USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 32
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 32
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The location was admirable, and events proved the wisdom of those who projected the new vent- ure. The Rio Grande Company showed their faith by their works, and established the general offices of the road at Colorado Springs, where they have since remained. The town that was ushered into existence in 1871 now numbers 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants, and is a center of intellectual and social development-the Athens of Colorado. At the time the road was finished to that point, but one house marked the spot, and that was a low, flat, mud-roofed log-cabin hotel, kept by Col. Richard Sopris, the present Mayor of Denver. Stages arrived and departed in different directions, the principal travel being to the southward to Pu- eblo, Santa Fe, Cañon City, etc. Colorado City was a thinly populated village, and Manitou was almost without inhabitants. A rude frame build- ing, elongated like a rope-walk, and about as im- posing in appearance as a bowling alley, was the only "hotel" on the spot. It was a poor and small affair, but large enough to meet the demands
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HISTORY OF DENVER.
of trade at that time. No trace of it remains, except an opening in the otherwise dense shrub- bery on the right bank of the Fountain, between the Soda Spring and the Cliff House. To the chance traveler from "down East" it seemed as if the baby railroad had reached the end of every- thing, and would not only stop there but find it a lonely stopping-place.
But the scream of the locomotive whistle was the " open sesame " to the limitless possibilities of Southern Colorado. The new town sprang into life and aetion as if by magie, and Manitou took on another phase of existence almost as suddenly. Hotels and cottages were soon built and inhabited, and the fame of the great watering-place went abroad through all the earth. Elegant carriage roads were built in every direction. Gen. Palmer built a summer residence in Glen Eyrie, near by. Photographs of the magnificent surrounding scen- ery were distributed by tourists, and the Garden of the Gods and its surroundings soon became house- hold words. The little railroad advertised itself by photographing the seenery along its line, and business began to pour in upon it. Its local trade increased continually, and villages sprang up all along the line.
Nor did it tarry long at Colorado Springs. Fol- lowing down the valley of the Fountain about forty-five miles, it reached Pueblo, and opened np a new era of prosperity for the southern metropo- lis. From Pueblo a branch line was built to Canon City, forty-five miles, while the main line was pushed forward toward New Mexico. At Cucharas Creek another separation was made, one line leading south toward Trinidad and the other west toward the Spanish Peaks and the Sangre de Christo range of mountains, which divide the Ar- kansas slope from the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte.
Thus far the energetic little road had passed through a romantic but not very difficult country. Ilenceforth its path lay over mountains, and the real engineering difficulties of the route were to be surmounted. A more beantiful country than that
upon which the road now entered it would be hard to find in Colorado. The Spanish Peaks them- selves are magnificent beyond description. Unlike any other mountains in Colorado they stand alone, rising abruptly from the plains and lifting their heads above the timber line almost to the regions of perpetual snow. They are visible from Pueblo, nearly a hundred miles distant, and are the most notable landmarks of the whole country around them.
Passing along the valley at the base of these twin peaks, the narrow-gauge road elimbs onward and upward toward Veta Pass. A recent visitor to this famous mountain pass writes as follows :
"Leaving Pueblo, the train steams away across peaceful, fertile valleys for many miles, and then turns westward, straight toward the Spanish Peaks, twin snowy sentinels that guard the gateway to Veta Pass, over the Sangre de Christo Range. The Spanish Peaks are perhaps the most charming of all Colorado landscapes, rising, as they do, sheer from the plains to above timber line, their snm- mits shrouded with snow, and grandly defined against the western sky; but the traveler soon for- gets to look back at the beautiful sight, as the train climbs the beautiful heights beyond, and begins the long and toilsome ascent of the Sangre de Christo Mountains. Looking ahead at the mount- ains toward which the train is speeding, one can hardly realize that the railroad does indeed eross the range; but on and on and still upward we elimb, till presently looking back, the plains lie spread beneath us, and the backward view widens into glorious magnificence. But we have only be- gun the ascent. Now we crawl around Mule Shoe Curve, and, returning on our course, double the 'dump' of Dump Mountain, at a giddy height, still wondering how our train got there, and how it ean get down again, for surely this must be the summit. No, the summit is beyond, and still higher. Up and up we climb again, the air grows thin and thinner; clouds are below and around us, for this is their mountain home-nine thousand three hundred and thirty-nine feet above the sea."
RESIDENCE OF BIRKS CORNFORTH, DENVER. COL.
EST
CORNE 1363
PIONEER &
GROCERY
& Fruit House
LOUB
FEED
PRODUCE
FRUIT
TEA
Coffee Sugar
FISH
BUTTEL
EGGS &c&c
WHOLESALE GROCERY HOUSE OF BIRKS CORNFORTH 205, 15TH ST. DENVER ,COL.
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HISTORY OF DENVER.
There is no exaggeration whatever in this description, as thousands of tourists can testify, who have " done" the pass, since the railway was opened over it in the summer of 1877. A glance at the map will show the object of the Company in crossing these mountains. The valley of the Rio Grande and the rich San Juan country lay beyond. Southwestern Colorado was about equi- distant from La Veta and Cañon City, and the San Juan traffic was pretty equally divided be- tween each of those points; but, by crossing the Sangre de Christo Range, the whole trade could be consolidated at some point in the Rio Grande Valley, giving the road the benefit of a long haul. Moreover, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was even then stretching out toward New Mexico, having already reached Pueblo, and started south over a line to Trinidad. The New Mexico trade was a profitable one to any railroad, and the Rio Grande Company hoped to continue its line down the valley to and beyond Santa Fe, iu time to head off its formidable broad-gauge rivals.
But this was never to happen. The Rio Grande found itself crippled financially about this time, and building operations were temporarily suspended; and, as misfortunes never come singly, it soon found itself involved in varied complica- tions with the Santa Fe line.
The first trouble between the companies came about at Trinidad, where a simultaneous dash was made to secure the right of way over Raton Pass into New Mexico. The Santa Fe was victorious, and the Rio Grande withdrew, but secretly shifted its engineer corps and working force into the Grand Cañon of the Arkansas, at Canon City, only to be instantly followed by the Santa Fe. Then began the celebrated Grand Cañon controversy, out of which has grown some of the most important railway litigation known to Colorado or the country. Leadville was then just looming above the carbonate horizon, and it soon became evident that the road which was first built through the Grand Canon and up the Arkansas
Valley to Leadville would reap a golden harvest. At this important moment, the Santa Fe gained a substantial legal victory in the courts, and the Rio Grande Company was forced to make terms, pending an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The result of some tedious negotiations which followed was a thirty years' lease of the Rio Grande completed line, in all, 337 miles of main track, to the Santa Fe, with au agreement that the latter road should proceed with the work of construct- ing a narrow-gauge track through the Grand Cañon and on to Leadville, subject to the legal effect of Supreme Court decision in the pending suit. The lease was consummated by the transfer of the property in December, 1878.
A few months later, the Supreme Court decided that the Rio Grande was entitled to the prior right of way in the Grand Cañon, and, with that decision, the railway war broke out again, raging fiercer than before. The lease and agreement had placed the Rio Grande in the position of having bartered its rights, and to make its cañon franchise of value, it became necessary to regain possession of its completed line. This was finally done, though the method adopted was the subject of much severe criticism at the time, and a subsequent legal review of the proceedings resulted in their reversal. In the interim, all work on the Lead- ville Extension was stopped and remains so at this writing, the road being in the hands of a Receiver.
The future of this valuable property is shrouded in mystery. The lease to the Santa Fe is merely suspended, not broken, and may be asserted in sub- sequent legal proceedings. The Santa Fe also has an equitable interest in the Leadville Extension. Neither road can proceed with the work of con- struction until their differences are legally adjusted, and precious time is being lost in apparently fruitless litigation, for the advantages gained by one side are speedily counterbalanced by advantages gained by the other.
Nor is the Leadville Extension the only work that is delayed. The San Juan country would
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HISTORY OF DENVER,
have been penetrated from Alamosa, the southwest- ern terminus of the road, but for the lease and litigation referred to. Not even Leadville needs a railway more than the San Juan mines, and the Denver & Rio Grande might have met the demands of both localities ere now but for the various mis- fortunes.
The Grand Canon of the Arkansas, through which the Leadville Extension is projected and partially completed, is the finest canon east of the continental divide, and the entire line between Canon City and Leadville leads through the most romantic portion of Eastern Colorado. Magnifi- cent granite precipices rise abruptly on either hand, to an immense height, and the passes are so nar- row in places that balconies are cut in the face of the cliff to the full width of the track, while in one instance, in the Royal Gorge, an iron bridge of immense weight was built to carry the road over a point otherwise impassable. When com- pleted, this road will not only be famous for its Leadville connection, but for its romantic scenery, and will prove one of the most attractive routes in Colorado for tourists and pleasure-seekers. At Cañon City, connection is also made with stage lines for Silver Cliff, another great mining camp, and one which promises a brilliant future. The Denver & Rio Grande road and its connections will eventually open up to Denver more and better
territory than any other line leading down to the commercial metropolis of the State.
The most important point on the Denver & Rio Grande Railway is Pueblo, the commercial, polit- ical and social metropolis of Southern Colorado. Though not a handsome town, owing to the ab- sence of shade trees and the "mixed" order of its architecture, Pueblo atones for its lack of beauty by abundant enterprise, great hospitality, and true Western spirit. The location of the town is commanding in a commercial view, hold- ing the key to the trade of the West and South. It is the terminus of the Atch- ison, Topeka & Santa Fe, in Colorado, and the point where that line connects north, south and west with the Rio Grande, making Pueblo a rail- road center despite the fact that she has but two principal railways. The future of Pueblo is easily foreshadowed by her past. She has grown stead- ily since 1859, and has never failed to advance with the prosperity of the rest of the State. She was never in a better position than to-day, for the mining camps of Leadville and Silver Cliff will be soon connected with Pueblo by iron rails, and the rails will lead down-hill all the way from each eamp to the southern metropolis. Though Den- ver has a strong lead to-day, it is not impossible that Pueblo will some day prove a successful rival.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE COLORADO CENTRAL RAILROAD.
F Denver's six railway lines not least in im- portance is the above-named road, and in some high respects it is the most noted and best known of all Denver roads. It was the first to penetrate the fastnesses of the mountains, and its sinuous trail in and through Clear Creek Canon has made it famous on two continents. Although other mountain roads now vie with the Colorado
Central in magnificent scenery, the prestige of the latter has not been diminished in any degree by rivalry, and it is still sought out by all strangers coming to Colorado.
Starting from Denver, this line traverses the entire northern portion of the State, taps the prin- cipal mining centers of this section and carries travelers to some of the spots most famed for
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HISTORY OF DENVER.
scenic beauty and natural grandeur. It connects Denver and other Colorado towns with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne, and thus affords connection with trains east and west ou the great continental thoroughfare. The Cheyenne Branch penetrates the very heart of Colorado's best agricultural re- gion, giving the traveler a better idea of our farm- ing resources than he can gain from any other rail- way transit, and also connects at Boulder with stages for the mining camps of that county. Through Jefferson, Boulder and Larimer Counties this branch is lined, for a great part of its length, with wheat-fields, and passes the important towns of Golden, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins.
But it is the mountain division of the road which is the most famous for interesting scenery and unexpected physical development. The moun- tain division is a narrow gauge, and the traveler must needs change cars at Golden unless northward bound. Taking his seat in the narrow-gauge train, he is soon swallowed up, as it were, in the cavern -. ous depths of Clear Creek Canon, which is entered at once after leaving Golden. For many miles the road follows the course of Clear Creek, often turn- ing curves which seem beyond accomplishment, and climbing grades which would tax the energy of an ox team, but which only serve to slacken, not stay, the speed of the iron horse.
The scenery in this grand canon is unparalleled save in the cañons of the Colorado and Arkansas Rivers. The rocky walls rise precipitously on either hand to immense heights, almost shutting out the sun, and yet there is nothing gloomy about the scene to mar the pleasure of the traveler. The tourist rides leisurely and comfortably along on a railway car and looks out upon scenery which in Switzerland he would have to climb tediously on foot to see. The wild waters of Clear Creek rush along at breakneck speed, foaming and roaring among the rocks, giving a better idea of the "down grade " of the road itself than the engineers' fig- ures, for seeing is believing. Great granite walls, not hundreds, but thousands of feet high, rise
almost perpendicularly over the train, and in one place a chamber has been cut through the over- hanging rock for the passage of the train, there being no room elsewhere sufficient for that pur- pose.
Anon the train glides swiftly across a little val- ley dotted by miners' cabins or more pretentious ranch houses, but for the most part of the distance between Golden and Black Hawk. the cañon is so narrow as to leave no room for side-tracks, and these turn-outs are forced to occupy the gulehes which enter the canon almost at right angles. The effect of this arrangement upon travellers is often astonishing, as these sidings have the appearance of branch lines leading nowhere. The scenery is thus varied, in some places rough and wild, in others soft and beautiful, but always and under all circumstances it is sublime and deeply impressive.
Although the road is largely patronized by sum- mer tourists and sightseers. it does not depend entirely upon this class of traffic for support, as one is speedily convinced upon visiting its moun- tain termini. You take the Colorado Central for Golden, an important industrial city and the head- quarters of the Colorado Central Company; for Black Hawk, a large mining town and former loca- tion of Hill's extensive smelting works; for Cen- tral, the county seat of Gilpin County, until recently the largest ore-producing county in Colo- rado; for Idaho Springs, a famous watering place as well as an important mining center ; for George- town, the "Silver Queen " and the capital of Clear Creek County ; for Boulder, county seat and prin- cipal town of rich Boulder County, famous for its mines and for its erops ; and for numbers of lesser towns whose tribute of trade is the heritage of the Colorado Central road, in most eases without com- petition.
Middle Park. too, the great hunting-ground, and location of the famous Hot Sulphur Springs, is reached from Denver via the Colorado Central, tour- ists leaving the cars at Empire or Georgetown, at pleasure, and continuing their journey by stage over Berthoud Pass, one of the finest mountain
260
HISTORY OF DENVER.
roads in the State. Since Leadville has loomed up so prominently, a new stage road has been built from Georgetown to the earbonate camp, and much Leadville travel follows that line. It is thought that the Colorado Central will shortly be extended over the same route, which is at once direct and practicable.
The inception of this important enterprise dates back to June, 1861, when the Overland Stage Company was seeking a nearer outlet from Colo- rado to Utah and California. Golden was just then the most ambitious town in Colorado, and joined with the Stage Company and some publie- spirited citizens of Gregory Guleh and Spanish Bar in fitting out an expedition to explore and survey a route for a wagon road from Golden to Salt Lake. Capt. E. L. Berthoud, now, and for many years engineer of the Colorado Central road, headed the party, which was absent from June till September, and explored some 1,100 miles of coun- try west of the starting-point. It was claimed for this important survey, that it established two impor- tant facts, viz. :
First, that the main difficulties of a good direct wagon ronte were the first ten miles of the cañon of Clear Creek, and the main central range at the Berthoud Pass, 10,914 feet above the sea.
Second, that the country traversed west of this Pass was fine valleys, and that excellent coal abounded, while the total distance from Golden to Salt Lake was only 458 miles, thus shortening the overland route fully 200 miles.
Two years later, Hon. W. A. H. Loveland and E. B. Smith, leading citizens of Golden, went be- fore the Territorial Legislature and procured a charter for a wagon road up Clear Creek eanon to the mines. Some work was done on the line, but it was subsequently abandoned as impracticable, and the old wagon road from Golden Gate contin- ued to be the great highway between the valley and the mountains. Loveland never lost faith in the cañon route, however, and his next scheme was the building of a railroad where the wagon road had failed.
In the year 1865, the Colorado Central Rail- road Company was chartered. H. M. Teller, John T. Lynch, John A. Nye, William A. H. Love- land, Thomas Mason, A. Gilbert, Milo Lee and E. K. Baxter, of Colorado, with James Mills, George Hoyt, John A. Dix, Ebenezer Cook, W. W. Wright, Thomas Small, L. C. Pollard and William Bond, of New York ; M. Laflin, of Chi- eago; A. Mckinney, of Boston; Samuel Wheel- wright, George B. Satterlee, W. V. Ogden and Jonathan Cox were incorporated to build a railroad from Golden westward to Black Hawk, Central C'ity, and, by the South Fork, to Idaho and Em- pire City ; thence, over the Berthoud Pass, to the west boundary of Colorado, in the direction of Provo City, Utah, and easterly, by Denver, to the east boundary of Colorado, and northeasterly, by the coal fields of Jefferson and Boulder Counties, and the valleys of St. Vrain, Big Thompson and Cache la Poudre, and thenee to the northicast eor- ner of Colorado, where the northern branch of the Pacific Railroad intersects said boundary.
At that time, and for some years thereafter, the idea of building a railroad up Clear Creek cañon was considered undiluted nonsense, and nobody thought it would ever be done, except Mr. Love- land and a few of his friends, who were inspired by his strong faith in the ultimate success of his scheme. He knew that the trade of the mines would support a railway; the only question was how it should be built. Before he could enlist active aid in his enterprise, it was necessary for him to make a preliminary survey, which was done by private subscription. Even then, when the practicability of the proposed route was estab- lished by the engineers' figures, nobody was ready to invest, and the work waited. A mistake had been made in providing for a broad-gauge road, which required several tunnels and a large amount of expensive roek work. Narrow-gauge roads were then almost unknown, and their special fitness for mountain defiles was still undemonstrated.
To Capt. E. L. Berthoud belongs the honor of first suggesting a narrow gauge for the mountain
Ano LA ailey
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HISTORY OF DENVER.
division of the Colorado Central. The Captain was then stationed at Fort Sedgwick, and, at that dis- tance, could only present his views by correspond- ence. Mr. Loveland caught the idea at once, but his associates did not fully share his confidence in the success of the new idea, and nothing was done.
In 1866, when the Union Pacific Company was surveying the passes of the Rocky Mountains, a party of their engineers went over the old Berthoud trail and pass, and reported a practicable ronte from Golden westward. Every effort was put forth to induce the Company to locate its line in this direction, but without success. Then the engineering difficulties were too great. Besides the work in Clear Creek cañon, a tunnelover a mile long was deemed necessary in crossing the range, and the northern route was adopted and built upon.
After the termination of this survey, in 1866, the subject rested until the spring of 1867, when the Colorado Central Railroad Company, fully re-organized, proceeded to inaugurate the con- struction of its line. The first work was done between Golden and Denver, in aid of which Jef- ferson County voted $100,000 in bonds. A sur- vey was ordered between Golden and Cheyenne, to connect with the Union Pacific, but this survey was abandoned. The line ran from Golden north- east to Boulder Creek, down Bonlder to the St. Vrain, thence to Big Thompson and the Cache la Poudre, crossing the Poudre a little west of the spot where Greeley now stands, and from there to Cheyenne direct, a total distance of 118 miles.
Work on the Golden and Denver line was nom- inally begun in January, 1868, and actively en- tered upon in May of that year, the design being to reach Denver simultaneously with the Denver Pacific from Cheyenne. The co-operation of Den- ver was diverted, however, by the action of the Company in locating its line not to Denver direct but to a junction with the Kansas Pacific two miles below the city, a mistake since corrected at considerable expense to the Company. The four- teen miles of road were not finished the first year nor the second. It was not until late in 1870
that the line was opened for business, and then it was compelled to run its trains into Denver over the track of the Kansas Pacific Company. In this as well as in other respects, the rivalry between Denver and Golden has been maintained to the dis- advantage of each party.
Though latterly, by force of circumstances, the Colorado Central has been made a part and parcel of Denver's railway system, the original plan ignored this system entirely. Denver did not figure on the first maps of the road, and the building of the first line was not so much to connect the two towns as to separate them. It was intended that the Kan- sas Pacific should be extended by the Colorado Central to Golden, making Denver merely a way- station, and the Union Pacific connection was planned to avoid Denver entirely. The plan was admirable enough in conception, but there was a fatal defect in it, in that it underestimated the strength of the opposition. Denver built to a con- nection with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne before the Colorado Central was commenced, and, in a short time thereafter, projected a line to the south which, at once, made the capital of the Territory also its railway center.
In 1870, the Boston managers of the Union Pacific interested themselves in the promotion of the Colorado Central scheme with a view to making that road what it has since become, in a certain sense, a "feeder" of the main line. At that time, the Union Pacific had no Colorado connection, the Denver Pacific having been absorbed by the Kan- sas Pacific. Chief Engineer Sickels, of the Union Pacific, became associated with Capt. Berthoud, engineer of the Colorado Central, and together they surveyed and staked a narrow-gauge line from Golden up the canon to Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties, the main line dividing at the forks of Clear Creek and extending up each branch of the stream. At the same time, a survey was made of a broad-gauge line down the Platte to Julesburg, and work was commenced upon each division of the road. The narrow gauge was pushed up the cañon as rapidly as possible, but it was not opened
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