COLORADO 



1487 



COLORADO 



so hazy and distant at first as to look almost 

 like cloud heaps, come into view, and from 

 that time there is an ever-changing panorama. 

 Snow-crowned peaks are everywhere to be seen, 

 standing out clear above the purple-blue 

 ridges, and at every turn there are new aspects 

 and new beauties. So wonderfully clear is the 

 air that distances seem far less than they really 

 are, and more than one ambitious tourist has 

 set out to walk to a mountain which he 

 judged to be about five miles away, only to 

 find, at the close of a whole day's jaunt, that 

 he was not appreciably nearer. 



Farther on, when the observer has actually 

 entered the mountain country, the fascination 

 is still greater. Up and up the roads lead, in 

 zigzag fashion; a train needs at times four 

 engines to pull it up the steep slopes. The 

 way lies through gorges down which a white- 

 foaming river rushes, and over lofty passes 

 which open up marvelous views of range be- 

 yond range, until the eye almost wearies of 

 so much grandeur and sublimity. Much has 

 been done to make the natural beauties ac- 

 cessible. Stage routes lead to the mountain 

 parks, and short railway trips out of the cities 

 make possible visits to Cripple Creek, to Pike's 

 Peak or to the top of the Great Divide, where 

 it is the delight of tourists to have their pic- 

 tures taken and labeled, "Snowballing in 

 August." 



Climate. Colorado is one of the great 

 "health" states; people flock to it from afar 

 to find relief from lung diseases. The moun- 

 tain parks, especially, are vast sanitariums for 

 sufferers from tuberculosis and asthma. In 

 different parts of the state the average annual 

 temperature varies considerably, being lower 

 in the high mountain regions, but everywhere 

 one condition prevails which makes for health- 

 fulness lack of humidity. Even in the lower 

 sections where the heat of summer is some- 

 times intense, prostrations from heat are un- 

 known. The nights are always cool, and there 

 is a difference between the temperature in 

 shade and in sun which is incredible to one 

 used to the more humid atmosphere of the 

 Eastern states. Height and dry ness are the 

 factors which account for the coolness of the 

 shade and for the rapid fall in temperature as 

 night comes on, for rarefied air without mois- 

 ture does not hold heat as does a moister, 

 denser atmosphere. 



In rainfall Colorado is deficient, averaging' 

 throughout the state less than twenty inches 

 annually; some localities have less than ten 



inches. Especially in the mountain region of 

 the state, the snowfall is very heavy, and it 

 is the melting of the accumulated snows 

 through the spring and summer which keeps 

 the mountain torrents always brimming. 



Mineral Resources. The development of its 

 mineral resources is one of Colorado's chief 

 industries, and was for a time almost its only 

 industry. Even now, after over fifty years 

 of mining activity, it is impossible to estimate 

 the wealth of minerals hidden in its moun- 

 tains. However, it is not first among the states 

 in its mineral production, for ten others rank 

 ahead of it; nor is it at the head of the list 

 in the output of any one important mineral. 

 Its gold production, which at the beginning 

 of the century was twice as great as that of 

 any other state in the Union, has been slightly 

 exceeded since 1911 by that of California, and 

 averages only about $20,000,000 a year, as 

 against the $30,000,000 of an earlier date. The 

 Cripple Creek district is the center of the 

 gold-mining industry, and few visitors leave 

 Colorado Springs without taking the trip into 

 the mountains where amid unrivaled scenery 

 lies this town which sends out about three- 

 fifths of the gold of the state. 



Second in importance is coal production, in 

 which Colorado has for many years surpassed 

 any other state west of the Mississippi River. 

 Most of the 8,000,000 tons mined each year is 

 bituminous of various grades, but there is some 

 anthracite. Zinc, silver, lead, copper, in that 

 order, are next in rank, while rarer metals, as 

 tungsten, uranium and manganese, are found 

 in paying quantities. In the last few years 

 special attention has been attracted to the 

 Paradox Valley of Colorado and Utah because 

 of the discovery there of the valuable radium- 

 bearing mineral, carnotite. It is estimated that - 

 the supply here is so great as to constitute 

 practically a monopoly of the world's radium 

 supply. Heretofore most of the carnotite has 

 been shipped to Europe, for the process of 

 reduction is a tedious and expensive one which 

 has never been practiced in the United States, 

 but a mill for the concentration of the ores 

 and the extraction of radium has been built 

 in Denver, and it is expected that Colorado 

 will soon be able to take care of much of its 

 own supply of this wonderful element. 



Manufactures. A state with such remark- 

 able mineral resources, and especially with such 

 inexhaustible coal beds, is certain to have ex- 

 tensive manufactures, and Colorado is one of 

 the chief manufacturing states west of the 



