48 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



SOUTH CHEYENNE CANYON. 



One of the most romantic as well as most beautiful places in the 

 region about Colorado Springs is South Cheyenne Canyon, immor- 

 talized by Helen Hunt Jackson and for some years the resting place 

 of her body. 



This beautiful canyon lies 3 miles southwest of Colorado Springs 

 and can easily be reached by trolley or private conveyance. The 



near Mount Pisgah drew a number of 

 men to that locality. A few loose 

 fragments of ore were picked up on 

 the surface, and the Mount Pisgah 

 mining district was organized, but as 

 no valuable deposits were uncovered 

 the district was gradually deserted. 

 There was a brief renewal of activity 

 in 1884, caused by the reported dis- 

 covery of rich placer deposits near 

 Mount Pisgah, but the supposed dis- 

 covery appears to have been fraudu- 

 lent, and the grassy hills of the Crip- 

 ple Creek region, now thoroughly 

 discredited in the eyes of mining men, 

 were given over to the grazing of cat- 

 tle. For a long time the only habita- 

 tion in the region was the log house 

 of Bennett & Myers's Broken Box 

 ranch, which still stands in the south- 

 ern part of the town of Cripple Creek. 

 A few prospectors continued to work 

 in the district and met with some suc- 

 cess, but the event that was destined 

 to transform a lonely cattle ranch 

 into one of the greatest gold-producing 

 districts of the world was the discov- 

 ery by W. S. Stratton, on the Fourth 

 of July, 1891, of the Independence vein, 

 on what is now the site of Victor. 



Notwithstanding the fact that many 

 mining men of capital and experience 

 looked askance at what they regarded 

 as another Cripple Creek bubble, the 

 development of the district was extra- 

 ordinarily rapid. Before the opening 

 of the spring of 1892 the hills swarmed 

 with prospectors, and on February 26 

 the town of -Cripple Creek was in- 

 corporated. The main route into the 

 district at this time was from the 

 north, by wagon road from Florissant. 



In the autumn of 1893 the list of 

 producing mines included the Blue 



Bird, C. O. D., Dead Pine, Doctor, 

 Eclipse, Elkton, Gold Dollar, Granite, 

 Ingham, Logan, Mary McKinney, 

 Moose, Morning Glory, Portland, 

 Raven, Stratton's Independence, 

 Strong, Tornado, Zenobia, and many 

 other well-known properties. ( See PI. 

 XXVIII, B.) 



The Colorado Midland Railway (now 

 the Midland Terminal), which con- 

 nects Cripple Creek with Colorado 

 Springs by way of Divide, was com- 

 pleted December 16, 1893, and the 

 Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad 

 was opened to traffic July 2, 1894. 



The year 1894 is memorable on ac- 

 count of a strike, during which the 

 miners resorted to arms, property was 

 destroyed, and lives were lost. In 

 spite of these disturbances the develop- 

 ment of the district made notable 

 strides, and the Independence mine in 

 particular, which at this time was only 

 70 feet deep, revealed bodies of ore 

 that were the marvel of the camp. 



In 1895 the Portland mine had 

 reached a depth of 600 feet and the 

 Independence a depth of 470 feet. The 

 Independence was the most profitable 

 mine in the district, and Stratton, 

 now a rich man, began to buy out- 

 lying property. Considerable excite- 

 ment was caused by the discovery of 

 the remarkably rich oi"e shoots in the 

 Moose, Raven, and Doctor mines on 

 Raven Hill, About this time several 

 of the mines reached water and had 

 to begin pumping. 



During the next few years the num- 

 ber of producing mines continued to 

 increase, and in 1900 the district made 

 its maximum output, $18,000,000. The 

 Victor and Isabella mines were highly 

 productive up to 1898 and 1900, re- 



