. Under the turquoise sky of Colorado .. . these culminating rangeshad been but giganticbarriers blocking theirway to the Golden Gateand the El Dorado oftheir dreams. Far tosouthward lay the SantaFe Trail — that dustyhighway strewn with thebleaching bones of manand beast, which linkedthe western outposts ofour civilization with theancient land of the Span-iard and with all themystery and charm ofthe sunny removed from thehighways across theplains, these mightymountains had heretofore remained untrodden by the foot of theemigrant or trader; only a few adventurous explorers had asy
. Under the turquoise sky of Colorado .. . these culminating rangeshad been but giganticbarriers blocking theirway to the Golden Gateand the El Dorado oftheir dreams. Far tosouthward lay the SantaFe Trail — that dustyhighway strewn with thebleaching bones of manand beast, which linkedthe western outposts ofour civilization with theancient land of the Span-iard and with all themystery and charm ofthe sunny removed from thehighways across theplains, these mightymountains had heretofore remained untrodden by the foot of theemigrant or trader; only a few adventurous explorers had asyet penetrated their fastness. And to all of these the chief guid-ing beacon had been a single snowy peak, visible for fifty leagues, A Libation to the Gods. Manttou and Pikers Peak that rose companionless from its brown foothills and from thevery edge of the Great Plains. *If the thought had ever arisen in the minds of the earlyexplorers that a city should some day be planted at the foot ofPikes Peak, it had no doubt been quickly dismissed as the flightof a too exuberant fancy; but when in 1870 Gen. William started his Denver & Rio Grande Railway southwardfrom the frontier settlement at Denver, these seemingly Utopiandreams were not far from realization. For among the manyprojects connected with the material conquest and developmentof the new region, not the least important was that of the found-ing of a little city which should from the beginning presentespecial attractions to the invalid and valetudinarian. That thiscity should be located in the Pikes Peak region was a foregoneconclusion. Accordingly, a tract of ten thousand acres was pur-chased and a course of intelligent and generous expenditureentered upon by the Colorad
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidunderturquoisesk00chic
