116 



COLORADO. 



would render necessary immediately an onerous 

 system of taxation ; and that at least two-thirds 

 of the people, from his personal observation, 

 were averse to the project. "In whole sec- 

 tions," he said, "the entire population are op- 

 posed to it, with scarcely a dissenting voice, 

 while in no portion is there any considerable 

 degree of unanimity in its favor." 



The friends of the project were, nevertheless, 

 by no means inclined to let it slumber, and the 

 arguments which they adduced to support their 

 case showed not merely a decided opposition to 

 the Governor, but an apparently unreconcila- 

 ble hostility between themselves and him. At 

 the commencement of the second session of the 

 Thirty-ninth Congress, they presented to promi- 

 nent Republican members an array of facts and 

 figures to show the progress of Colorado in min- 

 eral wealth and population, at complete variance 

 with the statements of Governor Cummings. 

 The home opposition they asserted came en- 

 tirely from him and the candidate to whom he 

 had given the certificate of election as Delegate 

 to Congress, and they denied emphatically that 

 the Territory was declining. From the statis- 

 tics furnished by them it would appear that the 

 tax valuation had greatly increased, as also the 

 entries of lands under the homestead and pre- 

 emption laws ; that the production of gold had 

 doubled within the last year ; that the assess- 

 ments for internal revenue, and the receipts from 

 the post-office, were much greater in 1866 than 

 than in 1865 ; that large sums had been ex- 

 pended in internal improvements; that the crops 

 had been abundant; and that the pretended 

 census was partial, one-third of the important 

 counties not having been returned, and the count 

 in the others being confined to the tax-payers. 

 From the large property valuation of the Ter- 

 ritory, and the fact that in 1866, in the midst of 

 harvest-time, nearly 7,000 votes had been cast 

 for an office expected to be abolished by the 

 admission of Colorado into the Union, they in- 

 ferred that the population could not be less than 

 50,000 or 60,000, to which immigration was 

 constantly making large additions. Under the 

 influence of these representations a new bill 

 was framed by the Senate Committee on Terri- 

 tories at the close of 1866, with every prospect 

 of its passage through both Houses. 



During the last fiscal year, 424,930 acres 

 were surveyed in Colorado, about one-twentieth 

 part at the expense of settlers, and the residue 

 at the cost of the Government. These, with 

 previous surveys, make an aggregate of this 

 service in Colorado of 1,622,251 acres, all on 

 the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. The 

 South Park of the Rocky Mountains contains 

 about 350,000 acres of arable land, and the 

 richest placer diggings. In the Middle Park the 

 wagon-road over the range of mountains sepa- 

 rating the agricultural regions of the western 

 slope from the mining of the eastern has been 

 completed, which, with the overland road, 

 makes a passable wagon-route from Denver to 

 Salt Lake City, a distance of 150 miles shorter 



than the former route. The completion of this 

 road to the Grand River it is believed will lead 

 to the immediate occupation of the agricultural 

 lands of the Middle Park, and the valleys of the 

 Grand, White, and Bear Rivers. The Surveyor- 

 General estimates the quantity of land under cul- 

 tivation to be 100,000 acres ; that one-half of 

 the population are engaged directly or indirectly 

 in agricultural pursuits; that the area of arable 

 land is equal to 4,000,000 of acres; that the im- 

 migration of farmers during the last year was 

 of a class of people consisting of permanent 

 settlers, the farming interest keeping pace with 

 the wants of the population, and that a large 

 surplus of all the necessaries of life is the antici- 

 pated production of the next year. 



However opinions may vary as to the popula- 

 tion of Colorado, there seems to be no doubt 

 that in 1866 more labor was performed in the 

 mines, and with better results, and more dis- 

 coveries of mineral wealth were made, than for 

 several previous years. " We are unable," says 

 the Colorado Times of December 18th, "to 

 state the number of stamps employed in the Ter- 

 ritory, or the probable amount of gold extracted 

 so far daring the year ; but one thing is ren- 

 dered certain, that the wealth of the mines has 

 not yet been fairly approached in those locali- 

 ties where operations have been carried on 

 since their discovery; while another thing is 

 equally apparent from continued new develop- 

 ments, that the entire range of mountains 

 which traverses Colorado contains the aurif- 

 erous ore in great abundance. Indeed, the 

 supply promises, from experiments made, to be 

 inexhaustible, while the extent of country over 

 which it is distributed gives room and oppor- 

 tunity sufficient for any number of operators." 

 Of the variety of the mineral products of the 

 Territory, and of the wide area over which they 

 are distributed, s6me idea may be formed from 

 the following extract from a letter from the Sur- 

 veyor-General at Denver to the Commissioner 

 of the General Land-Office, accompanying spe- 

 cimens of carbonate of copper, iron ore, silver, 

 zinc ore, copper matte, fossils, and gypsum : 



The copper ore is from the Pocahontas lode, near 

 Bear Creek, and was broken off from a bowlder 

 weighing about ten pounds. The shaft was about 

 ten feet deep, and probably three or four hundred 

 pounds of the same ore were exposed. The silver ore 

 is from the Argentine district, at the head of the 

 south fork of Clear Creek. The specimens were 

 taken from a hill containing several tons, all similar 

 to the specimens. The veins, from* which this is 

 taken, vary in width from a few inches to twenty-five 

 or thirty feet, in which the seams of ore, from one 

 inch to a foot in thickness, occur at various intervals. 

 The rest of the vein is filled with quartz, containing 

 in some cases as much as eight hundred dollars per 

 ton of silver in the shape of a chloride of silver dif- 

 fused through the quartz, and probably the result of 

 the decomposition of the sulphuret ores. Other 

 veins contain argentiferous galena, and in some pure 

 sulphuret of silver is found, but in no very great 

 quantities as yet. 



This silver region follows the crest of the range 

 from the head of Clear Creek southward to Mount 

 Lincoln, and probably farther, including the moun- 

 tains around the head of the Snake and Blue Rivers 



