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Read Ebook: The Land of Enchantment: From Pike's Peak to the Pacific by Whiting Lilian
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Ebook has 838 lines and 94840 words, and 17 pages
INDEX 339
PAGE
Acoma, New Mexico. Two Miles Distant 13
Summit of Pike's Peak, Colorado 55
Williams Ca?on, near Manitou, Colorado 64
Seven Falls, Cheyenne Ca?on, near Colorado Springs, Colorado 66
St. Peter's Dome, on the Cripple Creek Short Line 71
Approaching Duffield 72
Portland and Independence Mines, Victor, Colorado 75
View from Bull Hill, Richest Gulch in the World 76
The Devil's Slide, Cripple Creek Short Line 80
Colorado Springs and Tunnel No. 6, Cripple Creek Short Line 83
Gateway of the Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado 92
Cathedral Spires, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado 92
The Walls of the Ca?on, Grand River 99
The "Fairy Caves," Colorado 101
Marshall Pass and Mt. Ouray, Colorado 103
The Wonderful Hanging Lake, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado 112
Cathedral Rocks, Clyde Park, Cripple Creek Short Line 137
Sultan Mountain 150
Acoma, New Mexico 183
The Enchanted Mesa, New Mexico 184
Laguna, New Mexico 186
Cliff Dweller Ruins, near Santa F?, New Mexico 191
Stone Tent. Cliff Dwellers, New Mexico 191
San Miguel Church, Santa F?, New Mexico 211
"Watch Tower." Cliff Dwellers, New Mexico 215
Cliff Dwellers. Within Twenty-five Miles of Santa F?, New Mexico 215
Petrified Giants, Third Forest, Arizona 228
Collection of Cacti made by Officers at Fort McDowell, Arizona, for this Picture 232
Looking through a Part of the River Gorge, Foot of Bad Trail, Grand Ca?on 240
Suwara , Salt River Valley, Arizona 267
San Francisco Peak, near Flagstaff, Arizona 276
Grand Ca?on, from Grand View Point 316
Zigzag, Bright Angel Trail, Grand Ca?on 318
A Cliff on Bright Angel Trail, Grand Ca?on 320
THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
WITH WESTERN STARS AND SUNSETS
TENNYSON
TENNYSON
CYRUS TO XENOPHON
The good American of the Twentieth century by no means defers going to Paris until he dies, but anticipates the joys of Paradise by making a familiarity with the French capital one of the consolations that tend to the alleviation of his enforced terrestrial sojourn. All Europe, indeed, has become the pleasure-ground of American tourists, a large proportion of whom fail to realize that in our own country there are enchanted regions in which the traveller feels that he has been caught up in the starry immensities and heard the words not lawful for man to utter. Within the limits of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California there are four centres of sublime and unparalleled scenic sublimity which stand alone and unrivalled in the world. Neither the Alps nor the Himalayas can offer any parallel to the phenomena of the mountain and desert systems of the Southwest as wrought by the march of ages, presenting unique and incomparable problems of scientific interest that defy solution, and which are inviting the constant study and increasing research of many among the most eminent specialists of the day in geology and metallurgy. The Pike's Peak region offers to the traveller not only the ascent of the stupendous Peak, but also the "Short Line" trip between Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek, which affords forty-five miles of marvellous mountain and ca?on effects. The engineering problem of the ascent of St. Peter's Dome,--a huge mass of granite towering eleven thousand feet into the air, around which the steel track winds in terraces, glory after glory of view repeating itself from the ascending vistas as the train climbs the dizzy height,--the engineering problem that is here at once presented and solved, has attracted scientific attention all over the world as the most extraordinary achievement in mountain transportation. The Grand Ca?on of the Colorado in Arizona, two days' journey from the Pike's Peak region, the Petrified Forests that lie also in Arizona, seventy-five miles beyond the border of New Mexico, and that Buried Star near Ca?on Diablo, make up a group that travellers and scientists are beginning ardently to appreciate. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California offer, all in all, a landscape panorama that for grandeur, charm of climate, and rich and varied resources is unrivalled. Imagination falters before the resources of this region and the inducements it offers as a locality in which to live surrounded by perpetual beauty. The air is all exhilaration; the deep blue skies are a miracle of color by day, and a miracle of shining firmament by night; the land offers its richly varied returns in agriculture, fruit, mining, or grazing, according to the specific locality; the inhabitants represent the best quality of American life; the opportunities and advantages already offered and constantly increasing are greater than would at first be considered possible. This entire Southwest can only be accurately defined as the Land of Enchantment.
"Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world,"
exclaims Tennyson's Ulysses, and the wanderer under Western stars that hang, like blazing clusters of radiant light, midway in the air, cannot but feel that all these new experiences open to him vistas of untold significance and undreamed-of inspiration.
"It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,"
is the haunting refrain of his thoughts when, through the luminous air, he gazes into the golden glory of sunsets whose splendor is forever impressed on his memory. Every hour of the journey through the Southwest is an hour of enchantment in the intense interest of the scenes. One must not miss the outlook when descending the steep grade down Raton Mountain; nor must he fail to be on the alert in passing through the strange old pueblos of Isleta and Acoma; he must not miss Ca?on Diablo when crossing that wonderful chasm on the wonderful bridge, nor the gleam of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff on its pine-clad hill-slope, nor fail to gaze on the purple Franciscan peaks on which the lingering sunset rays recall to him the poet's line,--
"Day in splendid purple dying."
Like a modern Telemachus he sees "the baths of all the western stars."
Between La Junta in Colorado and Los Angeles in California there lies a journey which, in connection with its side trips, is unequalled, because there is only one Grand Ca?on, one Pike's Peak with its adjacent wonderland, and because, as a rule, elsewhere in the United States--or in the world, for that matter,--forests do not turn into stone nor stars hurl themselves into the earth with a force that buries them too deep for resurrection. Through the East and the Middle West the mountains do not, on general principles, attempt any competition with the clouds, but content themselves with the gentle altitude of a mile or so; the stars stay decorously in the firmament and are not shooting madly about, trying fantastic Jules Verne experiments to determine whether or not they can shine better from the centre of the earth than from their natural place in the upper air; the stars of the Eastern skies "stand pat," so to speak, and are not flying in the face of the universe; so that, altogether, in these regions it would seem quite evident that
"The world is built in order, And the atoms march in tune."
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