Rio Grande gives her connections with the Pacific Coast as well as through- out Colorado. The Midland Road closely allies her with the Aspen and Leadville mines, and the mountain resorts. The Rock Island affords direct through connection with Chicago, and combining with the Rio Grande forms a through overland route from Atlantic to Pacific. The Denver, Texas & Fort Worth is a direct outlet to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, via Pueblo, also reaches to the East, and gives the county a southern route to California. The Missouri Pacific brings El Paso in line with St. Louis, and the Pike's Peak Railroad, highest in the world, will, it is thought, swell the tide of tourist travel.
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