VII

ENTERING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

CENTRAL CITY,  June 23, 1866.

GOLDEN CITY enjoys the distinction of being the capital of Colorado Territory. That is, the Legislature regularly meets there, but adjourns to Denver before transacting any other business. The population is not more than three or four hundred, and the place has a quiet and rather forlorn appearance at present. It possesses, nevertheless, several substantial stores, a school-house, two flour-mills (Clear Creek furnishing excellent water-power), and a manufactory of fire-brick. From this time forward it will rise in importance.

The discovery of coal is of scarcely less consequence to this region than that of gold and silver. Along the eastern base of the range, brown coal of excellent quality has been found for a distance of three hundred miles, and the indications continue through Montana. I saw, forty miles east of Denver, among the Platte Hills, a bold out-crop of coal, projecting two or three feet above the earth. Further in the mountain, the Albertine, or oil-bearing coal, yielding one hundred and four gallons to the ton, has been discovered. The supply of fuel for the Pacific Railroad, and for all smelting and manufacturing purposes, is therefore assured for centuries to come.

I visited the veins of fire-clay and coal, which are found in conjunction, within half a mile of Golden City. The clay is found in large beds of a chocolate color and greasy texture Two horizontal shafts have been opened into the side of the hill, and the carts are loaded directly at their mouths. The clay is first burned, then ground, after which it is moulded and pressed into the requisite forms. Although the business is in its very commencement, enough has been done to assure its entire success. The proprietors have already commenced the manufacture of tiles for roofing, which, I suspect, will ere long come into general use.

The coal, commencing at the surface with a streak of "color" (as the miners say of gold), broadens so rapidly that at the depth of twenty-five feet I found a vertical stratum fourteen feet in breadth. If it continues to increase at the same rate for one hundred feet further, the immense supply may easily be imagined. This Rocky Mountain coal, I understand, is always found in vertical seams, while the bituminous coal along the Smoky Hill Fork is disposed in horizontal strata. The valley of the Platte, after leaving the rolling country at the base of the mountains, appears to lie between the two formations. The examination, however, is so superficial, that nothing very positive can yet be asserted. Coal is beginning to be found abundantly in Southern Kansas, and it is possible that the gaps between the beds already discovered may yet be filled up.

Standing on this great bed of coal and fire-clay, at Golden City, I looked eastward across the creek, and saw a ridge of limestone rock, and the indications of a quarry which has just been opened. My companions pointed out to me the location of beds of the finest iron ore, all within the radius of a mile. The iron is said to be of unusually fine quality. Mr. Loveland of this place has proposed to erect a rolling-mill, and manufacture rails for the Pacific Company, enabling them to commence the road eastward from the base of the mountains, to meet the branches starting from Omaha and Wyandotte. Considering that all the requisite heavy machinery must be freighted across from the Missouri River, this would seem, at first sight, to be a hazardous enterprise; but, on the other hand, the saving in the cost of transporting rails for the road would be so immense, that I cannot pronounce the plan unreasonable. It is quite certain that all the rails for the central division of the road must be manufactured here and in Nevada.

There will, in time, be a railroad from the milling regions on the upper waters of Clear Creek to Golden City; and many of the companies will then find it to their advantage to establish their smelting works at the latter place. Let no one be deceived by present indications. The quiet of Golden City will not endure much longer; and the day may not be far off when the smokes from its tall chimneys, rising up behind Table Mountain, will be seen at Denver. I only wish that the vulgar, snobbish custom of attaching "City" to every place of more than three houses, could be stopped. From Illinois to California it has become a general nuisance, telling only of swagger and want of taste, not of growth. Why not call it " Goldenport" (as it will become a sort of harbor to which the ores will be shipped), or any other simple name? In the Russian language two unnecessary accents usurp one seventh of the typography; and in Colorado, if one talks much about the mining towns, he must add one seventh to his speech in repeating the useless word " City."

The age of law and order has not yet arrived. The people pointed out to me a tree, to which some of them had hung a Mexican, last week, on account of an attempted assault upon two ladies of the place. The criminal was taken from the sheriff's hands and lynched; and the few remaining Mexican residents, who appear to have had no fellowship with him, are ordered to leave the place. Affairs of this kind make an unpleasant impression. The improvised code of a new settlement is no longer necessary here, and it seems to exist by virtue of a lingering taste for rude and violent justice.

I found simple but clean quarters, and an excellent table, at Cheney’s Hotel; addressed a limited audience in the evening, and took the coach for this place yesterday morning, at ten o’clock. The new road, following Clear Creek cañon, has been made impassable by floods; and the old road, some miles further eastward, is now used. It pierces the first range of the Rocky Mountains by the cañon of a small stream, at the mouth whereof are four or five log-houses, styled Gate City! The defile is very narrow, abrupt, and with such sudden turns that for a space the road seems every moment to come to a sudden termination. Huge masses of dark red and purple rock topple on either side; there is little timber to be seen, but a profusion of wild gooseberries and currants, and a bush resembling the broom. The bed of the brook is crowded with young cotton-woods and box-elders, in the shade of which new varieties of wild flowers grow luxuriantly. I hailed the Alpine harebell as an old friend, and inhaled the delicious perfume blown from clumps of mountain roses. The wild hop-vine was very abundant, spreading its arms over the rock, in lieu of other supports.

After two or three miles the pass became broader and straighter, and we could look up to the crest of the mountains. It was dismal to see how much of the pine forests, with which the steeps were clothed, have been wantonly or carelessly destroyed by fire. The rock now appeared to be a kind of gneiss, gray, with pale orange oxydations, which gave the scenery something of the character of the Apennines. I did not find, as I expected, much vegetation. The dry soil, the bare masses of rock, the dusty road, and the hot, cloudless sky overhead, all suggested Southern Europe, rather than Switzerland or our mountain regions of the East.

We followed this cañon for some eight or ten miles, occasionally passing a saw-mill, or tavern-ranche, patronized by the freighters. Then we reached Guy’s Hill, where the road crosses the divide, and we were requested by the driver to climb to the summit on foot. It was but half a mile of rather breathless walking in the thin air, and we stood upon a narrow crest, overlooking a deep, pine-clad valley in the heart of the mountains. The dark summits of the second range rose against the sky, and only one small snowy peak was visible. Here the forests, although neither large nor dense, were still untouched, and multitudes of silvery aspens were mingled with the pines.

The descent looked dangerously steep; but our driver, with locked wheels, went down on a trot, passing two ox-teams with wonderful skill. The valley we now entered was greener and fresher than the first, and with a tolerably level bottom, along which we bowled to the Michigan House, where dinner awaited us, — an excellent meal, at one dollar and fifty cents. The water was unsurpassed in coolness and agreeable flavor.

The road now gradually swerved to the left, rising to another divide, whence the splendors of the snowy range burst upon us. Broad wedges of rock and snow, soaring to a height of fourteen thousand feet, glittered in the clear sky, apparently close at hand, although they were still fifteen miles distant. Our own elevation above the sea could not have been less than eight thousand feet. The air was thin, but wonderfully cool, pure, and transparent. The only thing the scene lacked was fresh mountain turf, — a feature which I have not yet found.

We descended from this crest into a deep glen, the sides of which were better wooded. Here and there we passed a grazing-ranche or saw-mill, and the road was filled with heavy freight teams. Two miles of rapid descent, and we suddenly emerged upon the cañon of North Clear Creek. Here commenced, at once, the indications of mining. The precipitous sides of the cañon were freckled with the holes and dirt-piles of experimental shafts; the swift waters of the stream had the hue of " tailings;" and presently the smoke from the smelting works of the Lyons Company began to Cloud the pure mountain air.

Beyond this point, which is already thickly studded with houses, and is called Lyonsville, a sudden turn in the road discloses a view of Black Hawk, with its charming church perched above the town, on the extremity of the headland which separates Gregory Gulch from that of Clear Creek. We at once entered a busy, noisy, thickly populated region. The puff of steam, the dull thump of the stamp-mills, and all the other sounds of machinery at work, filled the air; the road became a continuous street, with its hotels, stores, livery stables, and crowded dwelling-houses.

Turning into Gregory Gulch, we slowly mounted through Black Hawk and Mountain City to this place; but all three places form in reality one continuous town, more than two miles long, and with over six thousand inhabitants. The houses are jammed into the narrow bed of the cañon, employing all sorts of fantastic expedients to find room and support themselves. Under them a filthy stream falls down the defile over a succession of dams. It is a wonderfully curious and original place, strongly resembling Guanajuato in its position and surroundings.   NEXT