56 



GUTDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



Buttes. 



upon the amount of precipitation, which, according to the Weather 



Bureau, is only about 11.6 inches annually. In time of drought the 

 valley is brown and desolate, but when showers are 

 abundant all the plains are green and smiling. On 



DirvJr 9°3 muTs.^'^*' » clcar day the traveler may obtain glimpses of the 

 distant mountains. Toward the northwest he can 



see Cheyenne Mountain, dominated by the towering summit of Pikes 

 Peak, fading into the blue and hazy distance; on 

 the west he mav be able to distinguish the outline 



Seu7e*r n-'mife?^*' ^^ ^^^ ^ct Mountaius, showiug faintly in the dis- 

 tance; and far away to the south he may catch the 



faint blue of two peaks which are commonly known as the Spanish 



Eden. 



1872. It is interesting to note in 

 the first report of tlie company that 

 an estimate "of the passenger traffic 

 between Denver and Colorado Springs 

 (then just organized) was 13 persons 

 each way daily. To-day the road 

 handles during the summer season an 

 average of nearly 1,500 persons a day 

 between these places, to say nothing 

 of those who travel over the Santa Fe 

 and tlie Colorado & Southern rail- 

 roads. 



As the road needed fuel, and as it 

 had not penetrated any field of coal 

 suitable for use in locomotives, a 

 branch line was built up the Arkansas 

 Valley to the coal field near Florence 

 in the same year (1872), and this line 

 was extended to Canon City in 1874. 



In 1872 negotiations were under- 

 taken with the Mexican Government 

 for the extension of the Denver & Rio 

 Grande Railroad to Mexico City, but 

 they were not successful, though later 

 the plans for this exteaision found ex- 

 pression iu the Mexican National Rail- 

 way. 



By the time the Rio Grande road 

 reached Pueblo, the Arkansas Valley 

 began to attract the attention of other 

 railway companies, and many plans 

 were conceived to build railroads, but 

 nothing came of them, and the Rio 

 Grande was left in supposed undis- 

 puted possession of the field. A little 

 later the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 

 Railway, a Boston corporation with 

 apparently unlimited capital and 



energj% entered this field without re- 

 gai'd to any assumed prior rights of 

 the Denver & Rio Grande. 



In 1872 the Santa Fe was in opera- 

 tion as far west as Fort Dodge, Kans., 

 and a subsidiary of that road, the Kan- 

 sas & Colorado Railway Co., was in- 

 corporated to build a line up the 

 Arkansas Valley. It was understood 

 that the Santa Fe proposed to make 

 Pueblo the principal commercial center 

 of the mountain region and to build 

 several extensions beyond Pueblo, 

 especially to Canon City and through 

 the Royal Gorge to the mining camps 

 in the mountains, as well as to Denver 

 and other places along the mountain 

 front. It was rumored that the Santa 

 Fe was heading for Raton Pass, south 

 of Trinidad, which was claimed by the 

 Rio Grande as a part of one of its 

 southern routes. All these plans 

 threatened seriously the very existence 

 of the Denver & Rio Grande, which 

 accordingly made preparations for a 

 vigorous defensive campaign, but the 

 panic of 1873 stopped nearly all con- 

 struction work on the Rio Grande as 

 well as on most other roads in the 

 country. 



Four or five years later, as confi- 

 dence was restored and money became 

 plentiful, work was pushed ahead on 

 all the lines entering the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. The Rio Grande resumed work 

 on one of its branches through La 

 Veta Pass into San Luis Park, reach- 

 ing Alamosa July 6, 1878. 



