Class Book. r- /--. 39 CpfyriglitF- coraucHT DEPosin / ivj Marvels of the New West. A VIVID PORTRAYAL OF THE UNPARALLELED MARVELS IN THE VAST WONDERLAND WEST OF THE MISSOURI RIVER. SIX BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME, COMPRISING MARVELS OF NATURE, MARVELS OF RACE, MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, MARVELS OF MINING, MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING, AND MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE, GRAPHICALLY AND TRUTHFULLY DESCRIBED BY / WILLIAM M. THAYER, Author of over Twenty Standard Works, including "The White House Series of Biographies," and " Youths' History of the Rebellion," in 4 Vols. ILL US TRA TED WITH THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-NINE FINE ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS. -»o;©<00- INTRODUCTION. PACK The New West, where and what is it ? Marvellous Boundaries ; Great Things attempted ; Capacity for Population ; Average Moral Charac- ter; No "Far West" now; Eastern Errors about Western Life; De- sign of this Book ; Next to Seeing ; " Wonderland " ; Testimony of Others ; Marvels only . , xxvii 1. MARVELS OF NATURE. Rocky Mountain Scenery ; Testimony of Bayard Taylor and William A. Baillie-Grohman . ,,..... ■» CANONS. The Arkansas Canon : Description and Royal Gorge ; Visit by Tourists . 5 The Black Canon : Its Character ; Curricauti's Needle ; Gateway to Price River Canon 6 Platte Canon: Grandeur; Crookedness; Wonderful Rocks ; a Tourist's Description 10 Boulder Canon: How to enter it; Dome Rock li Clear Creek Canon: Entrance and Course; Henry James' Description; Sculpture by Wind and Water ; The Double Head ; Wagon Road ; Old Man of the Mountains; View from Gray's Peak and James' Description; The Holy Cross Mountain 12 Williams' Canon : Its Location ; Rainbow Falls ; Devil's Gate ; Remark- able Cave ; More Remarkable Rock-Formations ; Dr. Taylor's Descrip- tion; Ute Pass ; Manitou ; Railway up Pike's Peak 17 Cheyenne Canon : Where ; The Seven Falls ; Words of a Visitor ... 26 Echo Canon: Grand Scenery; Nature's Pulpit; Description by Another; Hanging Rock ; Devil's Slide ; Pulpit Rock 26 American Fork Canon: Picturesque and Grand ; Hippopotamus Rock . . 31 iv CONTENTS. PAGE Grand Canon of the Colorado : Grandest of All ; explored by United States Government ; White and Strobe Walls 6,200 Feet High ; Per- mian Butte; Pink Cliffs; Domes and Towers ; Vishnu's Temple ... 34 Marble Canon : Belongs to Grand Canon ; Button's Description .... 44 Kanab Canon : Belongs to Grand Canon : What Dutton says 46 Land of the Standing Rocks : Very Wonderful ; Faithful Representation, 48 Albiquii Peak : In New Mexico ; What Captain Macomb says of it . . . 48 Casa Colorado Butte: In New Mexico; examined and described by Macomb 50 Forest of Gothic Spires: Remarkable Spectacle: as seen by Macomb . 51 The Needles: Graphic Description 52 Cabazon: Its Surroundings ; 1,500 Feet High 53 Painted Columns 54 Sandstone Formations: In Arizona; Description of them by Cozzens . . 56 City of Enchantment : View by Morning Light ; Mr. Cozzen's Vivid De- scription ; Testimony of Eye-Witnesses 56 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. History of its Exploration ; "Wonderland" 59 The Mammoth Hot Springs : What they are ; described by Mr. Wisner . 60 Great Falls of the Yellowstone : Its Location ; Falls 3,000 Feet ; Grand Scenery ; Statement by Gannett 63 Grand Canon of the Yellowstone: Magnificent Scene; described by Dr. Wayland Hoyt 65 Obsidian Cliffs: What are they? described by Wisner 68 Tower Falls : Surrounding Scene ; Words of the Superintendent and Lieu- tenant Doane 70 Kepler's Cascades : Beautiful ; described by Wisner 72 Palace Butte : An Imposing Natural Structure 72 GEYSERS. Upper Geyser Basin 72 Old Faithful: Described by Lieutenant Doane, of the United States Survey, and Dr. Hayden 75 Bee Hive: Whence its Name; described by Two Members of the United States Survey ']^ The Giantess: A Mighty Spouter; Mr. Langford's Testimony .... T] Fan Geyser : Whence its Name ; What Lieutenant Doane and Dr. Hayden say; Table of Geysers; Remarks of a Tourist about Geyser Basin and Yellov/stone Park 80 CONTENTS. YOSEMITE VALLEY. Location and History 82 Cathedral Rock : Its Height ; What a Traveller says 83 El Capitan ■ Grand beyond Description ; Words of an Eye-Witness ... 85 Bridal Veil Fall : Beautiful ; described by Bentley 87 YosEMiTE Falls : Compared with Niagara ; Bentley's Description .... 89 Nevada Fall : Its Plunge ; described by Bentley ; Liberty Cap .... 90 Sentinel Rock : Like Obelisk ; Formation described by Ludlow .... 91 The Big Trees : Section of Big Tree ; Table of Calaveras trees ; Stage driven through Hole in a Tree ; Racy Account from the New West ; Pio- neer Cabin ; Professor Whitney's Catalogue of Trees and Measurement . 93 GARDEN OF THE GODS. Where situated 98 The Gateway : Described ; Testimony of a Traveller 99 Bear and Seal : Soldier near by, and Rocky Monster 99 The Grandmother: Words of Dr. Mary E. Blake; Words 'of Another . 100 Balance Rock : Description ; Profile on it ; Words of Dr. B. F. Taylor . . 102 Natural Window: Action of Water in creating these Marvels, by Profes- sor Edwards 104 Cathedral Spires: Remarks; Words of Fossett . 106 MONUMENT PARK. Its Location 106 Group of Monuments : Opinion of Geologists ; a Curious Incident ; a Trav- eller's Testimony 108 The Sentinel: Why so named 109 The Duchess: Greatest Marvel; No Exaggeration no MISCELLANEOUS. Shoshone Falls: Where; a Traveller's Description no San Pedro's Wife: Near San Francisco ; a Lighthouse 113 DONNER Lake: Its Beauty and Name 113 Multnomah Falls: Its Plunge; Description 115 Pillars of Hercules: What a Writer says 115 Pyramid Park : Remarks by Professor Denton ; Words of Another ; the Cathedral 118 BuTTES near Green River City : Remarkable Exhibition 118 vi ■ CONTENTS. PAGE Palisades of Wagon Wheel Gap : Where ; Story of the Place ; Magnifi- cent Heights I20 Castellated Rocks: In Wyoming; Extent and Grandeur 123 Rhoda's Arch 123 Grand Coulee — Imposing Spectacle 123 Valley of the Laughing Waters : In Utah ; compared with Yosemite Valley 125 Church, Castle and Fortress : In Montana ; Rare Specimen of Nature's Handiwork 125 Indian Rock : In Columbia River ; Superstition of the Indians 127 The Old Woman of the Mountain : In Montana ; the Region round about it 127 Remarks on Natural Walls . 128 Natural Flagstones, etc 129 Fishing on the Mountains: Over 11,000 Feet above the Sea; Bierstadt's Subject; how reached 130 Petrified Forest : In Arizona; Graphic Description by Mr. Cozzens . . 131 Summit of Italian Mountain 133 Arizona Cacti described ; What Captain Dutton says 133 n. MARVELS OF RACE. The New West Oldest 13; The Spaniards possessed the Land , » . • . 136 Discovery of an Ancient Race 137 CAVE-DWELLERS. Description of their Houses 137 Age and Origin I38 Cave-dwellers on McElmo 139 A Cave-Town restored 140 The Casa GrancU, Ancient and Grand 141 Race in the Gila Valley 143 Found in New Mexico 144 In Cafion de Chaco , 144 In the Rio Mancos 146 CONTENTS. vii CLIFF-DWELLERS. PAGE Their Dwellings described by Holmes 146 Dwellings in Rio San Juan, described by Jacksoa 15° Estufas. — Traces of Religious Rites 154 Holmes on Ruins of Southwestern Colorado ^55 Heights almost Inaccessible ^57 In Labyrinth Canon, and Remarks of Crofutt 15^ Jackson's Discoveries in New Mexico 161 Explanation by Abb^ Dominech 163 Picture- Writing on Walls ^65 Explanation by Holmes 167 Ancient Pottery ^68 Remains of Human Beings 171 The Guide's Legendary Tale - I7i PUEBLOS. What?— Their History 172 Description of a Pueblo, or Town 173 Professor Zahm's Observation • . . . . 177 The Race at Sante Fe I79 Three Civilizations 180 Mrs. Wallace's Observation and Description 182 Implements and Customs Like those of Palestine 183 Acoma and its Inhabitants 184 Pecos and its People 186 ZUNIS. Frank D. Cushing among them 187 Zuiii Town : Location and Description 188 Cushing's Entrance into the Town ^'y> Altars and Incantation Scene ^93 Industrious and Intelligent ^93 Thirteen Orders of Society 19S Making a Zuni of Mr. Cushing 196 Hospitable and Truthful, Dress, Antiquity ^99 Their Traditions 200 Palestine Customs here 200 Cushing's Description of a Festival 201 MOQUIS. Like the Zunis, yet Different . .". 206 Description of them at Home 207 viii CONTENTS. PAGE Living on nearly Inaccessible Heights 208 Cozzen's Visit and Personal Observations 208 MEXICANS. Like the Pueblos - • 210 Some of their Habits and Customs 211 How they till the Soil 211 Mexican Women ' 214 The Dance and Funeral 215 Penitenties 215 Every-day Life 216 Art of making Pottery 219 III. MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. " Great American Desert " and its Perils 220 Fremont raising Flag on Rocky Mountains 224 History of Fremont's Hardships 225 Rush to California in 1848 232 Gold-Seeking in Colorado in 1858 233 Reign of Terror among Settlers 238 Colonel Chivington's Battle with Red Men 240 A Pioneer Woman's Hardship 246 The Indian and Buffalo disappearing 253 Stage Line across the Plains 256 Progress in carrying Mails 259 The Pony Express 261 Growth of Business 264 Railroad across the Continent 266 First and Last Depot 269 What Indians thought of Railroads 271 Ten Miles built in One Day 273 United States Government vindicated 274 Growth of Population 276 RAILROADS OVER MOUNTAINS. Through the Royal Gorge 278 Over Marshall Pass 280 Trip through Platte Canon 283 CONTENTS. ix PAGE Heavy Work and Timber Line 285 Through Chalk Creek Canon and Alpine Tunnel 287 Around the Palisades 291 The Runaway Train 293 Snowbound and Snow-Sheds 296 Over Veta Pass with its Wonders 3°° Crossing Sangre de Christo Range and Whiplash Railway 301 Through Toltec Tunnel 7PS The Garfield Monument 3°^ Dogtown and Beavertown 3^9 Through Animas Canon 3^2 The Switchback and Loop 3^4 Over the Raton Mountains 317 The Loop at Tehachapi Pass Z^l Rounding Cape Horn 318 American River Canon and the Calumet Railroad 320 Railway Hospitals 323 Missouri River and Marant Gulch Railroad Bridge 324 Mammoth Ferry-Boat 327 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Omaha, Nebraska : Buildings show Enterprise ; School-House ; Court- House 329 Portland, Oregon : View of it, and Business ; High School ; Newspapers ; Business Block ; Contrast; State-House; Insane Asylum 332 Tacoma, W. T. : Thrift; Hotel; Business Blocks ; House of Worship; Sem- inary; School-House 337 Butte City, Montana: Business Boom; View of City; Court-House; Churches ; Schools ; Helena 341 Idaho : Origin of Name ; View of Boise City ; Capitol Square 345 Cheyenne, Wyoming : Early History; School-House 350 First and Last Capitol of Kansas 351 Gunnison City, Colorado : Magic Growth ; Costly Hotel 351 Denver, Colorado: Desert and Garden; Growth and Business; Union Depot; First and Last Capitol; Tabor Opera House; Windsor Hotel; Superior Public Schools ; Dr. Philbrick's Testimony ; High School Build- ing ; Libraries ; Private Schools ; Churclies 355 GROWTH OF COLONIES. Greeley, Colorado : Its History, by Cameron ; Foundation Principles ; High School ; First Place of Worship ; First and Last Hotel ; Business Blocks X CONTENTS. PAGB and Business ; Anti-Saloon Measure ; Life of Meeker ; Capture of Mrs. Meeker and Daughter 367 Colorado Springs : The Antlers ; Location and Description of the Town ; College 389 THE PACIFIC SLOPE. San Francisco, California : Gold and Business ; Progress of the City ; State Capitol ; City Hall ; Palace Hotel ; Lick Observatory ; Palatial Residen- ces ; Remarkable Health Resorts ; a Hundred Years from Now . . . 391 THE MORMON SETTLEMENT. Great Business Enterprise ; Description of Salt Lake City : Thrift in Agri- culture 404 RAILROAD KINGS. Brief Biographies: Oakes Ames; Oliver Ames; C. P. Huntington; Charles Crocker; Lelaud Stanford; Sidney Dillon; David H. Moftat, 406 IV. MARVELS OF MINING. Discovery of Gold by Marshall in 1848 429 Captain Sutter and the End 430 Richness of the Mines 431 Remarkable Increase of Population 433 Immense Fortunes realized 435 Industrial JMining E.xposition 436 The Prospector 438 Intelligence and Tact Indispensable 440 Stumbling upon Mines 442 Placer Mining 446 Gulch Mining 449 Hjdraulic ^Mining 449 Lode Mining 450 Drift Mining 451 Going into a Mine . • 453 Weights, Values, and Measurements 456 Reduction of Ores : Stamp Mill ; Quartz Mill 459 Smelting ' 462 CONTENTS. Xi PAGE Leadville: Its Sudden Growth. — Location. — Hotel. — Art Palace. — Appearance of City. — Business. — Schools and School-Houses. — Its Bullion Output. — Origin of the Gold-Find. — Bonanza Mines. — Mines Inexhaustible 463 Profits of Mining 478 Leading Mines of Colorado 479 The Mariposa Estate • 480 The Mother Lode 483 Richest Mines in California 484 Nuggets 487 Arizona: Silver-Bearing. — Apaches hinder. — Great Mines 490 Dakota, and its Richest Mines 493 Idaho and its Wealthy Mines 494 Montana, and its Wonderful Bullion Product 496 Nevada: Its Harvest of Silver. — The Famous Comstock Lode, and its Fabulous Yield 500 New Mexico : Present Mining Output and Future Promise 503 Utah: Wealth of its Gold and Silver Mines. — Rich Iron Mines .... 506 Wyoming: Gold. — Copper. — Coal 509 Oregon and Washington : Estimate of the Director of the United States Mint 511 Product of Precious Metals in the New West 512 Will the Mines fail? 514 Additional Facts and Statistics 514 Gems 520 Morals of Mining Camps 520 Mining Kings: Horace A. W. Tabor, John L. Routt, John P. Jones, James G. Fair, Jerome B. Chaffee, Nathaniel P. Hill, J. F. Matthews ... 524 V. MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. Paradise of Stock-Raisers : Immense Herds of the New West. — Acres of Grazing Lands. — How it was from 1850-70 535 What Cattle eat : Description of the Grasses 538 The Cattle Ranch: How to get one. — Cattle on the Range. — The Stockman on Duty 541 Profits of Stock-Raising : Estimate by Dakota Editor. — Hayes. — Fosset. — One Cow's Family. — Estimate by Clark and Ulm. — Whigham. — Other Estimates and Facts. — A Scotchman's Estimate. — Dressed Beef, 547 xii CONTENTS. PAGE The Cowboy: Not understood. — His Defence by the Oregon Editor. — An Incident 56^ The Round-up: What it is, and where. — Citizen joining the Round-up. — Description by a Kansas Ranchman. — Perils of the Round-up. — De- scription of Horses used. — Cattle-Brands. — "Cutting Out." — Brand- ing Calves. — Beef Round-up. — Driving Cattle to Railroad. — " Blabbing Calves." — The Chicago Stockyards. — Cattle in Extreme Cold. — The Enemies of Cattle and Horses. — The Herd and Prairie Fire .... 568 The Sheep Ranch: Extent of the Business. — Estimate of Profits by Hayes. — By Idaho Official. — By Fossett. — In Montana. — In Kansas. — Other Facts. — Breeds. — Shearing. — Sheep on Union Pacific Rail- road. — Life on Sheep Ranch. — Incidents on a Ranch. — Latest Sheep Rack. — Sheep thrive in all lands 594 A Woman on a Cattle Ranch 608 Cattle Kings: John H. Iliff, Jared L. Brush, Charles Lux, R. G. Head, Thomas H. Lawrence, John W. Snyder, John T. Lytle 616 VI. MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. The Facts too Large for Belief 628 Now, the Facts not Large enough 630 Current Reports from Journals of the Day 631 Methods of Agriculture: How a Farm of 30,000 Acres is plowed. — Steam-Plowing. — History of Wheat-Harvesting. — Seeding Wheat. — Wonders of Harvesting. — Words of Another. — Threshing by Steam. — Wheat and Blizzards. — Real Facts about Land " Unfit for Cultivation " . 637 Kansas: The Hub. — The Geographical Centre. — "Corn is King." — Sound Corn. — Facts about Wheat. — The Status of Oats and Other Products. — Income and Value of Farms. — The Floral Wealth of Kansas. — Broom Corn. — Tree-Planting 649 Nebraska: Originates "Arbor Day." — Generous Laws. — Her Example Contagious. — United States Government Aids 658 Railroad Companies planting Trees 659 Montana : Pioneer Farmers and their Success. — What Agricultural Bureau says. — Strahom on Montana, with Figures that won't lie 662 Dakota : An Empire. — Exhibit at New Orleans. — Words of E. V. Smalley. — A Great Wheat Farm. — The Dalrymple Farm of 75,000 Acres. — Amusing and Instructive Letter. — A Stubborn Fact 671 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE IDAHO: Its Great Resources. — How 300,000 Acres are opened to Settlers. — Testimony of Two Eye-Witnesses 678 California: The Cornucopia of the World. — Its Two Seasons. — Remark- able Growths. — Words of Nordhoff. — Hop-Raising. ^ Raisin-Making. — Wine-Making. — Orange Culture. — Alfalfa. — Miscellaneous Facts . 682 Colorado: Its Agricultural Domain. — Marvellous Parks. — Testimony of Farmers in San Luis Park. — Reports of Immense Products 695 Arizona : Its Large Area of Fertile Land. — Report of Several Experiments. — Other Facts 698 Wyoming and Washington : Proofs of Fertility. — Letter of a Resident . 699 Irrigation: Its Advantage. — Remarks of a Writer. — Ditch in Kansas. — Irrigation by Flooding. — Great Land Scheme. — Irrigating in San Luis Park. — Extent of Irrigation in Colorado, with J. Max Clark's Description of it. — Cost of Irrigation. — Irrigating an Orchard in California. — Underground Irrigation 702 CONCLUSION. What we have seen. — God in this History. — Why Pilgrims landed on a Rock and not on a Gold Mine. — Greatest Christian Nation meant. — Result if Gold instead of Granite. — View of A. Carnegie. — The New West paying our Debt. — American Credit higher than English. — The New West will decide our Destiny. — Anglo-Saxon Race to rule. — One Language and Purpose. — Remarks of Herbert Spencer. — Intem- perance. — Mormonism and Other Isms. — Power of Liberty, Education, and Christianity , , 710 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. -<>©:JOO- PORTRAITS. PAGE Railroad Kings: Oakes Ames, Oliver Ames, C. P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Sidney Dillon, David H. iVIoffat 407 Mining Kings: Horace A. W. Tabor, John L. Routt, John F. Jones, James G. Fair, Jerome B. Chaffee, Nathaniel P. Hill, J. F. Matthews .... 523 Cattle Kings: John H. Iliff, Jared L. Brush, Charles Lux, R. G. Head, Thomas H. Lawrence, John W. Snyder, John T. Lytle 623 I. MARVELS OF NATURE. Frontispiece. Grand C^inon of the Arkansas » 4 The Royal Gorge 5 The Black Caiion 7 Curricauti's Needle , 8 Castle Gate 9 Rift in the Rocks 10 Dome Rock 12 The Double Head 13 The Old Man of the Mountains 14 Gray's Peak 15 Mount of the Holy Cross 17 Williams' Caiion 18 Rainbow Falls 19 Devil's Gate 20 Cave of the Winds 21 Castle Rock 22 Pillar of Jupiter 22 Freight Teams climbing Ute Pass 23 Manitou and Pike's Peak , , . . . 24 Pike's Peak Railway 26 The Seven Falls , 27 Pulpit Rock 28 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Hanging Rock ..■>«.. 29 Devirs Slide . . . 30 Pulpit Rock ' 32 Hippopotamus Rock 2)7) Climbing the Grand Canon of the Colorado 34 Permian Butte 3^ Vermilion Cliffs 3^ Pink Cliffs 40 Dome and Towers 41 Vishnu's Temple 43 Marble Canon 45 Land of the Standing Rocks 46 Kanab Canon 47 Albiquiu Peak 48 Casa Colorado Butte 5° Forest of Gothic Spires 51 The Needles . . . • 52 Cabazon 53 Painted Columns ' . 54 Natural Sandstone Formations 55 A City not made with Hands 57 Mammoth Hot Springs 61 Great Falls of the Yellowstone 64 ,Grand Canon of the Yellowstone 66 Obsidian Cliffs 68 Tower Falls 69 Kepler's Cascades on the Firehole River 71 Palace Butte Tl Old Faithful Geyser 74 Bee Hive Geyser 76 The Giantess Geyser 78 Fan Geyser 79 Cathedral Rock 84 Bridal Veil Fall 85 El Capitan 85 Yosemite Falls 88 Liberty Cap 90 Sentinel Rock 91 Section of a Big Tree 93 Stage Line 95 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. . xvii PAGE Pioneer Cabin g6 Gateway to the Garden of the Gods gg Bear and Seal loo The Grandmother loi Balance Rock 102 Window in a Rock 104 Cathedral Spires 105 Monument Park 107 Group of Monuments 108 The Sentinel 109 The Duchess no Shoshone Falls in San Pedro's Wife ; or, The Woman of the Period . . .• 112 Donner Lake 114 Multnomah Falls 115 Pillars of Hercules 116 Pyramid Park 118 Green River City and Buttes iig Wagon Wheel Gap 120 Rhoda's Arch 121 Castellated Rocks 122 Grand Coulee 123 The Valley of the Laughing Waters 124 Indian Rock 125 Church, Castle, and Fortress 126 Old Woman of the Mountain 127 Forms of Walls 129 Fishing on the Mountains 130 Petrified Forest 131 Summit of Italian Mountain 132 Arizona Cacti 133 II. MARVELS OF RACE. Cave-Town near the San Juan 138 Ancient Cave-Dwellings on the McElmo 139 A Cave-Town Restored 141 The Casas Grandes in 1859 142 A Tower in McElmo Valley 143 Ruins in the Canon de Chaco 145 Restored Tower and Cliff-Houses 147 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Hanging Rock . . . « « . . . 29 Devil's Slide 30 Pulpit Rock 32 Hippopotamus Rock 33 Climbing the Grand Canon of the Colorado 34 Permian Butte 36 Vermilion Cliffs 38 Pink Cliffs 40 Dome and Towers 41 Vishnu's Temple 43 Marble Canon 45 Land of the Standing Rocks 46 Kanab Canon 47 Albiquiu Peak 48 Casa Colorado Butte 50 Forest of Gothic Spires 51 The Needles 52 Cabazon 53 Painted Columns • . 54 Natural Sandstone Formations 55 A City not made with Hands 57 Mammoth Hot Springs 61 Great Falls of the Yellowstone 64 ,Grand Canon of the Yellowstone 66 Obsidian Cliffs 68 Tower Falls 69 Kepler's Cascades on the Firehole River 71 Palace Butte 73 Old Faithful Geyser 74 Bee Hive Geyser 76 The Giantess Geyser 78 Fan Geyser 79 Cathedral Rock 84 Bridal Veil Fall 85 El Capitan 85 Yosemite Falls 88 Liberty Cap 90 Sentinel Rock 91 Section of a Big Tree 93 Stage Line 95 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvii PAGE Pioneer Cabin 96 Gateway to the Garden of the Gods 99 Bear and Seal The Grandmother Balance Rock Window in a Rock Cathedral Spires Monument Park Group of Monuments The Sentinel The Duchess Shoshone Falls San Pedro's Wife ; or, The Woman of the Period Donner Lake Multnomah Falls Pillars of Hercules Pyramid Park Green River City and Buttes Wagon Wheel Gap Rhoda's Arch Castellated Rocks Grand Coulee The Valley of the Laughing Waters Indian Rock Church, Castle, and Fortress Old Woman of the Mountain Forms of Walls Fishing on the Mountains Petrified Forest Summit of Italian Mountain Arizona Cacti 00 01 02 04 05 07 08 09 10 II 12 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 31 32 II. MARVELS OF RACE. Cave-Town near the San Juan 138 Ancient Cave-Dwellings on the McElmo 139 A Cave-Town Restored 141 The Casas Grandes in 1859 142 A Tower in McElmo Valley 143 Ruins in the Canon de Chaco 145 Restored Tower and Cliff-Houses 147 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE House in a Rock of Montezuma Canon 149 Two-storied Cliff-Hous^ 150 Cliff-House on the Mancos I53 Ground Plan of Last-Named Cliff-House 1 54 ClifT-Dwellings, Mancos Canon 155 Cliff-House in the Canon de Chelly 156 Cliff-Dwellings, Southern Colorado i59 Cliff and Cliff-Houses 160 Ground Plan of the Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Canon 162 A Pueblo restored by Lieutenant Simpson 164 El Moro, or Inscription Rock 166 Rock Inscriptions 167 Vases found on the Banks of the San Juan 169 Fragments of Pottery 169 A Drinking- Vessel from Zuni ^■^o A Drinking- Vessel from Old Zuni 17" Photograph of a Human Skull found One Hundred and Thirty Feet Deep in the Earth 171 Pueblo of Laguna 174 Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico I75 Adobe Oven I77 The Oldest House in the United States 178 The Adobe Palace I79 The Oldest Church in America 181 Pueblo and Cart 183 Primitive Agriculture 184 Burro loaded with Wood 184 An Ancient Wheelbarrow 185 Acoma 185 Pecos 186 Zuni 189 Zuni Altars and Incantation Scene 192 Zuni Vegetable Garden 193 Zuni Farm-House . , 194 The Moquis Pueblos 208 Life in New Mexico 210 Mexican Cart and Plough 211 Mexican Flour-Mill 212 Adobe Fireplace 213 Mexican Pottery » . . . 218 LI^T OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Xix III. MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. PAGE Raising the Flag 223 Encountering the Blizzard 227 Leaving the Weak to Die 229 Over the Plains then . . 233 Lightning Express 234 Crossing the Plains with a Hand-Cart 236 Perils of D. C. Oakes 237 Capture of Spotted Horse 238 Perils by Indians 240 Mrs. Tabor's Cabin 247 Crossing the Plains now 254 Herd of Buffalo stopping the Train 255 Stage attacked by Indians 257 Snow Skates 260 Pony Express Station 262 Pony Express in Mountain Storm 263 Fargo and Wells Express 264 Fifty-four Thousand Pounds 265 Driving the Last Spike 267 First Office 269 Central Pacific Depot 270 Indians' First View of the Cars 271 Locating the Line 278 Marshall Pass 282 Head of South Park 284 Stage Line over Mosquito Pass 285 Near Breckenridge on Way to Leadville 286 Above Timber Line 287 Chalk Creek Canon 288 Scene in South Park 289 Around the Palisades 291 The Runaway Train 293 Uncompahgre Peaks 295 Snow Galleries, Sierra Nevada Mountains 296 Interior of Snow-Sheds 297 The Great Snow-Plough 298 Railroad above the Clouds 300 Crossing Sangre de Christo Range 301 Fort Garland .. 302 XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Whiplash 303 Lot's Wife 304 Phantom Curve 305 Toltec Tunnel 306 West End of the Toltec Tunne! 307 Garfield Monument 308 Dogtown 309 Beavertown 310 Caiion of the Rio Las Animas 311 Animas Caiion and Needles 313 The High Line Road between Black Hawk and Central City 314 The Loop 315 Crossing'the Raton Mountains '316 The Loop, Tehachapi Pass 318 Over Tunnel and Loop 319 Rounding Cape Horn 320 American River Caiion 321 Central Pacific Railroad Hospital 323 Marent Gulch Bridge 325 Steamer " Solano " 328 High School Building, Omaha 330 Court-House 331 High School Building, Portland 333 Portland, Oregon 335 The Kamm Block T^i^d State House 337 Insane Asylum > 338 The Tacoma Hotel 339 Butte City 342 Court-House 343 Boise City ^ 347 Capitol Square 348 Central School Building 349 First Capitol of Kansas 350 Last Capitol of Kansas 350 Gunnison in 1879 351 La Veta Hotel, Gunnison 352 Union Depot 358 First Capitol of Colorado 359 Last Capitol of Colorado 360 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi PAGE Tabor Grand Opera House 361 Windsor Hotel 362 High School, Denver 365 High School Building, Greeley, Colorado 372 First Place of Worship yji First Hotel 374 Last Hotel — The "Oasis" 374 Business Block 376 Meeker and his Home 379 Captivity of Mrs. Meeker and Daughter ' 384 The Antlers 389 Colorado College 390 State Capitol 393 City Hall 394 Palace Hotel 395 Residence of Charles Crocker 397 Lick Observatory 398 Hotel del Monte, Monterey 400 The Raymond 401 Hotel, Las Vegas Hot Springs 402 Assembly Hall, Tabernacle, and Temple, Salt Lake 405 Monument in Memory of Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames 416 IV. MARVELS OF MINING. Sutter's Mill 432 Off for the Mines 433 Industrial Exposition Building 437 Prospectors 438 Gold-Digger and Deer 442 Mine Locomotive 443 Finding Gold by Accident 444 Placer Mining 445 The Rocker 447 Gulch Mining 448 Gulch Mining, Idaho 449 Flume 450 Lode Mining 451 Underground Railroad 452 Veins of Gold 453 Going into a Mine 454 XXI 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Sloping 456 Rock-Boring Winch 458 Ten-Stamp Quartz Mill 459 Smelting Works at Argo 461 Gold and Silver 462 A Ton of Pure Silver 463 Tabor Grand 465 Looking West from Printer Boy Hill 467 Fryer Hill 471 Sugar Loaf Mountain 473 Drifting and Shaft Sinking ." . 477 Red Mountain 498 Lake Valley Smelting Works 504 V. MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. Buffalo Grasses 539 Kansas Grasses 540 Home on a Cattle Ranch 541 Home on a Cattle Ranch 542 A Dug-Out 542 Herd on the Range 544. Off for the Ranch 545 Prairie Post-Office . , . . 546 Tarantula Nest . . , 547 Cattle Seeking Water 548 A Cowboy 561 Cowboy off for the Range 562 Death of a Hero 565 Stopping a Stampede 568 Group of Cowboys 569 The "Round-Up" 570 Starting a Laundry 572 Picking up a Coia 574 Grub Wagon for the " Round-Up " 575 Preparing for the Night-Herd 577 A Bucking Horse 579 Cattle Brand 580 Roping and Cutting Out 581 Branding Calves 582 Chasing a Calf 583 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxill PAGE Chicago Stockyards 5^6 Hauling a Cow from tlie Mire 59° A Prairie Fire 592 Sheep Ranch 595 Captain Jack 602 Sheep-Shearing 602 Bagging Wool for Transportation 603 Counting Sheep 605 The Runaway Lamb 606 A Novel Sheep-Rack 607 Going to the Ranch 609 Their Ranch Home 611 Climbing the Butte 613 VI. MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. Sulkey Plough 629 Corn in the Kaw Valley, Kansas 630 Millet — Six Weeks' Growth 632 King of Harrows 634 Ploughing on a Bonanza Farm 636 Steam Gang Plough 637 Harrowing on a Bonanza Farm 638 Seeding on a Bonanza Farm 639 Harvesting on a Bonanza Farm 641 Steam Header 642 The Steam Thresher , • . . . 644 McCormick's New Reaper 645 Broadcast Sower 648 Two-Rowed Corn-Planter 652 Empire Grain-Drill 653 Sunflowers 656 Broom Corn 657 Pioneer Farmer's Home in Montana » 661 Pleasant View Farm 663 Albino Park Farm 665 Cart-Spreader , 666 Hay-Tedder 667 Automatic Stacker and Gatherer . 669 Pioneer Home in Dakota 670 A Dakota Wheat Farm = . . . 672 XXIV UST OF ILLUSTRATIOXS. PACK California Farm House 6S3 Hop Farm 685 California Vineyard 689 Bee Culture 691 California Orange Grove 693 Logging near Olympia 701 Fish Wheel on the Columbia 702 Irrig-ating 703 Headg~ate 706 Irrig-ating an Orchard - 70S MAPS AND DIAGRAMS. The New West as it was . 220 The New West as it is 221 Alignment of the D. & R. G. Railroad over Marshall Pass, Colorado ... 281 Geographical Centre of the United States 649 Irrigating in Idaho 680 Method of Irrigating ^ 704 AUTHORS CONSULTED. -!>Oj»JOO- United States Geological and Geographical Survey of Colorado asd Adjacent Territories. By F. V. Hayden. United States Geological Survey. J. W. Powell, Director. Second Annual Report, 1880 and 1881. Atlas of Monographs and History of Grand Canon of Colorado. By Major Dutton. United States Geological Explorations. By Clarence King. United States Geological Survey. By Lieutenant Wheeler, of Corps of Engi- neers. Vol. III., 1875. United States Report on Dakota. By Lieutenant Warren. United States Survey of Idaho, Montana, etc. United States Report on Nevada and Arizona. Exploring Expedition from Sante F£ to Junction of Grand asd Green Rivers, 1859. By Major Macomb. United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Rocky Moun- tain Region. Contribution to Ethnology. J. W. Powell, Director. Vol. IV., 1881. Mixing Statistics West of the Rocky Mountalvs. By R. H. Raymond, United States Commissioner of ^Mining. Eleventh An-nual Report of the UN^TED States Geological and Geo- graphical Survey of Idaho and Wyoming, 1877. By F. V. Hayden. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. By J. W. Powell. United States Census for 1880. Reports to United States Government on Mineral Resources of the United States. By J. Ross Browne. Bulletins of the Untted States Geological and Geographical Survey of THE Territories. By F. V. Hayden. Vols. I. and II. Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for 1873. By F. V. Hayden. Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for 1876. By F. V. Hayden. xxvi Al/rnOKS COXSfLTEl). Kxi'inuTiON TO CiKKAT S.vi.T l.AKK OK I' lAii. Tn 11. Stansbury, Captain of Tupographioal Knginoois of Unitod States Army. Exi'KornoN to vwv SorKii:s ov \\\v. Mississirn, AKKAN&f\s, Kansas, and La Pi .\ III: Kin IKS. lU Major Z. M. Tope. Naiin I Racks ok vwv. Pacikic Coast of Nourii Amkuica. By Herbert Howe l\iiiorot't. llisiVRV OF THE liNiTKiJ STATES. By Georgo Bancroft. rRKUisroKto Amkkioa. By the Marquis de Nadailac. Ati.an ns; the Anteiuia'VI.vn Woku^. By Ignatius Donelley. History of the Northern Tacikic Rah^road. By K. \'. Smalley. Keih^rts of the DuiECiVK OF THE MiNT. Wasbington. D.C. l\REMisi\>Rio Times as illi'str.\ted by Ancient Ruins, etc. By Sir John Lubbock. RF.SOURCES of Arizona. By r. Hamilton. Tales of the Coloraix^ Pioneers. By Alice Polk Hill. The Resoi'RCES of the Rocky Mountains. By E. J. Farmer. Till' Union Pacikic Tourist. By the Company. REixMiis OK THE State Boards ok Agriculture of Kansas, Nebraska. Colorado, and California. Artesian Wells on the Great Pi„\ins. B\ Dop;\rtment of Agriculture. Wash- ington. Nu.MUER ANO \'ai UK OF FvKM Animals. By Department of Agriculture. Wash- ington. RKKtRi^ OF National Conyk:ntion of Cai-tleaien for 1SS4 ano 1885. Reivrts of the Chamber of Commerce of DenyeiI and San Francisco. The Mining Industry. By Mining Association of Denver. Califc>rnia as it IS- By S;\n Francisco Call Company. Reivrt of the Wyoming Stock-Growers' Association. Bn^ OF Trayel at Home. By H. H. Resources of Coloraixx By J. Alden Smith, State Geologist. Leadville. By L. A. Kent. Reix^rts of the Pubuc Schools of Kansas City. Omaha. Denver. San Francisco, etc. The Wonderi_\nd Route to Pacific Coast. By Northern Pacitic Railroad. Illustrated New Mexico. By M. G. Ritch. Coloraixx By Frank Fossett. Montana anl> Yellowstone Park. By Robert E. Strahorn. Gunnison, Colorado's Bonanz-\ County. By John K. Hallowell, Geologist. HiSTv^RY OF Oregon and Caufornia. By Robert Greenhouse. History of Oregon. By Dr. Willi.xm Ikirrows. History of KAN-jiAS. By Professor Spring. AUTHORS CONSULTED. xxvii Bachelder's Resources of liAK/ytK. Plains of the Great West. By R. I. Dodge. Adventc'RES IX THE ApACHE Coi'XTKY. By J. Koss Browne. Mixes of Coloraix*. By O. J. Hollister. Thirty Yeaics' Resiuexce with Ixdiax Tribes. By H. IC Schoolcraft. The Tourist's Overlaxd Gltiije. By George A. Crofutt Grip-.Sack Glide of CoijORAIx*. By George A. Crofutt. The New West. By Charles Loring Brace. The Aztecs. From the French of L. BiauL By J. L. Garner. Camps ix the Rfx;KV Mouxtaixs. By William A- Baillie-<^irohman- Colorado. By Bayard Ta\lor. Heart of the Coxtixext. By Fritz Hugh Ludlow. The Yosemite Glide- Bo^jk. Profe.ssor J. D. Whitney, State Geologist of Cali- fornia. The YELLOwbiONE Inatioxal i'AKK. By H. J. Wisner. Haxdijook of the Pacific Coa.st. By William I^ Bentley. The Crest of the Coxtixext. By Ernest Ingersoll. Woxders of the Yellowstoxe. By James Richardson. A Lady's Life ix the Rocky Molxtaixs. By Lsabella L. Bird. Three Years ix Arizona ant) New Mexico. By S. W. Cozzens, Resources of Califorxia- By John S. HittelL New Colorado and the Saxte Fe Trail. By A. A- Hayes, Jr. Life of Kit Carsox. By J. S. C. AbhK)tt. Life of John C. Fremont. By G. W. Upham. The Rocky Mountain Saints. By T. B. H. Stenhouse. First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Reports of the State Mlveral- OGiST OF Califorma. By Henr)- G. Hanlcs. El DoraiX). By Bayard Taylor. Holmes* U.vited States Report on Ancient Races in Southa^xstern Coi^ ORADO. 1875 and 1876. Jackson's Umted States Report on Ancient Races. 1877. Mining Camps. By Charles Howard Shinn. Comstock's History of the Precious Metals. Stewart's Irrigation. HydpvAULic Mining ix Californta. By A. J. Browne. Resources of Montana. By J. S Harris and W. A. Gark, Commissoners Oregon axd Washington. By Northern Pacific Railroad Company. Spaulding ox Public Lands. Scribxer's Statistical Atla-s, INTRODUCTION. -oojecjoo- THE NEW WEST — where is it? what is it? That portion of our great country lying between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean, embracing the States and Territories of Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Ore- gon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Of itself a mighty empire ! This New West contains more than half the territory of our entire country. The territorial measurement of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is 3,025,600 square miles. The States and Territories of the New West embrace 1,532,142 square miles of it, which is 19,342 square miles more than one-half. Its magnitude is a marvel. How few people from Maine to Ohio have supposed that more than one-half of the area of their country lies between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean ! Without stopping to consult the map, or the Bureau of Statistics, they have been indulging the thought that "the jumping-off place" was not far west of the Mississippi. Reliable information concern- ing the New West is of so recent date that the mass of the people in the East are not posted as to the actual facts. " Facts are stranger than fiction " is a sentiment especially applicable to this unsettled, but rapidly settling part of our land. Were some well-posted citizen of the New West to present the actual facts about that domain to the inhabitants of the Eastern States, a multitude of hearers would denounce him as a liar, or pity him for possessing more imagination than judgment. It is because so much of the truly marvellous is interwoven with the history and present status of that Eldorado. XXX » MARVELS OF THE NEW U EST. To recur again to territorial limits. The country east of the Mississippi is divided into States so small, comparatively, that their inhabitants are not prepared to appreciate the magnitude of the States and Territories west of the "Father of waters." They are so accus- tomed to States containing from two thousand to fifty thousand square miles, that they are quite unprepared to comprehend the more distant ones, three and four times as large. Kansas is almost ten times larger than Massachusetts, nearly seventeen times larger than Connecticut, sixty-five times larger than Rhode Island ; and its area more than equals the combined area of all the New England States, with Mary- land and Delaware added. Colorado is twelve times larger than Massachusetts, and twenty-six times larger than Connecticut. One hundred Rhode Islands can be set down upon its 104,500 square miles. One of its counties (Gunnison) is larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined. It has four magnificent parks, situated in the mountains, from seven thousand to nine thousand feet above the sea, the smaller of which is equal to two Rhode Islands ; and the State of Massachusetts could be set within the larger. These four parks contain as many acres as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island together. Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada, Dakota, and California are larger than Colorado. California is twenty-two times larger than Massachusetts, nearly three times as large as all the New England States, and its area exceeds the united area of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Mary- land. Eighteen Massachusetts can be put into Dakota, with ample room left to receive the little State of Rhode Island. Montana is almost as large as Dakota, and can spread seventeen Massachusetts and one Rhode Island over its ample surface. New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada are not much behind their gigantic neighbors ; for their united territory is equal to one-tenth of our entire national domain, and more than equal to the combined area of New York, Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and South Carolina, together with all the New England States. These are marvellous boundaries ; and they represent the grand scale upon which our New Western country is laid out, as well as the INTRODUCTION. xxxi magnitude of its social, commercial, and educational enterprises. Nothing is done there in a small way. Human plans are as large as the States. Nothing is too large or too difficult to be undertaken. Enterprises are prodigious. The amount of business is almost in- credible. Enormous contracts, enormous profits, enormous losses, are the order of the day. " Do you pretend to say that nothing is impossible in the work of constructing railways .-' " inquired a lawyer in a Colorado court of a witness who was a railroad official. " I pretend to say," replied the witness, "that, give us a starting-point, and the objective point to be reached, with a railroad company having a plenty of money behind, we will reach it." It is on such a magnificent scale that things are done in the New West. Nothing narrow or picayune, but broad and large ! " Our railroad company wants to borrow fifty millions,'' said a railway official in our hearing. Fifty MILLIONS ! That fairly represents the magnitude of Western work. Men make money by the million, and sometimes they lose it by the million, though not often. They aspire to the largest business, the greatest triumphs of human effort, and the quickest possible results. Hence, the handsomest and richest city, the best school system, the finest public buildings, and the most wonderful growth are found on what was but recently " The Great American Desert." Given enterprise on a grand scale, and even the "desert will blossom as the rose ! " Marvels are constantly multiplying in the New West. Surprises are as common there as commonplace is in the East. The rapid in- crease of its population is as great a marvel as a cafion, or a railroad over Marshall Pass. The time is coming when the population west of the Missouri River will exceed the population east of it. Kansas can accommodate thirty millions of people without being crowded more than Massachusetts will be fifty years from now. Colorado can support more than Kansas ; and so can Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico have room for forty millions each. Dakota and Montana can maintain sixty millions each, and California exceed both of them in the number of its in- habitants. Nebraska and Washington Territory will fall little behind xxxii MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Kansas in capacity for population. It is not without authority, then, that some statisticians claim that the United States can support in the future, when her wonderful resources have had time to develop, a population of 3,600,000,000 — more than twice the number of people now dwelling on the face of the earth ! The New West, with its larger territory, its inexhaustible mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and coal, its richer lands, more genial and healthier climate, its grander scenery and irrepressible spirit of enterprise, must com- mand its full share of these teeming millions. Its influence must become potent to determine, if not to control, the destiny of our great Republic. As will be its domestic, social, intellectual, moral, and Christian character, so will be the power and perpetuity of our national government. The nation will rise or fall with the New West. The latter' s increasing wealth and enterprise must exert a controlling influence upon our political history. The minds that manage and drive there, must prove more or less potential at the seat of government. Mind is master everywhere : and mind that is the life and soul of Western enterprise, thrift, and greatness, must become masterful in the councils of the nation. Time only is neces- sary to settle the matter ; and time is always an element of success or failure. Large numbers of Eastern people suppose that even now the " Far West," as they call the New West, is a rude, rough, half-civilized frontier, where men who escape the Indian scalping-knife may fall by the shot of the desperado. They are not prepared for the statement that the average society of the New West will compare favorably with that of New England, and that the most dangerous elements of humanity in Western cities, and even in mining towns, is not so bad as the lowest vicious classes of New York and other Eastern cities. But it is even so. That the present population between Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean will compare favorably with that of Eastern States in virtue and intelligence, is a marvel ; and the cause is to be found in Eastern influences. New England is found through- out the New West ; it is everywhere. Go where he will, the traveller is continually reminded of New England institutions and society. INTRODUCTION. xxxiii New England laid the foundations there ; and New England is rear- ing the walls and getting them ready for the cap-stone. State capi- tols, court-houses, hotels, city halls, opera houses, universities, school buildings, and houses of worship are like those of Massachusetts, only better. The children's love and memory of home reproduce the institutions of their childhood, made more conspicuous by modern improvements. So the New West becomes the rival of the East. We have used the phrase " Far West," but really there is no such locality now. We travelled ten thousand miles in "the Rocky Moun- tain region," but failed to find the "Far West." We scarcely escaped from the East. "Are you from the East .' " inquired a stranger of us in Colorado. "Yes, just arrived," we answered. "And so am I from the East," responded my questioner. "May I ask you what part of the East you came from } " we continued. " From Iowa," he said. So I found that "far west " is east out there. Over the range on the Pacific Slope, at Gunnison City, a gentleman accosted us in a familiar, genial way, — " Stranger, are you from the East .'' " "Yes, sir; and I expect to return there soon." " I hope you will carry a good report of us back, for I come from the East," he added pleasantly. " Most certainly I shall, for I am really smitten with this new country," we answered. "And what part of the East are you from.-*" " Kansas," he replied, to our surprise. " I came here for my health three years ago. I am not yet well, though much improved ; and I may yet find it necessary to go west." We gave it up — there is no West really ; the country has become mostly East. The East dogged our steps everywhere ; and the West, like some zo-^is fatiins of the meadow, receded from our view as we journeyed on. The waggish Coloradean was less a wag than he supposed, when he said, " The West ! the West ! Why, the West is kicked 'over the range' into the Pacific Ocean." Whether true or not, we saw no one who admitted that he had reached the West. At the most distant point we struck, men were going West. We can say with another tourist, that the further we went, the more we were xxxiv MAJCl'LLS OF THE NEIV UEST. Strengthened in the belief that the wise men did come from the East. Whether the East is Westernized, or the West Easternized, is a question the reader must settle in his own mind. In travelling over the New West we found ample proof of the incorrect ideas concerning it prevailing in the East. When news of the massacre of Mr. Meeker and his co-workers, by the Ute Indians, reached the Eastern States, large numbers of terrified fathers and mothers, wives and sisters, and other friends, wrote to their kindred to hasten home. Thev seemed to think that the country beyond the Missouri River was a narrow belt over which a single tribe of Indians in arms could sweep in bloody triumph. They did not know but that the massacre occurred at the very door of their relatives' habitations. The friends might have been living in ^Montana or Nebraska, or California ; they did not know that it was not all the same as Colorado, where the butchery occurred. An Eastern man sickened and died in Denver, and the tidings of his decease were transmitted to his family friends, the most afflicted of whom immedi- ately wrote to inquire whether there were neighbors to render him necessary aid. The intelligence was returned, '* he had about forty thousand neighbors," which was the population of Denver at that time. Friends had no idea that he was dwelling in one of the most marvellous cities on the continent. They appeared to think that, dwell where he might, he must be isolated, and destitute of those comforts which a dying man ought to command. Ten years ago a young man from New England was travelling horseback in the New West for his health. Tramps were in their glory and strength in the East, at that time ; so that, when his letter came describing his journeying alone from place to place, his parents, though intelligent people, were very much alarmed ; and they spoiled a whole sheet of paper in communicating to him their fears, closing their well-meant counsel by emphasizing, " Beware of Tramps ! " They were not a little surprised to receive an answer, in due time, " No Tramps Here ! " As tramps were then the principal scare in New England, they supposed that they must be a greater scare in the " Far West." Four vears after the rush to Leadville. a Connecticut gold-seeker introduction: xxxv cast his fortunes with that crowd. His parents forwarded to him by mail various mailable articles, which they supposed could not be purchased in that distant mining camp. They were very much surprised, however, to receive the following answer to their inquiry, "Can you buy rubber boots there.'" "Yes, pianos if I want." Pianos in a mining camp, more than two thousand miles away, was the last thing they had dreamed of ; and they very wisely concluded that their knowledge of the Western country was somewhat limited. Now, this book is designed to enlighten those who have never visited the New West. To make it " next to seeing," a large number of pictorial illustrations are introduced, without which it is quite impossible for this class to appreciate its mar\'els. No person can understand a canon by merely looking at a stereopticon view, unless he has seen a canon with his own eyes. But transfer that view to a book, by the engraver's art, accompanied by a careful description, and the reader can readily take it in. That is "next to seeing." Therefore, the numerous illustrations in this volume occupy a prominent place in its plan. Indeed, in one sense, we may truly say that more dependence is placed upon the pictorial illustra- tions than the text, to convey the information intended. They are not designed merely for entertainment, but also for instruction. Through the objects illustrated, the character, thrift, and aims of the people appear. Public buildings exhibit the public enterprise of town or city. Good schoolhouses indicate general intelligence, and the value put upon education by the citizens. Houses of worship are the expression of the noblest and best sentiments of the heart. For this reason, we claim a special mission for the many illustrations in this volume. They are furnished at hea\'y expense ; but are indispensable to the author's purpose. It would be quite impossible to learn what the New West is without them. This book does not contain all the marvels of the New West, by any means. It does not contain all of even the marvellous mangels. An octavo volume is quite too limited to admit the record of all such objects, which abound in the Rocky Mountain district. Not all even of the marvels selected especially for this volume are found herein ; xxxvi MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. for our space was filled before the list was exhausted. We furnish marvels enough, however, to satisfy the most incredulous that the New West has been very properly called "Wonderland." One feature of this volume is the introduction of the opinions of other men — men of science, explorers, travellers, pleasure-seekers, and sight-seers generally. To risk our own opinion alone, based upon our personal observation and research, was altogether too hazardous. The danger of being stigmatized as the most unscrupulous falsifier of the age or land, was too much for our flesh and blood to face. So we have introduced a large number of descriptions of marvels by other authors, that readers may understand we neither exaggerate nor lie. At least, dear reader, you will find us in excellent company, and quite enough of it, too, whether you are inclined to doubt our veracity or not. We are willing to rest our reputation for truthful- ness and honor here, after the foregoing explanation. Marvels ! That idea is adhered to throughout the work. Marvels of ancient races ; marvels of scenery ; marvels of railroading over the highest mountains ; marvels of growth ; marvels of agriculture ; marvels of mining ; marvels of stock-raising ; and other marvels we need not enumerate here. Nothing but marvels occupy these pages. The most remarkable things of the New West, and not the common- place — these are what we lay before the reader, for these express the possibilities of the New West as the commonplace cannot. Such as they are, we commend them to the study of young and old, and commit cur humble venture to the considerate judgment of the public. THE AUTHOR Franklin, Mass., 1887. MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. ♦ « » ' ♦ I. MARVELS OF NATURE. -aoi^oo- NATURE has wonderfully diversified our whole country; but her greatest marvels are found between the Missouri River and the Pacific coast. " I have travelled through Switzerland and Italy, and seen the beauty and grandeur of Alpine scenery," said a member of the British Parliament to the author, in Colorado; "but I have seen nothing that surpasses the scenery of the Rocky Mountain region." Such is the almost universal testimony of tourists. Not a few tourists claim that the scenery of the New West as a whole surpasses anything to be seen in Europe ; and they have one fact to support their claim ; viz., the Rio Grande Railroad Company forwarded many photographic views of Rocky Mountain scenery to the International Exposition, at Amsterdam, Holland, in 1883, and received the premium therefor, notwithstanding that Switzerland was a contestant for the honor. The Colorado commissioner at Amster- dam, in conveying the award to the Railway Company, said : " The committee specially appointed to report upon the several exhibits of railroad scenery, which included a great number from Switzerland and those of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, have awarded to the latter railway the highest premium. This will allow the Rio Grande to lay claim to passing through the finest scenic country in the world, not excepting Switzerland, which heretofore stood unequalled. The views are proving one of the centres of attraction to the thousands who attend their exhibit daily." Bayard Taylor says : " The view of the Rocky Mountains from the Divide near Kiowa Creek is considered one of the finest in Colorado. From the breezy ridge, between scattered groups of pine, you look upon one hundred and fifty miles of the snowy range, from the Sangre de Cristo to the spurs away towards Laramie. In variety and harmony of form, in effect against the dark blue sky, in breadth MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. and grandeur, I know no external picture of the Alps which can be placed beside it. If you could take away the valley of the Rhone, and unite the Alps of Savoy with the Bernese Overland, you might obtain a tolerable idea of this view of the Rocky Mountains. Pike's Peak would then represent the Jungfrau ; a nameless snowy giant in front of you, Monte Rosa ; and Long's Peak, Mont Blanc, The altitudes very nearly correspond, and there is a certain similarity in the forms. The average height of the Rocky Moun- tains, however, surpasses that of the Alps." An English author, Wm. A. Baillie- Grohman, familiar with the Alpine scenery, says, in his "Camps in the Rockies," "Many of the Colorado mountains are called the Mat- terhorns of Amer- ica — with about as much justiii- c at ion as the more diminutive Ben Nevis, or Snowdon, merits that name. With the Tetons, how- ever, it is differ- ent ; for it makes, so far as I know, the only and very brilliant excep- tion to the usual dome-like formation of the Rockies. In shape it is very like the Swiss master-peak ; but inasmuch as the Western rival rises in one majestic sweep of one thousand feet from the natural park, to an altitude all but the same (13,800 feet), I would, in this instance, in point of sublimity give the palm to the New World." On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway. GRAND CANON OF THE ARKANSAS. MARVELS OF NATURE. CANONS. A canon is a mighty gorge cut in the mountains by an irresistible torrent on its way to the sea. These wonderful chasms are numer- ous in the Rocky Mountains, some of them almost too grand to admit of description. Among the more widely known is "The Grand Canon of the Arkansas," its name being de- rived from the Ar- kansas River, which rushes through it. The foregoing illus- tration furnishes a view of it at the entrance where the railroad enters. This canon is ten miles in length, the Royal Gorge, which is the narrowest and deepest point, ex- tending but a frac- tional part of the distance. It is thirty feet wide at the gorge, with the walls rising perpendicu- larly on either side two thousand feet skyward, here and there a pinnacle shooting several hundred feet higher. The scene is weird, solemn, and awful, totally unlike anything which we ever dreamed of. Merriment is out of place there ; no observer is inclined to joke as he looks up at the mountain crevice in which he seems confined. The rocky On the Line of D & R. G. Railway. THE ROYAL GORGE. 6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. sides two thousand feet high ! Set ten Bunker Hill Monuments one upon another, and the distance is barely covered ! Several gentlemen viewed the Royal Gorge from the summit before any one dreamed of running a railway through it. One of the number ^ — z. clergyman — said to the writer: "We knew that it was an awful place, for friends had been there before us, and rolled large stones over the precipice, to listen to their reverberating sound as they descended, down, down, down, their noise dying away in the distance. We had a strong desire to look down into the awful gorge from the top, so we crawled on our hands and feet to the dizzy edge, not daring to trust ourselves in an upright position, and cast one swift glance down into the terrible chasm ; and that was enough. The transient view was a shock to our nerves. We crawled back as quickly as possible to a place of safety, and from that day to this, I never had the least desire to repeat the act. Though seven years have elapsed, as often as memory recalls the scene, I feel a weakness and shudder running through my body." The " Black Canon " is a darker and more dismal gorge, lying west of Gunnison City. Its name is derived from the dark, sombre appear- ance of the walls, although in some places they are composed of red sandstone. But a profusion of cedars and pines grow near the sum- mits and out of crevices which the elements have made down the sides ; and these cast a gloom over the place, creating a sensation of loneliness in the hearts of many observers. There is great variety of scenery in this canon, and one never tires of looking. Here and there small rivulets are seen issuing from the craggy sides, two thousand feet up and more, while occasionally a beautiful cascade leaps over its rocky bed to break in pieces on the rocks below ; and, in one instance, a cataract leaps clear of every rock and plunges down the whole distance to the railway track. This canon is thirty miles long, — three times the length of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas. The waterfall at the right is known as Chipeta Falls, and here the sides of the canon rise from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet. From the railway the view is impressive. The canon is unlike that of Arkansas in its general appearance, and yet like it in depth and some other characteristics. The contrast between the two is suffi- cient to create a lively interest in both, enough to dispel that false idea of the tourists, "when you have seen one canon, you have seen all." Like "the human face divine," no two of them are alike, and hence each one must be studied by itself. We have entered them MARVELS OF NATURE. at the bottom, middle, and top, and it is quite impossible to say at which point there is most to enjoy. At either altitude the impres- On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway. THE BLACK CANON. sion can be described only by a series of exclamation points. " Web- ster's Great Unabridged" is mute on almost any caflon, and at almost MARVELS OF THE NEW UEST. any point thereon. "Comparisons become odious " as never before; so that even the aspiring letter-writer feels somewhat insignificant On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway. CURRICANTI'S NEEDLE. in his vain attempt at accurate description, and is inclined to say, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him?" MARVELS OF NATURE. Among the most remarkable objects in this canon is " Curricanti's Needle," which towers above all other pinnacles. It stands as a sentinel to guard the everlasting solitude at its base. It is of a red- dish color from top to bottom, and rises very abruptly into the air. A "Cleopatra Obelisk" does not possess more grace or symmetry than this natural wonder. Here and there a tree or shrub thrives in the crevices of its rocky sides. The cut / is a fine and cor- rect representa- tion of the marvel. The author of "The Crest of the Conti- nent " says of this marvel: "In the very centre of the canon, where its bul- warks are most lofty and pre- cipitous, unbro- ken cliffs rising two thousand feet without a break, and shad- owed by over- hanging corni- ces — just here stands the most striking buttress L and pinnacle of them all, — Curricanti's Needle. It is a conical tower standing out somewhat beyond the line of the wall, from which it is separated (so that from some points of view it looks wholly isolate) on one side by a deep gash, and on the other by one of those narrow side-canons which in the western part of the gorge occur every mile or two. These ravines are filled with trees, and make a green setting for this massive On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway. CASTLE GATE. lO MAN I ELS OF THE NEW WEST. monolith of pink stone, whose diminishing apex ends in a leaning spire that seems to trace its march upon the sweeping clouds." As our limits will not allow of an illustration or description of the Price River Caiion, lying beyond on the route to Salt Lake City, we will call attention to its marvellous gateway, called "Castle Gate," through which river, railway, and trail pass. It strikingly resembles the " Gateway to the Garden of the Gods." "The two huge pillars or ledges of rock composing it, are offshoots of the cliffs behind. They are of different heights, one measuring five hundred, and the other four hundred and fifty feet, from top to base. They are richly dyed with red, and the firs and pines growing about them, but reaching only to their lower strata, render this color more noticeable and beautiful. Be- tween the two sharp promontories, which are separated only by a nar- row space, the river and the railway both run, one pressing closely against the other. The stream leaps over a rocky bed, and its banks are lined with tangled brush. Once past the gate, and looking back, the bold headlands forming it have a new and more attractive beauty. They are higher and more massive, it seems, than when we were in their shadow. Church- like caps hang far over the perpen- dicular faces. No other pinnacles approach them in size and majesty. They are landmarks up and down the canon, their lofty tops catching the eye before their bases are discovered. It was down Price River Canon, and past Castle Gate, that General Sydney Johnson marched his army home from Utah." Twenty miles from Denver is the entrance to Platte Canon, which is scarcely inferior to the Arkansas Cafion in the variety and grandeur of its scenery. The walls at the entrance are several hundred feet high, increas- ing in altitude as the mountain is penetrated. Peak on peak greet the eye, shooting up higher and higher, as the train begins to climb the sides of the mountains. The tourist has heard that the RIFT IN THE ROCKS. MARVELS OF NATURE. II Rocky Mountains are distinguished for the number of peaks, and now he has ocular demonstration of it. With a single sweep of his vision he can count thirty, forty, and even sixty peaks, piled one above another, clear back to the sky. Personal observation alone can enable one to realize the crooked- ness of the canon. It is necessarily crooked beyond all ordinary con- ception of crookedness ; so that crookedness becomes one of the grand novelties to enjoy. We venture to affirm that the traditionary stick that was so crooked it couldn't lie still, was not so crooked as this canon. The eye is frequently delighted by such scenes as the cut on the previous page illustrates, the monumental stones or spires often num- bering a half-dozen in the cluster. A writer who is perfectly familiar with this canon says : " For full fifty miles there is a succession of complex curves, and beetling heights coming almost together above and crowding the track from one side to the other. Nature has shaped the rocks so oddly that giants seemingly stand guard by their castles perched dizzily above, but scorning to molest the rabble going uninvited through their possessions. It is a fascinating sight to watch the engine, which writhes along as though its gleaming fire were an inward life, its puffs a pulse, and the sparks flying crimson against the walls, drops of agony. At times the cliff is directly ahead. Unwittingly you brace for the shock to come when the cars shall be dashed to pieces against its flinty face. But with a quick turn to the right or left, the passage by is made in safety. The train hurries by picturesque hamlets, among which Estabrook Park is perhaps the most delightful, and up Kenosha Hill by a miracle of engineering, and from the top you behold such a panorama as was never seen before from the windows of a railway coach." Boulder Canon, in which Dome Rock is found, is sixteen miles in length, wild and grand. A tourist (H. H.) .«ays : "To see Boulder Canon aright, one must enter it from the Nederlands Meadows, at its upper mouth ; and to reach the Nederlands Meadows from Denver, one must go by rail to the Clear Creek Canon, and drive across from Central City to Nederlands. The road lies through tracts of pines and over great ridges, grand in their loneliness. From every ridge is a new view of the ' Snowy Range ' to the west and north. In strong sunlight and shadow, these myriads of snow peaks, relieved againrst the blue sky, are of such brilliant and changing colors that it must be a very dull soul indeed that could look on 12 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. them without thinking of many-colored jewels. On the day that I saw this view, James' Peak was c6vered with snow, and stood in full light. Its sharp, pyramidal lines looked as fine cut and hard as if the mountains had but just been hewn from alabaster." Clear Creek Canon deserves mention with the remarkable canons already named. Mr. F o s s e 1 1 says : " The most en- tertaining trip that can be made, and the quickest and cheapest, is that by way of the Colorado Cen- tral Railway from Denver to the mining cit- ies of Central, Black Hawk, Idaho, and Georgetown. In this the tourist gets the great- est variety for the least expen- diture of money that any single excursion af- fords which act- ually enters the mountains any distance. While Clear Creek Canon [through which the afore- said cities are reached] may not compare with the Royal Gorge in massive gran- deur, the tourist can derive unalloyed pleasure from" the many and varied sights that continually offer themselves en route and at adja- cent points on either hand." DOME ROCK. MARVELS OF NATURE. 13 This canon is twenty miles from Denver, and was the first ever penetrated by a railway. At the entrance, the walls rise about one thousand feet, so near togf.ther that a child can throw a stone from one side to the other. It is exceedingly tortuous, jagged, and grand. The rocky walls often rise to two thousand feet, and even to twenty- five hundred feet, in sublime proportions, and nature has "carved them into many fantastic forms. Henry James, Esq., says: "At times the canon widens, but again it comes together like two mighty jaws. Some marvellous turns are made, until in confusion you won- der which way you are going, and if such a series of doubling back will not ultimately lead to the starting-point." He continues : "For the miles of amazing, overpowering height of cliffs, and their near approach to or absolute verticality ; for majestic, awe-inspiring gran- deur of projecting masses along the mighty walls, and the domes of bare gray or brown granite that tower above, combined with the peaceful, indeed exquisite, beauty of the floor of its upper valley so many thousand feet below the surrounding silvery sum- mits, as well as for the ma- jesty of the forests of pine and spruce that clothe the mountains as far as the eye can reach ; and for the absorb- ing interest of vast silver enterprises lin ing it for miles at a stretch, and in its pos- session of delicious healing: waters, — for all these things Clear Creek stands une- qualled by any canon penetrated by a railway on the whole An hour's ride from Denver, over the Colorado Division gold and mining •THE DOUBLE HEAD. earth, of the 14 MARVELS OF THE NEV/ WEST, Union Pacific, takes the tourist fairly into it, and for forty miles he is afforded a spectacle of surpassing splendor." The Double Head is a hanging rock as well as a double head, lo- cated in a very picturesque part of the caiion. Double-faced humans are more common in flesh than they are in stone, because they are more easily wrought in soft material, we suppose. Hence, they are more remarkable in stone. Let the reader study the illustration thoughtfully, and his wonder over such natural phenomena will increase. THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS. That the above bit of sculpture was well named by miner or tour- ist, the reader must admit. The features of the "old man" stand out in bold relief, even to the left ear. There have been other " old man of the mountains" in different parts of our country, — one of them in New England, — but none of them can compare with this in MARVELS OF NATURE. 15 striking resemblance. The venerable patriarch can add to his nov- elty by laying claim to the fact that he was settled here before Columbus landed on these shores. GRAY'S PEAK. It is through Clear Creek Canon that Georgetown is reached, from which place parties easily ascend to the summit of Gray's Peak, which is two hundred feet higher than Pike's Peak. Gray's is 14,341 feet above the level of the sea — the highest mountain peak in the United States except Blanca. Here is the "dome of the continent," as all who ascend to the top of Gray's Peak fully realize, when, in a clear 1 6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. day, they take in the magnificent view of two hundred miles and more in every direction. Henry James, Esq., describes the view from Gray's Peak most graphically. "A wavering hne," he says, "stretches back to the valley, and the tourist wonders vaguely if he has just come over it. The horse is panting as he takes the last turn, and his shoes click upon the granite jewels of the continental crown. Gray's Peak is beneath you. The sea is 14,41 1 feet below your level. Hats off ! The genius of this sublime solitude demands homage. They who have traversed the globe say that it affords but one such prospect. A pictured landscape so mighty in conception that it overpowers, yet harmonious as an anthem in all its infinite diffusion of color and form ; framed only by the limit of the eye's vision ; a picture where the lakes gleam and the rivers flow, the trees nod, and the cloud ships clash in misty collision with the peaks which have invaded their realm, while the moving sun floods it with real life and warmth. How like an atom the beholder feels ! Northward, southward, westward, ramify the spurs of the range, till remoteness swallows them up. Pike's Peak is a neighbor. Lincoln's and Long's seem near. The sharpness of the Spanish peaks — Terra's Twins — near New Mexico, is distinct, while the Uintah Mountains rise up faintly in the distance of Utah. Here and there are depressions where parks and valleys are. Every park in the State can be located. You may trace the course of rivers and the site of lakes. You can see the little cities in sheltering nooks, and pathways from them up the mountain side. You detect the glint of the Holy Cross. You perceive the South Park Railway worming along the valley of the Blue. You overlook Decatur and Dillon and Chihuahua. You note the hovering dusk which broods above Lead- ville. Eastward are the plains — a waterless ocean — each town a fleet, each house a sail, each grove an island. Denver is seen, like the mythical city of the mirage." Close observation of the cut will show Mr. James to the reader, on his way to the summit. The writer whose description of the view from Gray's Peak we quoted referred to the "Mount of the Holy Cross." It is not a fancy picture — it is a real mountain, rightly named, situated in the vicinity of Leadville and Red Cliff. "The sacred symbol which gives the name to the ' Mount of the Holy Cross ' is derived from two great and deep depressions, one vertical, and one horizontal, which cross each other nearly at right angles on the bare eastern slope of the mountain, which in winter become filled with great MARVELS OF NATURE. 17 masses of snow. During the summer the snows around these depressions are melted away, leaving the rest naked, and the snowy emblem of human faith and hope stands gleaming in white splendor against the azure sky, as if Na- ture were thus con- secrating the mountains to her God, and reflects the sun's glories above it." Williams' Canon is entered from Mani- touj Colorado. It is a narrow gorge, so nar- row that, in one place, scarcely a single inch of space separates the carriage from the walls on either side. The tortuous road winds itself through scenery as grand as it is versatile. Tall cliffs and monumental piles of rock I8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. WILLIAMS' CANON. rise, one upon another, in wonderful profusion, " worn by some fierce torrents of long ago, until now they show on their steep facades the deep scars which whirling rocks have formed." MARVELS OF NATURE. r^ 19 "Rainbow Falls" is a very beautiful cascade, in one of the most romantic parts of the wild Ute Pass. Its name is derived from the fact that, at a certain time of day, when the sun reaches a given meridian, a perfect rainbow appears on the sheet of falling water. Two miles up the canon is the " Cave of the Winds " (p. 21), a remarkable sub- terranean cavern in which a hundred chambers have been explored, some of them very high and long. In these cham- bers are countless stalactites and stalag- mites, which glisten in the light of torches which explorers carry, presenting a dazzling and fairy-like appearance. Cave of the Winds is a great curios- ity to all tourists, and they put them- selves to great inconvenience in order to see it. It is wild in itself, and every- thing around it is wild also. A party on their way thither were overtaken by a tempest in the mountains, and one of the number acquaints us with the scene as follows : — " Once, in a ramble to the Cave of the Winds, we were weather- bound for an hour in a lime-burner's hut by the side of the trail, while a furious hail-storm rolled through the canon, and five minutes after the majestic columns in the Temple of Isis, a thousand feet above our heads, were blazing and glowing as if under some reflected shower of sunshine. The flying clouds lifted here and there from peaks and battlements ; the inspired air tingled in every vein ; the heavenly glow and radiance flashed into our souls ; and ten minutes after we were in the midst of another swift storm of hail, or snow, or rain, as if sunshine never belonged to the world. ... It was not unusual, through these days, to have four alternate storms in the course of a single hour, with clear skies between ; but owing to the brilliant rarity of the air, we were never sure it was raining until we felt or actually saw it. And this when it was pouring a ton to the square inch." " How the giant element From rock to rock, leaps with delirious bound ! " On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway. RAINBOW FALLS. 20 MARVELS OF THE .YEW WEST. A very remarkable locality in Clear Creek Caiion, near George< town, has been named "Devil's Gate." It is spanned by a railroad bridge at a dizzy height, from which tourists enjoy a very enchanting On the Line of U. P. Railroad. DEVIL'S GATE. view The strange wildness of the scenery, a mixture of jagged ness, confusion, and desolation, suggest badness, and hence the bac name. MARVELS OF NATURE. 21 Castle Rock is a huge formation, so much hke an old feudal castle as to suggest its present name. An arch underneath, like an ample doorway, renders it a more curious and notable object. Water, no doubt, that powerful agent of nature, imprisoned within, found this the most feasible way of getting out, and hence the arch. Mythology would not be troubled to find here an abode of the gods, whose presence once converted cave, dell, rock, ravine, and mountain peak and gorge into strange thrilling history. Another curiosity in this canon is the "Pillar of Jupiter," — so named by tourists, — a mammoth rock, or ledge, worn by the elements into its present impos- ing appearance. The pedestal on which nature has erected this statue is so distinct that the statue itself becomes more strik- ing. It is a curious production, or freak of nature, as some would call it, con- tributing another object of interest to the great variety which everywhere keeps the vision lively. Dr. Taylor writes of Pike's Peak, as seen from Denver, as follows : " To the southwest. Pike's Peak, the mighty milestone and monument to thousands of the old miners, stands erect and flat-footed upon the world. It is seventy-five miles to its base, but the view is as clean-cut as a cameo. Should I tell anybody it is 13,985 feet high, it would be no very satisfactory information ; should I say, you must climb about twelve miles to reach the summit, it would be better ; but suppose the reader swings a little water over a fire on the sea- CAVE OF THE WINDS. 22 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. beach, metonymically, it will boil at 212°. Now pick up kettle, kindling-wood, and thermometer, and begin your climb. At fifty-three hundred feet the water is in active trouble at 202°. Play- ing Longfellow's young man, Excelsior, again, at the altitude of 10,600 feet it is in a lively state of unrest at 192°. Another lift to the top of the Peak, and the peripatetic kettle makes a tambourine of the lid, and plays so mild a tune that what scalded you so prompt- ly and satisfactorily down by the sea, will be no hot- ter than the tea strong enough to "bear up an Qg^^ wherewith our grandmothers clinked up their hearts and limbered their tongues aft \- J|y 1 ) ^g^-'^ --" '- ^jj^^^^^L - ^t 1 ■ i^»jBii»=^jfl8K^^^BH^B^B| m & ^9 •' vH W^^" ■f. ^m ^* "^a. Kw ^ i i >■' i V I^HB^S^^HE^^^;.^^^ w i ^^^-€- 2-^^^- *"--" ^p ■ J M s ^ ^^^ ^^'y ^ -* - ^ '.ii >f.>vavi9»>J''ii^*.^i;,, ^»s.'.'^H l^i ^ri^ ■ A,,-i.-. . CASTLE ROCK. er a big washing. How often lofty people forge ^ that ebullition does not always mean earnestness and fervor. Boiling water is not necessarily hot water." "Ute Pass" is the world-renowned wajron trail from Manitou to Leadville, a narrow de- file leading over the mountains in a circuit- ous way. It was original- ly an Indian trail over which the red men trav- elled to and from the Manitou Valley. When gold was discovered at PILLAR OF J U.PITER. MARVELS OF NATURE. 23 Leadville, and the rush for that Eldorado fairly set in, this trail was converted into a passable road, at an expense of ^15,000, over which the immense supplies were carried to that most famous of all mining FREIGHT TEAMS CLIMBING UTE PASS. towns, Colorado City being headquarters for supplies. Two thou- sand horses and mules were employed to convey the necessaries of life over the "Pass" to that rapidly growing population, and 24 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. still there was privation, and even suffering, among the gold-seek- ers because of scant supplies. As soon, however, as rail com- munication with the place was established, the quantity and price of goods found their proper level. Twenty-five cents a pound for hay was a common price when it was carried over the pass, but the rail- road reduced it at once to three, and even less. The illustration also furnishes a good view of Rainbow Falls. Another says of Ute Pass: "The oftener one goes through this pass, the grander it seems. There are in it no mere sem- blances, no delu- sions of atmos- pheric effect. It is as severely, sternly real as Gibraltar. Sun- light cannot soft- en it nor storms make it more frowning. High, rocky, inaccessi- ble, its walls tower and wind and seem at every turn to close rather than to open the path through which the merry little stream comes leaping, foaming down. . . . For a short distance the road is narrow and perilous — on strips of ledges between two precipices, or on stony rims of the crowded brook, which it crosses and recrosses twenty-four times in less than three miles. Then the Pass widens, the rocky walls sink gradually. On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway. MANITOU AND PIKE'S PEAK. MARVELS OF NATURE. 2$ round and expand into lovely hills — hill after hill bearing more and more off to the right and more and more off to the left — until there is room for bits of meadow along the brook and for groves and grassy- intervals where the hills join ; room and at the same time shelter, for the hills are still high. . . . We came out at sunset on a ridge from which we could look down into a meadow. The ridge sloped down to the meadow through a gateway made by two huge masses of rocks. All alone in the smooth* grassy forest they loomed up in the dim light, stately and straight as colossal monoliths, though they were in reality composed of rounded bowlders piled one above another." Pike's Peak was named in honor of Gen. Z. M. Pike, who discov- ered it in 1806. The ascent is wearisome and somewhat perilous, passing, as the trail does, over rugged hills and the precipitous walls of narrow canons. The ascent is made from Manitou, which nestles at its base, as indicated by the cut. The transition is very abrupt from a dense pine forest to the bare, bald, storm-beaten mountain side where no vegetation appears, except grass here and there in patches among the rocks. The summit is nearly level, embracing about sixty acres. Near it appears a faint yellow blossom mingled with purple, often in great profusion, so near to the snow that blos- soms may be plucked with one hand and snow with the other. Two mighty gorges extend from the top almost to the base, one of which can be seen at the distance of eighty miles. "Pike's Peak" was the watchword of the gold-seekers in 1859, who flocked by thousands and tens of thousands to the region which that famous landmark overlooked. The next year the product of the mines, within the Pike's Peak district, amounted to four million dol- lars. In August, i860, the population was sixty thousand ; and, two months later, nearly two million dollars were invested in quartz-mills, — a fact which shows the rapidity of settlement. The view of Pike's Peak from Manitou is exceedingly impressive. The town is about six thousand feet above the sea level, but the mountain rises more than eight thousand feet above it in unparalleled grandeur. Lesser peaks surround it in magnificent proportions, and magnify, by contrast, the majesty of their towering monarch. Private enterprise has completed a cog-wheel railway to the top of the peak, where the United States Signal Service has a station. The following cut illustrates the method of ascending the peak by this railway, running less than nine miles to ascend two ; whereas, the original plan required thirty miles of track to make the ascent. 26 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. The Pike's Peak Railway is the most notable piece of track in the world. It ascends two thousand feet higher than the Lima and Oroya Railway in Peru. The average ascent per mile is one thousand three hundred and twenty feet. The total ascent from base to summit is seven thousand five hundred and twenty-five feet. Cheyenne Canon is situated three miles from Colorado Springs, and possesses many grand features. We shall occupy space only ta call attention to the one marvellous object that makes it famous, — The Seven Falls. One who has often penetrated this caiion to gaze enraptured upon its wonderful Seven Falls, says : " In Cheyenne Canon, at its extreme end, a volume of water dashes over a dizzy height, and, leaping from ledge to ledge, reaches its granite basin, and lingers* there awhile to recover from its fall before speeding on again toward the river lead- ing across the plains to the distant sea. This cafion, only three miles from town, is entered after climbing to the top of a sloping mesa, which commands a view of the city and plains. A narrow path penetrates the mountains, and leads PIKE'S PEAK RAILWAY. through a luxuriaut growth of trees to where stern, rocky, vari-colored heights press their huge shoulders into the narrow way, and render climbing necessary for those who would go still deeper into the solitudes of the Rockies. Tall trees, up- rooted by the madly rushing stream which flows through the canon, and thrown down by the fierce winds, which, at some time, have swept through the narrow gorge, lie across the path in wild disorder. There is a balmy fragrance in the air ; a low rumble fills the place as the water leaps over the fallen bowl- ders which beset its path ; there are ever-varying shades ; and now and then a glimpse is had beyond the cafion's mouth, of the plains, which are lighted by the sunlight, while the gorge is dark and cold." Echo Canon is entered by the Union Pacific Railway at Castle MAMVELS OF NATURE. 27 Rock in the Wa- satch Mountains, Utah. It embraces some of the wildest and most majestic scenery of the New West, together with several of the most original and inter- esting objects which nature ever carved. These begin at the very mouth of the canon, as the cut on the following page shows. Nature builds on a magnificent scale at the West, and so her rock-pulpit, at the opening of Echo Canon, is none of your modern toy af- fairs behind which an orator can hide all but his head. It is made to stand upon, though tow- ering high into the air ; and the imagi- nary preacher occu- pying it is supposed to address the mul- titude who pass down the canon by generations. It is a fitting introduction to the scenes that follow. Mr. Crofutt says : "The beauties of THE SEVEN FALLS. 28 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Echo Canon are so many, so majestic, so awe-inspiring in their subUmity, that there is little use in calling the traveller's atten- tion to them. . . . Four miles below Hanging Rock the walls rise in massive majesty, the prominent features of the canon. Rain, wind, and time have combined to destroy them, but in vain. Centuries have come and gone since that mighty con- vulsion shook the earth to its centre, when Echo and Weber canons sprung into existence, — twin children, whose birth was heralded by throes such as the earth may never feel again ; and still the mighty wall of Echo remains, bidding defiance alike to time and his co-laborers, the elements ; still hangs the delicate fret and frost work from the walls ; still the pillar, column, dome, and spire stand boldly forth in all their grand, wild, and weird beauty to entrance the traveller, and fill his mind with wonder and awe." ^ Another says: "A canon is only a valley between the high hills ; that is all, though the word seems such a loud and compound mys- tery of warfare, both carnal and spiritual. But when the valley is thousands of feet deep, and so narrow that a river can barely make its way through by shrinking and twisting and leaping ; when one wall is a mountain of grassy slope, and the other wall is a mountain of straight, sharp stone ; when from a perilous road, which creeps along on ledges of the wall which is a mountain of stone, one .)oks across to the wall which is grassy slope, and down at the silver line of twisting, turning, leaping river, — the word canon ieems as inade- quate as the milder word valley. This was Echo Canon. We drew near it through rocky fields almost as grand as the caiion itself. Rocks of red and pale yellow color were piled and strewn on either hand in confusion so wild that it was majestic ; many of them looked like gateways and walls and battlements of fortifications ; many of 1 Crofutt's Overland Tourist is indispensable to the traveller. It contributes information, direction, and interest to his travels. PULPIT ROCK. MARVELS OF NATURE. 2g them seemed poised on points, just ready to fall. Others rose, mas- sive and solid, from terraces which stretched away beyond our sight. . . . Then the cafion walls close in again, and looking down, we see On the Line of U. P Railway. Ranging rock. only a silver thread of river ; looking up, we see only a blue belt ot sky. Suddenly we turn a sharp corner and come out on a broad plain. The canon walls have opened like arms, and they hold a town named after their own voices. Echo City. The arms are mighty, for 3c MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. they are snow-capped mountains. The plain is green and the river is still." The preceding cut represents a remarkable hanging rock, of ^ which there are several "" in the Rocky Moun- a tain region. This is '% the most famous of % them all, and it is loca- ted in the wildest part of Echo Canon. The canon is so crooked for nearly thirty miles be- fore reaching this rock, that the railway cros- ses the creek thirty-one times in twenty-six miles. Eight miles from Echo City the rocks just described are lost sight of, and others of different form, larger and grander, are sub- stituted. The canon also becomes wilder and more inaccessible, re- quiring tunnels to be cut in order to sur- mount serious difificul- ties. Here a tunnel, five hundred and fifty feet through a solid rock, is cut, and a little further on, another of less importance. Near the entrance of the first tunnel formerly stood Finger Rock. Time and the elements have broken it away, but its remarkable appear- ance is still remembered distinctly by those who were so fortunate as to behold it in its original symmetry. On the Line of U. P. Railway. DEVIL'S SLIDE. MARVELS OF NATURE. 3' Devil's Slide is a very singular figure, and is an object of great in- terest to tourists. It is serrated rocks. This slide is composed of two ridges of granite rock, reaching from the river nearly to the summit of a sloping, grass-clad mountain. They are from fifty to two hun- dred feet high, narrow slabs, standing on edge, as though forced out of the mountain side. The two ridges run parallel with each other, about ten feet apart, the space between them covered with grass, wild flowers, and climbing vines. If nature had intended to provide a curiosity for travellers of the nineteenth century, when human enterprise would tunnel and remove mountains, she could not have been more successful. The action of the elements has produced many remarkable natural phenomena, here and elsewhere, but few more interesting than this. We do not wonder that wind and water have been ages in excavating this mighty gorge, with so much carving on its adamantine walls. Water can easily percolate through mountain ranges, and finally plunge in torrents down weird ravines, plowing deeper and deeper, overturning, defacing, and destroying in its mad, onward rush : but to sculpture as it goes — that is not so easy. Nevertheless, here and elsewhere, the elements have wrought better than they knew ; and now tourists find pleasure in these art galleries of nature. Pulpit Rock is not a single shaft of granite, but is composed of several stones laid one upon another. It would be of little inter- est, of course, were it a huge pile erected by human strength and skill ; for then it would not be wonderful at all. It is because human plan and effort had nothing to do with its formation that it awakens interest. It is such objects as this which make a trip over the Union Pacific Railroad a great novelty. The "American Fork Cafion " of Utah is grand, though devoid of the gorgeous coloring of Echo and Weber caiions. The walls at the entrance are not more than a hundred feet apart, and the peaks six hundred feet high. But the walls rise rapidly until they are twenty-five hundred feet above the road-bed. The traveller experiences a peculiar sensation at times from the appearance of the walls coming together just in advance of him, and shutting him in, so narrow is the gorge. Let the reader imagine 'himself in this crevice of the Rockies, if he can, with the walls towering above him eight times as high as the tallest of the big trees in the Y^semite Valley ; and he can form some idea of the impressiveness of the scene. Eight of the tallest trees from the Mariposa grove, one set upon another, only cover the distance from the bed of the caiion to the tallest peaks above on 32 MAR I' ELS OF THE NEW WEST either side ! Mr. Crofutt puts the matter finely when he says : " Imagine, then, this canon with its grottos, amphitheatres, and its towering crags, peaks, and needle-pointed rocks, towering far above IP the road, overhanging it in places, with patches of eternal snow in the gloomy gorges near the sum- mit, and clothed at all times in a mantle of green, the pine, spruce, and cedar trees growing in all the nooks and gulches and away up on the summit ; then count- less mosses and ferns clinging to each crev- ice and seam where a foothold can be se- cured, together with the millions of flow- ers of every hue; where the sun's rays are sifted through countless objects on their way to the sil- very, sparkling stream below, with its miniature cascades and eddies. We say imagine all these things, and then you will only have a faint outline of the wild and romantic, pictur- esque and glorious American Fork Canon." "Lion Rock," "Telescope Peak," "Sled- runner Curve," "Rainbow Cliff," and "Hanging Rock" are among the objects of peculiar interest in this canon. It requires no stretch of the imagination, in passing through a On the Line of U. P. Railway. PULPIT ROCK. MARVELS OF NATURE. 33 canon like this, to behold castles, pyramids, obelisks, towers, colon- nades, and every sort of architecture in the marvellous rock-forma- tions that appear on every side. Bayard Taylor said of the view in another locality of the " Rockies " : " Here was a feudal castle of the Middle Ages ; there a shattered, irregular obelisk, or broken pyra- mid ; and finally, rising above from the level of a meadow, we beheld three perpendicular towers, eighty feet high, resting on a common base. Their crests were of bright orange hue, fading downward into white. Beyond them extended the shattered battlements of a city On the Line of U. P. Railway. HIPPOPOTAMUS ROCK (Near Sherman). sparkling in the sunshine." The principal part of this description will apply to hundreds of localities within canons and without. The name of the above rock is derived from its form, which is sin- gular indeed. The more we study it, the more remarkable it appears. The foundation even is as remarkable as the rock itself, when we stop to reflect that it was laid by nature, and not by man. It is a huge affair ; and here it has stood for ages, probably, in just this 34 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. position. If it were thrown into this position by some convulsion ot nature, so much the more mysterious must be its history; for then an earthquake must have order in its madness. Ev- idently the real life of this rock would contain a won- derful chapter of nature's effort to heave the Rocky Mountain region into its present status. We shall not even call attention to many canons,, but close our special atten- tion to them by a descrip- tion of the greatest canon of all, — "The Grand Canon of the Colora- do," with several of its side canons. This is the most marvellous caiion of the world, its name being derived from the river which runs through it. It is situated in Arizona, and is nearly three hundred miles in length. The United States Gov- ernment explored Colorado River and canons, from 1869 to 1872, doing the work thoroughly, under the lead of Captain (now Ma- jor) J. W, Powell. Powell and his men were the first human beings who ever passed through the whole length of the canons — a thousand miles. It was a remarkable exploit, to accomplish which they actually took their lives into their hands, and made a stake of everything. Once on their way, return was impossible : they must proceed or perish. CLIMBING THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO. MARVELS OF NATURE. 35 They commenced their hazardous undertaking by entering the first canon, on the northern boundary of the State of Colorado. The river was rapid and turbulent, taxing the skill and judgment of the party to keep their light boats right side up. Week after week and month after month they pursued their perilous way down the river, through tortuous gorges, hemmed in by walls on either side, often four, five, and six thousand feet high, not knowing but that each day would be their last. In 1854 two men. White and Strobe, were seeking gold in South- eastern U-tah, where they were attacked by Indians. They took refuge in one of the uppermost canons of the river, where, upon reflection, they saw their only way of escape was down the river. To return would be sure death, as the Indians would show them no mercy. Constructing a rude raft with such wood as they could find, they started down the river. The fourth day their raft upset as they were descending rapids, and Strobe was drowned. White clung to the raft, and succeeded in righting it ; and he continued his journey alone, rapids and whirlpools frequently imperilling his life. In ten days he reached a small Mexican settlement of a dozen poor adobe huts, and he was safe. He escaped from the Indians of Utah, how- ever, only to be killed by other Indians the following year. In 1855 a party of several men, led by one Ashley, made a similar attempt, and they were soon wrecked, and all but Ashley and one companion drowned. Major Powell discovered the remains of that wreck, and honored their brave leader by naming the spot Ashley Falls. Such facts show that Powell and his exploring party under- took a very perilous work for their country. By actual measurement, the walls at the highest point of the caiion are six thousand two hundred feet ! It is difficult for the reader to appreciate the depth of this canon. Perhaps the writer can assist him to take it in. Imagine yourself at the bottom of the chasm, looking upwards. It is six thousand two hundred feet to the edge of the precipice above. A very tall church-spire, from the foundation, is two hundred feet, though very few pierce the air to that distance. TJiirty-one church-spires of two hundred feet each, one upon another, will just cover the distance from bottom to top ! Can your mind grasp and comprehend the grandeur of such a scene } Mountain-walls rising towards the sky more than six thousand feet, with crags and monumental piles, jagged rocks, and barren peaks, wildness, weirdness, and strangeness, uniting to make the abyss sub- lime and mysterious beyond description ! " Who is like unto thee, 36 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. O Lord, among the gods ? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fear- ful in praises, doing wonders ? " What explorers call the " Grand Canon District " embraces so many marvels that it is difficult to make a selection. However, we shall call attention to several which have been carefully photo- graphed. Buttes in the western portion of the Grand Canon District are higher than those near Kanab ; yet, in the latter region, they are from three hundred to six hundred feet high. "But," remarks Dut- ton, "what they lack in magnitude they make up in refinement and ^^^p^-- ,» " • "'-' "^ .< '■■:;;. ,'■'■;''.''?? PERMIAN BUTTE. (Near Kanab.) beauty of detail, and in sumptuous color. It is in the Permian that we find the most remarkable buttes. They are never large, but their resemblance to human architecture, or works of design, are often amazing. Very few Permian buttes are found in the Grand Canon District ; but further eastward, especially in the neighborhood of the junction of the Grand and Green rivers, they are innumerable, and of such definiteness that the geologist feels as if he were taxing the credulity of his hearers when he asks them to believe that they are the works of nature alone, and not of some race of Titans." The Vermilion cliffs derive their name from their color, which is flaming red. They extend more than one hundred and twenty miles, MARVELS OF NATURE. Z7 and their height ranges from one thousand to more than two thousand feet. Captain Button remarks : " Their great altitude, the remarka- ble length of their line of frontage, the persistence with which their proportions are sustained throughout the entire interval, their ornate sculpture and rich coloring, might justify very exalted language of description. But to the southward, just where the desert surface dips downward beneath the horizon, are those supreme walls of the Grand Caiion, which we must hereafter behold, and vainly strive to describe ; and however worthy of admiration the Vermilion Cliffs may be, we must be frugal of adjectives, lest, in the chapters to be written, we find their force and meaning exhausted. They will be weak and vapid enough at best. Yet there are portions of the Ver- milion Cliffs which, in some respects, lay hold of the sensibilities with a force not much less overwhelming than the majesty of the Grand Canon; not in the same way, not by virtue of the same ele- ments of power and impressiveness, but in a way of their own, and by attributes of their own. "The profile of Vermilion Cliffs consists of a series of vertical ledges rising tier above tier, story above story, with intervening slopes covered with talus, through which the beds project their fretted edges. . , . Near Short Creek it breaks into lofty truncated towers of great beauty and grandeur, with strongly emphasized ver- tical lines and decorations, suggestive of cathedral architecture on a colossal scale. Still loftier and more ornate become the structures as we approach the Virgen River. At length they reach the sub- lime. The altitudes increase until they approach two thousand feet above the plain. The wall is recessed with large amphitheatres, but- tressed with huge spurs, and decorated with towers and pinnacles. " As the sun is about to set, the cliffs glow with an orange-ver- milion that seems to be an intrinsic lustre emanating from the rocks themselves. But the great gala days of the cliffs are those when sun- shine and storm are waging an even battle ; when the massive banks of clouds send their white diffuse light into the dark places, and tone down the ij^itense glare of the direct rays ; when they roll over the summits in stately procession, wrapping them in vigor, and revealing cloud-girt masses here and there through wide rifts. Then the truth appears, and all deceptions are exposed. Their real gran- deur, their true forms, and a just sense of their relations are at last fairly presented, so that the mind can grasp them. And they are very grand — even sublime. There is no need, as we look upon them, of fancy to heighten the picture, nor of metaphor to present 38 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. ipililppraijipiii MARVELS OF NATURE. 39 it. The simple truth is quite enough. I never before had a realiz- ing sense of a cliff one thousand eight hundred to two thousand feet high. I think I have a definite and abiding one at present." The Pink Cliffs present a marvellous scene even for the Grand Canon District of the Colorado. The verge of the precipice at the foot of the cliff is eight hundred feet above the valley. From this eminence the cliffs rise in beauty and grandeur, to fill every observer with surprise and wonder. Captain Button says : " The cliff is of marvellous sculpture and color. The rains have carved out of it rows of square obelisks and pilasters of uni- form pattern and dimensions, which decorate the front for many miles, giving the effect of a gigantic colonnade from which the entab- lature has been removed or has fallen in ruins. The Plateau Country abounds in these close resemblances of natural carving to human architecture, and nowhere are these more conspicuous or more per- fect than in the scarps which terminate the summits of the Marka- gunt and Parmsagunt Plateaus. Their color varies with the light and atmosphere. It is a pale red under ordinary lights, but as the sun sinks towards the horizon, it deepens into a rich rose color, which is seen in no other rocks, and is beautiful beyond description." The reader will understand whence the name given to the cliffs. Dome and Towers is another view in the Grand Canon District that bafifies description. The Mu-kiin-tu-weap, which is one of the princi- pal forks of the Virgen, flows between mighty walls that are covered with the most remarkable natural carvings. Mr. Dutton says : " The further wall of the caiion, at the opening of the gateway, quickly flings northward at a right angle and becomes the eastern wall of Little Zion Valley. As it sweeps down the Parunuweap (the other principal fork of the Virgen), it breaks into great pediments covered all over with the richest carving. The effect is much like that which the architect of the Milan Cathedral appears to have designed, though here it is vividly suggested rather than fully realized, as an artist painting in the ' broad style ' suggests many things without actually drawing them. The sumptuous, bewildering, mazy effect is all there ; but when we attempt to analyze it in detail, it eludes us. The flank of the wall receding up the Mukuntuweap is for a mile or two simi- larly decorated, but soon breaks into new forms much more impressive and wonderful. A row of towers half a mile high is quarried out of the palisade, and stands well advanced from its face. There is an eloquence in their forms which stirs the imagination with a singular power, and kindles in the mind of the dullest observer a glowing 40 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. MARVELS OF NATURE. 41 response. Just behind them, and rising a thousand feet higher is the eastern temple, crowned with a cylindric dome of white sand- stone ; but since it IS, in many respects, a repetition of the nearer DOME AND TOWERS. western temple, we may turn our attention to the latter. Directly in ront of us a complex group of white towers, springing from a cen- tral pile, mounts upwards to the clouds. Out of their midst, and hio-h overall, rises a dome-like mass, which dominates the entire landscape 42 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. It is almost pure white, with brilliant streaks of carmine descending its vertical walls. At the sunnnit it is truncated, and a flat tablet is laid upon the top, showing its edge of deep red. It is im}x)ssible to liken this object to any familiar shape, for it resembles none. Yet ils shape is far from being indefinite ; on the contrary, it has a defi- niteness and individuality which extort an exclamation of surprise when fiist beheld. There is no name provided for such an object, nor is it worth while to invent one. Call it a dome ; not because it has the ordinary shape of such a structure, but because it performs the functions of a dome. "The towers which surround it are of inferior mass and altitude, but each of them is a study of fine form and architectural effect. They are white above, and change to a strong, rich red below. Dome and towers are planted ujion a substructure no less admirable. Its \)\a\\ is indefinite, but its ])rofiles arc perfectly systematic. A curtain wall fourteen hundred feet high descends vertically from the eaves of the temple, and is succeeded by a steep slope of ever-widening base-courses leading down to the esplanade below. The curtain wall is decorated with a lavish display of vertical mouldings, and the ridges, eaves, and mitred angles arc fretted with serrated crisps. The ornamentation is suggestive rather than precise, but it is none the less effective. It is repetitive, not symmetrical. But though exact syniMCtry is wanting, nature has here brought home to us the truth that symmetry is only one of an infinite range of devices by which beauty can be materi- alized. " ' And finer forms are in the quarry Tiian ever Angelo evoked.' "The finest butte of the chasm is situated near the upper end of the Kaibab division, but it is not visible from Point Sublime. It is more than five thousand feet high, and has a surprising resemblance to an Oriental pagoda. We named it Vishnu's Temple." ^ Mr. Button continues: "Whatsoever is forcible, characteristic, and picturesque in the rock-forms of the Plateau Country is concen- trated and intensified to the uttermost in the buttes. Wherever we find them, whether fringing th : long escarpments of terraces or planted upon broad mesas, whether in caiions or upon expansive plains, they are always bold and striking in outline, and ornate in architecture. Upon their flanks and entablatures the decoration peculiar to the formation out of which they have been carved is most 1 Capt. C. K. Dutton. MARVELS OF NATURE. 43 44 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. strongly portrayed, and the profiles are most sharply cut. They com- mand the attention with special force, and quicken the imagination with a singular power." Moving northward, with grandeur on each side, Captain Button describes another butte still more surprising in its appearance, but, for reasons not mentioned, it was not photographed. " The controll- ing object was a great butte which sprang into view immediately before us, and which the salient of the wall had hitherto masked. Upon a pedestal two miles long and a thousand feet high, richly decorated with horizontal mouldings, rose four towers highly suggestive of cathe- dral architecture. Their altitude above the plain was estimated at eighteen hundred feet. They were separated by vertical clefts made by the enlargements of the joints, and many smaller clefts extending from the summits to the pedestal carved the turrets into tapering but- tresses, which gave a graceful, aspiring effect, with a remarkable defi- niteness to the forms. We named it Smithsonian Butte." Marble Canon belongs to the Grand Caiion of the Colorado. The illustration conveys to the reader as correct an idea of its grandeur as can possibly be obtained without beholding the original. Button says : " The Grand Canon of the Colorado crosses transversely the four western plateaus of the district, while the Marble Canon trav- erses the eastern or fifth plateau. The two caiion s are only nomi- nally separated, for there is no gap between them. The Marble Caiion begins at the base of the eastern terraces. The Colorado River, after traversing the central mesas of the Plateau Country in a series of profound chasms, at length emerges from the echo of Trias- sic and Permian age. Here for an instant the river is in compara- tively an open country. But within a mile or two it begins to sink another chasm in the carboniferous rocks, and in the course of si.xty- five miles the depth steadily increases until it becomes about thirty- five hundred to four thousand feet. This is the Marble Caiion. It is a gorge of very simple form, and its width is about twice as great as its depth. Its course is at first southwest, but gradually deflects to the southward. Its lower end is arbitrarily fixed at the junction of the Little Colorado or Colorado Chiquito, a stream coming in from the southeast and entering by a lateral chasm as deep as the main gorge itself. Below the junction the river turns westward, the walls grow rapidly higher, the great chasm widens out to six or eight times its width in the Marble Caiion, and the valley of the river is filled with buttes as large as mountains and wonderfully sculptured. Here MARVELS OF NATURE. 45 MARBLE CANON. 46 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. the river enters the Kaibab, and its walls soon attain the altitude of six thousand feet." Kanab Canon is a division of the Grand Caflon, possessing many at- tractions in common with Marble Canon. The cut shows that its mas- sive and towering walls must excite the wonder of men. Everything about it is grand on a large scale. As an adjunct to the Grand Canon, it is in complete harmony with its transcendent glories. The contemplation is inspiring and elevating. A man is better for taking in the sublime view. It awakens thoughts of the Great Architect^ whose handiwork is so wonderful. LAND OF THE STANDING ROCKS. Captain Button writes : " A spectacle of this kind is most impres- sive to the geologist. It brings into one view the co-ordinated results of observations made laboriously by months of travel and inspection in a very broad and rugged field. The great distances through which the eye can reach, the aspect of cliffs towering above and beyond cliffs, the great cumulative altitude thus attained, the immensity of the masses revealed, the boldness of form, the distinct- ness of the lines of stratification, and especially the brilliant coloring, subdued indeed, but also refined by the haze, give to the scene a grandeur which has few parallels." MARVELS OF NATURE. 47 KANAB CANON. 48 j/.i/ci7-:ls of the new west. Could anything be grander and more imposing than this " Land of Standing Rocks"? It is difficult to suppress the thought that human industry and art have here reared vast granite temples and towers, such as we read of in luiropean cities. There has been na touch of the artist to exaggerate the scene, for it is taken from a faithful photographic view, and appears here just as it is in the wonderful caiion of which it is a part. (See p. 46.) Albiquiu Peak is one of the most unique natural rock-formations in New Mexico, and it becomes more interesting in consequence of the ruins of an ancient pueblo which Macomb discovered on his way to the ALBIQUIU PEAK. peak. He says: "On the 19th of July we left Albiquiu for the ascent of the Albiquiu Peak. The train moving on to the Aroya Seco passed up the Chama to a point just beyond Albiquiu, and then turned to the left and ascended, by a long and difficult road, the high mesa which overlooks the valley on the south side. This mesa is- here full a thousand feet above the Chama, and is connected with that of which the broken edge forms a bold headland below the town, known as Albiquiu Cliff. The mesa over which we passed extended, with a nearly level surface, several miles towards the peak. Arriving at the western border of this mesa, we looked directly dowa MARVELS OF NATURE. 49 into the narrow but fertile valley in which is nestled the little Mexi- can village of Los Canones. Descending by a steep and tortuous path, we left our mules at the bottom and climbed a detached mcsilla which stands at the junction of the two branches of the valley, and on which is situated an ancient and ruined pueblo, once a stone-built town of considerable size. Even its name is now lost, and of the inhabitants whose busy hands constructed its walls, and whose feet in successive generations wore so deeply the threshold of its entrance, no tradition now remains. The mesa on which it stands is some five thousand feet in height, and the top is only to be reached by a nar- row and difficult path. The houses are now in ruins, but were once numerous, and all built of dressed stone. Within the town we noticed a dozen or more esttiffas excavated from the solid rock. They are circular in form, eighteen to twenty feet in diameter by ten or twelve in depth. They all exhibited evidence of once having been covered with wooden superstructures. In most of them, four excavations on opposite sides would seem to have been used as the sockets for the insertion of wooden posts, and in one is a niche cut in the side, with a chimney leading from it ; probably the place where the sacred fire was kept perpetually burning. The style of archi- tecture in which the town was built, as well as the esttiffas, show that its inhabitants belonged to the Pueblo Indians, a race now nearly extinct, but once occupying every habitable portion of New Mexico." ^ Mr. Macomb continues : " Spending the night at Los Canones, we started this morning very early for the ascent of the peak. This we mostly accomplished on mule-back, passing over a succession of hills composed of the variegated marls, — containing beds of gyp- sum of great thickness, — covered with a forest of pifion and cedar. When we had arrived within five hundred feet of the summit, we left our mules, and commenced the ascent on foot. This part of the mountain is very steep, and the upper two hundred feet is a perpen- dicular wall of trap-rock. The summit we found to form a ciichillo, a narrow, knife-like ridge, bounded on every side by vertical preci- pices. Its height above the sea is about nine thousand feet. The extreme summit is covered with pinon, and the slope with yellow pine, Douglas spruce, the western balsam fir, and the quaking-cap. The view from the summit was particularly fine, sweeping a circle of fifty miles' radius, except towards the buttes, which are very near, and fill the northeastern horizon." ^ These ancient races are treated at length in Part II. of this volume. so MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Macomb says : " Everywhere over the second plateau are scat- tered biittes and pinnacles, wrought, from the massive calcareous sandstone and the overlying Saurian beds, by the erosion which has swept from the surface all traces but these of the immense mass of sedimentary rocks which once covered it. Of these, one of the most striking, seen from our route, is the Casa Colorado. It is a detached butte, some three hundred and sixty feet high, composed of sandstone covered with the harder layers of the Saurian beds. An- other symmetrical and beautiful dome, composed of the same mate- rials, is lemon-yellow, with a base of red." CASA COLORADO BUTT.I. Macomb examined this butte (in New Mexico) in 1859, when on his expedition from Santa Fe to the junction of Grand and Green rivers for the United States Government. It will be observed that the height of the butte is just that of Bunker Hill Monument. Captain Macomb writes : " From the pinnacle on which we stood the eyes swept over an area some fifty miles in diameter, everywhere marked by features of more than ordinary interest ; lofty lines of massive mesas rising in successive steps to and from the frame of the picture, the interval between them more than two thousand feet below their summits. A great basin or sunken plain lay stretched MARVELS OF NATURE. 51 out before me as on a map. Not a particle of vegetation was any- where discernible ; nothing but bare and barren rocks of rich and varied colors, shimmering in the sunlight. Scattered over the plain were thousands of the fantastically formed buttes to which I have so often referred in my notes ; pyramids, domes, towers, columns, spires, of every conceivable form and size. Among these, by far the most remarkable was the forest of gothic spires, first and imper- fectly seen as we issued from the mouth of the Cafion Colorado. Nothing I can say will give an adequate idea of the singular and sur- prising appearance which they presented from this new and advan- FOREST OF GOTHIC SPIRES. tageous point of view. Singly, or in groups, they extend like a belt of timber for several miles. Nothing in nature or art offers a par- allel to these singular objects ; but some idea of their appearance may be gained by imagining the island of New York thickly set with spires like that of Trinity Church, but many of them full twice its height." "A few miles north of Camp 39," says Captain Macomb, "is the southwestern corner of the Mesa Verde, which stretches from this point northward to our former trail, and eastward, forms the north bank of the San Joan as far as the eye can reach. It has an altitude 52 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST of two thousand feet above camp, and presents, with its many detached buttes and pinnacles, its long and lofty walls, a most grand and imposing object. On the south side of the river, now quite near to us, stand out in strong relief the picturesque basaltic pinnacles of ' The Needles,' while further south the view is bounded by the high ridsres of the Carisso and Tunecha mountains. " From Camp 40 we obtained a nearer and still better view of * The Needles.' This is a mass of erupted rock, rising with per- pendicular sides from the middle of the valley. From all points where seen by us, it has the appearance of an immense cathedral, of THE NEEDLES. rich, sombre brown color, terminating in two spires. Its altitude is about one thousand feet above its base ; above the river, 2,262 feet. It is everywhere surrounded by stratified rocks, and its isolated posi- tion and peculiar form render its origin a matter of some little doubt. My conviction, however, is very decided that its remarkable relief is due to the washing away of the sediments which once surrounded it, and which formed, the mold in which it was cast. In no other way can I imagine its vertical faces of one thousand feet to have been formed." "To-day our course has been southeasterly," continues Captain MARVELS OF NATURE. 53 Macomb, " approaching the southern end of the Nacimiento, through a region much like that of yesterday, except that as we have now- penetrated deeply into the Middle Crustaceous shales, the surface is less broken, the hills being rounded, with long, gentle slopes ; the timber has become more sparse, the country less picturesque and inviting. We have here a fine view of all the interval between the Nacimiento and San Mateo. In the west and northwest, high mesas fill the horizon, forming the line of divide to which I have before referred. Around the base of Mount Taylor, extending many miles in every direction, is a plateau of trap, which has apparently flowed CABAZON. from this great extinct volcano, covering all the sedimentary rocks in its vicinity. In the open valley of the Puerco stand many pictur- esque trap buttes having a general resemblance to the needles of the San Juan. Of these the most conspicuous, called by the Mexicans Cabazon, resembles in its outline a Spanish sombrero, but is of gigantic dimensions, being at least fifteen hundred feet in height." The reader must bear in mind, as he examines the illustration, the great height of this butte. At least fifteen hundred feet ! A monument of rock fifteen hundred feet high, and no art about it — ■ all nature ! 54 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Most resplendent of all are the Painted Columns in this grand canon, which Button, in his official report to the U. S. Government, describes as "belts of brilliant red, yellow, and white, which are in PAINTED COLUMNS. tensified, rather than alleviated, by alternate belts of gray. They culminate in intensity in the PermJan and Lower Trias, where dark brownish reds alternate with bands of chocolate, purple, and lavender, so deep, rich, and resplendent that a painter would need to be a bold man to venture to portray them as they are." MARVELS OF NATURE. 55 f',l!;iKfi/iii||Pii! UIMAi I U //// /^ Mr. Cozzens, in his "Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico," describes the scenes in the district of the Grand Canon of Colorado, which we transfer to our pages. 56 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. These remarkable formations stand out bold and high, and are situated on the " Santa Rita del Cobre," Arizona. The towers on the right are singularly artistic, and yet they are not so marvellous as the almost perfect barracks on the left. If men had no hand in these creations, and invisible spirits were not the workmen, then our material world must be under the control of as exact laws as the spiritual. Mr. Cozzens, who first brought these sandstone formations to the attention of the public, says : — "We spent several days in this vicinity, during which time we visited some remarkable sandstone formations near by. We found about forty columns, worn by the winds and rains into most singular shapes. One of them measured nearly sixty feet in height, and more closely resembled an inverted bottle than anything we could compare it to. At its greatest circumference it measured eighteen feet, while at its base it was scarcely three feet. Some looked like churches, towers, castles, or barracks, and others very like human beings of colossal proportions. So striking were these resemblances, that it was hard to believe the hand of man had nothing to do with their formation." The City not made with Hands, is also a sandstone formation more marvellous than that just described ; and we are indebted to Mr.' Cozzens for the view. He says : — " Half-way across this vast sandy plain two or three blue specks were visible, which, our guide informed us, were salt lakes ; also, that it was from the shores of these lakes that the Spaniards formerly procured their salt, and even the present inhabitants used it to a large extent. He said that in close proximity to these lakes was a very peculiar sandstone formation, well worth seeing ; and, as all were but a few miles distant from our direct route, we determined to visit them. Bringing our glasses to bear upon that portion of the plain pointed out by the guide, we saw what seemed to us to be a large city, with its spires and domes and towers glittering in the bright sunlight, and rivalling in splendor the creations of the genii conjured by Aladdin's wonderful lamp." The next day he and his party came into the immediate vicinity of the glittering city. He continues : — " The next morning the guide called us to behold the wonderful effect of the rising sun upon the city of enchantment that we had seen from the mountain the day before. As we approached this marvellous architecture of the elements, we could not repress excla- MARVELS OF NATURE. 57 > o H -< > D m > o mations of wonder and delight. Streets were plainly visible ; massive temples with their spires and domes ; monuments of every conceiv- able shape ; castles of huge proportions ; towers and minarets, all 58 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. formed of pure v/hitc silica, which glittered in the bright sunlight- like walls of crystal. It was hard to persuade ourselves that art had no part in forming these graceful testimonials to the wonders of nature. "'Surely,' said Dr. Parker, 'this must be a city.' "'Yes,* replied I, 'a city, but not made with hands.' " Around the whole was a massive wall ten feet in height, with arched gateways and entrances as perfect as it is possible for the imagination of man to conceive. Entering the confines of this magical spot, we were soon undeceived, for what in the distance our own imagination had conceived to be enchanted ground, was, in reality, a mass of white sandstone, worn by the winds and waters into a wonderful similitude of a magnificent city." Who wonders that explorers have become enthusiastic over the wealth of scenery in the Grand Caiion of the Colorado .'' that the English vocabulary has been depleted of adjectives to express human amazement and admiration over its revelations .■' "There are," says Nordhoff, "Americans who saw Rome before they saw Niagara, who saw Mont Blanc before they saw the Yosemite, and who saw the Alps and the Pyrenees before they saw the Rockies and the Sierras. Let them have seen all of these, with the Urals, the Andes, and the Himalayas thrown in ; let them have seen the boiling geysers of Ice- land and the belching craters of ^tna and Chimborazo ; let them have looked upon the wonders of the Yellowstone and listened to the roar of Niagara ; let them have traversed all the rest of the world, and until they have seen the Grand Caiion of the Colorado, the world's greatest wonder yet awaits them. Imagine Mount Washing- ton cleft from crest to base, and the sides of the chasm pushed apart half a mile. Then imagine enough Mounts Washington, split in like manner and put irregularly together, to form a zigzag gorge three hundred miles long, and you have some idea of what this caiion is. Perpendicular walls on either side of the river five thousand to seven thousand feet in height ! Think of it ! More than a mile of rocky cliif towering above you ! Look down from the lofty brink, and you see the river, like a silver thread, following the contour of the mighty abyss. Look up from beneath through its mile-high walls, count the stars at midday, and realize that a cannon ball would hardly reach the lofty summit." Captain Button, who speaks officially for the United States Gov- ernment, says : " Those who have long and carefully studied the Grand Caflon of the Colorado do not hesitate for a moment to pro- MARVELS OF NATURE. 59 nounce it far the most sublime of all earthly spectacles. If its sub- limity consisted only in its dimensions, it could be sufficiently set forth in a single sentence. It is more than two hundred miles long, from five to twelve miles wide, and from five thousand to six thou- sand feet deep. There are in the world valleys which are longer and a few which are deeper. There are valleys flanked by summits loftier than the palisades of the Kaibab. Still the Grand Canon is the sublimest thing on earth. It is not alone by virtue of its magni- tude, but by virtue of its whole, its ensemble!' YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. We might very appropriately present the marvels of this locality under the division of canons, since the mighty gorge of the Yellow- stone is a caiion of surpassing beauty and sublimity. But an act of Congress has set apart this domain for a national park, thus giving it special prominence in the public mind, so that we are disposed to give it kindred importance in treating of its marvels. The National Park is situated in the northwestern part of the Territory of Wyoming, embracing a small section of Idaho and Mon- tana. Its area is sixty-five miles long and fifty-five wide, or about 3,575 square miles, considerably larger than Rhode Island and Dela- ware together. It is surrounded by mountain ranges which lift their lofty peaks from ten to twelve thousand feet above the sea. Nothing definite was known of this locality until 1869. True, trappers and adventurers went thither before that time, but their reports were so incredible that no one believed them. Some of them were wholly unworthy of credence, because they were the exag- gerations of the imagination, as the following will show : — " In many parts of ^ the country petrifactions and fossils are very numerous, and, as a consequence, it was claimed that in one locality (I was not able to 'fix it definitely) a large tract of sage is perfectly petrified, with all the leaves and branches in perfect condition, the general appearance of the plain being iinlike (like i*) that of the rest of the country ; but all is stone ; while the rabbits, sage hens, and other animals usually found in such localities are still there, perfectly petrified, and as natural as when they were living ; and, more won- derful still, the petrified bushes bear the most wonderful fruit ; dia- monds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc., etc., as large as black wal- nuts, are found in abundance." Messrs. Cook and Folsom explored the Yellowstone country in 6o MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. 1869, and their report of its marvels awakened public attention. In 1 87 1 Captains Barlow and Keep, of the United States Service, made quite extensive explorations ; and the same year Dr. Hayden made an extended tour through it, giving the results of his researches in a report so filled with wonderful revelations as to greatly interest the members of Congress. He recommended that the Yellowstone country should be set apart for a national park ; and his recommen- dation was adopted in 1872 with little opposition. It will be seen, therefore, that the marvels of the park have re- cently become known to the public. Singular as it may appear, we have lived near this wonderful valley, and travelled around it for years, and been ignorant of its wonders. The vast extent of our country, offering such ample fields for exploration elsewhere, in the interest of fortune or pleasure, is a sufficient explanation of the fact that we have lived upon the borders of this fairyland so long with- out knowing it. An English lady, familiar with the finest scenery of Europe, wrote home from this region of marvels : " I am here in a place which, singularly enough, they call Wonderland. Not that the title is by any means inappropriate, for the place is, indeed, a land of wonders ; but the coincidence, at least, is somewhat remarkable, for you know what the associations of that word ' Wonderland ' are to me. Well, here I am, rubbing my eyes every day, to be sure that I am not either in a dream or in a new world. You never saw, nor could you ever imagine, such strange sights as greet us here at every turn. It is not only that everything is big ; that is characteristic of the whole country, everything in nature being on a much larger scale than we are accustomed to in Europe. But besides the Rocky Mountains and a waterfall, — and a big one too, twice as high as Niagara, — there is the grandest old lot of geysers and boiling springs in the world, and a river shut in for several miles of its course by moun- tains rising hundreds of feet above it, — what they call a canon (pro- nounced canyon), the walls of which are of such glowing colors that papa said he could compare it to nothing but the most gorgeous sunset he had ever seen." The Mammoth Hot Springs are situated a thousand feet above the banks of Gardiner River, into which their constant overflow runs. They appear in terraces, tier upon tier, as if laid out by a skilful engineer. The hot water takes up calcareous matter in its course, and deposits it below. "The slow but ceaseless operation of the springs has resulted in building up terrace after terrace of scallop- MARVELS OF NATURE. 6l edged, limpid pools and basins of hot water, of varied size, form, and temperature." Mr. Wisner says: "The ascent to the main terrace of active springs is not difficult. Stepping upon the first of a series of broad o H CO z o • C/) m 30 33 > o ledges which lead to the base of the terrace, the way is threaded through a maze of rills of hot water over the low scalloped rims of hmpid, steaming pools, which it seems sacrilege to tread. The nov-