^UflflY $l\\i {lliy. 
 
 A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION 
 
 GREAT AGRICULTURAL EMPIRE, 
 
 AVITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Methods of Irrigation 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
 
 San Luis Valley Association 
 
 1889. 
 
 'copyright.] 
 
rv 
 s? 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE STURtjy PIONEERS WHO HAVE MADE THE WASTE PLACES OLAD, AND TO TKE INDUSTRIOUS ANO 
 
 ENERQETIO HUSBANDMEN WHO WILL MAKE THE DESERT TO BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE 
 
 THIS RECORD OF FACTS IS SINCERELY OEDICATEDj 
 
 rss^tao 
 
"Through the mocsy sods and stones- 
 Stream and streamlet hurry down, 
 A nishing throng J A sound of song 
 Beneath the vault of Heaven is blown I 
 Sweet notes of love, the speaking tones, 
 Of this bright day, sent down to say 
 That Paradise on earth js known." 
 
 — Shelley, 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The writer of this little book desires to put himself on record. He 
 wishes the reader to know that every statement made in the following 
 pages is honestly made, and that this is a plain, un-rhetorical, un-iniagin- 
 ative recital of facts. The space allotted is too Lmitcd, and the subject 
 discussed too vast to allow of literary embellishment, although the 
 grandeur of the scenery, the salubrity of the climate, the manifold at- 
 tractions of the sunny San Luis valley afford a tempting field for glowing 
 description. But those who are looking earnestly about them for a new 
 home, where industry can accomplish a competence, and a competence can 
 grow into enlarged prosperity, do not care to read glowing descriptions ; 
 what they want is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 
 They want to know where to find a country whose climate is salubrious, 
 whose soil is productive, whose markets are good, whose schools are well 
 organized, whose society is honorable, industrious, law-abiding and hos- 
 pitable, and where a poor man can establish a prosperous home or a man 
 with capital hnd opportunities to increase his store. If such a country 
 exists there are thousands of people who want to know it. They want to 
 know where it is, and they want to know with as much particularity as 
 possible all the facts about it. It is a matter of material interest to them 
 and not an affair of idealism or literary speculation. The writer knows 
 this and he proposes to gratify this natural and proper desire. He knows 
 that the great San Luis valley of Colorado amply fulfills all the require- 
 ments enumerated and he has no other wish than to tell in plain language 
 what he knows to be true. He has no especial " axe of his own to grind." 
 His only object is to place the fiicts before his readers as succinctly as he 
 can and so to fortify his statement with official statistics that even the most 
 skeptical must be convinced that nothing has been exaggerated and 
 nothing set down with unconsidered and incautious enthusiasm. This is 
 plain talk, and it is the intention that this entire book shall be simply a 
 olain talk on a great subject, a live subject, a subject of the most vital in- 
 terest, a subject that appeals to earnest, honest, industrious men and 
 women, and nothing but self condemnation and public disapproval could 
 be the reward of the writer who should distort or exaggerate the facts. 
 Hoping to have established friendly relations with the reader, and that 
 the following pages will be perused with care and confidence, this book is 
 submitted as an honest description of the Sunny San Luis valley. 
 
ST N \ V SAN I, HIS. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early History. 
 
 I N Rock Creek canon on the western border of San Luis valley 
 are to be seen great cliffs, upon the plain surfaces of which are 
 discernible hieroglyphics and quaint, pictured forms concerning 
 the origin of which there is no history and but little tradition 
 The Spaniards gave the stream the descriptive title of "Piedra 
 Pintada," or Pictured Rock, and it is believed by many that these 
 hieroglyphs were placed there by the Spanish adventurers on the occasion 
 of their incursion into the valley three hundred and fifty years ago. It is 
 known that Coronado came northward from Mexico and swept up the 
 banks of the Rio Grande in 1540, searching for the fabled Madre d'Oro, 
 the motherland of gold, concerning which the Indians told wonderful 
 stories, readily credited by the gullible and greedy Spainards. It is a 
 curious coincidence that one of the richest gold regions in Colorado has 
 been discovered quite recently in the mountains to the west of the Pic- 
 tured Rocks, but this discovery has been made some three hundred years 
 too late to sustain either the veracity of the aborigines or to be of any 
 benefit to Coranado and his freebooters. 
 
 The Mexican inhabitants of the valley have a tradition among them 
 to the effect that this region was thickly settled before the territory was ac- 
 quired by the United States, but that, one day, a rumor prevailed among the 
 people that the new government would rob them of their propertjj and en- 
 slave their persons and in a single night they gathered their flocks and herds 
 and fled far into the south for safety. This tradition appears to have more 
 of poetry in it than of fact for there is an almost absolute lack of corro- 
 borative detail, and the matter rests entirely upon the vaguest kind of evi- 
 dence. Ot course previous to the advent of the Spainards this country 
 was the home of the Indian, and even to this day an occasional degraded 
 descendent of the aboriginal owners of the land may be seen wandering 
 over the plains of his ancestors and begging for tobacco or a draught of 
 " fire water." But leaving the realm of tradition and entering that of his- 
 tory, we find that the first Americans that are known to have entered the 
 valley, were Lieut. Zebulon Pike and twenty-three soldiers, who crossed 
 the plains in 1805, exploring the new country acquired from France by the 
 Lo'Msinia purchase. They were captured on or near the Rio Grande by 
 
 6 
 
SUNNY SAN I.UIS. 
 
 the Spanish forces, but were finally released. Col. Long came out in 1819, 
 and Cap. Bonneville, of the American Fur Company, in 1832. Gen. John 
 C.Fremont passed through in 1842-44. In 1854 Lafayette Head, since 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Colorado, an American who married a Mexican 
 wife came northward from near Taos, in New Mexico, with a party of fol- 
 lowers and founded the present town of Conejos, on the river of the same 
 name, at the lower end of the valley, which is now the county seat of 
 Conejos county. After that settlement, others from New Mexico came 
 still further north and settled along Alamosa Creek, and a few along the 
 Rio Grande river. The Mexicans who still remain in the valley are year 
 
 EARL\ INHABITANTS, 
 
 by year disappearing before the advance of the hardy settlers from the 
 north. They are a quiet, pastoral people, and prefer to associate with 
 those of their own race, rather than the active, bustling American. They 
 however leave behmd them the memory of their race, in the names of a 
 few of the towns, counties, streams and mountains, which with their pro- 
 nunciation and meaning are given below : 
 
 San Luis, San Lue — Saint Louis ; San Juan, San Wan — Saint John ; 
 Sangre de Cristo, Sangre de Cristo — Blood of Christ ; Conejos, Kon a-hos 
 — Rabbits ; Rio Grande del Norte — Grand River of the North ; Del 
 
 7 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS, 
 
 Norte, Del Nor-ta — The North ; Alamosa, Alamo-sa — Cottonwood; La 
 Jara, La Ha-ra — Willow ; Monte Vista, Monta Vista — Mountain View ; 
 Picdra Pintada Creek — Pictured Rock Creek ; Hermosilla, Her-mas-ee-ya 
 — Beautiful; Costilla, Kos-tee-ya — Ribs; Huerfano, Wher-fan-oh — Or- 
 phan ; Carnero, Kar-na-ro — Mutton. 
 
 A few families near Saguache, formerly a military post, have resided 
 in the valley over twenty years ; but most of those now termed old settlers 
 came only twelve to fifteen years ago. The Denver and Rio Grande 
 Railway was constructed over Veta Pass in 1878, and another branch over 
 Poncha Pass to the coal and iron mines at the northern end of the valley. 
 The line over Veta Pass was extended across the valley to Del Norte and 
 Wagon Wheel Gap in 1881, and another branch was constructed south- 
 ward to Antonito, and thence across the range to Durango and Silverton ; 
 but still the agricultural development of the country was not greatly pro- 
 moted. The early settlers located upon the natural water courses and 
 devoted their attention chiefly to hay and stock raising, though Mr. Frank 
 Fossett, in his history of Colorado, says, as early as 1879, "there was 
 raised on Saguache Creek, 50,000 bushels of oats, 20,000 bushels of wheat. 
 50,000 bushels of potatoes, 1 5,000 tons of hay, besides vegetables in great 
 numbers." The yield of wheat was reported at twenty-five to forty bush- 
 els per acre, oats fifty, to eighty bushels, and potatoes two hundred to 
 four hundred bushels. 
 
 This in brief is the early history of the San Luis valley. First the 
 home of the nomandic Indian tribes, who hunted over the broad expanses 
 of the meadow-like park, or fished in the sparkling waters of the Rio 
 Grande del Norte and its tributaries, swarming with trout, for which they 
 are still famous; then the field for Coronado's rough riders, whose thirst 
 for gold and blood was insatiable ; after this the wonder of the hardy ex- 
 plorers who climbed over its mountain barriers and gazed in surprise and 
 admiration on this " home of millions yet to be ;" still later the calm 
 abiding place of the Mexican herdsman, and shepherds, who in their turn 
 are giving way to the increasing advent of sturdy, ambitious and enter- 
 prising meii, whose brawn and brain are fast transforming this vast valley 
 into a garden of productions. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Physical Characteristics. 
 
 JOLORADO is popularly supposed to be a country of mountains, 
 mines and minerals. Tlie general mind does not consider the 
 state in the light ot an agricultural country, and yet statistics 
 show that Colorado is in fact one of the best states in the Union 
 ,s4r-:^«»=-. for ihe pursuit of farming industries. To say nothing of the 
 great plains which lie to the east of the Rocky Rlountains, Colora- 
 do contains four great parks all areable. occupying its longitudinal 
 center the greatest of which is that of the Sunny San Luis. In these 
 parks kre the sources of ten great rivers which radiate and descend with- 
 out rapids to all the oceans and through all climates. It would be mter- 
 estino- to sketch the characteristics of all these parks, but as that of San 
 Luists the greatest in extent, is fully prepared to receive a large agricul- 
 tural population, is supplied with abundance of water and has all the re- 
 quirements for the making of happy and prosperous homes, we confine 
 our description within its borders. Ex-Governor Gilpin, of Colorado, is 
 an authority on all matters pertaining to this valley, and we cannot better 
 crive an idea of its scope and physical characteristics than by quoting 
 what Governor Gilpin has written concerning it : This Park of elliptical 
 form and immense dimensions is enveloped between the Cordillera and 
 Sierra Mimbres. It has its extreme northern point between the two Sier- 
 ras, where they separate by a sharp angle and diverge, the former to the 
 southeast and the latter to the southwest. 
 
 Emerging from the Poncha Pass the waters begin to gather and form 
 the San Luis^River. This flows to the south through a valley of great 
 beauty, which rapidly widens to the right and left. On the east flank the 
 Cordillera ascends abruptly and continuously without any foot hills to a 
 sharp snowy summit. On the west, foot hills and secondary mountains, 
 rising one above the other, entangle the whole space to the Sierra 
 
 Mimbres. - , ■ / ,. r.\ 
 
 The Sacruache (Sa-Watch) River has its source on the inner (eastern ) 
 flank ot the^'sierra Mimbres, about sixty miles south ot its angles of diver- 
 gence from the Cordillera, and by a course nearly east converges toward 
 the lower San Luis River. It enters upon the Park by a similar valley. 
 These two valleys expand into one another around the mass of foot hills, 
 
 9 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 fusing into the open park, whose center is here occupied by the San Luis 
 Lake, into which the two rivers converge and discharge their waters. 
 
 The San Luis Lake, extending south from the point of the foot hills, 
 occupies the center of the Park for sixty miles, forming a bowl without 
 any outlet for its waters. It is encircled by immense saturated savannas 
 of luxuriant grass. Its water surface expands over this savanna during 
 the season of the melted snows upon the Sierras, and shrinks when the 
 season of evaporation returns. From the flanks of the Cordillera on the 
 east, at intervals of six or eight miles asunder and at very equal distances, 
 fourteen streams other than the San Luis descend and converge into San 
 Lnis Lake. 
 
 The belt of the sloping plain between the mountains and the lake, 
 traversed by so many parallel streams, bordered by grassy meadows and 
 groves of cottonwood trees, has from this feature the name of " Los Ala- 
 mos." It is sixty miles in length and twenty miles in width. On the op- 
 posite (western) side, from the flank of the Sierra Mimbres, similiar 
 streams descend from the west into the lake, known as the Saguache, the 
 Carnero and the La Garita. 
 
 The confluent streams thus converging into the San Luis Lake are 
 nineteen in number. The area thus occupied by this isolated lake, and 
 drained into by its converging affluents, forming distinctly one-third of the 
 whole surface of the Park, is classified under the general name of 
 " Rincon." 
 
 Advancing onward to the south, along the west edge of the plain, ten 
 miles from the La Garita, the Rio Grande del Norte River issues from the 
 mountain gorge. Its source is in the perpetual snows of the peaks of the 
 San Juan, the local name given to the stupendous culmination of the Si- 
 erra Mimbres. 
 
 The Del Norte flows from its extreme source due east 1 50 miles, and 
 having reached the longitudinal middle of the Park, turns abruptly south, 
 and bisecting the Park for perhaps 150 miles, passes beyond its rim in its 
 course to the Gulf of Mexico. All the streams descending from the en- 
 veloping Sierras, other than the Alamos, converge into it their tributary 
 waters. On the west come in successively the Pintada, the Rio Gata, the 
 Rio De La Gara, the Conejos, the San Antonio and Piedro. h esc 
 streams, six or eight miles asunder, parallel, equi distant, fed by the 
 snows of the Sierra Mimbres, have abundant waters, very fertile areas of 
 lard, and are aU of the very highest order of beauty. 
 
 Advancing again from the Rincon at the eastern edge of the plain 
 along the base of the Cordillera, the prodigious conical mass of the Si- 
 erra Blanca protrudes like a vast hemisphere into the plain, and blocks the 
 
 10 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 vision to Ihe direct south. The road describes the arc of a semicircle 
 round its base for thirty-five miles, and reaches Fort Garland. In the im- 
 mediate vicinity of Fort Garland the three large streams, the Yuba, the 
 Sangre de Cristo and. the Trcnchera descend from the Cordilleras, con- 
 verge, unite a few miles west, and blending into the Trenchcra, flow west 
 twenty-four miles into the Rio del Norte. The line of the snowy Cordill- 
 era hidden behind the bulk of Sierra Blanca, here again reveals itself, 
 pursuing its regular southeast course and direction. Fourteen miles south 
 is reached the town of San Luis, upon the Culebra River. Seventeen 
 miles farther is the town of Costilla, upon the Costilla River; fifteen miles 
 farther the town of Rito Colorado is reached ; eighteen miles farther, on 
 the Arroyo Hondo (between these is the San Christoval) from the Arroya 
 Hondo to Taos ~ is fourteen miles, and twenty miles beyond Taos is the 
 mountain chain whose circle towards the west forms the southern moun- 
 tain barrier which encloses the San Luis Park in that direction. 
 
 The San Luis Park is, then, an immense elliptical bowl, the bed of 
 a primeval sea which has been drained. Its bottom smooth as a water 
 surface and concave, is 9,400 square miles in area. It is watered by 
 thirty mountain streams, which, descending from the encirchng crest of 
 snow, converge, nineteen into the San Luis Lake, the rest into the Rio del 
 Norte. An extraordinary symmetry of configuration is its prominent 
 feature. The scenery, everywhere sublime, has the ever changing variety 
 of the kaleidscope. Entirely around the edge of the plain, and closing 
 the junction of the plain with the mountain's foot, runs a small glacis, 
 exactly resembling the sea beach, which accompanies the junction of the 
 land with the ocean. From this beach rise continuously all around the 
 horizion. the great mountains, elevating their heads above the line of per- 
 petual snow. On the eastern side of the escarpment of the Cordilleras rises 
 rapidly, and is abrupt, on the western side of the crest of the Sierra Mini- 
 bres is more remote, having the interval filled with ridges, lessening in 
 altitude as they descend to the plain of the Park. 
 
 The colors of the sky and atmosphere are intensely vi\^id and gor- 
 geous, the dissolving tints of light and shade are forever interchanging — 
 they are as infinite as are the altering angles of the solar rays in his di- 
 urnal circuit. 
 
 The average elevation of the plain above the sea level is 6,400 feet. 
 The highest peaks have an elevation of over 14,000 feet above the sea. In 
 the serrated rim of the Park, as seen from the plain projected against the 
 canopy, are discernible seventeen peaks, at very equal distances from 
 one another. Each one differs from all the rest in some peculiarity of 
 shape and position. Each one identifies itself by some striking beauty. 
 
 n 
 
S ir N N Y SAN I, l^ f ^ , 
 
 From the snows of each one descends some considerable river as well 
 within the Park as outward down the external mountain back. 
 
 We recognize, therefore, in the San Luis Park, an immense elliptical 
 basin, enveloping the sources of the Del Norte. It is isolated in the 
 heart of the continent, 1,200 miles from the sea ; it is mortised, as it were, 
 in the midst of the vast mountain bulk, where, rising gradually from the 
 oceans, the highest altitude and amplitude of the continent is attained. 
 This Park spreads its plain from 36° to 38° 30', and is bisected by the 
 io6th meridian. Its greatest length is 210 miles, its greatest width is 100 
 miles, its aggregate appoximate area is 10,000 square miles. Think of 
 it, six million foitr hundred thousand acres ! 
 
 Such being the geographical position, altitude and the pecuhar unique 
 configuration, these features suggest the inquiry into parallel peculiarities 
 of meteorology, mineralogy and the economy of labor. 
 
 The American people have heretofore developed their social system 
 exclusively on the borders of the two oceans, and within the maritime 
 valleys of moderate altitude, having navigation and an atmosphere in- 
 fluenced by the sea. To them, then, the contrast is complete in every 
 feature in these high and remote altitudes, beyond all influence of the 
 ocean, and especially continental. 
 
 There is an identity between the valley or park of the City of Mexico, 
 and the San Luis Park which ought to be here mentioned. They are 
 similar twin basins of the great plateau classifying together in the physi- 
 cal structure of the continent. Mexico is in latitude 30°, longitude 39°, and 
 7,500 feet in altitude. The width of the continent here is 575 miles from 
 ocean to ocean, and the divergence of the Cordilleras is here 275 miles, 
 which is here the width of the plateau. At the 39° the continent expands 
 to a width of 3,500 miles from the oceans ; the Cordilleras have diverged 
 1,200 miles asunder, and the plateau has widened to the same dimensions. 
 In harmony with the great expansion of the continent, are all the details 
 of its interior structure. The park of the City of Mexico is but one- 
 sixth contrasted with the San Luis Park. It has an area, including the 
 surface of five lakes, of 1,278,720 acres. Of identical anatomy, the for- 
 mer is a pigmy, the latter a giant. The similitude as component parts of 
 the mountain anatomy is in all respects absolute, as is also true of the 
 other parks which occupy longitudinally the center of the State of 
 Colorado. 
 
 The atmospheric condition of the San Luis Park, like its scenery, is 
 one of constant brilliancy, both by day and night — obeying steady laws, 
 yet alternating with a playful methodical fickleness. 
 
 There are no prolonged vernal or autumnal seasons. Summer and 
 
 n 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 winter divide the year. Both are characterized with mildness of temper- 
 ature. After the autumnal equinox the snow begins to accumulate on the 
 mountains. After the vernal equinox they dissolve. The formation of 
 light clouds upon the crests of the Sierras is incessant. 
 
 The meridian sun retains its vitalizing heat around the year ; at mid- 
 night prevails a corresponding tonic coolness. The clouds are wafted 
 away by the steady atmospheric current coming from the west. They 
 rarely interrupt the sunshine ; but reflect his rays, imbue the canopy with 
 a shining, silver light at once intense and brilliant. The atmosphere and 
 chmate are essentially continental, being uninterruptedly salubrious, bril- 
 liant and tonic. 
 
 UP THE RIO GRANDE. 
 
 The flanks of the great mountains, bathed by the embrace of these 
 irrigating clouds, are clad with great forests of pine, fir, spruce, hemlock, 
 aspen, oak, cedar, pinion and a variety of smaller fruit trees and shrubs, 
 which protect the sources of the springs and rivulets, and among the for- 
 ests alternate mountain meadows of luxuriant and nutritious grass. 
 
 The ascending clouds, rarely condensed, furnish little irrigation at 
 the depressed elevations of the plains, which are destitute of timber but 
 clothed with grass. These delicate grasses, growing rapidly during the 
 annual melting of the snows, cure into hay as the aridity of the atmos- 
 
 H 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 phere returns. They form perennial pastures, and supply with food in 
 winter the aboriginal cattle, everywhere indigenous and abundant. 
 
 An infinate variety in temper and temperature is suggested as flow- 
 ing from the juxataposition of extreme altitudes and depressions, perma- 
 nent snows, running rivers and the concentric courses of the mountains 
 and rivers. Nature is benignant and graceful throughout her whole plan, 
 and is propitious in the working of all her laws and in every element. 
 The longitudinal Sierras receive and absorb the glory of the morning and 
 of the evening sun upon their flanks, the moontide beams upon her sum- 
 mits ; they cast no chilling shadow. 
 
 Within the bowl of the Park, the rays of the shining sun accumulate. 
 When the sun has set, this heated]atmosphere ascends, simultaneously the 
 cooler atmosphere descends from the engirding rim of snow. These 
 atmospheres permeate broadcast, the one the other, through and through, 
 each tempers the other by this play of natural transition. The snows of 
 the altitudes are constantly attacked, and their excessive accumulation 
 defeated ; no glaciers form, to enclose the rocks and vegetation as a per- 
 petual tomb. The heat of the concave plain is, in like manner, tempered 
 to a general standard, irrigation and the streams are constantly main- 
 tained, vegetation constantly and as uniformly nurtured to maturity. 
 Storms of rain or wind are neither frequent nor lasting. The air is uni- 
 formly dry, having a racy freshness and an exhilarating taste. A sooth- 
 ing serenity is the prevailing impression upon those who live perpetually 
 exposed to the seasons. Mud is never anywhere or at any time seen. 
 Moderation and concord appear to result from the presence and contact 
 of elements so various. 
 
 The critical conclusion to which a rigid study of nature brings a 
 scrutinizing mind, are the reverse of first impressions. The multitudinous 
 variety of nature adjusts itself with a delicate harmony which brings into 
 healthy action the industrial energy. There is no use for the practice of 
 professional pharmacy. Chronic health and longevity characterize ani- 
 mal life. The envelope of cloud-compelling peaks, the seclusion from 
 the ocean, the rarity of the air inhaled and absence of humidity, disinfect 
 the earth, the water and the atmosphere of exhalations and miasmas. 
 
 Health, sound and uninterrupted, stimulates and sustains a high 
 state of mental and physical energy. All of these are burnished, as it; 
 were, by the perpetual brilliancy and salubrity of the atmosphere and 
 landscape, whose unfailing beauty and tonic taste stimulate and invite the 
 mental and physical energies to perpetual activity. 
 
 ?^ 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Salubrious Climate. 
 
 EALTH is the first essential for happiness. The Ancients 
 reckoned nothing of more value than " a sound mind in a 
 sound body." The dream of the alchemist was first to 
 find the elixir of life, after that he spent his energies trying 
 to discover how to transmute the base metals into gold. 
 To-day the two great objects of man's desire are health and wealth. 
 When both of these can be found in the same locality the condi- 
 tions are eminently favorable to a large population. It would be 
 an exaggeration to say that every man who enters the San Luis Val- 
 ley becomes rich, it would be nothing but the truth, however, to say that 
 here he can find a most excellent opportunity to become rich. The pros- 
 pects of regaining lost health in this valley are greater than those of re- 
 gaining lost wealth, for the climate "works" whether the individual 
 does or not, and a man can hardly fail to receive benefit in a physical 
 way, while his financial prosperity must largely depend on his own 
 exertions. The climate of Coloiado is especially adapted for the recu- 
 peration of exhausted vitality and is a specific for consumption if the 
 invalid avails himself of its benefits in time. The nights are always 
 cool and the summers are never hot or oppressive. Cold stimulates and 
 heat depresses. This is a generally accepted proposition which needs 
 no extended elaboration. The sensations themselves are a good guide, 
 and the colder the air the more stimulating it is. As Dr. Wise expres- 
 ses it, when introducing the winter climate of the snow-covered regions 
 of the Alps : " A bright sun and blue sky overhead, a clear and quiet 
 atmosphere, distant sounds transmitted to the ear through the still air, 
 combined with the charms of the scenery produce such a bouyancy of 
 spirits that a man is braced and invigorated for almost any exertion." 
 This is an exact description of the climatic characteristics of Colorado, 
 and could not be more accurately stated had the doctor been writing 
 of the Rocky Mountains instead of the Alps. Dr. Charles Denison, of 
 Denver, has made the study of climate a speciality, and in quoting his 
 description of the requirements of a climate favorable to the invalid, 
 especially the consumptive, we are quoting a very thorough exposition of 
 the characteristics of the climate of Colorado. Dr. Denison says : "The 
 clearness or transparency of the air is a decided indication of its purity. 
 It is with the atmosphere as it is with water. The larger the lake, with 
 
 J6 
 
SUNNY SiVN LUIS, 
 
 perfectly clear water, through which one can see to a great depth, the 
 better is the evidence of purity. So a large area, having throughout a similar 
 atmosphere, through which one can see most remarkable distances, and 
 besides, probably be deceived as regards the same, must indicate, as'docs 
 its coldness, rarefaction and dryness, that the purity is approaching the 
 absolute. 
 
 " This increasing purity of atmosphere, that is, the absence of dust or 
 smoke, or of moisture with its attendant infusoria, is a decided feature of 
 elevation, because with each rise of a thousand feet an equivalent stra- 
 tum of air has been left down below, and, according to Prof. Tindall, 
 each successive stratum contains less and less infuooria. 
 
 "A mountainous configuration of country, aside from the benefit of 
 elevation above the sea, has many advantages over a level re^non. 
 Chief among these are the quick drainage, which allows of no detention 
 of stagnant water ; the greater surface of the earth exposed to absorb 
 atmospheric moistures; the many faces of rock, etc., favoring radiation 
 of heat and reflection of light, the clement of stimulation both atmos- 
 pheric and electric, the controlling of severe winds ; the variations of 
 scenery, temperature and exposure afforded, and the facility with which 
 one can indulge in the useful "climbing treatment" and pleasurable out- 
 door activities. When these advantages are compared with the moistuie- 
 retaining properties, the sameness, the "siroccos" the trade winds and 
 the "northers " of level regions, there is not much difficulty in choosing 
 between them. 
 
 " The changes in the atmosphere, in consonance with the variability of 
 temperature of high climates are in no small degree electrical. There is 
 an increase of electrical tension and an easier and more frequent inter- 
 change between the positive electricity of the air and negative quality of 
 the ground and of clouds, so that the condition is decidedly stimulating-. 
 This quality in mountainous sections is associated with light showers, 
 especially in summer time, when most needed to clear the atmosphere. 
 The simultaneous whirl of a light or rapid wind often seen in high alti- 
 tudes, purifies by its substitution of an unused and fresh supply of a'r 
 for that which is contaminated. Where people crowd together in ]ar"-e 
 numbers, the daily freezing of the air is the only substitute for the move- 
 ment which is caused by a mild wind. We thus arrive at the conclusion 
 that, in densely settled sections, continuous stillnes of the atmosphere is 
 only to be preferred in the freezing weather of winter. In other words 
 the warmer the atmosphere, the more is air movement desirable." 
 
 So much for the climate of Colorado in general. Now a few words 
 concerning thatof Jhe Suriny San Luis in particular. This valley is situ- 
 
 17 
 
SUNNY SAN LtMS 
 
S U X N Y S A N LUIS. 
 
 ated at an average altitude of seven thousand five hundred feet, which 
 would be a source of discomfort were it not entirely surrounded by 
 high wind-breaking Tnountains, which with its extremely light, dry air 
 an J perpetual sunshine, gives it an exceptional combination of condi- 
 tions pertaining to both northern and southern latitudes, yet wholly un- 
 known to either, namely — a cool all the year climate, the highest summer 
 temperature in a good house being 84*^, with winters so mild that an ordi- 
 narily clothed person can read comfortably in the sun on a south fronting 
 veranda while extremes of heat and cold, (winter nights are cold) are 20" less 
 appreciable than at sea level. 
 
 Ordinarily there is but little snow. With no hail storms (to damage crops), 
 no tarnadoes, no cyclones, no drouths, no floods, no grasshoppers, no 
 chinch bugs, and very tew other insects, no possible malaria, with sum- 
 mer nights so cool as to require two blankets for comfort, it is unsur- 
 passed as a health resort being peculiarly adapted to asthmatics and 
 consumptives curing in time nearly all who make it their permanent 
 home, besides being an extra desirable general residence locality. In a 
 word the climate is far more bracing and exhilerating than that of Cali- 
 fornia and the results much more satisfactory. It must not be supposed 
 that the climate of Colorado is an equable one, or that there is a distinct 
 dry and rainy season, as in California and the Pacific Coast. The con- 
 trary is true. The diurnal range of temperature, as in all high countries, 
 is greai, and there are rains throughout the warm parts of the year and 
 snows in winter, but both are moderate in quantity. 
 
 To render this matter clearer, and to add official weight to the above 
 statements, the following table is appended: 
 
 YEARLY AND SEASONAL AVERAGES. 
 
 
 Coin 
 
 piled from 
 
 hirteen years observation. 
 
 
 
 
 
 cSl 
 
 B 
 
 S 
 
 >' 
 
 __c 
 
 I. -.-• 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 .-. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 3 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 U rr* 
 
 a; 
 
 
 
 X. 
 
 Season 
 
 E 
 
 0. 
 
 ES 
 
 
 'IL- 
 
 
 If 
 
 
 
 •2 >> 
 
 c c 
 
 
 be" 
 
 a 
 
 u 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 "1 
 > 
 
 > V 
 
 tiij — 
 <0 
 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 
 1' 
 
 3 
 bio 
 
 £u 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 Spring avcrag:; 
 
 47.2 
 
 77.9 
 
 19.2 
 
 49.1 
 
 5.86 
 
 25 
 
 33 
 
 39 
 
 20 
 
 81 
 
 3.0 
 
 bummer " 
 
 69.8 
 
 9.99 
 
 47.1 
 
 44.9 
 
 4.91 
 
 26 
 
 37 
 
 42 
 
 13 
 
 89 
 
 2.4 
 
 Autumn " 
 
 29.8 
 
 80.6 
 
 19.8 
 
 45.5 
 
 2.34 
 
 15 
 
 49 
 
 29 
 
 13 
 
 86 
 
 2.2 
 
 Winter " 
 
 49.6 
 
 62.2 
 
 7.3 
 
 54.3 
 
 1.84 
 
 15 
 
 44 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 84 
 
 2.1 
 
 Yearly average 
 
 49.1 
 
 79.2 
 
 19.7 
 
 48.4 
 
 4.95 
 
 81 
 
 163 
 
 146 
 
 56 
 
 340 
 
 2.6 
 
 Joseph J. Gilligan, 
 Observer, Signal Service U. S. A. 
 
 JO 
 
Sunny san lui^. 
 
 A glance at this report, compiled by an officer of the United States 
 Signal service, shows the remarkable fact that 340 out of 365 were sunny 
 days in Colorado. 
 
 It is not necessary to add an elaborate argument. The conclusion is 
 seltevident and inevitable. The climate of Colorado, on the whole, 
 presents advantages for the invalid and the pleasure-seeker that cannot 
 fail to command attention. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Resources of the Valley. 
 
 HE soil of the San Luis Valley is a deep, rich, sandy loam. 
 This loam is of volcanic origin, rich in mineral fertilizers and 
 easily cultivated. With such a soil, plenty of water and al- 
 most perpetual sunshine the growth of vegetation is some- 
 ^ ^^^ thing very little short of phenomenal. With a basis of as- 
 
 ^ui^ success in agriculture the resources of the valley are exceed- 
 ingly rich and very various. Many industries are still in their infancy 
 an^d others have only grown large enough to show what vast possi- 
 bilities the future holds. 
 
 As a horse-raising country the valley is the very best, as there are no 
 fall rains to wash the nutriment out of the grasses, winter feeding is sel- 
 dom resorted to, while the light air gives a lung capacity, speed and en- 
 durance unknown to lower altitudes. 
 
 The extraordinarily nutritious grasses and cool climate make the 
 valley one ot the most desirable localities for dairying. Blooded stock of 
 all kinds is in much larger supply than in most new countries, and is be- 
 ing constandy imported. 
 
 The soil and climate are specially adapted to the grasses, wheat, bar- 
 ley, oats, peas, hops, potatoes and all hardy vegetables. Wheat yields 20 
 to 50 bushels per acre, barley 40 to 90, oats 30 to 75, peas 30 to 60, pota 
 toes 100 to 400. Potatoes raised here surpass those of almost all other 
 localities in quality, and will soon be shipped to all the cities of the coun- 
 try. Cabbages are as fine as potatoes, and without manure attain a 
 weight of from 10 to 35 pounds each. 
 
 Cauliflower is often produced fifteen inches in diameter. Celery- 
 makes remarkable crops. Wild hops are larger than cultivated varieties 
 are in other sections, and bid fair to rival those of California and Washing- 
 ton Territory, r 1 L 
 
 Small fruits of all kinds do well; also hardy varieties of apples, cher- 
 ries, &c., tScc. 
 
 The surrounding country is full of coal-oil and gas. 
 
 Very rich mines are being developed in the mountains to the sorth- 
 
 west. 
 
 Peas are the corn crop of the San Luis Valley. Sown broadcast they 
 yield from 30 to 60 bushels per acre. Canadian feeders maintain that 
 
 21 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 three bushels of peas make as much pork as four of corn. The pork is 
 certainly sweeter and more healthy. It is l.ess laborious to raise peas than 
 corn. An equal amount of pork can be raised to the acre with that of 
 any Western State,— this without any offense to hog cholera. Hog cholera 
 was never known in the valley. 
 
 With tight fences hogs harvest their own peas more than one-half the 
 year. Sown in April early varieties are fit to turn upon July 15th. The 
 autumns are so dry that peas can lie upon the ground without sprouting 
 or being deteriorated in any way as food. The same is true with a ma- 
 jority of winters, nor do rains come to damage them before April. Arti- 
 chokes grow with great luxuriance. Long, cool springs give three months 
 in which hogs can root artichokes for a living. 
 
 ) This makes a whole year of human replaced by hog labor. In cheap 
 pork-making Illinois is far behind. And so the great American desert is 
 more than the peer of the richest States. 
 
 Hops grow wild on all the streams of the San Luis Valley. They 
 grow larger and are two weeks earlier than any of the cultivated varieties^ 
 They have more lupuline and are better adapted to beer-making than any 
 others. 
 
 They will yield as well as in the most favored portions of California 
 and Washington Territory. There they have been immensely profitable 
 They will be so here. Ten acres are enough for a hop yard. This inakcs 
 a small land outlay sufficient, and gives the many advantages of a dense 
 population. Hop-growing will be one of the many extra desirable indus- 
 tries of the valley. 
 
 .Gold was discovered in California in 1849, ^^ Colorado in '59, the 
 Comstocks were producing enormously in '69, Leadville was booming in 
 '79, and there is every prospect that the record of the 9s will be fully kept 
 up in the Conejos Camp of the San Luis Valley this year. 
 
 One of the last, but not least, resources of the valley is its artesian 
 wells. Artesian water has been found in nearly all localities, while scarcely 
 a boring has proved a failure. Many of the wells have pressure sufficient 
 to force the water from thirty to forty feet above the surface. So far they 
 have been small, four inches being the largest, but present indications 
 will warrant the assumption that they will be available for irrigation. The 
 water is extremely pure, excepting a slight impregnation of sulphate of 
 iron, which renders it a mild tonic. It is very palatable; horses which 
 have drunk it a few weeks will taste no other. Those which have been 
 overworkt,d and generally run down are invigorated and seem to gain 
 new leases of life. Probably it is not assuming too much to say there is 
 not a finer mineral water in the country for constant use in cases of gen" 
 
 22 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 ) 
 eral or special debility. This added to the unparalleled climate, general 
 healthfulness and magnificent scenery of the valley can hardly fail of 
 making it one of the most desirable health resorts in the nation. 
 
 We have given in what precedes a condensed statement of the re- 
 sources of this beautiful and fertile valley. To the readers of this book 
 who are looking for a new home the plain recital of the experiences of a 
 farmer in the valley will doubtless be of especial interest. We, therefore, 
 quote the contents of a paper read before the Farmers' Institute of Monte 
 Vista. This farm spoken of in this report is in no way exceptional, and 
 is a fiiir average of all the San Luis Valley land, both as to situation, 
 fertility and proximity to market. The author of this paper says : 
 
 o On January 17th, 1887, I put a pre-emption filing on the N. W quar- 
 ter of Section 18, Township 39, Range 10, and a timber culture filing on 
 the N. E quarter of the same section, thus securing in one body 320 acres 
 of land, and this is now the subject of this sketch, " My Park Center 
 Farm." 
 
 Between January 17th and March 17th, winter as it was, we completed 
 one dwelling and located permanently upon this land. 
 
 We went miles beyond any habitation in order to get our land in one 
 body, and seventeen miles beyond where any work had been done on the 
 ditch or canal from which we expected to use water. 
 
 The spring of 1887 we fenced eighty acres and put in a small crop of 
 about twelve acres ; this was all it was safe to venture on account of wa- 
 ter. In the meantime the Prairie Ditch had been so far built as to con- 
 vey water within three and one-fourth miles of our place, and we built a 
 small ditch or lateral three and one-fourth miles to that point at our own 
 expense. 
 
 Owing to imperfections in the construction of the Prairie Ditch its 
 management and our own lateral, we received but little water, and, there- 
 fore, lost the principal part of our crops, but were convinced that good re- 
 sults were possible with plenty of water This crop, financially a failure, 
 was rich in experience. We improved our time by clearing land, im- 
 proving and enlarging our dwelling-house, putting up out-buildings and 
 preparing for a crop the coming season. 
 
 Early in the year of 1888 I secured of the San Luis Canal Com- 
 pany water sufficient to irrigate 240 acres of land and retained four shares 
 in the Prairie Ditch. The San Luis Canal Company built its North Lat- 
 eral in March and April, 1888, and May ist we were receiving water 
 through it upon our land; therefore, this season, we had plenty of water. 
 
 Now for our crop of 1888. Between March 25th and 29th we put in 
 fourteen acres in wheat, seven acres was put in on land plowed one year 
 
 23 
 
Sl'NN Y SAN MTIS. 
 
 before and seven acres on land plowed in the foil (six months before), 
 went over the land with a harrow and followed with a drill. Seeded both 
 seven acres in the same way. 
 
 DA MING A DISTRIBUTING LATP:RAL. 
 
 We commencea to harvest this wheat August 24th, from the seven 
 acres that lay idle one year (for want of water) we threshed 10,020 
 poimds, and from the seven acres fall plowed (six months idle) we threshed 
 7,980 pounds, a total of 18,000 pounds or 300 bushels from fourteen ac^es. 
 
 24 
 
SUNNY SAN I.XJl f? . 
 
 and a balance in favor of the seven acres first plowed of 2,040 pounds, 
 This wheat was irrigated three times, and as near as I can calculate net- 
 ted me $12.28 per acre. Sowed 1,200 pounds on fourteen acres and 
 threshed fifteen pounds for every pound sowed. At present prices this 
 wheat would sell at my granary for $1.65 per hundred, or a total of 5297 
 and a net profit of $171 from fourteen acres. 
 
 We commenced sowing oats April i6th, finished about the loth of 
 May, put in about thirty -five acres in all, commenced harvesting oats 
 August 15th, finished October 6th, sold a great many oats from the field 
 at fifty cents per dozen bundles, threshed from twenty-three acres 23,800 
 pounds, which would bring at present prices at my granary I357, a net 
 profit of $173 from twenty-three acres, with the straw thrown in as a bo- 
 nus. 
 
 April nth we commenced to plant potatoes ; planted at various times 
 until May 1 5th ; planted in all seven acres ; commenced digging and 
 selling August 4th ; gathering from seven acres a fraction over sixty thou- 
 sand pounds, which at present prices at my cellar would bring $600. 
 Take from this amount $30 per acre to cover all cost of production, we 
 have $390 net profit from seven acres or $55.72 per acre. 
 
 From five acres of barley sowed broad- cast on sod, plowed under and 
 not harrowed, and irrigated in a careless way, sowed late in May, we 
 threshed 5,040 pounds, worth $75.60, a net gain of $35,60 or $7.12 per 
 acre, from this we only expected pasture. 
 
 From three acres sowed to peas, put in the same as the barley, we 
 harvested ten tons of forage, worth $5 per ton, $50 in all or $8 per acre 
 net. 
 
 We put in one and one-half acres to broom millet, after grubbing the 
 land, sowed the seed broad-cast, plowed and harrowed, threshed 600 
 pounds of seed, worth five cents per pound, in all $30, or $11 net profit 
 per acre, with a ton of good hay thrown in. 
 
 We put in on ten acres, with oats, 1 50 pounds of alfalfa seed, sowed 
 the seed on the fresh-plowed land, harrowed, then followed with a drill 
 and put in oats. Alfalfa came up well ; never saw a better stand, but in 
 my opinion was shaded more than was good for it by the oats, for we no- 
 ticed where the drill failed to work well and where there were few or no 
 oats the alfalfa made the best growth and is the best now. 
 
 Our land is very level, sloping to the east and south (five feet to the 
 mile). We make our small or distributing laterals east and west, about 
 seven rods apart, and our head ditches north and south, eighty rods 
 apart, leaving our land in plots of about three and a half acres. We irri- 
 gate grain principally by flooding, but in some cases by seepage or sub- 
 
 25 
 
SUNNY SAN I.UIS. 
 
 irrigation, but in ilie latter case find it is best to get the water over the 
 surface about tlie time tlie grain is in bloom ; this will make it fi^l and 
 ripen. Sub-irrigation is best for all vegetables. We plowed a piece of 
 land of about four acres the last of June, and the first of July plowed in 
 
 OPENING THE WATER (JATE. 
 
 strips of about two rods, sowed the first plowed to turnips and rutabagas. 
 They weighed from fourteen pounds down. We harvested at least five 
 tons to the acre. We put one acre of this land last plowed, July 3d, to 
 
 26 
 
SUNNY SA N I-UIS. 
 
 barley, and one acre, July 7th, to oats, the barley headed out well and 
 some of it matured, the oats headed out and made a good growth and 
 some of it matured, making a fine lot of forage and winter pasture. The 
 last four acres was only irrigated by running water in the dead furrows 
 made by plowing the land. We believe it possible to grow large crops 
 of grain by sub-irrigation, but may have to put water on the surface about 
 the time it is in bloom to make it fill well and ripen. 
 
 We matured a squash that weighed 51^ pounds, matured water- 
 melons and corn, produced bushels of tomatoes, a large per cent, of them 
 ripening on the vine, grew sweet potatoes of fair size and good quality. 
 
 The above is a fair showing of our crop of 1888, all produced on new 
 land that no crop had been grown upon except three or four acres, on 
 which we had water in 1887. This was in our potato and truck patches, 
 but our best potatoes were on new land. 
 
 I have told you something of our farm and farming, and wish to state 
 further that my son and myself, either directly or indirectly, have made 
 all the improvem.ents and have done all the work to grow and gather the 
 above-mentioned crops. By this I mean that we have at spare times as- 
 sisted our neighbors and new-comers in building houses, making ditches, 
 head-gates, etc., and that in return they have helped us when wanted with 
 our crops, the balance being in our favor. 
 
 We have about 120 acres cleared ready for a crop the coming season, 
 a large per cent, plowed, less than one mile of fence will inclose and leave 
 in three fields our half section of land. Our dwelling and other buildings 
 will show for themselves. What we have done others can do. We have 
 sage brush to contend with (to grub), but no weeds, rocks or adobe. Of 
 course v.e have to irrigate, but can irrigate more acres of grain in one day 
 than the Eastern farmer can plow of corn, say ten acres per day. We 
 hope one year from now to give a better report of our " Park Center 
 Farm." 
 
 ■;? 
 
SUNNY SAN I.UIS. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Farming by Irrigation. 
 
 SIkSS^'^E eastern farmer thinks that irrigation is either a great 
 ' " ' nuisance or a great humbug. Then he looks anxiously at 
 the sky and says, " If it don't rain in twenty- four hours my 
 crops will be ruined." The Colorado farmer doesn't need to 
 ^tlil^Sili'^ look at the sky. He looks at his crops and says, "That field 
 needs water ; " then he opens an irrigating ditch and turns on the water. 
 The method of irrigation is simple, the results marvelous. Under this sys- 
 tem of irrigation Colorado has become an agricultural state. When all of 
 her irrigable lands are under cultivation she will rank among the great 
 agricultural states. Condensing an able paper read before the State Hor- 
 ticultural Society, we arc enabled to present a number of valuable facts, 
 the accuracy of which cannot be questioned : — 
 
 The area of land in Colorado at present under cultivation cannot be 
 stated with exactness, owing to the imperfect character of our statistical 
 records, but it is somewhere between one and one and a quarter million 
 acres. It is watered from canals whose aggregate capacity is about forty 
 thousand cubic feet per second, the capacity of these lands being largely 
 in excess of the area irrigated. Estimating the duty of water at one 
 cubic foot per second for eighty acres, the capacity of the canals already 
 constructed is sufficient for the irrigation of more than three million acres. 
 As the area of land susceptible of irrigation is only limited by the water 
 supply, it is apparent that provision has already been made for more than 
 doubling the erea at present under cultivation, only awaiting the incom- 
 ing tide of emigration from the East and South. The exhaustion of the 
 canals already completed does not, however, mark the ultim.ate extension 
 of our irrigated area. While on some streams in the northern and east- 
 ern part of the State the capacity of the canals equals or exceeds the 
 discharge of the stream, there is still a large surplus of unappropriated 
 water and available land in the west and south, the utilization of which 
 is only a matter of time. 
 
 Without going into detail of the location and value of these streams a 
 conservative estimate places the amount of land susceptible of being 
 brou-ht under cultivation by irrigation at between four and five millions 
 acres". This is an agricultural area greater than that of cither Massachu- 
 
 20 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS, 
 
 Setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey or Delaware. But the best 
 conception of the wealth and greatness of the State which will result 
 from the development of its irrigation resources, can be had by a study 
 of the irrigation districts of the old world. At present Colorado's irri- 
 gated territory surpasses that of France and Spain combined, is about 
 one-fifth that of Egypt, and one-third that of Italy, As the countries 
 last named are the classic lands of irrigation, a few of the results of this 
 phase of agriculture in those districts may not be without interest. The 
 valley of the Nile has an extent of only 6,000,000 acres with an agricul- 
 tural population of about. 2,000,000, yet from the fruits of whose toil are 
 supported the government and people of Egypt. The result of their 
 labors sustain the monasteries with their hosts of religious fanatics, the 
 towns with their bazaars and beggars, the army, the court with its train 
 of officers and dependents, in all a population of 7,000,000 people. And 
 not only is this done, but the interest on their national debt of $515,000,- 
 000 has to be paid out of the products of their teeming soil, the whole fur- 
 nishing a record of agricultural wealth and resources without a parallel 
 in the most favored regions of abundant rain fall. 
 
 The irrigation district in the south of Italy has for investigators of this 
 question, however, the greatest interest, not only because of the beneficent 
 result of irrigation there manifested, but because they are achieved under 
 conditions which in many respects resemble those existing in Colorado. The 
 valley of the Po has an elevation almost equal to Denver, is five degrees 
 to the north of us, its rivers are like ours, fed from the melting ice and 
 snow of its mountain reservoirs, and among its products are found many 
 of our own. The total irrigated area is 3,150,000 acres, having doubled 
 within the past thirty years. The volume of water employed is estimated 
 at 32,000 cubic feet per second, distributed by fifty main canals. The 
 district watered by these canals is the garden of Europe, and in agricul- 
 tural opulence and commercial stability no country, perhaps, equals it. 
 The provinces Piedmont and Lombardy are the chief contributors to the 
 revenues of the Italian government, the water rentals from the canals alone 
 amounting to $600,000, and the capital of one of the provinces is the com- 
 mercial metropolis of Italy. A late writer, recounting the results of a tour 
 of observation of the agricultural districts of Europe, says that a town of 
 20,000 people in the irrigated district of Northern Italy had more evidences 
 of prosperity and thrift than any town of 50,000 he had visited elsewhere. 
 It must be remembered also, in considering this matter, that irrigation in 
 this district is a matter of choice and not of necessity, the rainfall being 
 sufficient to produce crops without artificial watering. The introduction 
 was made under the most discouraging circumstances, and involved an 
 
 so 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 immense outlay. The result has, however, fully justified the expenditure. 
 The introduction of irrigation into these two provinces alone has added one 
 hundred millions to the resources of the Italian government. It has en- 
 abled them to withstand the increasing competition of Asia and America, 
 and to add new fields each year to the irrigated lands. 
 
 The arid area of the United States embraces nearly one-half of its 
 entire area, or in round numbers about nine hundred million acres. Of 
 this area about two hundred and eighty millions are considered as arable 
 land — that is, land capable of being redeemed and utilized. Of the arable 
 lands nearly thirty-two millions of acres have been redeemed and con- 
 verted into farms, each of which is capable of supporting a family of five 
 persons. Thus we could have an agricultural population in the arid region 
 of two millions, which would imply a total population of from four to fi\e 
 millions. The present population is something less than two and one-half 
 millions. 
 
 The redemtion of the remaining two hundred and fifty millions of 
 acres of arable land is only a question of time, the factors being capital and 
 engineering skill. To a stranger the necessity of irrigation seems an ex- 
 pensive and unprofitable burden to the land and to the cultivator, but ex- 
 perience has proven it to be quite the reverse, and the history of other 
 countries for centuries past also teaches that by it alone is immunity from 
 drouth and famine assured. Crops thus cultivated are not subject to the 
 uncertainty and vicissitudes pertaining to other regions. To specify some 
 of the advantages of irrigation, we have : First, immunity from droulh; 
 Second, freedom from excessive moisture and flood. Third, the ability to 
 cultivate any kind of plant permitted by the climate, from the aquatic or 
 semi aquatic to that needing the minimum amount of moisture. Fourth, 
 the ability to control in a large measure the growth of the plant, making it 
 early or late as desired, and sometimes growing two crops of the same 
 kind on the same land during the season. Fifth, to control the condition 
 of the soil, making it suitable for the plow and seed. Sixth, to supply cer- 
 tain elements to the soil needed for plant food, namely ; phosphates, sul- 
 phate and carbonate of lime, potash and soda salts, nitrogen, magnesia, 
 ammonia, etc., abundantly carried by the water of the ordinary mountain 
 stream. Seventh, to dissolve and wash out certain baneful ingredients of 
 the soil, that frequently exist in such excessive quantities as to destroy 
 plant life. Eighth, the most important advantage in the fertilizing deposit 
 left by the waters, supplying a nutriment to the crop, and adding to and 
 enriching the soil. 
 
 The very means of reclaiming the arid land is a constant source of 
 its fertilization. By irrigation the pores of the most sterile land can be 
 
 31 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS, 
 
 filled and compacted by the infiltration of the impalpable silt, and con- 
 verted into a loam of prodigious fertility. Hence, as a general statement, 
 all lands that can be reached and supplied with water for irrigation are 
 susceptible of cultivation. 
 
 Having discussed the merits of irrigation at some length, a few words 
 as to the methods Mill not be out of place. The name of Orange Judd, 
 the veteran agricultural editor, has become a household word among the 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING METHOD OF IRRIGATION. 
 
 farmers of America. When he describes anything, he does so, accurately 
 and clearly; therefore we cannot do better than to quote what he says on 
 methods of irrigation. Mr. Judd visited the San Luis valley in the sum- 
 mer of 1887, and in his editorial correspondence spoke as follows : — 
 
 32 
 
SUNNY SAN I.UIS. 
 
 " Irrigation in the present use of the term means the artificial appli- 
 cation of water to the soil, by several methods. One system is shown in 
 the illustration herewith. There is the main canal or 'ditch,' which brings 
 water taken from streams that may be a mile or two, or scores of miles 
 away. A 'lateral' comes out of one side and extends several rods, or even 
 miles to the upper side of a field, into a plow furrow nearly on a level, and 
 the water in this case spreads out each way. From this head furi-ow very- 
 small ones are made with a hoe, or quicker with a small single horse plow. 
 They are run in such direction, required by the lay of the land, as will 
 give them only a slight descent. A hoe or shovelful of earth into the plow- 
 furrow at each entrance of these little ditches keeps them closed. When 
 the land needs water the little gate or shding board at the canal is raised 
 as far as needed to let in the required amount of water. This is raised or 
 lowered from time to time as seen to be necessary. The large plow furrow 
 being filled with water, the irrigator opens or closes the upper ends of the 
 small furrows by taking out a shovel or hoeful of earth. The operator 
 walks over the field, and where water enough is not flowing out in any 
 place, he with a shovel or hoe clips off a bit of earth from the side 
 of the small ditch or furrow, or stops the flow at any point by throwing in 
 a little soil. In this way he can in.an hour or two give an entire field 
 what would be equal to a heavy soaking rain. This may be done so deeply 
 down, one or even two feet, that the growing crop may flourish through 
 the hottest season or drouth without another irrigation. 
 
 'Where water goes deep down it is only very slowly evaporated from 
 the surface, while the roots of the crop grow downward so far as to find a 
 good deal of natural moisture in the soil. Usually only two or at most 
 three such irrigations are needed on a wheat crop grown on a soil which 
 is literally a dry ash heap. The number of irrigations and the amount of 
 water at each flowing depend a good deal upon the character of the sub- 
 soil. Soine land requires only a single flowing, along in JMay or June. 
 Sometimes a flooding about the heading-out time will produce very heavy 
 grain kernels. Sometimes the ground is well flooded before the seed is 
 sown and, once or twice afterward unless there is an unusual fall of rain. 
 Most farmers using irrigation rather prefer no rain. Having a supply of 
 water in the canal to use whenever needed, they prefer continual hot 
 sunshine which pushes growth forward most rapidly. 
 
 In most of the irrigable arid regions these canals are taken out high 
 up a river or stream which is fed by the melting snows of the mountain 
 tops in May, June and July, just the time when plenty of water in the 
 canal is most needed. The canals are carried along with a descent of only 
 lj4 to 2 feet per mile, winding around hills or uneven ground to maintain 
 
 33 
 
SUNNY SAN L in S . 
 
 a uniform grade. If the ground and the stream descend rapidly the canal 
 may thus be carried scores of miles and at its end be 20, 50 loo or more 
 feet above the parent stream. The side canals are taken out at different 
 places and similarly carried over or around uneven land, so that a single 
 main canal may irrigate tens or hundreds of thousands of acres. For ex- 
 ample, a canal from a stream in the Rocky Mountains, by following 
 the sides of knolls, valleys a;id hills, may take water hundreds of miles to 
 supply the parched farms in Eastern Colorado, 
 
 MEASURING THE FLOW OF WATER. 
 
 "The above is an ordinary method on grain and grass fields which may 
 be flooded all over deeply or thinly. The flooding may be continued dur- 
 ing a whole day or more if desired. For corn, potatoes and other crops in 
 rows, for fruit trees, etc., one method is to have the rows run with the 
 downward incline of the surface, then run one furrow along the upper 
 side of the field to receive the water. A small opening with a hoe against 
 the furrows or hollows between the rows, or opened every second or third 
 or fourth one, allows the water to flow along the furrows and soak into 
 each side of them as long and deeply as desired. The main lateral ditch 
 is usually a permanent one, made by a few plow furrows, not so deep as 
 to prevent easy driving over it. The small field channels are usually 
 obliterated in the general plowing, new ones being made or left in the 
 form and in the places where needed when the crop is put in. A wheat or 
 other grain or grass field is often flooded over its whole surface by openings 
 as needed from the ditch along the higher side. Another method where 
 land is very valuable and permant improvements are desirable, is to nm 
 
 34 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 perforated pipe, like drain pipe, l ;^ to 3 feet underground, and let water 
 into the heads of them, to soak up into the soil. In this way one has a 
 positive and permanent moisture in the soil " 
 
 The San Luis valley is amply provided with -irrigating facilities, and 
 the rivers contain more than water enough to irrigate all the land. Over 
 two hundred miles of lari,-e canals, with too many miles of laterals for 
 easy computation, are already constructed in the valley at a cost of more 
 than half a million of dollars, while many more are being built. The 
 country is rapidly filling up with water ; where four years ago it was fifteen 
 feet below the surface it is now in many places only four or five feet. In 
 closing this chapter we again invoke the high authority of Orange Judd. 
 He makes the statement editorially that farming by irrigation is the most 
 desirable method, and then says : 
 
 "This statement will seem singularly inexact, if not foolish, to very 
 many of our readers. It will even be jeered at by the great mass of people 
 between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, simply and only because they 
 do not understand it. We speak from a good deal of examination of the 
 subject last year and this, in Western Texas, in Arizona, in Southern Cal- 
 ifornia, in New Mexico, in Colorado, in Utah, etc. ' Seeing is believing,' 
 if the seeing is intelligent and unbiased, and especially if against one's pre- 
 conceived notions or opinions. The farmer who has a soil containing an 
 abundance of all needed elements, in a proper state of fineness, cannot but 
 deem himself happy if he have always ready at hand the means of readily 
 and cheaply supplying all the water needed by his soil and growingcrops 
 just when and in just such quantities as needed. Happier may he still be 
 if besides fearing no drouth, he has no rainfall to interrupt his labors or 
 to'injure his growing or harvested crops. And happier still may he be 
 when he knows that he need have few if any ' off years,' and knows that 
 the water he admits to his fields, at will, are freighted with rich fertiliz- 
 ing elements, usually far more valuable to the growing crop than any he 
 can purchase and apply at a costly rate— a cost that makes serious inroads 
 upon the profits of a majority of farmers cultivating the worn-out or deter- 
 iorated soils in the older States year by year. Fertilizers are already often 
 needed for the most profitable culture of many farms in Iowa, Minnesota, 
 Eastern Kansas and Nebraska, in Missouri, and in all the States east of 
 
 those named. 
 
 " The above are no imaginative statements, but are based upon ac- 
 tual observations— upon a study of the soils, their conditions and wants. 
 East and West, during a long series of years, and upon a firm scientific 
 foundation— so much so that we now unhesitatingly assert that if allowed 
 io-day to make a choice of a farm for our own futtire tillage, among the 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIb. 
 
 best in the ram fall states or among the best of those only cultivable by 
 irrigation, ive should certainly choose the latter. This is with the under- 
 standing that raihvays have now made such regions readily accessible to 
 markets, markets as yet better than those in the East, and that there is 
 already so large a class of intelligent, moral people settled in these regions 
 and fast coming into them, as to make society as desirable as in the older 
 States." 
 
 .#1^^=- 
 
 
 oC 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Towns and Villages. 
 
 \N agricultural country must have makets not only abroad 
 but at home in order that the exchange of commodities 
 may be easily made and that surplus products may be sold. 
 The law of supply and demand operates in the building of 
 towns as inflexibly as in all other fields of political econ- 
 omy. The demand creates the supply and the supply stimulates the 
 demand. The older towns on the eastern and western borders of 
 the valley were the result of mining industries. The later towns have 
 been created by the new agricultural growth. All the towns and villages now 
 enjoy a permanent and increasing prosperity based on the continued in- 
 dustries of mining, agriculture and stock growing. A condensed sketch 
 of each one of the towns and villages in the San Luis valley will beef 
 special interest to those contemplating a settlement therein. 
 
 ALAMOSA is situated near the centre of the great San Luis Park on 
 the west bank of the Rio Grande del Norte, and is an important station 
 on the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, 250 miles southwest from Denver. 
 This town was the centre of great commercial activity at the time when 
 the Denver & Rio Grande railroad was built through the valley. At Ala- 
 moso it halted in construction for a long time. The town then became 
 the forwarding point for all southern Colorado and New Mexico. 
 But presently the railway moved southward and westward, and Ala- 
 mosa settled down into a cjuiet yet prosperous place, with a local 
 agricultural population to back it, and the headquarters of the second 
 division of the railway which extends to Espanola with direct 
 rail connection beyond to Santa Fe, From Alamosa a branch line runs 
 to Wagon Wheel Gap, passing through Monte Vista and Del Norte en- 
 route. The fact that Alamosa is a junctional point and an eating station 
 brings to it a great deal of railroad business and makes it the stopping 
 place for a large number of tourists. At present it has a population of 
 2,000, excellent Schools, three churches, and two newspapers. The streets 
 are wide, handsom^e brick buildings supply the needs of bank and all the 
 leading business houses. Many of these structures would do credit to a 
 city of much larger size and population. Alamosa is the site of division 
 headquarters of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad and machine shops, 
 
 37 
 
S U X X Y SAX LUIS. 
 
 round-house and other commodious buildings of brick have been erected. 
 Natural gas has been discovered near the town and the discovery- 
 promises to develop into a large source of prosperity for Ala- 
 mosa. The agricultural resources of the outlying country have been 
 amply discussed in this book. There is room in this great valley of San 
 Luis for thousands of prosperous and happy homes. It is being 
 rapidly settled by a good class of people and will no doubt in 
 a few years become one of the most important agricultural districts in the 
 United States. With these wonderful agricultural and pastoral resources 
 Alamosa is assured of a bright and prosperous future. The town is now 
 well supplied with stores of all kinds, some of which carry large stocks 
 of goods. 
 
 ANTONITO is a thriving town in the San Luis Valley, situated 279 miles 
 from Denver at the junction of the Silverton and the Espanola Branches 
 of the Denver and the Rio Grande railroad. Stock raising and agricul 
 ture occupy the attention of the surrounding population. Antonito has 
 a fine stone depot and possesses a number of substantial business blocks. 
 It is the station for Conejos, one mile distant, for Manasa, a large and 
 prosperous Mormon settlement, in which polygamy is not practiced, 
 8 miles distant, and for Rafael4 miles distant. Its position in the heart of the 
 SanLuis Valley insures it a generous and constantly increasing support from 
 agricultural and pastoral industries. Being the junctional point of the 
 Denver and Rio Grande railroad's New Mexico and San Juan branches 
 gives it a large railroad business. Fine fishing can be found near Anto- 
 nito. Antonito itself is a modern town with all the life and push of the 
 American, full of business and enterprise. 
 
 CONEJOS, an old Mexican town of curious interest, is the county-seat 
 of Conejos county, on the Conejos river, in the San Luis Valley, 279 miles 
 southwest of Denver and 29 mile south of Alamosa. Railroad connec- 
 tion is one mile south of the town at Antonito on the Denver & Rio 
 Grande railroad. Tourists will do well to stop at Antonito and visit 
 Conejos, which is the most accessible town of the typical Mexican 
 character in Colorado. Here may be found the plazas, churches and 
 ancient adobe houses peculiar to the early civilization of the Spanish. Aside 
 from its historical interest the town has a good business outlook and 
 shares in the general prosperity of the valley. 
 
 CARNERO mining camp, twenty-four miles north of Del Norte, gets its 
 supplies from that town. The principal mines are the Buckhorn, Esper- 
 anza the Ada and Spring Chicken. Carnero can be reached via the Den- 
 ver & Rio Grande railroad and Del Norte. This is a promising camp. 
 
 •68 
 
STINNV SAN T.ITIS. 
 
SUNNY SAN I. U I S . 
 
 DEL NORTE is the oldest town in what is known as the San Juan coun- 
 try. The town-site was surveyed in 1872, though the town company 
 was formed in 1871. At the present time Del Norte has a population of 
 about 1000 souls. The town is reached via the Denver & Rio Grande 
 railroad from Denver or Pueblo — distance from Denver 28O miles. Alti- 
 tude, 7,400 feet. The town is so situated as to be upon the line between 
 the agricultural and mining sections. To the north and east of the town 
 are the rich and rapidly settling agricultural and pastoral lands of the 
 San Luis Valley ; to the south and west are the great mines of San Jaun. 
 Del Norte is beautifully situated in a basin at the foot of the mountain, 
 sheltered from the blasts of winter and having the most delightful weather 
 in summer. The Rio Grande river flows through the edge of the Del 
 Norte town-site, and offers to manufacturing interests the finest water- 
 power in the world, Del Norte has some excellent business and dwell- 
 ing houses, a fine public school building, two good church buildings — 
 above the average, the Presbyterian College of the Southwest, (a staunch 
 educational institution), a fine flouring mill of the latest roller process, 
 a large brewery using home-grown barley, two banks, a Court House 
 costing ^30,000, a weekly newspaper, the United States Land Office, 
 where all business regarding land in this district must be transacted, and 
 countless other enterprises that cannot be mentioned here. A Fair held 
 by the Southwestern Colorado Industrtrial association at Del Norte, in 
 October, 1887, was conceded the most successful effort of the kind ever 
 made in the Southwest. It is the intention of the people to hold a fair, stock 
 show and races every year hereafter. Del Norte has properly been 
 called " The Gateway to the San Juan," being so situated as to 
 control the entrance to the valley of the Rio Grande river, which leads 
 directly to the heart of the San Juan mining country. Del Norte's posi- 
 tion is such as to command trade from the mining, agricultural and pas- 
 toral sections of the Southwest, and must eventually become a place of 
 great importance. The town of Del Norte is situated on mesa or table 
 land, has all the advantages of good schools and churches, excellent 
 climate, fine water for domestic use — no better anywhere — and is withal 
 an ideal residence and educational center. Del Norte's especial pride is 
 her schools and College. On Lookout Mountain, 600 feet above the town, 
 is mounted a large telescope, to be used in connection with the Presby- 
 terian College of the Southwest. The view from the Lookout observa- 
 tory is grand in the extreme. The streets of Del Norte are wide, and 
 the town is noted for its growth of trees— mostly cotton-woods. Water 
 for irrigating purposes is supplied by means of a main canal from the 
 Rio, Grande river, with laterals over the town-site along the sides of 
 
 •10 
 
SUNNV SAN LUIS. 
 
 Streets. Del Norte has a public reading-room, Grand Army post, lodger 
 of Masons, Knights of Pythias and Good Templars and a company of 
 State militia (the Bowen Rifles). 
 
 GARLAND is on the New Mexico branch of the Denver & Rio Grande 
 railroad, 325 miles from Denver. It was formerly known as Fort Gar- 
 land and was a United States military post. Sierra Blanca, elevation 
 14,464 feet, the highest mountain in the United States with one 
 exception, is 17 miles distant. Good trout fishing and shooting can be 
 found in the adjacent foot hills. Garland's tributary industries are agri- 
 culture and stock raising. Enterprising men have invested capital in 
 Garland and are pushing it forward on the road to prosperity. 
 
 LA JARA is situated in Conejos county, on the New Mexico extension 
 of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad fourteen and a half miles south of 
 Alamosa, and 265 miles from Denver. It is surrounded by a very pro- 
 ductive agricultural and pastoral region. Eastern capital has been largely 
 invested in La Jara recently and a rapid improvement is in progress. 
 The future of the town is assured and the growth in population and 
 business has been large and is steadily progressing. 
 
 MONTE VISTA is located in the midst of 300,000 acres of the richest 
 irrigable land with abundance of water to supply it. It is a new, grow- 
 ing, enterprising, prohibition town, has a superior class of citizens and is 
 beginning to assume city airs. It is rapidly becoming an extra desirable 
 residence locality. It has a first- class roller process flouring mill, 15 
 stores, 2 banks, planing mill, 3 lumber yards, 3 weekly papers, 3 livery 
 stables, large public library, an $8,000 school house, 7 church organiza- 
 tions, a secular society, secret societies, military company, cornet band, 
 etc. etc. In the vicinity is one farm of 7000 and another of 4000 acres. 
 A 175,000 hotel has been erected, numerous artesian wells are being 
 bored which furnish excellent mineral water, a driving and boating park 
 is established and street car lines chartered, Monte Vista receives and 
 ships great quantities of freight. Its business for 1888 was about $300,- 
 000 and bids fair to double this amount the current year. It has never 
 had a boom, is behind the country, and considering the advantages 
 property is very cheap. Agriculturists with adequate means, manufac- 
 turers, business men, miners, health seekers and retired merchants, will 
 find inducements far above the average. There are good openings 
 for many special lines, to wit; Sanitary Hotels, Building Associations, 
 Private Builders with capital. Wholesale Houses, Clothing, Crockery 
 Boot and Shoe, Hardware and Jewelery stores. Oat Meal Mill, (oats 
 weigh 50 pounds to bushel), Potatoe Starch, Sash and Wagon Factories, 
 Merchant Tailor, Shirt Factory, Sewing Machines, Bakery, Tannery. 
 
 41 
 
SUNNV SAN LL'IS. 
 
 Foundry, Creamery, Pork Packing, Brick yards, Fkix growing, with rope, 
 paper and oil mills. Nursery, with Wholesale Gardeners, looo hop yards, 
 Tobacco Farms, Trotting Horse Breeding, Carp raising, hundreds of 
 health seekers, etc. etc. 
 
 SAGUACHE is the countyseatof Saguache county, and is surrounded 
 by an exceedingly rich agricultural country. Its sources of prosperity 
 are agriculture and stock-raising industries, and it has become firmly 
 established on the best of foundations. It has stages to Villa Grove, 
 Bonanza and Del Norte, and receives its mails daily. It has good busi- 
 ness houses, handsome private residence, a large brick school-house, 
 churches and the county buildings. 
 
 SUMMITVILLE is the name of the most prominent mining camp in 
 the range to the southwest of the valley. It is situated twenty-seven 
 miles from Del Norte. Prominent mills at Summitville are the Annie, 
 Golconda, Aztec & Rio Grande and there are many good mining prop- 
 erties, the Annie, Ida Golconda, Bobtail, Chicago, Esmond, Stars and 
 Stripes and others being among the lot. There is quite a town at Sum- 
 mitville and the mineral output is large and of great value. 
 
 VILLA GROVE is a prosperous town on the San Luis branch of the 
 Denver & Rio Grande railroad, 247 miles from Denver. It is situated in 
 Saguache county, in the upper or northwestern extremity of the valley. 
 Near it are the mining camps of Kerber Creek, Crestone and Bonanza, 
 where gold and silver are found in paying quantities. Iron is also found 
 near Villa Grove, and the Colorado Coal and Iron Company are work- 
 ing mines of that metal. 
 
 VETERAN is a town site laid off eighteen miles north of Del Norte, 
 on LaGarita, It is favorably located, is in charge of Grand Army men. 
 Around Veteran is some of the best land in the valley. The town can 
 be reached over the Denver & Rio Grande railroad to Del Norte, and 
 from Del Norte by teams over a good road. 
 
 42 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A Few Condensed Facts. 
 
 lOR the convenience of tlie reader, and to give as much 
 information as possible in a condensed form, the writer has 
 gathered the following paragraphs from authentic sources and 
 grouped them together in this chapter. Each paragraph is 
 
 i^^^^ complete in itself and contains as accurate a statement of 
 the fact embodied therein, as can be made in the amount of space given. 
 
 The mountains surrounding the San Luis Valley, are full of excellent 
 timber, which, for domestic purposes, can be had for the taking. Fine 
 house-logs, fence-poles, bridge-timbers, etc., can be had in this way. 
 Most excellent fire-wood can be had in the same manner. 
 
 State lands can be bought or leased of the State by making proper ap- 
 plication to the Register of the State Land Board at Denver. These 
 lands, prior to being offered for sale, will be appraised at a minimum 
 price of from ^3 to $5 per acre. If these lands are to be leased, they will 
 be appraised at probably $1.25 to gi.50 per acre, and the leasing price 
 per year will be 10 per cent, of the appraised value. Canal lands can be 
 had by application to the agents of the companies in the valley. Im- 
 proved ranches of 160 acres can be bought in the San Luis Valley at from 
 ^1,000 to $5,000 each, according to improvements, location, etc. 
 
 Following are approximate prices in the valley on a few articles that 
 may be needed by parties taking up land : 
 Rough lumber, per 1,000 ft., ----- jj 20 00 
 
 Shingles, per 1,000 -- 40c 
 
 No. 8 cook-stove, ------- 20 00 
 
 Lumber wagons, ------- 95 00 
 
 Reversible-share plows, ----- 12 75 
 
 Twelve-inch steel plows, ------ H 50 
 
 Harrows, -------- 10 00 
 
 Good horses, each, ------- joo 00 @ 200 00 
 
 Cow-ponies, each, ----_. 4ooo@ioooo 
 
 Barbed wire, per 100 pounds, - - - - _ 5 q^ 
 
 Tarred paper, per cvvt., ------ ^ ^^ 
 
 Nails, per keg, -------- ^ ^^ 
 
 -ia 
 
SUNNY SAN LI' IS. 
 
 Farming is carried on in the San Luis Valley mostly by irrigation. 
 This plan insures water every year, drouths or "oft years " being un- 
 known in this section. Farming by irrigation, viewed from a scientific 
 stand-point, has many advantages over the old plan of depending upon 
 rains for a water supply. Irrigation is a simple process. The water is 
 conveyed in a ditch along the highest ground in the field to be watered 
 and allowed to flow over the ground as desired. Water purchased of 
 canal companies costs about $i per acre per year. Permanent water 
 rights can be bought at from $300 to $500 for 160 acres. Stock in irrigat- 
 ing canals, which insures a permanent water-right, can be had at reason- 
 able figures, while there are many entirely private ditches. New canals 
 are being taken out by farmers and others every year. The small grains, 
 vegetables, grasses and hardy fruits grow here to perfection. 
 
 Government lands can be had by proper application at the Del 
 Norte Land Office, under the Homestead, Pre-emption, Timber-culture 
 or other laws applying to lands of this class. The Government lands are 
 going rapidly. 
 
 Much wool is grown in this country, and there is an excellent opening 
 for a woolen mill, in some one of the thriving towns of the valley. 
 
 The roads of this section are generally hard and dry — mud being com- 
 paratively unknown here. 
 
 In the vally, wells are from ten to thirty feet deep, and generally get 
 good water. In certain localities the water contains some iron, but there 
 is no lime-stone water. " Drive " wells are used to some extent. 
 
 While the snow falls very deep on the mountains (usually one to ten 
 feet), there is very little in the valley. It rarely falls over a few inches 
 deep and generally all disappears in a few days. 
 
 Alfalfa is raised in large quantities in this section and growns very 
 thrifty. As a forage plant, it has few equals. 
 
 During an ordinary winter, much of the stock of the San Luis Valley 
 goes through without a mouthful of feed aside from that picked up on 
 the range. The tendency, however, is toward feeding and a better class 
 of stock. 
 
 A single potato weighing two to four pounds is not a rare sight, and 
 300 to 500 bushels have been raised on an acre. Oats, barley and field- 
 peas do remarkably well, while wheat of excellent quality has been raised 
 in the valley. 
 
 The raising of hogs is very profitable in the valley. In the absence of 
 corn they are fattened on peas, which feed is claimed by many ranch- 
 men to be better for fattening purposes than the former grain. White 
 clover is indigenous to the country, and is easily grown. 
 
 •14 
 
SUNNY SAN 1. t'lS. 
 
 There are occasional showers of rain' during April and May, but the 
 "rainy season " is from about the 6th of July till in September. Then it 
 rains nearly every day, usually in the afternoon, but, when it gets through 
 it quits and gives the sun a chance. There is no such thing as cloudy 
 weather. There are perhaps not over four or five days in the course of a 
 year when the sun does not shine at least part of the day. 
 
 Where water is not convenient to the land, and long and expensive 
 canals are required, they are dug by wealthy corporations, who sell water 
 to the ranchmen for irrigating purposes, at about $i an acre for each 
 season, There are four large ditches of this kind in the San Luis Valley, 
 one of which is sixty feet wide, and extends about twenty-five miles, ex- 
 clusively of several miles cf laterals. Irrigation is a simple process. The 
 water is conveyed in a ditch along the highest ground in the field to be 
 watered, and allowed to flow over the ground as desired. 
 
 This valley has been the paradise of the range stock, where they can 
 roam at large and feed upon the best beef-making grasses that nature has 
 prepared, so that they can easily withstand our winters without any feed 
 or attention of any sort. Now the scene will have to change largely, as a 
 smaller number will find pasture in the foot-hills surrounding the valley. 
 The order of the day will now be small herds controlled by inclosures 
 so that the improved breeds can be handled profitably by grazing them 
 in summer, then feed the native and cultivated grasses of the farm in 
 winter, and you can turn out as fine beef as the corn-fed of the States. 
 
 Barley produces well in the valley. From forty to sixty bushels per 
 acre is a fair crop. If the proper variety is raised, one can find a ready 
 market for it at $1.15 to $1.25 on cars or at the local brewery. Ground 
 with good oats, it makes strong and healthful feed for horses or other 
 animals. 
 
 An average crop of oats is thirty-five to fifty bushels of the finest 
 quality, weighing from forty to forty-eight pounds per bushels. A number 
 of farmers here produced from seventy-five to 100 bushels per acre. The 
 average price is $1.25 to ^1.50 per hundred pounds, or 50 to 60 cents per 
 bushel. 
 
 45 
 
CHARTER VIII. 
 
 Magnificent Scenery. 
 
 O MUCH has been said incidentally in the preceding chapters 
 concerning the scenery of the sunny San Luis that it will not 
 be necessary to take a general view of the valley here. It will, 
 howex'er, serve a good purpose to describe somewhat in detail 
 a few of the more prominent scenic beauties which render this 
 one of the most attractive places in the whole mid-continental re- 
 gion. There are a few people who have not heard of Sierra Blanca, 
 that famous mountain, the highest but one in the United States, whose 
 triple crown dominates the entire Rocky Range and commands the vision 
 from all parts of the valley. It is characterized by the peculiarity of a 
 triple peak and rises directly from the plain to the stupendous height of 
 14,469 feet, over two miles and three-fifths of sheer ascent. A magnifi- 
 cent view of this mountain is obtained from the cars of the Denver & Rio 
 Grande railroad as soon as the descent from Veta Pass into the San Luis 
 Valley has been made. Surely it is worth a journey across the continent 
 to obtain a view of such a mountain ! Although a part of the range, it 
 stands at the head of the valley, like a monarch taking precedence of a 
 lordly retinue. Two-thirds of its height are above timber-line, bare and 
 desolate, and except for a month or two of midsummer, daszhng white 
 with snow, while in its abysmal gorges it holds eternal reservoirs of ice. 
 
 " Oh, sacred mount with kingly crest 
 
 Through tideiess ether reaching, 
 The earth-world kneels to hear the prayer 
 
 Thy dusky slopes are teaching. 
 With mystic glow on sunset eyes 
 All trembling lie thy blood-red leaves. 
 Their silken veins with gold inwrought. 
 Oh, glorious is thy world-wide thought !" 
 
 The lower slopes of the mountain are clad in vast forests of pine and 
 hemlock, while its grand triad of gray granite peaks lift into the sky their 
 sharp pyramidal pinnacles, splintered and furrowed by the storm-compel- 
 ling and omnipotent hand of the Almighty. To the north and south, for 
 a distance of nearly two hundred miles, it is flanked by the serrated crests 
 of the Sangre de Cristo range, the whole forming a panorama of unexam- 
 pled grandeur and beauty. 
 
 A few miles north of Del Norte, and reached by one of the best wa- 
 gon roads in the country, is the State Park, a pleasure ground set aside 
 by the State for the enjoyment of the people. 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 This is one of the most charming spots in the country and is visited 
 by hundreds of people every season. "The Natural Arch," the "Old 
 Man of Echo Mountain" and scores of other attractions are a source of 
 never-ending interest to the visitors at the place. The State Park can be 
 reached by splendid v/agon-roads from Del Norte and is worthy of a visit 
 by sight-seers in this section. 
 
 The atmospheric peculiarities of the valley afford some most remark- 
 able spectacles, and a mirage in the summer months is not an infrequent 
 occurrence in the lower portion of the San Luis Valley. 
 
 One of these beautiful phenomena is thus described by a spectator of 
 its wonders : First there appeared upon the left and immediate front 
 what looked like a huge sea of heated air, billowy as the ocean. At its 
 northern edge was a long and narrow line of tall and cane-like trees, all 
 at first view covering a strip of country in an east and west line, fully 
 eight or nine miles long. Back of the trees there was for a few moments 
 an unusual disturbance of the heated wave, and then there appeared a 
 beautiful miniature lake, dotted with sailing vessels. But the borders of 
 the lake were extended, and not until the slopes of the northern range 
 formed its borders did it cease to grow. In its growth it extended suffici- 
 ently to enclose all the landscape as far as the point of rocks northeast 
 of Hot Springs. Two points attracted more than ordinary attention. 
 That slope of land upon which the Little Corrinne mining claim is located 
 was a sea of molten silver, which reflected from its bosom the mountain 
 with its cragged peaks and stunted pines. An object which rivited the 
 gaze was the form assumed by a tasteful white residence which is so 
 plainly visible. It was not then a house, but a palace moving over a sur- 
 face of polished silver, while ever and anon appeared trees with wide, 
 spreading branches, which were reflected in the silvery sheen. To the 
 east the beauty was hardly less captivating, as the foothills were trans- 
 formed into huge Palisades not unlike those to be seen along the Hudson 
 River. The view was most entrancing ; its duration was brief, for while 
 the eyes were feasting upon the scene suddenly it vanished, But after 
 all the beauties of the mirage are far surpassed by those of the reality. 
 There are few watering places or health resorts that can vie with Wagon- 
 Wheel Gap, situated thirty miles beyond Del Norte. This place has be- 
 come the favorite re&ort for seekers of health ana the lovers of the rod 
 and gun. The scenery is wonderfully beautiful. As the Gap is ap- 
 proached the valley narrows until the river is hemmed in between mas- 
 sive walls of solid rock and rise to such a height on either side as to throw 
 the passage into twilight shadow. The river rushes roaring down over 
 fleaming gravel or precipitous ledges. Progressing, the scene becomes 
 
 43 
 
SUNNY SAN LUIS. 
 
 wilder and more romantic, until at last the waters of the Rio Grande pour 
 through a cleft in the rocks just wide enough to allow the construction of a 
 road along the river's edge. On the right, as one enters, tower cliffs to a 
 tremendous height, suggestive in their appearance to the Palisades of the 
 Hudson. On the left rises the round shoulder of a massive mountain. 
 The vast wall is unbroken for more than half a mile, its crest presenting 
 an almost unserrated sky-line. Once through the gap, the traveler, look- 
 ng toward the South, sees a valley encroached upon and surrounded by 
 hills 
 
 " Bathed in the tcnderest purple of distance, 
 Tinted and shadowed by pencils of air." 
 
 Here is an old stage station, a primitive and picturesque structure of 
 hewn logs, made cool and inviting by wide-roofed verandas. Not a hun- 
 dred feet away rolls the Rio Grande, swarming with trout. A drive 
 of a mile along a winding road, each turn in which reveals new scenic 
 beauties, brings the tourist to the famous springs. The medicinal quali- 
 ties of the waters, both of the cold and hot springs, have been thoroughly 
 tested and proved equal, if not superior, to the hot springs of Arkansas. 
 
 We have briefly sketched the scenic beauties of the valley. Hun- 
 dreds of attractions have been passed by in silence ; justice can not be 
 done in the brief space allotted even to the few subjects selected, but if 
 what has been written shall induce the reader to investigate for himself 
 the writer will have the satisfaction of knowing that he will be fully justi- 
 fied in wiiat he has said, and the verdict will be that nothing has been 
 exaggerated concerning the healthfulness.fertility and beauty of the Sunny 
 San Luis. 
 
100,000 Acres of Finest Farming Land 
 
 IN COLORADO — 
 
 With Full Paid Perpetnal Water Bights under the San Lnis and Empire Canals. 
 
 These canals have the oldest priority and sell the best ^vater rights of any of the large 
 canals taken from the Rio Grande. 
 
 TITLES ABSOLUTELY PERFECT 
 
 3>To Xjieiis ! iTo T-iitlgratioaa. ! 
 
 EACH PURCHASER 6ETS A PATENT DIRECT FROM THE STATE. 
 
 Prices Including Water Rights from $12.50 to $15.00 Per Acre 
 
 Kimeinber that this is only the price which is paid for water alone in other jnrtions 
 
 of the State. Terms of payment will be arranged to suit the circumstances 
 
 of the purchaser if he be a bona-fide settler. 
 
 THE MOST LIBERAL OFFER EVER MADE! 
 
 Will rent unimproved land on shares and pay tenants in rash for breaking the Ranie. 
 
 Will stU teams and sell to tenants on long time. Good comfortable buildings and flow- 
 ing Artesian water. Improved farms for rent on shares or for cash. 
 
 HENRY A. BUTTERS, - - ALAMOSA. 
 
 Deuyer Office, Boom 10, Tabor Block. 
 
 THE TRINCHERA ESTATE COMPANY. 
 
 DK. W. A. BELL, President, WM. H. MEYER, Gen'l Manager, 
 
 Manitou, Colorado. Fort Garland, Colorado. 
 
 We are now prepared to sell 
 
 40,000 ACRES CHOICE FARM LANDS 
 
 Under ditch and in the immediate vicinity of 
 
 KORT OAKLAND, COLO. 
 
 AT LOW P RICES AND ON EAS Y TERMS. 
 
 TITXjE I=»3ESH.3E»:E2CT. 
 
 Perpetual "Water Eights sold with the land, only $3.00 per Acre. 
 
 To see is to beiieve 1 Convince yourself that we offer the best cheap irrigated lands 
 in Colorado today. 
 
 For maps, price lists, etc., see or address 
 
 C. B- iTOEIjSOl^, - C3-crLera,l -(^g^ent^ 
 
 Room 19, McClintock Block, 
 
 Larlmor Street, ■ DENVER, COLORADO. 
 
FARM LOANS. INSURANCE- 
 
 GODFREY So BOYD, 
 
 The Oldest and First Established General Real Estate Agency in Alamosa. 
 
 50,000 Acres Imi'roved I^anch I^rop^ertv 
 
 With perpetual water rights for sale or rent. 
 
 Godfrey and Boyd's First Addition to Alamosa. 
 
 144 acres laid off in choice lots 40x150 feet ; Blocks 320x320 feet. 
 
 Four Branches of the Denver & Rio G::ande R. R. center 
 
 ono-fourth mile from this addition. 
 
 FLOWING ARTESIAN WELLS- NATURAL CAS WELL. 
 
 Choice Improved and Unimproved Alamosa Property for sale. 
 
 References: „ ,,. , ^ -r^ 
 
 First National Bank, Alamosa. Rollins Investment Co., Denver. 
 
 W. A. Bell, President, The Northwestern Land Co., Colorado Springs. 
 
 Correspondence Solicited. ALAMOSA) COLO. 
 
 HENRY R. BUTTERS, 
 
 Real Estate, Ixoans aijd "\Sater ^gljts, 
 
 ALAMOSA, - - " COLORADO. 
 
 Denver Office, Room lo Tabor Block. 
 
 General Agent for the Town and Subdivision Property of the Southwestern Land 
 Company, the Alamosa Land and Improvement Company, the estate ot Geo. W. 
 Rogers, the cream of the town of Alamosa in subdivision property at low prices and on 
 liberal terms. The choicest of improved and unimproved tanning lands for sale and 
 to rent. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED. 
 
 I have a tuU supply of literature on this portion of Sunny San Luis for free 
 
 distribution. . i „ 
 
 I am conducting the farming operations on several thousand acres near Alamosa, 
 and can give reliable information on all practical points of agriculture in this section. 
 
LA JARA HARDWARE CO. 
 
 i, 
 
 DEALERS IN 
 
 ienefal Safdwafe and Faming Implements, 
 
 We have one of the largest and best assorted stocks in the Valley. 
 
 I. W. SCHiFFER. Abe Schiffer. 
 
 BANK OF LA JARA 
 
 H. SCHIFTF'KR & BRO., - F-roprietors. 
 
 Do a General Banking Business; Buy and Sell Exchange and issue Drafts 
 on all the Principal Cities in Europe. 
 
 COS,R,ESFOlNrDE3I>rCE SOXilCITEID. 
 
 T. A. GOOD, GEO. O. BERLIN, 
 
 Insurance. Attorney-at-Law. 
 
 T. A. GOOD & CO. 
 
 RBAL ESTATE 
 
 RIO GRANDE COUNTY ABSTRACTS AND LOANS. 
 
 Correspondence solicited. Will practice in all courts of this State and 
 before U. S. Land Office. 
 
 First National Bank of Alamosa, Colo, 
 
 Successor to Bank of San Juan. 
 
 ESTABLISHED IN 1ST6. 
 
 THE OLDEST BANK IN THE STATE SOUTH OF ARKANSAS 
 
 RIVER. 
 
 J. L. McNeil, Prest. A. A. Salazar, Vice-Prest. H. 1. Ross, Cashier. 
 
C. M. SAMPSON. C. Y. BUTLER. 
 
 DEALERS IN- 
 
 'Rul E$tat« and T<>wn Lok, 
 
 ANTON ITO, COLO. 
 
 Our list of ranches is the largest in the San Luis Valley. 
 
 All our ranches are irrigrated from the Conejos and San Antonio Rivers, and have 
 individual water rights and are the best farms in the entire valley. 
 
 We are also agents for the sale of lots in Sampson's addition and Corlett's addition 
 to Antonito. 
 
 These lots are situated between the towns of Antonito and Conejos. 
 
 Conejos, the county seat of Conejos County, is only three-quarters of a mile from 
 Antonito. Antonito is supplied by Artesian well water, and every lot in the town is 
 irrigated from the Antonito Irrigating Canal. 
 
 Before investing in the San Luis "Valley, call on or address 
 
 SAMPSON & BUTLER. 
 
 Antonito, Colorado, 
 
 John Spriestersbach. Alva Adams. 
 
 J, SPRIESTERSBACH & CD, 
 
 (Successors to ALVA ADAMS & BRO.l 
 
 Hardware and Implements, 
 
 "Wag-ons and Bugr^ies, Farmingr Implements, Stoves and Tin'ware, 
 Miners' Supplies, Sporting Goods. 
 
 Special Attention to Orders by Mail. 
 
 MONTE VISTA, COLO. 
 
 I^-^I^livd: XJ0..^3^TS -A-2>TID ISE-A-Ij EST-fi^TE. 
 
 Any information in regard to the San Luis Valley cheerfully given. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 017 056 258 6 g 
 
 O. ISAl. B^XjL, 
 
 Whole$ak \ Retail Dmggi$t 
 
 The oldest established Drug House in the Valley. 
 
 Sixth Street, 
 
 ALAMOSA, COLO 
 
 'sozsTo-xo xjxxax: oe* "rxxxs -xt^o^^ux^" 
 
 -THE- 
 
 Deijver & Rio Grande Railroad 
 
 The only Line passing' thiough 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY 
 
 En route to and frcm the Pacific Coast. 
 
 The Tourists' Favorite Line. 
 
 For elegantly illustrated descriptive books free of cost 
 
 "Manitou," "Around the Circle," Toiirist's Hand Book," 
 
 "Rhymes of the Rockies," and "Sunny San Luis," 
 
 S. T. SMITH, 
 
 Gen'l Manager, 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 A. S. HUGHES, S. K. HOOPER, 
 
 Traffic Manager, Gen'l Pass. & Ticket Agt. 
 
 Denver, Colorado. 
 
 ^_^^pi^s,^^^__^ ILLUSTRATED ^f, y^^ „,^„^ ^^ ^„o^ „fto„f tf,e /fochy Mountains ? 
 
 ''^'^^''~2r^^^r^"^^^^^~~rs;so-=, Are you interested in Ethnology? m 
 
 • you 
 Do you lihe good Literature ? 
 Are you curious about the Cliff Dwellers ? 
 Are you fond of Flowers ? 
 Have you a leaning towards Geology ? 
 Do Minerals interest you ? 
 Would you like to study Crystals ? • 
 
 . . „ . /? thpre anuthina about the West uou want to know ? 
 "Nov. 15th. 1806. This day I am caught slcht of the Rocky 'f t"^'^^ ""i'"""y """'"' ^ JJ ;. f„„„w 9 
 
 llonntains the "Great Divide" betweea tUe Eastern aud West- Do UOU Want tO knoW hOW bold and HlWer IS founa / 
 cm pceaas."— ZssuLOM Puu. 
 
 •STADLEY-W'^V. 
 IBCEDITOP-ar- 
 
 ? 
 
 •--^ I4S DEBYtR- C01A«- 
 
 IP ^S ^^ Send One Dollar for a year's subscription, which includes a Premium 
 ir ^9^^ Cabinet of 20 Rocky Mountain Minerals, all described. OR, send 10 
 cents for a sample copy. Address 
 
 THE GREAT DIVIDE PUBLISHING CO. 
 1624 Larimer Street, - - DENVER, COLORADO.