Colorado Times
August 26, 2008
It is logical for people to ask someone like me where I like the best. I always give the same answer. There is no one place that I would call the best because every place we have been has great places. Sure a lot of that feeling comes out of somewhere within me. But like everything else there are certain places that float a little higher in the ranks of desirability. When I have been around the oceans it has been great. In the winter I have to say that southern Texas ranks high, it had better because I seem to be spending winters there. There were places in Florida, Arizona, New York, and many other states that I would go back to in a heartbeat. Colorado has got to be ranked very high. Part of that is due to fact that I spent over forty years here and did not see everything that I wanted to see. While this year I have not seen a lot of the things I missed in the past, I have had some special days.
EARLY AUTUMN SNOW COVERED PEAKS FROM HOOSIER PASS
This year has been unusual here, the weather went from a record number of days of over ninety degrees to days that set record lows for the high of the day. The high country in Colorado has already had snow this year. The snow did not last long as the days returned to more normal temperatures. But in the wake of the snow storms there was much beauty. It does not matter when you look at the high country there is great beauty that has been enjoyed by the people that have lived here. The Indian tribes were the first to enjoy the beauty for thousands of years. They shared with the Spanish for a couple hundred years, and then the American who had started from Europe replaced them. One of the biggest signs of the Indian that lived here is the pueblos in southern Colorado. Some of the pueblos have been occupied for over five hundred years. The Spanish did not leave such large signs of their activities. I think perhaps their biggest contribution can be found in the names that are to be found everywhere. Spanish names in Colorado are so common that many people do not even know that they are Spanish. There are a couple places in Colorado that have a site of Spanish origin that are unknown by most people. I know of one personally and another through the Internet. Because I worked in mining research for many years I am interested in how minerals were extracted in the past. The Spanish came to Colorado seeking gold and silver. They needed to crush mineral bearing rocks and they did not have electricity to run motors to do the job. The work had to be done by hand or by the harnessed power of animals. On of their ways to harness horse power was to build an arrastre. A large flattish rock was selected near a stream. A hole was drilled into the rock to provide a center pivot point. A pole was placed across the rock with either one or two large boulders attached to it by a chain. The pole was pivoted at the center point with the boulder(s) two or three foot away from the pivot. Further out a mule was harnessed to the pole. As the mule walked a circle around on the rock it would pull the boulder(s) across the surface of the rock. In time a groove would be worn into the rock and the boulder(s) would be worn down to fit the groove. Mineral bearing ore would be placed in the groove where the heavy boulders would crush it to sand and release the gold and silver. Water from the stream would wash the lighter sand away leaving the heavy sands which would contain the gold and silver. It had to be an incredibly labor intensive operation. I have operated similar equipment that used steel wheels instead of boulders and operated at forty to sixty rpm. To me it was very inefficient so it really is hard to imagine the same thing being done at one to three rpm. Perhaps the Spanish ground softer ores than I was crushing so it worked better for them. By the looks of the Spanish arrastre in Buckskin Gulch near Alma it must have been in use a long time.
SPANISH ARRASTRE IN BUCKSIN GULCH NEAR ALMA
This such an interesting area. Take the one road and there is the Spanish arrastre and a bit further up is a large mill building from the twenties that is still in good shape. To many people it is just an old building, but to me it is a monument to the ingenuity and tenacity of the early miner. I am unsure that the man living today would be able to do what the "old timers" were able to do. I am sure that the modern mindset would be totally different from that of eighty to a hundred years ago. Further up the same road is an area of Pinion Pine of great age. Growing at high altitude in harsh conditions has produced trees of great gnarled beauty. And still farther up, the road ends on top of one of Colorado's fifty-two 14,000 foot tall peaks. As it is from all fifty-two peaks the view is spectacular. Some of the peaks have to be climbed with rope, pitons, and technical skills, but some can be hiked on gentle trails, (if any trail at 14,000 foot is gentle) and a few can be driven up in a car. One that can be driven up has probably been heard of by most people, Pikes Peak.
VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE 14,000 FOOT MOUNT HARVARD
If a different fork in the road is taken Mosquito Pass lies ahead. It is the highest continuous road in the US. Trail Ridge Road a ways to the north is the highest continuous paved road in the US. Mosquito Pass reaches an altitude of 13,185 foot. It would only have to be 815 foot higher to reach the magic height of 14,000. Back in the 1870's it was the shortest route between Fairplay and Leadville, Colorado. A lot of traffic went both ways back then and a lot of people died during the winter crossings. It got its name from a town that was along the way. The people could not decide upon a name for the town until someone found a squashed mosquito in the city record books during a town meeting. Even then no one knew how to spell the word. So the town was called Musquito. Nothing is left today except the pass itself. The world news came to Leadville through the telegraph lines that went from Denver to Fairplay and over the top of Mosquito Pass. If the line was damaged the people of Leadville went to fix the line no matter how bad the storms were that were raging on the pass. In 1889 the first telephone line was run over the pass. The telephone was patented in 1876, so Leadville had all the newest technology. And it all came over Mosquito Pass. Today it is a 4WD road.
At a much lower altitude there is a lot of activity in nature. At this time of the year there is nothing serious that is going on but it is time for practice for the real fights that will be happening in about a month or perhaps less. The Elk have not begun to fight but they are sparring to determine roughly what their status in the herds will be. It is also the time to build up their muscles for the efforts to come soon. This pair tussled for a short time and then were shortly grazing side by side. This time it was just for the fun. Later in the fall we have seen elk a quarter mile away that were putting all their strength into a battle until one of them gave up and ran away as fast as he could. It was amazing to us how loud the sounds of their breathing was at that substantial distance. And of course the sound of antler to antler was even louder. We have had reports that they like to settle some of their disagreements on the local golf course greens. You can bet that the course owners would like them to go elsewhere and not do the damage to the greens. On the other hand the tourist flock to the mountain meadows just hoping that the elk will come out early to do their fighting and put on a good show to photograph. But often a lot of the action happens after it is too dark for people to see.
TUSSLING ELK IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
We are in a holding pattern here in Colorado. We do not know how long we will be here or how the rest of our time will be spent. We have to accomplish some things before we can move anywhere. In the meantime I will set out some bird seed and make life a bit easier for two or three dozen sparrows, a few turtle doves and some other birds that have discovered my generosity and the pan of seed. In this camp we also have more rabbits than we have seen anywhere. They are fun to have around. They are often just a few feet from the door when we go out and do not run very far, sometimes not at all.
Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road
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