56 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
upon the amount of precipitation, which, according to the Weather 
Bureau, is only about 11.6 inches annually. In time of drought the 
Buttes. 
Elevation 5, eit feet. 
Denver 93 mil 
valley is brown and desolate, but when showers are 
abundant all the plains are green and smiling. On 
a clear day the traveler may obtain glimpses of the 
distant mountains. 
Toward the northwest he can 
see Cheyenne Mountain, dominated by the towering summit of Pikes 
Eden. 
rhage: 4,882 ~— 
Denver 112 mile 
eak, fading into the blue and hazy distance; on 
the west he may be able to distinguish the outline 
of the Wet Mountains, showing faintly in the dis- 
tance; and far away to the south he may catch the 
faint blue of two peaks which are commonly known as the Spanish 
1872. It is interesting to note in 
etween Denver and Colorado Springs 
(then just organized) was 13 persons 
each way daily. To-day the road 
handles during the summer season an 
average of nearly 1,500 persons a day 
between these places, to say nothing 
of those who travel over the Santa Fe 
and the Colorado & Southern rail- 
roads. = 
As the road needed fuel, and as it 
an 
Valley to the coal field near Florence 
in the same year (1872), and this line 
was extended to Canon City in 1874. 
In 1872 negotiations were under- 
taken with the Mexican ethan 
for the extension of the Den ver & R 
Grande Railroad to Mexico City, sh Z 
they were not successful, though later 
the plans for this extension found ex- 
pression in the Mexican National Rail- 
way. 
By the time the Rio Grande road 
reached Pueblo, the Arkansas Valley 
began to attract the attention of ee 
i st 
railway companies, and man 
were conceived to build Fo 454 
nothing came of them, the R 
Grande was left in supposed ia 
puted on of the field. A little 
later the Atchison, Topeka & — Fe 
Rai 
Be and 
ches entered this field without re- 
ard to any assumed prior rights of 
ie Denver & Rio Grande. 
Bs 1872 ie Santa Fe was in opera- 
Arkansas Valley. It was understood 
that the Santa Fe proposed to make 
Pueblo the principal commercial center 
of the species region and to build 
several extensions beyond Pueblo, 
especially to Goa City and through 
the Royal Gorge to the mining camps 
in the mountains, as well as to Denver 
and other places along the mountain 
vee: It was rumored that the Santa 
heading for Raton Pass, south 
of aie which was claimed by the 
Rio nde as a part of one of its 
souther All t plans 
threatened seriously the very existence 
of th 
accordingly made preparations for a 
vigorous defensive campaign, but the 
panic of 1873 stopped nearly all con- 
struction work on the Rio Grande as 
well as on most other roads in the 
un 
oO 
=] 
try. : 
Four or five years later, as confi- 
dence was restored and money 
plentiful, work was pushed ahead on 
all the lines entering the Rocky Moun- 
ing Alamosa July 6, 1878. 
