72 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
covery of petroleum in the county in 1872 helped the new town very 
rauch, for thousands of gallons were collected and sold to the people 
of other settlements. Since then its growth has been steady, for the 
climate is agreeable, the region is well adapted to fruit raising, and 
the town affords an outlet for the coal mines to the south. The 
scenic features have heretofore been only slightly exploited but will 
doubtless attract many visitors. 
The description of the scenery along the railroad west of Canon 
City begins on page 73. 
ONE-DAY TRIP Bt ing CANON CITY TO THE TOP OF 
E ROYAL GORGE 
The chief attraction in the vicinity of Canon City is the Royal 
_ Gorge of the Arkansas. The traveler passing over the Denver & Rio 
Grande Western Railroad in an open-top observation car has an 
exceptional opportunity to see this gorge from the bottom, but won- 
derful as this view may be, it does not compare in awe-inspiring 
grandeur with the view of the gorge from above. To obtain 
view the traveler goes by automobile from Canon City a distance of 
10 miles over one of the most picturesque drives in the country. 
Several years ago a trolley line was graded nearly to the top, but 
the enterprise fell through and at present automobiles or te:tms form 
the only mode of conveyance. 
The road first climbs to the top of a steep hogback ridge formed 
of the sharply tilted Dakota sandstone and then follows the crest of 
this ridge for several miles. The top of the ridge is so narrow that 
there is barely room for the road; in fact, the road in many places 
asses beneath great projecting ledges of the sandstone. (See 
Pl. XXXV.) From this elevated: position one can look down on 
the town and on acres upon acres of orchards to the east and in the 
other direction into the valley that separates the hogback from the 
main mountain. The road finally crosses this valley, climbs grad- 
ually to a high plateau, about 1,200 feet above the town, and sud- 
denly comes to the very brink of the Royal Gorge, as shown in Plate 
XXXIV, A. When the traveler finally stands on the edge of this 
mighty chasm (Pl. XXXIV, &) and gazes down more than a thou- 
sand feet to the raging torrent that rushes through its shadowy 
depths or to the thundering train that wakes the sleeping echoes from 
all its cavernous recesses he can but feel that, though the Royal 
Gorge may not be so deep nor display so great a variety of colors as 
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, it has a massiveness of wall and 
a steepness and ruggedness that can not be matched even by that 
“Titan of chasms.” The canyon gives one the impression that 
Arkansas River has here acted like a gigantic saw and that what 
