DEN-\^R & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



49 



canyon (see PI. XXIX) is attractive not only on account of the 

 beauty of its magnificent granite walls — a miniature Yosemite — but 

 also because the cut in the massive granite is the enduring record of 

 events that took place long before the white man saw this country 

 and in all probability before man existed on the globe. All the 

 mountains, hills, valleys, and plains constitute records of similar 

 events, but here the record is so clear and distinct that anyone may 

 decipher it after he has had a slight training in the alphabet Nature 

 uses. 



spectively, and shipped large quan- 

 tities of very ricli ore. Four long 

 drainage tunnels, the Chicago, Good 

 Will, Ophelia, and Standard, were be- 

 gun about this time. Another notable 

 event of the year 1900 was the sale 

 of Stratton's Independence, the most 

 famous mine in the district, to the 

 Venture Corporation (Ltd.), of Lon- 

 don, for .$10,000,000. 



In 1901 the Colorado Springs & 

 Cripple Creek District Railway 

 ("Short Line") was built into the 

 district. About this time many of the 

 larger mines, having worked down to 

 the water surface determined by the 

 outflow through the Standard tunnel, 

 were again compelled to seek deeper 

 drainage. A drainage commission was 

 formed, subscriptions were collected, 

 and in 1903 the El Paso tunnel was 

 begun. Connection was made with the 

 El Paso mine, under Beacon Hill, in 

 the autumn of the same year. 



Early in 1903 a strike was ordered 

 by the Western Federation of Miners 

 in all mines shipping ore to certain 

 reduction works in Colorado City, and 

 for about two years the district was 

 the scene of many deeds of violence. 



With the deepening of the mines the 

 El Paso drainage tunnel became in- 

 adequate, and in May, 1907, the Roose- 

 velt tunnel was started from Cripple 

 Creek canyon, about 5 miles below the 

 town, at an elevation of 8,033 feet 

 above sea level, or 750 feet below the 

 El Paso tunnel. This tunnel reached 

 the porous volcanic rocks and began 

 to drain the mines about the end of 

 1910. 



The Cripple Creek hills lie near the 

 eastern border of a lofty and deeply 

 dissected plateau, which slopes gently 

 westward for 40 miles from the 

 southern end of the Colorado Range, 

 dominated by Pikes Peak, to the rela- 

 tively low hills connecting the Mos- 

 quito and Sangre de Cristo ranges. 

 The prevailing rocks of this plateau 

 are granites, gneisses, and schists. 

 During Tertiary time A'olcanic erup- 

 tions broke through these ancient rocks 

 at several points and piled tuffs, brec- 

 cias, and lavas above the imeven sur- 

 face of the plateau. The eruptive 

 rocks of the Cripple Creek district are 

 the products of one of the smaller iso- 

 lated volcanic vents of this period, a 

 vent that erupted phonolite, a kind of 

 rock that does not occur elsewhere in 

 this general region. The most abund- 

 ant products of the Cripple Creek vol- 

 cano now preserved are tuffs and 

 breccias, which cover a rudely ellipti- 

 cal area in the center of the district 

 about 5 miles long from northwest to 

 southeast and about 3 miles wide. The 

 main breccia mass fills what once must 

 have been a steep-waUed chasm of pro- 

 found depth. From the Conundrum 

 mine, on the western slope of Gold 

 Hill, to Stratton's Independence mine, 

 on the south slope of Battle Mountain, 

 the old granite walls plunge steeply 

 down, with slopes which range in gen- 

 eral from 70° to vertical and which in 

 places actually overhang the breccia. 

 This entire southwest contact repre- 

 sents a part of the wall of the great 

 pit formed by the volcanic explosions 

 that produced the breccia. In most of 



