96

CROFUTT’S NEW OVERLAND TOURIST

 

within 40 miles of Laramie, valued at
$2,250,000. In 1867, there couldn’t be
found in the same section 500 head of all
kinds—all told. Agriculture is not profit-
able, yet they have demonstrated that some
of the hardy vegetables can be cultivated
with success on the bottom lands.

Irems or InrEREst—Crystal Lake is
about 40 miles to the westward of Lara-
mie. Sheep Mountain—one of the peaks
in the Rocky Mountain range—rears its
head for 12,000 feet above the sea. Should
the tourist desire to visit the place, he will
find the road beyond the plains rough,
and the ascent toilsome. Before begin-
ning the ascent of the mountains we enter
one of the grandest forests in the country.
For ten miles we toil on through the for-
est, which is so dense that the sunlight
hardly penetrates, and the silence is almost
oppressive. Bears, mountain lions, and
the mountain sheep range here; their
haunts, until lately, never having been in-
vaded by the pale face. Emerging from
this gloom into the fair sunlight, we find
ourselves on the highest point of the moun-

| tain, from which we can look over piles of

fleecy clouds floating below us to other
ranges far beyond. Peak on peak, ridge
on ridge, they ascend, until their snow-
clad heights are lost in the distance, or in
the vast blue dome above.

Looking downward, we behold a vast
succession of dark ridges and grey peaks

, through the rifts in the fog-like vapor

 

floating above: them. These dark ridges
derive their sombre hue from the forests
of pine, which extend for miles and miles
in all directions. To the east we see a
deep indentation in the mountains, which is
Laramie Plains. Across this apparently
narrow line, the rugged masses of the
Black Hills rise in their grandeur, their
black crests closing the scene.

Turn now to the immediate landscape.
Here is a green, grassy lawn, dotted with
tiny flowers, of varieties such as we never
before beheld, or ever read of, and right
before us, in the center of this lawn, lies a
circular lake nearly amile wide; its clear,
soft, cold water glistening in the rays of
the sun, and reflecting, as in a mirror, every
object on its banks, transforming them
into many fantastic shapes, as the breeze
lovingly kisses the silver surface, lifting
it into little ripples.

The scene is one of unsurpassed loveli-
ness immediately around you while the
view in the distance is grand, aye, sub-

lime—beyond the power of words to de-
pict. Whoever visits this place cannot
tail of being impressed with its wonderous
beauty, and his mind will take newer and
clearer impressions of the power of “Him
who hath created all things.”

Tue Snowy RanceE—the great backbone
of the continent—is covered with snow fora
great part of the season; the highest peaks
ever wearing their white robes, even when
the passes are covered with flowers. This
renders them very conspicuous and easily
discerned at a great distance. Hence the
term “Snowy Range.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CountTRY—In
general descriptions we speak of Laramie
Plains as including all the country lying
between the western base of the Black
Hills and the eastern base of the Rocky
Mountains—a grand park, similar in for-
mation to the great parks of Colorado,
though of much less altitude. These
“narks” are immense bodies of table
lands, enclosed by the peaks and ridges
of the surrounding mountains, sheltered
by them from the cold winds, watered by
them from the never-failing streams which
flow from gorges and canyons among
these peaks, from which the snow is never
absent. The average elevation of the Lar-
amie Plains or park is about 6,500 feet,
though where Laramie City stands it is
more. The Black Hill ranges of the Rocky
Mountains form the eastern and northern
boundary of the “Plains.” This range
extends nearly due north to Laramie Peak,
about 150 miles, thence west, terminating
in the Seminole Mountains. On the south,
the park or plain is bordered by the Rocky
Mountains, which here reach an elevation
of from 10,000 to 18,000 feet above the sea
—snow-capped always. To the altitude of
from 8,000 to 9,000 feet, these slopes are
covered with dense pine forests.

In the mountains to the westward, in
North Park, Douglass, and other creeks,
rich mines of gold, silver, copper, and
nearly all the known metals have been dis-
covered, and in several cases, worked to ad-
vantage. The Keystone is reported to bea
very rich mine, the owners of which are
taking out the ore and piling it up, to await
the arrival of a stamp mill which will be
put up in a few months. Undoubtedly
there are vast regions tributary to Laramie
equally well-stored with mineral deposits,
that have never been prospected or visited
by the white men.

On the northwest from out the Elk

 

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