1802 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 



100 jacks, or burros, and mules, heavily laden with freight, and drivers afoot; every- 

 thing indicated that a good toll-road will be a paying investment. With this impres- 

 sion, on the commencement of the Wightman road, Mr. Edward Inness, of New York 

 City, obtained a charter for such a line from Howardsville to Antelope Springs, by 

 way of Cunningham Gulch. He chose this route, being largely interested in mining 

 property near the head of the gulch, since he was compelled to construct a way to 

 transport his ore to Howardsville, where he had erected reduction- works; he there- 

 fore determined to continue the line beyond the range and down the Rio Grande to 

 connect with the lower roads at their junction in Antelope Park. 



On the road down the gulch, 5 miles to Howardsville, $2,000 were expended; above 

 his works, a mile toward the summit, was said to have cost $4,000. This was finished 

 in the fall of 1877, at which time his works in the gulch were also constructed. 



From the levels furnished him, by Lieutenant Wheeler, Mr. Inness stated that the 

 gradient on the old county road from the summit of the range above Howardsville to 

 the point on the Rio Grande where Pole Creek enters was nearly 300 feet per mile, 

 while upon the route he had selected it scarcely averaged beyond 200; the balance of 

 the road, from Pole Creek to Antelope Springs, having a general descent of but 90 

 feet, or 1.7 per hundred, linearly. During 1878, it was said the balance of the road 

 to the summit and the whole of that beyond, to Antelope Springs, a distance of 40 

 miles, was to be completed; the cost of finishing and perfecting the entire route aggre- 

 gating $30,000. With communication direct via the Rio Grande and the route to the 

 agricultural region to the south open, Silverton and vicinity will at once increase in 

 prosperity, and, with a new impetus given to every interest in all the surrounding 

 districts, she will become one of the largest places in the San Juan. 



Section III. — Trails. 



A trail is the route of nature and barbarism ; it has traversed the country and defined 

 the lines of shortest communication before the white settler has entered the region, 

 civilization following and replacing it with a road. The instinct of animals leads them 

 to form a trail in a new country, to use one existing in an old ; thereafter it is used in 

 succession by Indians and whites. 



Throughout the Rocky Mountains, a vast expanse, at points 200 miles in width, the 

 most important sections are connected by old Indian trails, without which the forests 

 and rocky defiles are wholly impassable. When it is known that with the absence of 

 travel the rank summer vegetation of the mountains will in a single season cover and 

 conceal them, while the stunted growth of limbs and broken bushes by which the 

 Indian marks the way will become dim and almost imperceptible, it is not deemed 

 inappropriate to add to the other lines of communication a list of trails deemed most 

 important. They are considered of such Value by the topographer, that no representa- 

 tion of a mountainous region is considered perfect which, with other orographic pro- 

 jections complete, lacks the trails by which alone can passage in general be made. 



THE RIO GRANDE SECTION. 



An important trail up the west side of San Luis Valley is along the Rio Alamosa, 

 ascending its canon. A short trail passing up Gata Creek soon crosses to and is 

 merged in the former, descending into the canon, here over 1,000 feet deep. The trail 

 is mainly on the right bank of the Alamosa, well worn and easily found in general. 

 From the upper part of the cation at a great riiicoii (a corner, so called by the Mexicans 

 from the mountains squarely meeting there) upon the mountain to the right may be 

 found a dim trail, ascending abruptly 0,000 feet and meeting at the base of the Pintada 

 Peak (locally called "Old Bahly") the old wagon-road from Del Norte to the Summit 

 Mining District. The latter section may thus be directly reached from the plains to 

 the east. 



The main trail continues up the Alamosa, its continuation having been found with 

 some difficulty at the rincon. At the mouth of the North Fork, on which the summit 

 lies, the mines may be reached by following a very rough hut direct trail up that 

 stream. Along the South Fork, which is the main stream, the main trail follows, the 

 gold mines of the Decatur district being here situated. It passes over the range near 

 the Summit Peak over 13,000 feet high, and via the East Fork of the San Juan to Pa- 

 gosa Springs. This trail is at points difficult, high, and circuitous, and not the prefer- 

 able point for crossing the continental divide. 



At the mouth of the canon of the Rio La Jara where the settlements are thickest a 

 well-trodden trail passes directly across the lava plain to ( imiejos, avoiding several 

 miles of the detour by the wagon-road to the east and south. From the valley at this 

 stream's headwaters and the lake beyond on the same general depression a trail was 

 cut from the left, descending in the usual zigzag course to the bottom of the canon of 

 the Alamosa fully 1,200 feet below the edge of the La Jara Valley. From this point 

 the Alamosa Canon increases as it is ascended, being fully 2,500 feet deep at the rincon. 



