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Denver Area
Denver to Pueblo
Colorado Springs Area
Royal Gorge Route
Marshall Pass Area
Gunnison River
Uncompahgre River
Tennessee Pass Area
Eagle River
Colorado River
Grand Jct.- Green Riv.
Green Riv.- Provo
Provo- Salt Lake
USGS History
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Denver to Pueblo
(U.S.G.S. Bulletin 707, 1922)
MAIN LINE OF RAILROAD FROM DENVER TO COLORADO SPRINGS.
Denver Area
Soon after leaving the Union Station at Denver, on the main line of the
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, the train crosses Cherry Creek near the place
where Gen. Larimer built the first house, in 1858 (See Sheet 1). As this creek heads out on the plains it
is intermittent in its flow; in dry seasons little or no water runs in it at the surface,
but when "cloudbursts" occur on its upper course a tremendous volume of water
comes down, engulfing everything in its way. Such a catastrophe occurred in May, 1864,
when great damage, was done. Recently the channel of the creek, where it passes through
the city, has been cemented, so as to prevent the loose sandy soil from washing away, and
a, boulevard bordered by trees has been constructed along it, giving its banks here the
appearance of a park.
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad traverses the, manufacturing part of Denver,
and at Burnham, 2 miles out from the city, it passes the shops of the railroad system.
About half a, mile beyond the shops is the interesting though unpretentious laboratory
building erected by the National Radium Institute for experimental work in cooperation
with the United States Bureau of Mines to devise a cheaper method of extracting radium
salts from the ores found in Colorado. This work has been accomplished, and the plant has
now passed into the hands of a private company to, continue the work of extracting radium.
A short distance farther along South Platte River may be seen on the west (right), and the
railroad runs up its valley for a distance of about 15 miles. The valley is well irrigated
and contains many fine f arms and country places. Loretto Academy stands out clear and
distinct as one of the landmarks of the upland on the farther side of the river. Fort
Logan, just beyond, is a regimental Army post established about 25 years ago.
Littleton Area
Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe (a-rap'a-hoe) County, so named from a tribe of
Indians that formerly inhabited this part of the country. It stands in the, midst of a
rich agricultural district and has become, popular as the suburban home of many of
Denver's business men. Near Littleton are the W. F. Kendrick pheasantries, which are said
to be the largest game preserve in the world. Here all kinds of wild fowl are raised, and
golden pheasants may be seen wandering by the roadside like chickens on an ordinary farm.
A short distance beyond Littleton the traveler may obtain a charming view on the right,
across the broad, well-tilled valley of the South Platte, studded with clumps of
cottonwood trees, to the Front Range, towering in the distance. Wolhurst, a fine country
place built by the late, United States Senator Edward Wolcott, is farther along on the
right, just beyond milepost 13. After the death of Senator Wolcott the place was purchased
by the noted mining man the late Thomas F. Walsh. It is now occupied as a country home by
one of Denver's richest citizens.
At the small station of Acequia the railroad crosses the High Line Canal, one of those
great irrigating ditches that are characteristic of the semiarid regions, which takes
water from the South Platte and carries it far to the northeast, irrigating at least
100,000 acres of land that would otherwise be and and unprofitable. The railroad follows
the valley of South Platte River to a point a, little beyond milepost 15, where, it leaves
the main valley and turns to the, south (left) up Plum Creek. This creek also flows in a
broad, flat valley, and the traveler, unless he observes closely, may not realize that the
railroad has turned from the main valley into that of a tributary.
Near milepost 15 the entrance to South Platte Canyon may be seen in the mountain front, on
the right. Here, in 1820, the exploring expedition of Maj. Long first came to the
mountains, although it had traveled from the north for many miles in front of and nearly
parallel with them. The men were eager to climb the mountains, explore their wonderful
peaks and valleys, and see the country that lay beyond, but a few days of hard climbing up
the rocky slopes satisfied them that they could not reach the summit of the range in a
short time and that mountain climbing was not so easy as it appeared from a distance; so
they were content to proceed southward along nearly the route that is now followed by the
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The entrance to the canyon may be seen from the
train, but, owing to its many bends, the canyon does not appear to be an open cut through
the mountain front.
In many places at the foot of the mountains the steeply dipping sandstone forms sharp
hogbacks, which may be seen from the moving train, and, as the sandstone is mostly red,
the traveler will soon learn to associate red sandstone and hogbacks with the foothills of
the mountain front. These beds are very prominent near the mouth of Plum Creek and may be
seen to good advantage from milepost 17, about 1 1/2 miles up the creek.
The scenery of the lower part of the valley of Plum Creek is smooth and uninteresting. The
surface is a rolling upland, which can not be irrigated from the South Platte because it
lies too high above that river, and it consequently appears rather barren to those who are
accustomed to a more humid climate. The only railroad station in this part of the valley
is Louviers, which is merely a shipping point for the DuPont Powder Co., whose plant for
the manufacture of high explosives is on the west (right) of the track.
Above Louviers Plum Creek swings eastward, and it is bordered on its east side by bluffs
and mesas of white sandstone. Although but a short distance from the upturned rocks along
the mountain front, these sandstones lie practically horizontal, a fact which indicates
that they are near the middle of the great downfold of the rocks east of the Front Range.
The Figure below represents the edges of the upturned rock beds as they would appear if
they had been cut by a giant knife at right angles to the trend of the mountain range.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, which has been on the east (left) side of
the train since it left Denver, passes over the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad
at the town of Sedalia. The upland on the east is here nearer the track than it is farther
north, and it stands out as a plateau with a steep or even vertical front. Some of these
steep slopes are merely projecting points of the highland, but others are parts of hills
that have been isolated from it by the cutting of the streams. Such isolated remnants of a
once extensive plateau are very conspicuous on the west (right) of the road. A hill of
this kind in the East would not be called by any special name, but in the West, and
especially in the Southwest, a flat-topped hill is almost universally called by the
Spanish name mesa, meaning table. Near Sedalia are the forks of Plum Creek, one of which
comes from the south and the other from the east. The one that comes from the south offers
the more direct course for the railroad, but the one that comes from the east is the
longer and has the better grade, so it was selected, even though its course is more
roundabout.
Castle Rock Area
The most prominent of the mesas is Castle Rock, which may be seen far ahead on the right
soon after the train passes Sedalia. When first seen it is so far away that it seems to be
only a small hill, but as the train proceeds it becomes more conspicuous, until at a
siding called Plateau it appears on the right as a very prominent conical hill surmounted
by a thick, square block of rock. This mesa was first mentioned in the report of the
exploration of Maj. Long, in 1820, and on account of its resemblance to an old ruin was
called Castle Rock.
As the train approaches milepost 32 the traveler may see that the railroad is built
around the foot of Castle Rock mesa, which is about 300 feet high and has a cap rock 60 or
70 feet thick. This mesa is shown in Plate XI, A.
The lower part of the mesa is composed of soft, friable beds of the Dawson arkose, but the
cap rock is a coarse conglomerate of pebbles and boulders of crystalline, rocks of all
sorts that have been washed out from the mountains and of a volcanic rock (rhyolite) which
caps also some of the adjacent mesas. These materials were washed out of the, mountains by
streams of water and dropped as sheets of gravel and boulders upon the surface of the
land. The county seat of Douglas County, named in honor of Stephen A. Douglas, stands at
the base of the mesa and bears the name Castle Rock. It was formerly noted
for its stone quarries, the remains of which still disfigure the mesas, but the increasing
use of cement in construction work has so depressed the market for ordinary building stone
that the quarrying industry has nearly disappeared. Samples of the stone may be seen in
the Douglas County High School building, on the right as the, train enters the town, and
in the station building of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. This stone was
once molten lava that was poured out as a thin sheet over the surface of the, country,
after the Dawson arkose was deposited but before the coarse materials of the Castle Rock
conglomerate were spread over the plain.
In following the valley of Plum Creek from Sedalia to Castle Rock the railroad swings far
to the east of a direct line from Denver to Colorado Springs. After passing Castle Rock it
turns back toward the mountains, its course being nearly due south to Palmer Lake, and the
prolongation of this course would lead almost directly to Pikes Peak. This majestic
mountain is too nearly straight ahead to be visible at many points, but here and there as
the train swings around some of the numerous curves it may be seen in the distance
towering far above the surrounding summits.
To those accustomed to the more humid regions of the East, with their dense cover of
vegetation, the open spaces of the West, the red rocks, and the strong yellow light of the
plains are here the most striking features. The wonderful color effects of this region are
beautifully expressed by Helen Hunt Jackson, Colorado's most gifted author:
Colorado is a symphony in yellow and red. And as soon as I had said the words, the
colors and shapes in which. I knew them seemed instantly to be arranged in my thoughts;
places miles apart began 'to knit themselves together into a concerted and related
succession; spots and tints I had only vaguely recognized became distinct and significant,
each in its order and force; and more and more as I looked from the plains to the
mountains and from the mountains to the plains, and stood in the great places crowded with
gay and fantastic rocks, all the time bearing in mind this phrase, it grew to seem true
and complete and inevitable.
Mesas composed of white arkosic sandstone are seen on both sides of the railroad, but
one on the right, 2 or 3 miles beyond Castle Rock, is the most prominent. This mesa, which
is known as Dawson Butte, furnished the, geologic name of the formation-the Dawson arkose.
Just beyond milepost 37 there appears, seemingly from behind this mesa but in reality far
beyond it, a jagged mass of red granite, which towers 1,000 feet above the general level
of the Front Range plateau. This rugged mountain, known as Devils Head, is utilized by the
Forest Service as a lookout station for the detection of forest fires. On its lonely
summit is stationed, throughout the summer, an observer whose duty it is to scan
continually the, surrounding mountain region for forest fires, and if he discovers one to
notify at once, by telephone, the superintendent of the Pike National Forest, so that all
the rangers can be called together to fight the fire.
Above Dawson Butte the railroad continues up the valley of East Plum Creek, winding
around a projecting spur of the plateau on the cast to the village of Larkspur, from which
a stage line, runs to the resorts in Perry Park, 4 miles to the west. This is a natural
parklike arm at the foot of the mountains, made picturesque by natural monuments of tilted
and highly colored sandstone. Although less known than the Garden of the Gods, near
Manitou, it is similar in general appearance and by many is regarded as fully equal to it
in natural beauty. In these castellated rocks those, who have a, vivid imagination can see
mystic monuments and towers, battlemented walls, minarets and steeples, and the remains of
vast cities that still reflect in the massiveness of their ruins some of their former
grandeur. To the geologist these buttes and plateaus are also, the ruins of a former age,
but instead of being carved by man and representing cities that have passed away they were
carved by water and wind from an older and higher land surface that carried its own
particular types of plants and animals and that had a climate which may have been very
different from the climate of today. Compared with these remnants of this old land surface
the most ancient ruined cities are as the works of yesterday.
Palmer Lake Area
Larkspur Butte on the east and Raspberry Butte on the west are small remnants of this old
surface. Beyond them the upland has been cut away, leaving a. rather broad valley in which
stands the hamlet of Greenland. After passing this village the train turns more toward the
southwest and pursues a direct course toward the low gap which separates the headwaters of
East Plum Creek on the, north from those of Monument Creek on the south. This gap is at
the foot of the mountains and is marked by Palmer Lake, the highest point on
the line between Denver and Pueblo. This lake and its relation to the mountain front are
well shown in Plate
XVI, B. The lake and town were named for Gen. Palmer,
the organizer, first president, and inspiring genius of the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad. The town of Palmer Lake is composed largely of cottages for summer guests who
come here for health and recreation. The railroad station is 1,957 feet higher than Denver
and 1,248 feet higher than Colorado Springs. Glen Park, an assembly ground modeled after
the famous Chautauqua of New York, is about a mile from the station. The mountain front
west of the lake rises abruptly, as shown in Plate XVI, B, to a
height of 1,800 feet above the level of the lake. The summer cottages nestle in the
ravines at the, base of the mountain and afford the, inhabitants the advantages and
attractions of both the plains and the mountains.
The mountain front rises abruptly from the plain without foothills of any kind. The reason
for the absence of foothills is that the rocks of the plains, when they were bent by the
upthrust of the mountains, could not stand. the strain to which they were subjected, and
in many places they broke and the lower crystalline rocks of the mountains were forced up
into direct contact with the broken edges of the soft, flat-lying rocks of the plains,
forming what is called a fault. The positions of the rocks and their relations are shown
in [the figure below].
From Palmer Lake to Colorado Springs the railroad extends down the, valley of Monument
Creek, so named from the pinnacles and columns of white sandstone (Dawson arkose) that are
left by the irregular weathering of prominent outcrops. The first conspicuous example is
on the east (left) of the road, where a mass of the sandstone has weathered into a form
resembling an elephant. On account of this resemblance it is generally known as "The
Elephant." The valley immediately south of Palmer Lake is narrow, but in a short
distance it swings to the east and at the village of Monument is broad, irrigated, and
well farmed.
The next station on the railroad is Edgerton (see
sheet 2), which is the point of departure for those who wish to visit Monument Park 2
miles to the west, near the foot of the mountains. This park is also noted for the
fantastic forms assumed by the rocks as they are cut away by the elements. A few of the
columns in which iron oxide has cemented certain layers, forming a cap that protects the
layers below from rapid decay.
In its course down Monument Valley the railroad is built on the Dawson arkose, but the
lower part of that formation is composed of sandstone that decays easily, and the rocks do
not form buttes or mesas. Near Pikeview the arkose is cut through, and the Laramie, or
underlying formation, is exposed. Its outcrop is not conspicuous in the valley, but it
forms a line of white sandstone cliffs that may be seen for a long distance to the east
(left). This formation is the same as that which carries coal northwest of Denver, and
were overlying formations removed it would be possible to walk on this sandstone
continuously from Pikeview to Denver. It also carries coal beds in the Monument Creek
valley, and the principal business at Pikeview is mining coal. The coal is mined by a
shaft about 250 feet deep, but a short distance to the south it comes to the surface. It
is of low rank and slacks or falls to pieces quickly when exposed to the atmosphere. As it
comes from the mine it carries a large percentage of water, which makes its heating power
low, but despite its inferior rank it competes as a domestic fuel with coals which are of
a higher rank but which have to be shipped a much greater distance. Pikeview was so named
on account of the magnificent view that may be had here of Pikes Peak, about 10 miles
distant (Pl. XVIII).
On a clear day the smoke of ascending trains can be clearly distinguished, and even part
of the "Cogwheel Road " to the summit can be seen.
The position of the coal-bearing rocks beneath the surface, as well as the relation of the
rocks of the plains to those of the mountain on the west, is illustrated in figure 9,
which shows that in the uplift of the mountains the rocks have broken and those of the
mountains have moved up with relation to those of the plains.
Colorado Springs Area
Below Pikeview the valley is cut in soft shale (the Pierre) and for that reason it is
broad and shallow, and the mount-tins rise majestically a short distance to the west. Colorado Springs is at
the, point where Monument Creek joins Fountain Creek, or Fontaine qui Bouille (bubbling
fountain), as it was first named by the French explorers, and the railroad runs directly
down the valley to that city. Colorado Springs is the most noted health resort in Colorado
and, indeed, in the entire Rocky Mountain region. It was organized by Gen. William J.
Palmer as a model city on July 31, 1871, the same year that the first railroad- the Denver
& Rio Grande, then a narrow-gage line-was built into the valley. It has far outgrown
the ideas of its founder, however, and has become the great tourist center of the mountain
region as well as an attractive residence city, a railroad point of considerable
importance, and the site of Colorado College.
The name Colorado Springs is somewhat of a misnomer, for there are no large springs in the
city, but it is closely connected by steam railway and by trolley with Manitou, which has
springs of different kinds that have a world-wide reputation. Despite its clean, wide
streets and its wealth of green lawns and shrubs and trees Colorado Springs offers little
of special interest to the tourist, but it is a stopping place from which other and more
interesting localities may be visited and a. gateway to the attractive features of the
mountains. It is built on the edge of the plains, which sweep away eastward farther than
the eye can see. Few travelers who visit Colorado Springs think of the plains as worthy of
their attention or as having any beauty that is at all comparable with the beauty of the
mountains, but Helen Hunt Jackson, who is buried here in Evergreen Cemetery, saw beauty in
all the landscapes, and she likens the plains about Colorado Springs to the wide expanse
of the sea, ever changing, yet always the same.
Between it [Colorado Springs] and the morning sun and between it and the far southern
horizon stretch plains that have all the beauty of the sea added to the beauty of the
plains. Like the sea they are ever changing in color, and seem illimitable in distance.
But they are full of tender undulations and curves, which never vary except by light and
shade. They are threaded here and there by narrow creeks whose course is revealed by
slender winding lines of cottonwood trees, dark green in summer, and in winter of a soft,
clear gray, more beautiful still. They are broken here and there by sudden rises of
tablelands, sometimes abrupt, sharp-sided, and rocky, looking like huge castles or lines
of fortifications; sometimes soft, moundlike, and imperceptibly widening, like a second
narrow tier of plain overlying the first.
MAIN LINE OF RAILROAD FROM COLORADO SPRINGS
TO CANON CITY.
On leaving Colorado Springs the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad follows down the
valley of Fountain Creek, which is irrigated and under intensive cultivation. For a number
of miles Cheyenne Mountain is the most conspicuous object on the west (right), and the
abruptness with which the mountain ends and the plains begin is striking. As explained
before, this abrupt junction of plain and mountain is due to a great fault, which bounds
the mountain on the east and brings its hard rocks into contact with the soft, flat-lying
rocks of the plains. (See [below]) Consequently there are no hard sandstones to form
foothills, as there are about Manitou and many other places along the Front Range.
The railroad continues its southerly course down Fountain Creek, and the traveler whose
destination is the Pacific coast or some intermediate point is apparently getting no
nearer his destination than he was at Denver or Colorado Springs. He may have wondered why
it is that the Denver & Rio Grande Western, an important link in one of the great
transcontinental railway systems, should, after starting from Denver, go due south 119
miles, to Pueblo, before attempting to cross the mountain range in a westerly direction.
It is generally assumed that the road was built southward in order to reach the valley of
the Arkansas and that this valley affords the best route through the mountains. This can
hardly have been the reason for the southward extension, however, for other roads cross
north of Pueblo and Canon City, and hence there must have been some other reason for the
course pursued by this road. The explanation of this southerly course is bound up in the
general railroad history of this mountainous region, a, brief account of which is given in
the footnote.
Fountain Area
Near milepost 85 the Santa Fe Railway crosses the Denver & Rio Grande Western by an
overhead bridge, and a short distance farther on it crosses to the right bank of Fountain
Creek. Three miles below the overhead bridge is Fountain , the largest village in the
southern part of El Paso County. The lower part of Fountain Creek valley is not
particularly interesting to the traveler. There is little or no irrigation, and success
with dry-land crops depends upon the amount of precipitation, which, according to the
Weather Bureau, is only about 11.6 inches annually. In time of drought the valley is brown
and desolate, but when showers are abundant all the plains are green and smiling. On a
clear day the traveler may obtain glimpses of the distant mountains. Toward the northwest
he can see Cheyenne Mountain, dominated by the towering summit of Pikes Peak, fading into
the blue and hazy distance; on the west he may be able to distinguish the outline of the
Wet Mountains, showing faintly in the distance; and f ar away to the south he may catch
the faint blue of two peaks which are commonly known as the Spanish
Peaks but which might more properly be known by their poetic Indian name Wahatoya,
(meaning twin breasts).
Pueblo Area
As the train approaches the point where Fountain Creek joins Arkansas River the,
traveler is made aware of the presence of Pueblo by the pall of smoke that
overhangs this "Pittsburgh of the West," as the citizens like to have it called.
Pueblo is essentially a manufacturing community and is the largest town of this kind in
the Rocky Mountain region. Indeed, it is generally considered the greatest manufacturing
center between Missouri River and the Pacific coast. Pueblo is in the Arkansas Valley,
which is well watered and capable of supporting a large population. Already the valley is
well farmed, but with the construction of storage reservoirs to hold the water in the
upper courses of the river and deliver it as it is needed below for irrigation the valley
would support many times its present population. Pueblo has abundant railroad connections,
both for the receipt of crude material to be manufactured and for the distribution of the
manufactured products. Coke can readily be obtained from the Trinidad field, on the south,
which is the greatest field of good coking coal in the West, and coal for fuel can be
obtained from the same field or from the Canon City field, on the west. Iron ore is
available in southern Wyoming and possibly in other parts of the mountain region, and
altogether Pueblo is remarkably well located to become a large and prosperous
manufacturing city.
At Minnequa, a suburb of Pueblo, on the mesa to the south, is the great plant of the
Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. There also are smelters for the reduction of the gold and
silver ores of the mountain region, as well as other manufacturing plants. Pueblo is the
county seat. of Pueblo County. Here is the State Asylum for the Insane, a
"palace" for the display of the mineral resources of the county, and numerous
business blocks, hotels, and amusement parks.
Pueblo is one of the historic places of Colorado. The first record of occupation of this
region by the white man is that of the exploring party of Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, -which
camped at "The Forks," as he called the confluence of Fountain Creek and
Arkansas River, in November, 1806, and built a log breastwork for defense. The party made
this camp before they attempted to scale the great peak which they saw far off and which
is now known as Pikes Peak. The next American party to visit the site of Pueblo -was that
of Maj. Long, in 1820. After this time it was visited by many explorers and hunters, and
James Beckwourth-a mulatto who had lived among the Indians, claimed the honor of
establishing in 1842 the first permanent settlement where Pueblo now stands. Here was
built an adobe fort, called Fort Napeste, which is said to have been the Indian name for
Arkansas River. In 1859 a settlement was begun on the east side of Fountain Creek, which
was called Fountain City. A year or two later a rival town was laid out on the banks of
the, Arkansas and named Pueblo. For a number of years the growth of these pioneer
settlements was slow, and it was not until the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad reached
the Arkansas in 1872 that the settlements consolidated and began their phenomenal growth.
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