DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 61 
which is the greatest’ field of good coking coal in the West, and coal 
for fuel can be obtained from the same field or from the Canon City 
field, on the west. Iron ore is available in southern Wyoming and 
possibly in other parts of the mountain region, and altogether Pueblo 
is remarkably well located to become a large and prosperous manu- 
facturing city. 
At Minnequa, a suburb of Pueblo, on the mesa to the south, is the 
great plant of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. There also are smelters 
for the reduction of the gold and silver ores of the mountain region, 
as well as other manufacturing plants. Pueblo is the county seat 
of Pueblo County. Here is the State Asylum for the Insane, a 
“palace” for the display of the mineral resources of the county, and 
numerous business blocks, hotels, and amusement parks. 
Pueblo is one of the historic places of Colorado. The first record 
of occupation of this region by the white man is that of the explor- 
ing party of Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, which camped at “ The Forks,” 
as he called the confluence of Fountain Creek and Arkansas River, 
in November, 1806, and built a log breastwork for defense. The 
party made this camp before they attempted to scale the great peak 
which they saw far off and which is now known as Pikes Peak. The 
next American party to visit the site of Pueblo was that of Maj. 
Long, in 1820. After this time it was visited by many explorers 
and hunters, and James Beckwourth—a mulatto who had lived among 
the Indians—claimed the honor of establishing in 1842 the first 
permanent settlement where Pueblo now stands. Here was built an 
adobe fort, called Fort Napeste, which is said to have been the Indian 
name for Arkansas River. In 1859 a settlement was begun on the 
east side of Fountain Creek, which was called Fountain City. A 
year or two later a rival town was laid out on the banks of the 
Arkansas and named Pueblo. For a number of years the growth 
of these pioneer settlements was slow, and it was not until the 
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad reached the Arkansas in 1872 that 
the settlements consolidated and began their phenomenal growth. 
On leaving the station at Pueblo the train begins its real west- 
ward journey. From Denver to Pueblo its course has been nearly 
due south along the mountain front, but when it turns west at 
Pueblo it must travel 41 miles before it again comes to the foot of 
the mountains, for the range that forms the mountain front from the 
north line of the State to Colorado Springs terminates 1n Cheyenne 
Mountain, a few miles south of Colorado Springs, and here the 
mountain front is offset to the west 25 or 30 miles, to a point west of 
Canon City. This southern range, which is the Wet Mountains, 
continues southward for some distance and dies out, and still farther 
south there is another westward offset, the Sangre de Cristo Range, 
which extends as far as Santa Fe, N. Mex. 
