Colorado Springs - 1907

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Pikes Peak
Image (C) Doris McCraw

By 1907, Colorado Springs had grown from its founding in 1871 into a thriving 36-year-old community. In just over three decades, the city had undergone a significant transformation, shaping its identity through rapid growth, cultural development, and historic events.

1. It had been 101 years since Zebulon Pike had attempted his climb of Pikes Peak.

2. It had been 87 years since Dr. Edwin James had accomplished that feat as the first white man to reach the top of that mountain.

3. It had been 16 years since the Cog Railway, partially financed by Zalmon Simmons of the Simmons mattress company, had begun taking people to the top of Pikes Peak.

4. It had been 14 years since Katharine Lee Bates had taken a carriage and a mule ride to the top of Pikes Peak, which inspired her to write the phrase: "Oh beautiful for halcyon skies, for amber waves of grain."

5. It had been 33 years since the Colorado Deaf and Blind School was founded by the grandfather of the actor Lon Chaney.

In the Garden of the Gods
Image (C) Doris McCraw 

6. It had been 33 years since Colorado College was founded.

7. It had been 20 years since the trolley system began.

8. It had been 6 years since they buried the century chest to be opened in 2001.

9. It was the junction for six railways between 1870 and 1900: The Denver & Rio Grande, The Denver & New Orleans Manitou Branch, The Colorado Midland, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, The Rock Island, and The Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek.

10. It had been 34 years since Helen (Hunt) Jackson, the author of "Ramona" and "Century of Dishonor," had made Colorado Springs her home. (She died in 1885 and is buried here.)

11. It had been 4 years since the El Paso County Courthouse had been built.

12. It had been 41years since the creation of the Goodnight-Loving Trail that ran just east of Colorado Springs.

13. It had been 34 years since Isabella Bird, the Englishwoman who wrote "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, spent time in Colorado Springs

14. It had been 48 years since Garden of the Gods received its name.

A lot happened in the town William Jackson Palmer and his associates founded back in 1871 as a tourist and resort area for his European investors. So much history to draw from as I write, and I do use it a lot. It plays a large role in my soon-to-be-released "Isabella: Rocky Mountain Bride" in the National Park Brides series. You can pre-order it here:

Amazon

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon

GALLOWAY HOMESTEAD - ROCK LEDGE RANCH

Post by Doris McCraw writing as Angela Raines

Photo property of the author

Rock Ledge Ranch is a living history museum that sits right at the southeast corner to the main entrance to The Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs. During the summer visitors can walk or take guided tours and learn the history of the area from the early Natives right through the beginning of the twentieth century. There is nothing like learning history from people who have studied and share it through first-person narratives.

This winter they opened the area as a park for those who would enjoy hiking the grounds. It is different as you walk the trails by yourself. It allows the imagination to roam as it will. Walking up to the Galloway homestead site without other people around can give you a sense of what it might have been like when the homestead was built. It captured my attention when I visited years ago in the summer. It drew me like a moth to a flame in the winter.

Photo property of the author

The above is the view coming upon the site. The corral is to the left of the reconstructed one-room cabin. It is believed Walter Galloway build his cabin on this site around 1867 and officially filed the homestead claim in  1871.

Northside of the cabin
Photo property of the author

Outhouse, located south of the corral
Photo property of the author

The south side of the cabin
Photo property of the author

This small cabin inspires so many thoughts of how one lived during this time. A one-room would have been fine for one person in, but what if it held a family?  So many questions that lead one to a story. 

I leave you with an excerpt from the short story I had in the anthology " The Untamed West". A cabin similar to the one pictured is how I saw the home of my heroine in the story, 'The Homestead'.

Ruth placed the axe against her left leg, rubbing her tired shoulder muscles with calloused hands. She noticed rain clouds hanging low against the northwestern sky, as though they were waiting for some signal to move.

Ruth watched the same pattern all spring that seemed to be repeating itself this fall. Her eyes, tired and sad, stared at the hated lonely stretch of land, the small piece of the greater high desert at the mountain's base in the new Colorado Territory. She'd hated the place when Joseph had brought them here. Hated it even more now. She was a prisoner. Not as most would think, but a prisoner she knew herself to be. She was hemmed in by the endless stretch of land to the east and south, the dark, high mountains to the west and forest to the north.

"It's amazing how love will lead you to the loneliest places," she told the blowing wind. Wind that told of the coming storm.

Sighing, Ruth turned back to the pile of wood she'd dragged in. Again, she picked up the newly sharpened axe, intending to finish before the storm arrived.

"Mother, Mother," Ruth heard excitement and fear in her five-year-old son Samuel's voice.

Heart pounding, Ruth moved away from the wood she was chopping. She turned to see Samuel standing some twenty feet away. He was standing statue still, not moving.

Amazon

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Telling Stories Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

Website: Angela Raines - author

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GARDEN OF THE GODS; NEW BOOK GIVEAWAY

Post by Angela Raines-author

With the release of my new novella "Angela of Salvation Valley", I thought I would write a bit about the region that inspired the location of this story.

One of the large city parks in Colorado Springs is Garden of the Gods. This 1,367 acre park sits just below Pikes Peak. In 1971 it was designated a National Natural Landmark. Just north of the park sits Glen Eyrie, the home of William Jackson Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs. The park consists of land owned by Palmer and friend Charles Elliott Perkins, donated after their deaths. For further information here is a link to Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_the_Gods

View of Garden of the Gods from the South

Nearby is "Old" Colorado City, founded in 1859 and claims to be the first territorial capital of Colorado. It lost its bid when the delegates from Denver 'stole' the paperwork and headed back to Denver. That is the story they tell there, and we know there was a meeting of the delegates in February of 1861 and Denver did end up the territorial capital. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Colorado_City

About 40 miles south is Canon City. It sits along the Arkansas River. Just west is the Royal Gorge, cut by the Arkansas and site of the battle between the Santa Fe and Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. It is also the site of the first Territorial Prison. http://cozine.com/2011-january/the-%E2%80%9Cwar%E2%80%9D-for-the-royal-gorge/

Part of the Arkansas River in Canon City

Each area, its beauty, its history all conspired to help create the story of Drew Carson and Elizabeth Campbell. Add in the 'supernatural' elements and you have a story of Angels, Demons, Heaven and Hell, or do you? The story is available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, KOBO and Smashwords. At .99 you can't go too wrong. But you can also leave a comment before October 25 and get a chance to get a copy.

http://amzn.com/B016MPKFDI

Until next time, have a wonderful month. And if you are in the mood for some haiku, I post Monday through Friday at http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com