THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



even to exhibit the signs of coming refinement and 

 power. 



The settlers of Greeley inaugurated large irrigation 

 enterprises and planted seeds from which the finest civic 

 institutions were to grow. General William J. Palmer 

 and his friends, anticipating the commercial value of cli- 

 mate and scenery even before the industrial economy of 

 the community was established, laid out Colorado Springs, 

 at the foot of Pike's Peak, and began to make Manitou 

 and the Garden of the Gods ready for future thousands 

 of health-seekers and tourists. Pueblo quickly felt the 

 importance of its position on the banks of the Arkan- 

 sas at the gateway of the mountains, and developed rap- 

 idly in population and business. The daring conception 

 of a railroad to parallel the Rockies and open communi- 

 cation with Mexico, or to scale the giant peaks and 

 penetrate the wilderness which lay beyond, took posses- 

 sion of General Palmer's mind and furnished the hope 

 of further extraordinary developments. 



Thus the decade between 1870 and 1880 saw the rise 

 of Colorado to a place of immense promise and of im- 

 portant achievement, and in 1876 the nation signalized 

 the centennial of the Declaration of Independence by be- 

 stowing the rich privilege of sovereignty upon the new- 

 born commonwealth. 



The Colorado of to-day contains a population of a 

 little less than half a million. It is marvellously fort- 

 unate in its railroad development, having twenty-four 

 separate lines, which maintain over five thousand miles 

 of track, penetrating nearly every part of the State. Its 

 mines of precious and base metals very largely the 

 former yield an annual income of nearly fifty millions. 



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