664

CROFUTT’S NEW OVERLAND TOURIST

   

 

number will not exceed 40 miles in length,
with a width of about 15 miles. Some of
these lie on the Atlantic side of the “ back-
bone,” while others rest on the Pacific
side, their altitude being from 17,000 to
10,000 feet. They are, in fact, great up-
land basins, the reservoirs of the debris
which for centuries has washed down the
mountain sides. Their soil is fertile,
yielding wild grasses in abundance, fur-
nishing food for vast herds of sheep and
cattle.

In Europe or New England, were such
plains found at such an altitude and in
similar latitude, they would be worthless,
barren wastes—probable regions of per-
petual ice and snow; but here, grains and
vegetables are successfully cultivated, and
cattle graze the year round at the height of
7,000 feet, while those valleys which lie
between this altitude and that of the high-
est—10,000 feet—and including those, also
afford excellent summer pasturage and
great crops of natural grass, which is
cured for hay and exported.

These great fertile areas constitute one
of the great resources of Colorado—an un-
bounded field of wealth which requires no
expensive machinery to develop. When
these plains shall have been stocked and
settled, when the golden grain shall wave
in the morning breeze around the home
of the pioneer, when these lands shall
have been divided up and peopled, a new
era of wealth and prosperity will dawn on
Colorado—an era of steadily increasing
and permanent progress, such as mines
can never give.

But we must away—“All aboard for Col-
orado!”—While at dinner at the Railroad
House in Cheyenne, the “ Denver through
sleeping car’? is dropped from the Union
Pacific train, and taken up by the through
train. on the

Colorado Central Railroad.

Chief office at Golden, Colorado.
W.A.#H. Lovnuanp,...Pres. and Gen. Manager.
E. L. BERTHOUD,........ Sec. and Chief Engineer.
Oy He PERN RY oie ec gi ein 00 Superintendent.

This was the first railroad corporation
in Colorado, having been organized in
1865. Ground was first broken at Golden,
New Years day, 1868, and during the year
10 miles of track graded. In September,
1870, the broad gauge portion, between
Golden and Denver, was completed. In
April of the same year, work was com-
menced on the division extending north to

Longmont, and west to the mining cities
of Central, Black Hawk, and Georgetown.
The mountain portion of the “Central” is
a three-foot narrow , gauge, commenced
about the same time as the Longmont di-
vision, and completed Sept. ist, 1871, to
the junction of North and South Clear
Creeks, 18 miles from Golden, and in
December following, to Black Hawk 86
miles from Golden. In March, 1878, the
South Clear Creek line was completed to
Floyd Hill, 34g miles above the forks, and
to Georgetown in the fall of 1876. In the
July of 1877, work was commenced on the
extention from Longmont, and completed
to Cheyenne in October of the same year,
making the whole mileage of the “Central,”
184 miles, 180 being of the broad, and 54
narrow gauge.

Leaving Cheyenne, our course is west-
ward over the track of the “Union Pacific,”
six miles to

CotorRADO JuNcTION—At Hazard, be-
fore reaching the station building, our
track branches off to the left, leaving the
Union track on the north side of the plat-
form, while ours is on the south side.

At Hazard we meet the Overland train
from the West, and hear the cry of “Change
cars for all points in Colorado and New
Mexico,” and having received on board
such passengers as are going our way,
change our course to the southward and
pass over aroiling prairie for a few miles,
and then through deep, sandy cuts up a
heavy grade, cross the line into Colorado,
and descend by a great Horse-shoe curve
into the valley of Lone Tree Creek, and
after a distance of 9 5-10 miles, reach the
station of

Lone TrREE—a side-track and water-
tank, opposite the old stage station—the
herds of cattle and sheep being the only
objects of interest observable. :

Proceeding on down the valley, which
in places is a half-mile in width, cross-
ing and re-crossing Lone Tree Creek, we
pass through several cuts of hard lime
rock. In one place, where the rock has
been hauled away from the cut, it has been
dumped, on the right of the track, a load
in a place, close together, covering a con-
siderable ground, and the action of the
atmosphere has caused these hard rocks to
slacken and fall down to a white powder.
Scientists are requested to explain “why
this is thus?” Hight miles further is

TayLors—a side-track. Here you get a