RECENT EACTS EROM COLORADO. 3o 



scrabble Caflon joins the Canon City road; distance from Rosita to Pueblo, over 

 the first fifty-one miles, over the latter, from Cafion City, thirty-one; either one well 

 worth riding over to the sight-seer, and many in the summer season give pref- 

 erence to the Hardscrabble Canon route, but from the length of the ride I should 

 think might be rather tedious. However, four o'clock p. m. saw me landed at 

 the hotel in Rosita, with a mind fully alive to take in all of the facts to be picked 

 up by a " tender-foot." 



Rosita, a Colorado mining town, is pleasantly situated in a gulch with a 

 southern exposure, overlooking the foot-hills and ranches of the Wet Mountain 

 Valley, and a full, magnificent view of the rugged, sharp-pointed peaks of the 

 Sangre de Cristo Range, whose sides appear now to be covered with snow from 

 foot-hill to summit. The fixed population of Rosita is about 1,000 to 1,200, and 

 the floating population hard to estimate at present, but constantly increasing. 

 Nothing is raised here, so that the grocer is the most important factor in the 

 population. Prices are very reasonable in consequence of the proximity of 

 railroad communication. Hayden, in his report of 1873, speaks of Rosita as a 

 mining camp just started; he visited it and gives the elevation as 8,827 f eet - 

 Subsequent elevations taken in the neighborhood of the post office make the 

 elevation 300 or 4 .0 feet less, which difference can easily be accounted for, as a 

 half mile further up the gulch would certainly make that much difference in 

 altitude. Hayden mentions the mines as situated in a formation of " Rhyolitic" 

 granite, while on referring to Reymond's report for 1876 a communication therein 

 states that the mines are situated in a belt of porphyry of from three to five miles 

 in width, and in this belt the most productive lodes have been discovered. As 

 near as I can make out the belt runs in a general east and west course, and is 

 traversed its whole length by dykes of syenite and quartz, the latter carrying the 

 mineral in veins, pockets and chimneys ; also mamy cross-lodes occur, apparently 

 radiating in all directions from the loftiest summits within this belt. This is not 

 yet proven as a fact, nor is it yet proven in which course lie the richest mineral 

 veins, although, personally, I have a belief that those following a general east 

 and west course will eventually prove the most permanent and most productive 

 as to quantity. 



The camp was located in 1872 and made a good start, but the panic of 1873 

 in the eastern cities effected mining enterprises as well as everything else. Fol- 

 lowing the panic came the San Juan rush, then the Black Hills fever and now the 

 Leadville epidemic is in full blast ; but part of the overflow of people has been 

 caught at Silver Cliff, about seven miles west of here, where there are some most 

 excellent mines. In consequence of these other discoveries I do not think 

 Rosita has seen her best days yet by any means. Her time is yet to come ; 

 but when she does come to the front she will come to stay. North of the town 

 proper, for about three miles square, the ground at a glance, would appear to 

 have been well prospected, from the number of holes dug ; but most of these 

 were worked from two to six years ago. Now, recent developments in mining 



