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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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Tennessee Pass Area: Salida to Tennessee Pass
(U.S.G.S. Bulletin 707, 1922)
On leaving Salida the railroad
runs up the right side of the valley, but it leaves the base of the hills in a short
distance and finds a route near the middle of the valley (See
sheet 3). About a mile out of Salida the traveler has on the west (left) an
unobstructed view of the southern part of the Sawatch Range, which at its extreme southern
point is crossed by the narrow-gage road over Marshall Pass. This line, after passing
westward from Salida about 6 miles, enters the range by Poncha Canyon, which is indicated
on Plate XLIV.
The railroad ascends this canyon for several miles and then climbs the mountain slopes
on the west, finding a way, after many turns and loops, over the range through Marshall
Pass, which lies just beyond Ouray
Peak (oo'ray). Although the line up the Arkansas Valley above Salida was completed as
far Leadville in 1880 and the line over Marshall Pass in 1881, the latter was regarded as
the main line and was the first to be finished through to Salt Lake City.
Near milepost 217 a branch line turns to the left to a, large silverlead smelter in which
much of the ore of this region is reduced. A little farther on there is an abandoned mill
on the right of the track, one of the, characteristic features of a mining country that
has seen its best days. The old mine that supplied ore to be crushed and concentrated in
this mill may be seen halfway up the mountain slope on the right. The mill and a single
house constitute Belleview, which is merely a siding for trains. A short distance beyond
Belleview the, railroad crosses the Rainbow Highway, which for some distance beyond this
point continues on the right of the track.
From Salida up to the Continental Divide and for some distance down on the western slope
the shape of the mountains has been greatly modified by glaciers. There are no glaciers in
these mountains now, but long ago, during the great ice age, these ranges, particularly
their east sides, were covered by great masses of ice which flowed down toward or into the
valleys at their feet, scouring out here and there basins from the solid rock. As most of
the striking scenery in this region is due to the effect of these bodies of moving ice
they are shown on the accompanying maps as they existed at the time of their greatest
development. The effect of high winds, low temperature, and snow on the vegetation at high
altitude is also well shown at the summit of the mountains, as exhibited in Plate XLV, A,
which is a view from the automobile road where it crosses the Sawatch Range west of
Salida.
Brown Canyon Area
About milepost 220 there are many large boulders, like those at Parkdale, on a low
terrace near the river. As the railroad approaches the river the boulders may be seen at
close range and at higher levels, until they appear on the terrace above the one on which
the railroad is built. These boulders increase in size northward until at a place about a
mile from the mouth of Brown Canyon, which is apparently the place from which they were
swept, there are boulders of great size; one on the left of the track measured 24 by 14 by
10 feet.
The boulders are distributed in a fan-shaped, delta-like area, showing that on emerging
from the canyon the current that transported them swung first to one side and then to the
other of this great delta fan and, naturally, as it reached the open country, lost its
transporting power and dropped its load. The station of Brown Canyon is at the point where
the stream emerges from the canyon which it has cut in the hard granite (See figure).
The canyon is not straight but winds about in the hard rock, and at one place, half a.
mile beyond milepost 223, it touches the very edge of the granite mass, so that the recent
cutting of the stream has exposed the gravel filling on the west , showing conclusively
that when the river established its present course it was flowing on gravel of fairly
uniform composition and that the slope of its bed was so slight that it meandered over a
broad, flatbottomed valley in great well-rounded curves. When the uplift came that gave it
power to trench its valley, the stream cut directly downward in its established course,
and although in some places its course was on granite and in other places on gravel, the
river persisted in following that course even to the present day.
The point of hard rock which the traveler may see on the left before he reaches the rift
in the canyon wall is a large dike, which was once molten rock that was forced up from
below through some great fissure in the crust of the earth. It is now solidified into a
mass more resistant than the surrounding granite, so that it stands up as a nearly
vertical wall.
At some places in this canyon there are great granite boulders, around which the water
surges furiously when the river is above the normal stage. The traveler may be interested
in the circular holes, ranging in diameter from a few inches to many feet, that have been
carved in these boulders, and he may wonder how they have been made. If he could look down
into the potholes he might see the "tools" by which they were carved. These
tools are small boulders, which the water, when it is high, whirls round and round in the
narrow space. This constant grinding wears the holes deeper and broader and unites many
adjacent holes, forming a channel in the rock.
About three-quarters of a mile beyond milepost 224, which is in the narrowest part of the
gorge, the railroad crosses a rather large creek that enters the river from the east. A
branch road once ran .up this stream nearly 6 miles to some iron mines, but the mines were
unsuccessful and the line has been discontinued, although it is still shown on some recent
maps. The point where this branch joined the main line was known as Hecla Junction. The,
canyon is near the western edge of the granite area, but the gravel filling on the left
can not be seen from the train.
About half a mile beyond milepost 230 the railroad crosses the river and in a short
distance emerges from the rocky reaches of Brown Canyon. This canyon is extremely
interesting from many points of view. To the geologist it reveals a whole chapter in the
history of this region, a chapter that tells of its depression down nearly to sea level,
when the highest mountains of Colorado were small ridges only 4,000 or 5,000 feet in
height, and then of its elevation to its present position. To the lover of beautiful
scenery it affords a pleasing variety of landscape, for one tires of even the finest
scenery if it is without variety; but in passing from the open valley above Salida, where,
the principal objects in sight are the great mountain peaks of the Sawatch Range, to the
confining granite walls of Brown Canyon the traveler experiences a pleasing sensation of
the nearness of the landscape and of being brought face to face with the works of Nature.
To the artist the canyon is beautiful because of its ruggedness and of the many vistas
that may be obtained of the stream boiling and foaming through some narrow part, or of
some beautiful side ravine where the dull gray of the granite is enlivened by the deep
green of the conifers and the soft foliage of the aspens, or, if the season is autumn, by
the gleam of gold which the yellow leaves give to the landscape.
The general aspect of the canyon, as well as its relation to the gravel filling on the
west, may be seen to excellent advantage by looking back from the train after it has
cleared the granite walls and crossed the river to the west side. Here the traveler can
see that the higher gravel terrace on the west is about level with the tops of the granite
walls of the canyon. This fact strongly corroborates the theory that the old valley was
filled with gravel that forced the river to the east, onto the granite upland.
Just after emerging from the canyon the traveler may get, on the west (left), a
magnificent view of a part of what is frequently called the Collegiate Peaks or the
Collegiate Range, from the fact that the three most prominent summits visible from this
part of the valley are known as Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. The view on the left also
includes Mount Shavano, which is the next high peak south of Mount Princeton. These peaks
are peculiarly situated, as they do not form a part of the Continental Divide but stand
distinctly east of that crest, and the larger streams heading in the range cut through
this outer line of peaks in great canyons that are very striking features. One of the
deepest of these cuts, the canyon of Chalk Creek, which the traveler may see on the left,
separates Mount Shavano on the south f rom. Mount Princeton on the north. The view of
Mount Yale as seen from this point is the best to be obtained from the railroad, for north
of this point the big shoulder on the east side conceals the main sharp peak, and the
mountain looks like a, great round mass. Mount Harvard lies to the right of Mount Yale,
and this mountain, as seen from any point on the line, presents the appearance of a great
mass without a definite or sharp top.
Just before reaching Nathrop the railroad crosses Chalk Creek on a high bridge. The
traveler may look up into the great canyon which this creek has cut in the Sawatch Range,
whose base is only 5 miles away, though the head of the creek is 20 miles farther back.
The Colorado & Southern Railway has a narrowgage road in operation up this creek to
the mining region about St. Elmo; it formerly crossed the range to Parlin and Gunnison, on
the Marshall Pass branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, but the long summit
tunnel has caved so badly that traffic beyond Hancock has been abandoned. This road may be
seen on the left just after the train passes the village of Nathrop.
The gorge that Chalk Creek has cut through the mountains has been scoured by a great
glacier, which has greatly broadened its bottom and smoothed its sides, but unfortunately
the railroad is so far from the base of the mountains that the traveler can not see how
much the ice modified the shape and appearance of the canyon nor the enormous terminal
moraine, a mile long and several hundred feet high, that it built. This moraine lies
outside the mountains, but it can not be seen from the train.
The mountains on both sides of Arkansas Valley are included in the Leadville National
Forest, in the administration of which the Forest Service has come into close contact and,
at first, into conflict with the miners regarding their right to cut timber on the publie
domain.
From the village of Nathrop the traveler, on looking back to the east, may obtain a
good idea of the kind of country the granite makes somes distance back from the main
drainage lines. It forms a plateau or table-land that rises from 1,500 to 2,000 feet above
the level of the valley. This plateau is probably a remnant of a once rolling surface that
extended over most of the mountain country and that has been described as a peneplain.
Buena Vista Area
About a mile north of Nathrop the Denver & Rio Grande Western crosses to the east side
of Arkansas River, and a short distance farther on it crosses the Colorado & Southern
Railway, which follows the east side of the valley from this point up to Buena (bway'na) Vista. After he crosses
this railway the traveler, if the light is just right, may see faintly in the distance on
the side of Mount Princeton a wagon road that zigzags up the south spur of the mountain to
some old mines, from which it has been extended to the top. This road may soon be so
improved that automobiles can reach the top of the mountain, from which an even wider view
may be obtained than that from Pikes Peak, for' Mount Princeton is surrounded by range
after range that can be seen only from some commanding eminence. The height of Mount
Princeton is 14,177 feet. Its relation to the Arkansas Valley is well shown in Plate XLVI.
Near milepost 237 the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad again crosses Arkansas
River, and a short distance beyond this crossing the traveler may see Trout Creek Pass on
the east (right). The Colorado Midland Railway formerly operated a line through this pass.
At a lower level he may see the Colorado & Southern Railway, which crosses through the
same pass. This road formerly connected the lines of this system in South Park with the
line that runs southward from Buena Vista, but it is not now in operation.
About 2 miles north of the, river crossing just mentioned, on the east side of the track,
is the State Reformatory, to which juvenile offenders are sent. After crossing Cottonwood
Creek, a fine, swift, clear mountain torrent, the railroad reaches Buena Vista ("good
view "), a town embowered in a beautiful grove of cottonwood trees and one of the
most attractive places in this part of the Arkansas Valley. It stands at the intersection
of two of the most noted automobile roads in the State-the Rainbow Highway from Canon City
up the Arkansas and the road from Colorado Springs by way of South Park. These roads,
after uniting, continue northward through Tennessee Pass and westward to Glenwood Springs
and Grand Junction. Cottonwood Creek, which furnishes an abundance of pure water for
domestic use and for irrigation, comes down in a deep canyon between Mount Princeton and
Mount Yale from the Continental Divide, which is some distance west of these high peaks.
Long ago a great glacier occupied the canyon and scoured it out, but it came down only to
the point where the canyon opens out into the valley, and the traveler on the railroad has
no opportunity of seeing the results of its work.
The attractions of Buena Vista consist of an admirable climate and beautiful surroundings
for summer visitors; the ascent of Mount Princeton, which is a little higher than Pikes
Peak; and Cottonwood Hot Springs, at the mouth of the canyon 6 mi les above Buena Vista.
It is proposed to lay a pipe line down to the town and establish bath houses so that more
visitors may be able to bathe in the mineral water. Buena Vista was established in 1879
and is the seat of government of Chaffee County.
Immediately north of the station at Buena Vista the traveler may notice on both sides of
the track huge boulders that are arranged in the form of a fan, similar to the great fan
of boulders at the mouth of Brown Canyon. The boulders at Buena Vista may not be so large
as those at the mouth of Brown Canyon, but many of them measure from 12 to 15 feet in
their longest diameters.
Nearly 2 miles from the station the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad enters
Wildhorse Canyon, a small canyon cut in the massive granite. The automobile road does not
follow the river in this part of its course, but keeps to the west (left) on the
unconsolidated gravel that fills the old valley. This canyon is not so deep nor so
continuous as Brown Canyon, and for some distance in its middle part the granite in the
west wall gives place to gravel. At its upper end, on the right (east) side of the track,
a great block of granite stands like a sentinel. This block is shown in Plate XLVII, A. Here
the traveler may look back and see that the gravel terrace on the west side of the river
stands at about the same level as the top of the granite wall that bounds the canyon on
that side. From this fact it is apparent that at one time the old valley was deeply filled
with gravel, which was brought down from the high mountains on the west, and that the
stream was crowded eastward upon the rocky slope of the valley. Later, when the stream had
removed some of this gravel and resumed the work of cutting its valley down, it again
flowed on the hard granite, but far to the east of its former course. However, a stream
has no power of itself to alter a course it once establishes, and so Arkansas River
persisted and cut the canyon in the hard rock.
On emerging from Wildhorse, Canyon the traveler may obtain a much better view of Mount
Yale (14,172 feet) than that which he obtained near Buena Vista. Here it appears as a
single peak directly across the valley, with the sharp summit of Mount Princeton on the
left and the great rounded mass of Mount Harvard (14,399 feet) on the right. A little
farther along he may see a great hollow that apparently has been scooped out of the east
slope of Mount Harvard on the side facing Arkansas Valley. This hollow is semicircular in
outline and has a nearly flat floor. From the train it looks like a very small feature,
but its walls are probably several hundred feet high, and it is not less than half a mile
across. To such a semicircular hollow as that on Mount Harvard or the one on the
Continental Divide west of Salida (Pl. XLV, B)
geologists have applied the French term "cirque," meaning circle. It was
produced by a small glacier that was formed in a ravine far up on the mountain slope.
As far as milepost 246 the valley has a general width of 5 to 8 miles, but on looking
ahead the traveler may see that it becomes narrower and finally seems to close in
completely. The old and rather broad valley doubtless continued to the head of the stream
near Tennessee' Pass, but a little distance above Riverside it is so much filled with
gravel and boulders that it is scarcely recognizable. Near this constricted part of the
valley large boulders abound, forming a fan similar to the boulder fans observed at the
mouths of the canyons below. The change in the character of the valley is due to the fact
that in the Great Ice Age, when glaciers were active, they formed mainly on the mountain
slopes at or above an altitude of 11,000 feet and flowed down the side canyons or gulches
for distances that depended on the grade of the canyon and the size of the glacier. In the
Arkansas Valley below Riverside the glaciers that headed in the Sawatch Range reached only
to the mouths of the side canyons, but farther north the altitude of the valley is so
great that they not only reached the mouths of the rock-bound canyons but pushed out into
the river and filled the main valley with the rocky debris that they had carried on their
surfaces or that had been embedded in them. This condition prevails above Riverside, and
for this reason the valley is much narrower here than it is lower down. The glacial
material brought down from the mountains crowded the river to the east side of the valley
and even forced it over on the granite of the east wall, as it did in the other canyons
below. The large blocks of rock that were derived from this granite were carried down the
canyon and for some distance out on the flat valley floor.
The canyon which the railroad enters at milepost 252, although short, is rather
picturesque and has a steep granite wall on the cast side, against which the stream has
been crowded by the glacial drift that was brought down Pine Creek from the west. Through
this narrow passageway the river boils and surges over and around the great boulders that
obstruct its course. The glacial drift is first seen as the railroad bends sharply to the
left, a little above milepost 252. At first sight it may not be apparent that this
material differs from the gravel that composes the terraces below, but careful inspection
will show that the boulders are all composed of fresh rock and that their surfaces are
generally smooth and unweathered. It also shows that many of them are scratched, or
striated, as the geologist calls it, as they were brought down by the glacier and held
like a giant rasp against the rocky sides of the canyon. Such scratches are regarded as
reliable indications that the boulders have been transported by ice.
At milepost 254 the railroad crosses the river to the east side and follows the east bank
for a long distance. In some places the west wall of this canyon is composed of granite
and in others of glacial drift, but the traveler on the railroad train can not determine
the reason for the presence of the drift until the train has rounded the broad curve above
the bridge and he is able to see on the west (left) up the open valley of Clear Creek. As
this view up the creek, which is well worthy of attention, can be had only while the train
is running a quarter of a mile the traveler who wishes to see it clearly should be ready
to look this way as soon as it becomes visible. By looking up Clear Creek he will see that
the stream issues from the high mountains in a canyon that has a broad U-shaped cross
section, and that outside the mountains it is walled in by parallel ridges of broken rock
and gravel that was deposited or heaped up by the ice. Such ridges along the sides of a
valley are called by geologists lateral moraines. The moraine, on the north side of Clear
Creek, at the point where the stream emerges from the mountains, is 700 feet high, and its
front, which is composed of loose material, is as steep as it can stand. The moraines run
parallel with the creek until they reach the river, where they curve around and nearly
meet, forming A loop that originally inclosed the mass of ice. The glacier not only
reached the river, but at times pushed a little farther and heaped up the loose gravel on
its east side. Naturally when such a glacier melts away the part of the valley it occupied
will be left relatively free from boulders, and it therefore generally forms a swampy
tract or a lake surrounded by a ridge or ridges of gravel. The stream quickly cuts a
trench in this bounding ridge, so that the valley is thus drained through a narrow cleft.
The users of water far down the Arkansas have taken advantage of this natural site for a
storage reservoir and have built a dam across the lower end of the valley and thus
connected the two parts of the moraine, so that the swampy area has become a reservoir for
the storage of water until it is needed in the valley far to the east for the irrigation
of crops.
Granite Area
Just above the mouth of Clear Creek the Colorado Midland Railway formerly crossed the
Denver & Rio Grande line by an overhead bridge, and a short distance farther on it
crossed the river and continued on the west side of the stream nearly to Malta. Just above
the crossing the river and railroads enter a granite canyon, which is very narrow but of
slight depth, and continue in the canyon to and beyond the village of Granite. (See sheet 4.) This village has been the center of large
golddredging operations, but this industry is now a thing of the past, and the village is
known principally as the stopping point for those who wish to visit Twin Lakes, a noted
local resort, reached by stage from this station. Lakes are not numerous in the mountains
of Colorado, so that even small ones such as Twin Lakes are highly prized.
Above Granite the railroad continues in the canyon, but the walls are low and at many
places the traveler may catch glimpses of the surrounding country. About 2 miles from
Granite he may see on the west (left) and ahead the ridge of gravel which bounded the
glacier that. once occupied the valley of Lake Creek and which now surrounds the lakes
that fill the depression once occupied by the ice. The gravel brought down by this glacier
contains considerable gold and it has been washed extensively along the river by hydraulic
methods and by dredges. The washed gravel now lies in great heaps and ridges that greatly
disfigure the landscape.
The railroad emerges from the canyon a. short distance beyond milepost 262, and the
traveler finds that the valley above this point consists of flat, marshy ground which
extends nearly to the head of the stream below Tennessee Pass. This upper part of the
valley is probably in the same condition as the lower valley was ages ago, before the
stream had cut its present canyon, and at a time when it was flowing at the top of the
uppermost terrace that the traveler has seen. At that time the lower part of the valley
was filled to a great depth with sand and gravel, and all the former inequalities in the
surface were obliterated. The upper valley appears to be in that stage to-day. It has
doubtless been filled with sand and gravel brought down from the ranges on either side
until almost all the inequalities of the bedrock have been concealed, and on this level
floor the stream meanders, not exactly sluggishly, for there is considerable slope to the
surface, but the quantity of loose material furnished to the stream is much more than it
can carry away, so that it is being continually dropped and thus obstructs the channel of
the stream and f orces it to shift its course to one less direct. If conditions were
changed so that Arkansas River had a sharper descent or a greater volume of water, it
would have more cutting power, and it would then soon trench this flat bottom, and the cut
edges of the valley filling would stand up as terraces just as the terraces stand above
the stream lower down.
On emerging from the canyon the traveler again has an unobstructed view of the mountain
range on the west, and its aspect is very different from the view which he had below
Riverside. The two most prominent peaks visible from the upper end of the canyon are Mount
Elbert, which stands just above the moraines of Lake Creek, and Mount Massive, which
stands farther up the range.
The altitude of the valley is so great that few plants except grass can be grown to
advantage, but the hay crop is luxuriant, and stock raising is the principal business. As
the train departs more and more from the great moraines that bound Lake Creek on both
sides the mountain peaks back near the head of the creek come into view. These peaks are
more rugged than most of those that have been in sight from the railroad. The accompanying
sketch shows the most prominent peaks that can be seen from milepost 265 by one looking to
the southwest. These peaks all appear to the left of Mount Elbert, some of them showing
from behind the projecting spurs of that mountain. La Plata Peak (14,332 feet) appears in
the center, and Grizzly Peak (14,020 feet) in the distance, with the great lateral moraine
of Twin Lakes in the foreground.
On the east (right) the side of the valley for some distance is very hummocky, and on
first sight it seems to be a moraine, but closer study shows that the glaciers which once
came down the gulches on this side of the main valley did not extend to the area that is
within sight of the railroad, and the hummocks are therefore not the result of the action
of ice but of landslides and peculiarities of drainage. At milepost 267 Mount Sheridan
(13,700 feet) is the most conspicuous feature of the Mosquito Range, on the east (right),
but generally the peaks of this range are not so rugged nor so high as those of the
Sawatch Range, on the west.
After passing milepost 268 the traveler may see on the east (right), by looking up the
gulch past the white wooden schoolhouse, the first indication of the presence of the,
great mining camp of Leadville- the smoke of the smelters that may be seen over the top of
the terrace or the tops of the smokestacks and some of the surface build ings of the
mines. No adequate idea, however, of the extent and importance of Leadville can be
obtained from the main line of the railroad.
At milepost 269 a good view can be obtained of the Mosquito Range, -known also as the Park
Range, on the east. The view from this point is represented in the accompanying sketch,
which shows the relative positions of the different peaks and their names.
The scenery on the other side is dominated by the great bulk of Mount Massive and Mount
Elbert. Plate
XLVIII shows them as they appear from the vicinity of Leadville. Mount Massive (14,404
feet) is on the right and Mount Elbert (14,420 feet), the highest mountain in Colorado, on
the left. Mount Elbert may not appear so high as Pikes Peak, but the traveler must
remember that he is looking at Mount Elbert from a much higher position than the one he
occupied at Colorado Springs when looking at Pikes Peak, and that the summit of Mount
Elbert is only 4,800 feet above him.
Malta Area
Near Malta, the junction point for Leadville, the level marshy valley is more than 2
miles wide. On the east it is bordered by a terrace fully 150 feet high, which was formed
by the trenching by the stream of an older flat-bottomed valley. At Malta some of the town
of Leadville may be seen. By day the cloud of smoke from its mines and smelters marks the
location of the town, and by night the lights of the streets and the smelters may be seen
600 or 700 feet up the slope of the valley on the east (right). As some trains of the main
line run by way of Leadville, a brief description of this interesting mining camp will be
given.
Leadville Area
On leaving Malta for Leadville
the railroad turns sharply to the east and winds about the gently rolling slopes of the
valley side in order to get distance in which to make the ascent without climbing too
steep a grade. At first the road winds up the slope among the pine trees, but farther on
it comes out upon the edge of a terrace that overlooks a small ravine or "
gulch," 32 as all such features are called in this region, and the traveler may look
down upon one of the smelters which is engaged in extracting valuable metal from the ore
that is mined in the famous Carbonate Hill, a picture of which is shown in Plate XLIX.
Leadville is one of the highest towns in the world, standing 10,200 feet, or nearly 2
miles, above sea level. It is also one of the oldest towns of Colorado, dating back to
1860, the year in which the site of Denver was first occupied by white men. In 1859 gold
is said to have been discovered in a little gulch that enters the Arkansas Valley from the
east at the site of Malta by a party of gold seekers on their way to California, who on
that account called it California Gulch. This discovery was made late in the autumn, and
the party was not prepared to spend the winter there, so they left; but they returned, the
next year and established a mining camp which they christened Oro City (meaning Gold City)
and which before the end of the year had a population of 5,000. Its fame spread, and in
1861 it was the most populous town in Colorado Territory. In a few years more than
$5,000,000 had been washed from its golden sands, but like that of all other placer
deposits the life of this one was ephemeral, for in a few years the town was nearly
abandoned by the gold seekers, and for several years it played only a small part in the
history of the mining region.
From 1874 to 1877 there was a revival of interest in the Leadville region, for silver-lead
ores were found at several places in the vicinity of California Gulch, but no development
was undertaken until 1878. Before that year the camp consisted of only a cluster of log
cabins, but in 1878 a "rush" to the new workings began and the camp at once
sprang into prominence as the greatest silver camp in the world. The Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad was completed to the gulch in 1880, and the camp soon had a population of
30,000. During the first decade of its existence the silver and lead produced is reported
to have been worth more than $120,000,000. Silver mining was the chief industry until the
slump in the price of silver in 1893. For a time there was great stagnation, and then the
miners turned their attention to the production of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc.
In 1920 the value of the output of the mines of Lake County, which includes some mines
outside the Leadville district, was $4,320,510. The total metallic output up to the end of
1920 is valued at a little more than $419,000,000 (see additional details).
Leadville, like most other mining camps, was built around mills and mine dumps, and
much of it is therefore not beautiful.
Any description of mining operations in a mountainous region like that surrounding
Leadville, particularly of those of the early or prospecting stage, would be incomplete
without mention of the humble burro, that patient beast of burden which has been the
prospector's constant companion in his lonely wanderings over these bleak ranges and his
main dependence for the transportation of supplies while he has been driving tunnels in
search of ore; which has carried lumber and other material for building mine works and
even heavy machinery up the steep mountain trails.
MAIN LINE OF RAILROAD FROM MALTA
Soda Springs and Evergreen Lake, two resorts of local interest, are 2 1/2 miles west of
Malta. Evergreen Lake is said to be very attractive, and Soda Springs is much visited by
those who hope to be benefited by the use of the waters.
A little north of Malta, at the crossing of a strong stream f rom the east known as the
East Fork of the Arkansas, the north end of the Leadville loop connects with the main
line. The East Fork heads in the Mosquito Range, on the Continental Divide, northeast of
Leadville. The pass between the head of this stream and Tenmile Creek, the head stream of
Blue River, has been named Fremont Pass, on the supposition that Fremont crossed the range
at this place in his expedition of 1845, but the "Pathfinder" probably crossed
at Tennessee Pass.
Long ago, in the Wisconsin stage of the glacial epoch, a great glacier came down East
Fork to a point within a mile and a quarter of the Denver & Rio Grande Western
Railroad. This great river of ice scoured the valley clean and left it with a broad, flat
bottom and a gentle grade. Most of the loose material scoured from the rocky sides of the
valley by the moving mass was carried away by Arkansas River, but some was dumped near the
lower limit of the ice. Another glacier came down Lake Fork from the high mountains on the
west, and this one was so strong that it pushed out across the broad, flat valley of the
Arkansas, crowding the stream against the bluffs on the east side. This glacier dumped a
great mass of loose material in semicircular form (called a terminal moraine), which the
traveler may see on the west (left), but he is so far below its summit that he can not
realize its shape. A glance at the map (sheet 4) will show its semicircular shape, which
conforms to the curved margin of the tongue of ice that laid it down.
About halfway between mileposts 274 and 275, a mile beyond the crossing of East Fork, the
railroad is crossed by a, high-tension electric transmission line, which is carried on
steel towers. This line carries the power generated in a hydroelectric plant on Colorado
River which the traveler will see at Shoshone, 10 miles east of Glenwood Springs. As the
transmission line for such a plant is very expensive, it follows as straight a course as
possible without regard to mountains or canyons. For this reason it does not follow the
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad eastward from Shoshone but turns to the south and
passes up Roaring Fork and Fryingpan Creek to Hagermann Pass. From this point it descends
Lake Fork and crosses the Denver & Rio Grande Western, as noted above, and thence goes
to Leadville, where much of the power is utilized in the mines and mills. The line then
turns northeastward toward Denver and crosses Fremont Pass to Tenmile Creek, which it
follows to Dillon. From Dillon it runs due east and crosses the Continental Divide for the
third time at Argentine Pass. It then descends Clear Creek, serving Idaho Springs, Central
City, Blackhawk, and finally Denver.
The traveler who visited Mount McClellan while at Denver probably noted the steel
towers and the wide swath cleared of timber for this line along the mountain slopes.
Near milepost 275 Arkansas Valley regains its normal width of about 2 miles. The
constrictions lower down are due entirely to the moraines of the glaciers that flowed down
from the mountain valleys on the west. Another glacier from the west filled the valley
above milepost 278 with a great moraine, which also crowded the stream against the east
bank. As the roadbed is cut in the hillside it exposes some quartzites and limestones, the
beds of which are parallel with the railroad and dip to the east. These beds probably rest
on the granite that forms the foundation of the earth's crust in this part of the country,
and they are visible for some distance along the railroad track. On the south side of
Tennessee Pass, however, the beds are so poorly exposed that the traveler on a passing
train can get only momentary glimpses of them.
Tennessee Pass Immediate Area
At milepost 281 the slopes of the valley are gentle, and it seems but a little way to
the Continental Divide. When the narrow-gage railroad was first built it climbed over the
summit of Tennessee Pass, but now
it saves about 250 vertical feet of this climb by a tunnel 2,572 feet long. The station of
Tennessee Pass is at the south end of this tunnel. After running a short distance into the
tunnel the engine ceases to labor and finishes the long steady climb from Pueblo. So far
as the railroad can carry him toward it the traveler has now attained the crest of the
continent.
The heaviest grade on the main line on the east side of the Continental Divide is 1.42 per
cent, or 75 feet to the mile. This grade extends with few interruptions from Buena Vista
to Tennessee Pass, a distance of 41 miles. The heaviest grade on the west side is 3.3 per
cent on the westbound track. This grade is maintained for a short distance above Minturn,
but throughout most of the distance from Minturn to the summit the maximum grade is 3 per
cent, or 158 feet to the mile.
After emerging from the tunnel the traveler may look back and see the apparently low
summit of Tennessee Pass. If it were not at the backbone of the continent and the parting
of the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific it would not attract attention, for it is only a
low, flat cross ridge against which the streams head that flow in opposite directions to
the two oceans. The Arkansas drainage has become familiar to the traveler, and now the
drainage of Eagle River and Colorado River will become equally familiar as the train
descends these streams on its way to the western border of the State. Some travelers may
find the Continental Divide disappointing, for they may have pictured it as the sharp
summit of a single mountain ridge; but the Rocky Mountains form a great system of
interlocking and parallel ranges, only a few of which have sharp, narrow crests, most of
them having rounded summits that are not particularly imposing.
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