the majority went by private conveyance, for it was impossible for the stage line to carry one-fourth of the big rush. A great many crossed the river at old Julesburg and went up Lodge Pole creek, the shortest route then known to the new mines. It cost ten dollars a wagon to get ferried across the Platte, and the enterprising men in charge raked in hundreds of dollars daily while the excitement lasted and the high water continued. There were many teams congregated at the river bank, and sometimes hundreds were waiting the seemingly slow movements of the ferry-boat, which was propelled by the current, and held to its course by a cable stretched across the river from the tops of high cedar poles set on either side of the stream. The only way was to take turns about being ferried; the first to come and register were first served. Some who were so anxious that they could not wait their turn to get across the river abandoned the trip to the Northwest and went to Denver, and from there drifted into the Rockies and prospected in the Colorado camps, with no doubt just as good (if not better) success than they could have expected had they gone with the mad rush to Bannock. While old Julesburg was a place that appeared a little isolated, it had a number of attractions. In the hills south of the station some distance from the river, on a commanding elevation, was a point called "Pilot Knob," from the crest of which the eye could take in a wide scope of country, including both the North and the South Platte rivers, Lodge Pole creek, the head waters of the Republican river, and miles of sandy hills and barren plains. In the wide stretch of country thus presented to view, there was great variety of scenery and a number of charming landscapes, fit for the painter's brush or the camera of the photographer. It is told that from the summit of Pilot Knob the Indians, in early days, often gave signals, and their camp-fires, during those warlike times, have been noticed for many miles in all directions. Fort Sedgwick, located five miles west of Julesburg, was an important military post or garrison, established in the fall of 1864, after the Indian troubles of a few weeks previous. The buildings were of sod and adobe. The point where the fort was located was 3660 feet above sea-level. Soon after the buildings were constructed the post was garrisoned by four companies of |
troops, among them the Fifth U. S. Volunteers, Second U. S. Cavalry, and Eighteenth regulars. Captain Neill of the latter was in command. Buildings were not only scarce on the northern Kansas and southern Nebraska prairies, but they were few and far between along the Platte, especially on the south fork. Such a thing as a "cottage by the wayside" with anything like modern conveniences was unknown on the plains in the early days of staging and ox and mule traffic. There was great similarity in most of the structures, however, especially those used by the mail and express company. A number of the ranchmen scattered along the route had buildings of similar design and make-up. They were nearly all simple, modest structures--more useful than ornamental. The rough as well as the hewn log cabin, likewise the plain sod or abobe (sic) building of inferior size--and all of the same general appearance--comprised a great majority of the few scattering houses built along the route for fully 500 miles. Some of these rude structures were quite unique and decidedly picturesque; a few appeared quite cheerful; most of them, however, looked rather lonely, standing, as they did, near the bank of the river, along the seemingly barren, monotonous route across the plains. Occasionally one would notice a rather cozy-looking place, where lace curtains and lovely house plants adorned the windows, and where, in the summer season, a small flower-garden outside, with a few evergreens and shrubbery, broke the monotony and added not a little to the general appearance of the premises. However, these cozy locations were by no means numerous. During the unprecedented overland traffic in the '60's, the warmest buildings along the Platte in winter and the most comfortable, because the coolest, in summer, were those constructed of sod and adobe, usually called 'dobe (doby). These buildings, during the Indian troubles on the plains in 1864 and 1865, had the advantage of being proof against the attacks of the savages. Most of them had strong and massive walls. Usually they were at least two to three feet in thickness. While the walls were fire proof they were also bullet proof. Likewise it is said that all such buildings are pronounced by the old-timers to be capable of resisting the strongest wind-storms that sweep across the plains. Those who had spent the most of their lives on the frontier be- |
lieved them to be cyclone proof, and declared that, in their belief, nothing short of an earthquake could throw them down. Properly constructed, as most of such structures on the road were, and by age firmly cemented, in a dry region like that along the South Platte, and in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, 'dobe buildings, it is believed, will stand for centuries. Structures of this kind, at frequent distances for hundreds of miles along the Platte river in 1864, passed unmolested through the numerous raids of the savages. Fully three-fourths of the ranches on the route along the South bank of the Platte between Fort Kearney and Denver, during the freighting days by ox train, had buildings constructed of 'dobe pattern. Nearly all of such structures put up in the days of overland traffic, after the Indians made their disastrous raids, were of sod or adobe, and when I last saw them, in the spring of 1865, the most of them appeared almost as firm and solid as if built of rock. While the interior of many of these buildings was burned by the Indians during their raids along the Platte, the walls invariably remained intact. Such buildings, however, it is almost certain would never stand the climate of eastern Kansas and Nebraska, owing to the frequent rains and continued moisture, which in time would undoubtedly wear them away. When business was growing so rapidly on the plains, in the fall of 1863, in consequence of the vast traffic just beginning to push across to the new Northwest mining camp at Bannock, an occasional wide-awake trader would go out on the overland route, open out with a stock of goods on the Platte, using a tent for the temporary display of his outfit until he could build a 'dobe structure, more suitable and permanent for future operations. Eleven miles west of old Julesburg, along a somewhat rough road, was Antelope; and thirteen miles farther was Spring Hill, a "home" station, kept by Mr. A. Thorne; thirteen miles farther was Dennison's; and another twelve miles brought us to Valley, also a "home" station. Fifteen miles farther was Kelly's (better known as "American Ranch"); and Beaver Creek was twelve miles farther west. Then came the longest drive without a change of team on the road between the Missouri and the Pacific. It was Bijou, twenty miles from Beaver Creek; there being no suitable location between the two stations for another one. To |
 ONE OF THE EARLY STATIONS ON THE SOUTH PLATTE. |
go over this long drive, where there was considerable alkali and sand and a number of sloughs, required some of the best teams on the entire line, and there were extra teams, so that all in turn would have a day's rest and none of them be overworked. The next drive was likewise a long and tedious one--sixteen miles to Fremont's Orchard. Much of this distance was through beds of sand, and there was not a drop of water nor a tree or a shrub for the entire distance. On this drive a "spike" team was used; i. e., five mules were hitched up, two on the wheel, two ahead of them, and the fifth bitched single in the lead. There was no going out of a walk on this drive, and no easy matter for the animals to haul a full load of passengers, with the express, mail and baggage that usually accompanied them. It was a real pleasure, after going so long on a walk through such a dreary stretch of sand, to reach the "Orchard." There was quite a cluster of stunted cottonwood trees in the bottom that looked much like an old Eastern apple orchard; hence the name of the station. For years the trees furnished the station keepers and ranchmen in that vicinity all the fuel needed. A post-office was located here; the first one west of Julesburg, more than 100 miles east. Eagle's Nest was the next station, eleven miles west of the "Orchard." Latham (first known as "Cherokee City") was the next station, and an important one it was, too. The distance was a little over 592 miles west of Atchison, and sixty miles northeast of Denver. Here was the junction of the stage lines for Denver and California, after the old Julesburg crossing was abandoned, in the fall of 1863, and here it was that the coaches for Salt Lake and points beyond forded the South Platte. It frequently happened that as many as three stages--coming from Atchison, California, and Denver--stood in front of Latham station. I have seen as many as forty passengers there at one time, going to Salt Lake, and California, to Atchison and Denver, all having arrived within a period of fifteen minutes. Latham was only thirty-five miles east of Laporte, the first "home" station west on the "Cherokee Trail." Laporte was situated at the base of the mountains, where the Cache la Poudre, like a young cataract, gushes from. the foothills and, flowing through a rich agricultural section, empties into the South Platte a short distance west of Latham. The next station was Big Bend, fifteen miles southwest of Latham. |
Fort Lupton was the next prominent station. It was 625 miles west of the Missouri river and about twenty-seven miles down the South Platte from Denver. All the information gained in the '60's from the oldest ranchmen in that part of the country gave little light concerning the history of this old, dilapidated fort. It is known to have been built many years ago by a French trader, long in the confidence of the American Fur Company, from whom it derived its name. Maj. Stephen H. Long, with his party of explorers, camped on the present site of the fort July 5, 1820. Here it was, it is said, that Colonel Fremont started on his northern tour of exploration, in 1842. In the early part of the civil war the land on which the fort stood was purchased by a man named David Ewing. The ruins of the old structure remained quite conspicuous as late as 1865, nearly a half-century after it was founded. The fort was built of adobe brick made on the ground. The walls, which enclosed an area of about 150 by 125 feet, were fully fifteen feet high and some four feet thick at the base. A bastion twenty feet square, provided with port-holes, stood at the southwest corner, and for a long time was a conspicuous part of the old structure. At the northeast corner was a tower about the size of the bastion, from which an unobstructed view of the surrounding country was had for a considerable distance in all directions. The Snowy Range was in plain sight, while Long's Peak and Pike's Peak, more than 100 miles apart, and towering, each to a height of over 14,000 feet above sea-level, were important landmarks, visible from Fort Lupton to all persons crossing the plains before the days of railroads west of the Missouri river. Inside the adobe walls of the old fort were buildings to accommodate the trader and his employees, the wagon-train, and a well. While no one appears to know the exact date when the fort was built, adobes have been found, taken from the walls, with wolf and other tracks on them. Many years ago an inscription 'as found by the owner on the timbers in the tower, with a list of twenty persons, believed to be the names of employees who built the defenses, as early as 1818. The place subsequently became of historic interest. During the excitement following the Pike's Peak gold discoveries, in 1858, which led to the establishment of the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express to Denver, in the spring of 1859, -15 |
and later, while the overland stage line was in operation, in the '60's, considerable. portions of the walls were yet standing; and apparently in pretty fair condition, as late as 1865, when I last saw them. Now hardly anything remains of the historic old fort, the walls of which were such a conspicuous landmark for a decade or more during the days of ox and mule freighting and staging across the plains, years before the first railroad was built between the "Big Muddy" and the Rocky Mountains. There were several choice ranches in the vicinity of the old fort in the early '60's, and since then the adjacent country has become valuable. It is a perfect garden in many respects--one of the most prolific sections of Colorado in the South Platte valley. Every year the land is increasing in value. No less than seven artesian wells were put down in the immediate neighborhood during the winter of 1896-'97, which supply the vicinity with abundant water and give assurance that the locality will be greatly improved in the future. Fifteen miles west of Fort Lupton was Pierson's, the last station on the Platte route between Atchison and Denver. The road from Pierson's to the city was, for the most part, a hard, smooth bed of gravel, and for much of the way no paved street of asphalt could furnish a finer thoroughfare or one over which a team could haul heavier loads or make better time. To get a view of the glorious old Rocky Mountains, the lofty elevation some two miles above sea-level which stretches from north to south, and marks the dividing line of the continent, was what I long had desired. My wishes were not gratified, however, until a little after breakfast on the morning of January 27. It was at Kelly's Station (the "American ranch"), 135 miles down the Platte, a little northeast of Denver. The distance was about 150 miles in an air-line from the Snowy Range, but it did not appear to be twenty-five miles. That was my fifth day out from Atchison. I shall never forget the event, for it made a lasting impression on me. Long's Peak, towering up 14,271 feet above the level of the sea, its summit covered with a silvery-white mantle, showed off in grand style. The atmosphere on that occasion was remarkably clear. Before night Pike's Peak was visible, more than 100 miles to the southwest. Scores of other lofty elevations along the continental divide appeared before my vision as plainly as if only a few miles away. The mountains |
were thereafter constantly in sight all the way to Denver. It was the finest view I had ever seen. It was a charming landscape--a panorama of grandeur and magnificence. I doubt if any grander scene exists in the whole world. I was fairly enraptured by the sights I had for the first time gazed upon. While going up the great Platte valley on a Concord four-horse stage-coach towards the grand old mountains at a gait of five or six miles an hour for twenty-four hours, the sight of over 100 miles along the snow-capped "back-bone of the continent," the sun shining in dazzling splendor on the white mantle, it seemed as if we would never reach them. When in sight of and within a few miles of Denver, it appeared as if the city was little more than a stone's throw from us, and that it was built at the base of the mountains; yet, when we reached the "giant young city of the plains," the foot-hills, which appeared to be little more than a short morning's walk distant, I was surprised to learn were fully fifteen miles away. But the handsome view west and southwest of the city, representing the beautiful chain of mountains, with the summits snow-capped, spread out for a distance of over 150 miles north and south, with Pike's Peak over seventy-five miles away to the south, and Long's Peak sixty-five miles northward, presented what seemed to me to be one of the most charming landscapes human eye ever gazed upon, and one that it would be impossible for any artist to produce with the brush. On that first trip there was no snow in the Platte valley between Fort Kearney and Denver, but there was considerable dust at intervals. I was agreeably disappointed to find such a mild, congenial atmosphere for the entire 400 miles of travel along the south bank of the river. Neither was there any snow between Atchison and Fort Kearney, but the weather along the Platte was delightfully pleasant--very different from what it was the morning I started out. I stood the journey well, but I was so tanned on my return, after an absence of two weeks and such a long out door ride, that it was remarked that I looked like a "wild Injun." There could be no discount on the fact that I was "done brown," but some of the reminiscences connected with that first trip I shall never forget. In just six days from the time I started out from Atchison on my first trip the stage rolled into Denver, on Sunday morning, January 29, 1863. We went into the city west on Larimer street |
O. J. GOLDRICK. to G (Sixteenth) street, thence north two squares, across
McGaa (Market) to the southeast corner of Blake street,
where the driver pulled up at nine o'clock at the company's
office in the northwest room of the old Planter's House. |
beautifully, and not a breath of air stirring. To the west, northwest and southwest the mountain peaks, rising to a height of between two and three miles above sea-level, were covered with snow, presenting a scene as lovely as could be imagined. But no one could have dreamed that it was Sabbath morning. The sound of the church-going bell had never been heard in Denver. The whole crowd was apparently discussing the latest war news just brought by the messenger and passengers, only six days from the States. The daily overland stage-coach of more than a third of a century ago appeared to create ten times the excitement in Denver that is now created by the arrival of the many trains on the various lines of railroad that to-day center in the "Queen City of the Plains." In the early '60's the banker and the minister of the Gospel, like the plain laborer and the bull-whacker, wore blue or gray woolen shirts, and it was just as difficult to pick out a capitalist from the crowd as it was to designate a plain prospector, a miner or a ranchman by his garb. Denver had no millionaires in the '60's, but a dozen or more of her then prominent merchants and shrewd business men, worth from $10,000 to $25,000 each, long ago amassed large fortunes, and many years since passed the million mark. I shall never forget the time that I first saw Denver. There were very few brick buildings in the city then, and there was not one of more than two stories in height. Blake street was the principal business thoroughfare at that time, fully one-half of the big stores being located on that street; but most of the buildings were frame, and few of them only were more than one story high. Gambling-houses, a number of them run by Mexicans, were numerous on that street, and they ran night and day, for seven days in the week. The largest and most high-toned ones had an orchestra connected, and vast crowds assembled there at leisure hours. "Bucking the tiger" appeared to be the liveliest business going on. There was considerable Mexican whisky disposed of in Denver in the early '60's. At the Mexican gambling-houses on Blake street, where one of the favorite games they played was "Spanish monte," the vile whisky, some of which was drank by the overland stage-drivers, was by them given the very appropriate name of "Taos lightning." Many who tried the game "just for luck" would soon become |
wiser and poorer. The Mexican bull-whackers were numerous and played the games for all there was in them. Sunday appeared to be the busiest day at such places. It was, likewise true that almost every business house and shop, every theater, every dance-hall and every dive in the young city kept open doors On Sunday, the same as any other day, for nearly all the miners, prospectors and ranchmen in the vicinity came in to spend the day and make their purchases. F street (since changed to Fifteenth) had several first-class banking-houses, prominent among them being the ones kept by the well-known Kountz Bros., from Omaha, and Clark, Gruber & Co., from Leavenworth. The mint--quite a prominent building--was on McGaa street, where it yet stands, though very much enlarged and improved over the original plan, as built by the Leavenworth bankers. J. H. Langrish, one of the pioneer theatrical men of Colorado, had gone out there (after playing several nights to full houses in Atchison). He played alternately between Denver and Central City, and was a great favorite in these Colorado camps for many years. For a time he occupied the commodious theater building on the east side of G street (Sixteenth), a few rods south of Larimer street, where stood on the southeast corner for several years the old Broadwell House. This corner is now, and has been for many years, occupied by the commodious Tabor block, at the time it was built the most elegant and imposing block in the city. The post-office was in a brick building on the north side of Larimer between Fifteenth and Sixteenth. The now millionaire banker, Hon. D. H. Moffat, jr., who was twice a passenger (east and west) on the stage with me across the plains in the summer of 1863, then kept a news and stationery depot in the post-office building. The Brown brothers (J. S. and J. F.), who were prominent freighters from Atchison during the '60's, had an extensive grocery house, on the south side of Blake street near Fifteenth. Stebbins & Porter, also from Atchison, had one of the largest grocery establishments in the city, on the north side of the same street, as did also the Cornforth boys, who were pioneer merchants in the long-time defunct town of Sumner (once the home of Albert D. Richardson and John J. Ingalls), on the Missouri river, three miles below Atchison. The Cornforths pulled out from Sumner in the later '50's, soon after the Pike's Peak gold excitement broke out. |
A prominent landmark of early days was the old "Elephant corral," between Fourteenth and Fifteenth, on the north side of Blake street, a little east of Cherry creek. It was an important rendezvous for freighters in the early '60's. N. Sargent kept the Tremont House, just across the creek on Ferry street. Hon. P. P. Wilcox, who went out from Atchison in 1861, was police judge for some time, and he was a terror to all evil-doers and lawbreakers. The pioneer newspaper of Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News, started in 1859, had its office in a building in the bed of Cherry creek when I first saw and visited it, on the 30th of January, 1863. It was a plain two-story frame structure. There was not a drop of water in the creek then, and the oldest inhabitant had never seen it except when it was as dry as the ordinary church contribution box. The bed of the "creek," several rods wide, then nothing but a barren stretch of sand and gravel, told more plainly, however, that at some remote period water had been running there: how long since no one dared to venture, and the recollection of the oldest Arapahoe Indian in the vicinity failed to throw any light on the subject. Even at the early date of January, 1863--having been established nearly four years-t-he News was a well-equipped printing establishment for a frontier paper, and it issued a very creditable daily, considering that it worked under so many disadvantages in the way of getting the news. To be sure it had a press franchise, but its telegraph dispatches were taken off the Pacific company's wire by the operator at old Julesburg, the nearest point on the line, and brought into Denver by stage a distance of about 200 miles. Its four or five presses were in the basement (on the ground floor) of the building, and the compositors occupied the room above, on the same floor with the editor and reporters. The paper was printed on a Washington hand-press--a regular old "man-killer," the cylinder not having yet made its appearance in Denver. The material of the News office was purchased in Chicago, of the well-known firm of Rounds & James, then the western branch of the noted Johnson type-foundry, of Philadelphia. There were not to exceed 2500 people in Denver at that time: still there was another daily paper, the Commonwealth, on which the late Albert D. Richardson and Col. Thos. W. Knox for a time did editorial work, in the early '60's. It was pub- |
lished on the south side of Larimer street, across Cherry creek, in the second story of a frame building. The Pike's Peak mining excitement in a measure having subsided, the Commonwealth was finally obliged to suspend; the great cost of publishing a daily in Denver at that early date, with the meager support given, did not justify the publishers in longer continuing their paper. The first meal I ate in Denver, a Sunday dinner at the Planter's (the overland stage line headquarters), was between three and four hours after my arrival in the city, as heretofore mentioned, January 29, 1863. I have often thought, and think to this day, that it was one of the finest meals I ever sat down to in Colorado. The house was kept by the genial Col. James McNassar, a prince among landlords at that time. An elaborate bill of fare had been prepared, to which ample justice was done by the very large number of guests, Among the articles of food served were mountain trout, buffalo, elk, antelope, roast turkey, chicken, duck, grouse, etc. The Planter's was a two-story frame structure, but it was then considered the only first-class hotel in the city, and received fully three-fourths of the better part of the traveling public. McNassar was one of the most hospitable landlords in the Rocky Mountain region, and was highly esteemed as a citizen of Denver, and counted his friends by the thousands. When he retired from the Planter's he was succeeded by John Hughes, a prominent citizen and a popular hotel-keeper. Colonel McNassar died at Salt Lake in the early '90's. The old, historic Planter's, which stood for about a quarter of a century as one of the early landmarks of the Rocky Mountain metropolis, was finally torn down in the later '70's to make way for a more imposing and substantial building. |
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