Guidebook of the Western United States. 



PART E. the DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



By Marius R. Campbell. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The traveler who crosses the United States from east to west passes 

 over many belts of country, which are different in types of surface 

 features, such as plains, plateaus, and mountains; in climate, espe- 

 cially in amount of rainfall; and in the occupations of the inhab- 

 itants, which are largely determined by their environment. He is 

 likely to be more or less familiar with the eastern part of the country, 

 which will therefore not be described here, but as soon as he crosses 

 Missouri River, either at Kansas City or at Omaha, he enters a 

 region that may be to him almost entirely unknown. In this region 

 he grows accustomed rather slowly to the sight of the level, unbroken 

 stretches of the vast plains that extend from Missouri River to 

 the foot of the Rocky Mountains, but at last he becomes reconciled 

 to the treeless landscape and begins to enjoy the freedom of the ap- 

 parently boundless plain below and the limitless expanse of sky 

 above. He may have expected to see traces of what was once called 

 " The Great American Desert," but the region so named was long 

 ago proved to be a desert only in the imagination of some of the 

 early explorers. As he goes westward, however, he observes that 

 the crops decrease in abundance and that the density of the popula- 

 tion decreases correspondingly, but that the country is nowhere 

 free from signs of habitation. In years of drought the plains be- 

 come j)arched and brown, but even then they do not resemble the 

 true deserts that lie west of the Rocky Mountains. 



In Denver the traveler is still on the plains, but he is so close to 

 their western edge and so near to the commanding peaks of the 

 Rocky Mountains that he naturally regards Denver as a mountain 

 city. He should rather regard it as the gateway to the mountains, 

 for he will find that it is the natural entrance to much of this 

 interesting region and that it enjoys the advantages of both the agri- 

 cultural resources and transportation facilities of the plains and the 

 mineral wealth and scenic beauty of the mountains. 



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