Larimer County, Colorado - The whole text, 1911 (part 2 of 22)

"They went from Sigourney to Council Bluffs, Iowa, which was then the extreme frontier of the white settlement. It was at that time a trading point, and had water communication with St. Louis, by boat, and contained at the time about 1,000 inhabitants. Here the United States troops ordered them to remain until a sufficient number of other emigrants arrived to make the party strong enough to be safe from Indian attack in crossing the Plains. They were held at Council Bluffs until the wagons numbered fifty, and the emigrants numbered about 300. They were organized into companies, and properly officered, and were then permitted to cross the Missouri river, into what was then known as the Great American Desert.

"At that time there were no settlements between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountain region, excepting the military post at Fort Leavenworth, in the vicinity of which a few squatters had settled. The party crossed the Missouri river on a ferryboat owned by the Mormons, at a little town to the northwest of Council Bluffs called Gainesville. They struck out from the point of the crossing to the westward, and in three days' travel arrived on the banks of the Platte river. They traveled along the north side of this river until they came to the

"Here the old trail followed the North fork of the river, and wound its way far to the northward, through the Black Hills, and back again southward to the Devil's Gate on the Sweetwater river.

"At the forks of the Platte a portion of the emigrants suggested that they follow the South Platte river and see if a shorter route could not be found, over which to reach the Lamarie Plains and Sweetwater, but the majority of them argued that it would be safer for them and their women and children to follow the old route rather than leave it for a new and untried one. George Pinkerton, who had been over the old trail before, was so fixed in his opinion that a shorter route could be found, that he induced seventy-four men of the caravan to join him and start in search of such route.

"They crossed the North Platte and followed along the north side of the South Platte, until they came to the mouth of the Cache la Poudre river. They traveled along the valley of this river until they struck the foothills somewhere near the present site of Laporte. They crossed the Poudre river here and passed through a beautiful glade, unnamed then, but now known as Pleasant Valley.

"Still onward they traveled to the northward of the present site of the town of Bellvue, crossed the Poudre river again and went on northward through a long glade, until they came to the first canon south of what is now known as Owl canon, leading into the second glade, and went up through that glade, finally coming to what is now known as the Livermore country, skirting Stonewall creek on the right bank and arriving at what is now called Dale creek, on the evening of the 3rd of July, 1852, where they camped for the night and held a Fourth of July celebration the next day.

"In coming up the South Platte river they struck the mouth of the Cache la Poudre river at noon, and on the evening of the first day's travel on that river they camped. Game was plentiful, herds of buffalo were seen upon the plains, as well as deer, elk and antelope.

"To the travelers the Poudre valley appeared to be the hunters' paradise. Trout were caught then along the Poudre river from its mouth to the foothills, and the small streams in the mountains were alive with them.

"As stated, they camped on its banks. Many times during that day they had observed a band of Indians at some distance on the bluffs, and sometimes following them in the rear. That night they took extra precautions against a possible attack. They posted an extra guard of twenty men around their cattle and still an extra guard about their corral. They were not molested during the night, but early in the morning the Indians charged in two separate bands. One band charged the guards looking after the cattle, and the other charged the wagons, yelling and screeching like deamons and beating dried deer-skins and rattling deer-hoofs and bones to stampede the stock. They came out near the corral before they were checked by the rifles of the emigrants. They were all armed with bows and arrows and had a few old shotguns which they doubtless obtained from the Hudson Bay Company. These pea-guns did not amount to anything, as the Indians were met by the bullets of the emigrants long before they came near enough to do any execution with the shotguns. The fight lasted about ten minutes, when the Indians retreated. It was noticed that they carried off some of their dead. The whites lost one man killed outright, and one man mortally wounded, who died on the road, and was buried in the vicinity of the present site of Laporte, and two others were wounded, who recovered.

"The remainder of the trip to Virginia Dale was uneventful. On what is now called Dale creek, near the site of the present home of our former County Commissioner, T. B. Bishopp, where they arrived on the evening of the third day, they celebrated the Fourth of July in good old western style. There was a large flat rock near their camp upon which they held their exercises. They had several flags with them which they raised on poles. A fellow by the name of A. C. Dodge, who was something of a historian and debater, and who had brought some books with him, in one of which was the Declaration of Independence, read it and made quite a speech. They had a ten-gallon keg of whiskey, which they opened during the exercises, and of course did it full justice, and in the evening on the green sod had what they called a stag dance. They had four fiddles, and as many violinists, and it is said by one of the party, who now survives, that they had a splendid time. After they had danced to their hearts' content, they 'turned in,' as it was then called, and went to sleep soon, but when they woke up in the morning they found that a band of Indians had run off some of their horses. They immediately organized a party and started in pursuit. They followed the trail of the Indians nearly all day and came upon their camp late in the afternoon. The Indians having traveled all night and part of the day were found asleep. Firing on them and killing three, they succeeded in recapturing the horses. They returned with them to camp and on the next day started on their journey, traveling northwesterly, arriving at a point near the foot of Sheep mountain, where they struck the Laramie plains. Shortly after they came out on the plains they were joined by a band of Cherokee Indians who were on their way from the Indian Territory to Oregon. These Indians told them that a few days before, a party of what they thought to be Ute Indians had run off a large band of their horses."

It is stated that the valley along the Poudre river afforded the finest kind of pasturage, as well as did the glades in the mountains. At that time it was a difficult matter to travel through the foothills, as well as in the mountains.

The banks of the rivers and creeks were grown up with a dense underbrush, which had to be cut away. Their course lay over the mountains whose grades were so steep .that it became necessary in descending them, in some places, to tie a rope to the hind axle of the wagons and to wind it about a nearby tree and then play out the rope as the wagon descended. And in ascending, the mountains in places were so steep that it became necessary to hitch on ten yoke of oxen to one wagon to get it up the mountain. They traveled on the side of the mountain where it was so steep that it was necessary for four or five men to hold to ropes attached to the upper side of the wagon-box to keep it from tipping over.

From Horace Greeley's "Overland Journey to California in 1859," is here reproduced so much of his narrative as treats of his trip from Denver to Fort Laramie, made in June of that year. The story is of absorbing interest as it depicts in wellchosen terms the trials and tribulations of a traveler through this section of Colorado in the early days when there were but few settlers in the wilderness and these scattered wide apart.

dement, there was not another house, barn or shed in the county save a cabin at the crossing of the Big Thompson, a few miles west of the present city of Loveland. At Laporte there were a few French Canadian trappers, all of the remainder of the county, with the exception noted, being uninhabited by white men. Indians with their tepees there were, but no white men had yet come to the county with the intention of settling and establishing homes for themselves in the wilderness.

Thousands of white men, some with families, had years before passed through the county from east to west and from north to south, either going further west or returning to their former Eastern homes, but they had no "stop overs," and rushed onward leaving the fertile valleys of the Cache la Poudre river and the Big and Little Thompson creeks untouched except by footsteps.

Mr. Greeley was the first white man to traverse the county who left any record of his experiences and impressions gained en route. He left Denver at 3 :00 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, June 21st, 1859, in an ambulance wagon drawn by four mules, bound for Fort Laramie, where he expected to intercept and take passage in the Overland stage for California. Mr. Greeley does not say who accompanied him on this part of his journey, but it is inferred that he had three companions. The first night out tftey camped at "Boulder City, a log hamlet of some thirty inhabitants." From this on the story is told as he tells it in his book :

"Here ('Boulder City') we found four wagons, two of them with horse teams, each conveying the luggage of four or five men, who having taken a look at these gold regions, had decided to push on for California, most of them, I believe, through what is known as the Cherokee trail, which forms part of the shortest practicable route from Denver to Salt Lake. I was strongly tempted at Denver to join one of these parties, and go through this pass; had I stood firmly on both feet, I think I should have done it, saving distance though losing time. We all camped for the night beside a small brook, the rippling of whose waters over its pebbly bed fell soothingly on the drowsy ear. I had the wagon to myself for a bed chamber, while my three companions spread their buffalo skins and blankets on the grass and had the vault of heaven for their ceiling. The night was cool and breezy, our mules were picketed on the grass at a short distance, our supper of fried pork and pilot bread had satisfied us, and we slept quietly till the first dawn of day, when our mules were quickly harnessed and we left our fellow campers torpid, pushing on fifteen miles and crossing two deep, swift, steep banked creeks (St. Vrain's fork and a branch of the Thompson creek) before stopping for feed and breakfast. After two hours' rest we harnessed up and made twenty-one miles more before stopping at the crossing of the outer fork of Thompson's creek, for dinner. Here we found a caravan moving from Missouri to California, which reminded me of the days of Abraham and Lot. It comprised six or seven heavy wagons, mainly drawn by oxen, with a light traveling carriage and a pair of horses conveying the patriarch's family, some two or three hundred head of cows, steers and young cattle, with three or four young men on horseback driving and keeping the herd. Girls were milking, women cooking or washing, children playing, in short, here was the material for a very fair settlement, or quite an imposing Kansas City. While we were snoozing, they hitched up and moved on before us, but we very soon overtook and passed them.

"Pushing on steadily over a reasonably level country, though crossed by many deep and steepbanked dry gullies, and perhaps one petty living stream, we stood at 5 :00 P. M. on the south bank of Cache la Poudre, seventy miles from Denver, and by far the most formidable stream between the South Platte and the Laramie. Our conductor was as brave as mountaineers need be, but he was wary as well, and had seen so many people drowned in fording such streams , especially the Green river branch of the Colorado, on which he spent a year or two, that he chose to feel his way carefully. So he waited and observed for an hour or more, meantime sending word to an old French mountaineer friend from Utah, who had pitched his tent here, that help was wanted. There had been a ferryboat at this crossing till two nights before, when it went down stream, and had not since been heard of. A horseman we met some miles below assured us that there was no crossing, but this we found a mistake, two men mounted on strong horses crossing safely before our eyes, and two heavy laden ox wagons succeeding them in doing the same.

"One of them stuck in the stream and the oxen had to be taken off and driven out, being unable to pull it while themselves were half buried in the swift current. But these crossings were made from the other side where the entrance was better and current rather favored the passage. The ox wagons were held to the bottom by the weight of their loads, while our 'ambulance' was light and likely to be swept down stream. At length our French friend appeared mounted on a powerful horse, with an Indian attendant on another such. He advised us to stay where we were for the night, promising to come in the morning with a heavy ox team and help us over. As this, however, involved a loss of at least ten miles on our next day's drive, our conductor resolved to make the attempt now. So the Frenchman on his strong horse took one of our lead mules by the halter and the Indian took the other and we went in, barely escaping an upset from going down the steep bank, obliquely, and thus throwing one side of our wagon much above the other, but we righted in a moment and went through, the water being at least three feet deep for about a hundred yards, the bottom broken by boulders, and the current very swift. We camped as soon as fairly over, lit a fire, and having obtained a quarter of antelope from our French friend, proceeded to prepare and discuss a very satisfactory meal. Table, of course, there was none, and unluckily we had lost our forks, but we still had two knives, a sufficiency of tin cups and plates, with an abundance of pork and pilot bread, and an old rag for tablecloth which had evidently seen hard service, and had gathered more dirt and blood in the course of it than a table-cloth actually needs. But the antelope ham was fresh, fat and tender, and it must have weighed less by three pounds when that supper was ended than when its preparation was commenced.

"Cache la Poudre seems to be the center of the antelope country. There are no settlements, save a small beginning just at the ford, as yet hardly three months old, between Denver, seventy miles on one side, and Fort Laramie, one hundred and thirty, on the other. The North Platte and the Laramie, both head in the mountains, forty to eighty miles due west of this point, thence pursuing a generally north course for more than one hundred miles among the hills, which are here lower and less steep than further south. The bold, high, regular front displayed by the Rocky Mountains for at least a hundred (and, I believe, for two hundred) miles south of the Cache la Poudre, hence gradually melt away into a succession of softer, rounder, lower hills; snow disappears; the line between the mountains and the plains no longer straight and sharply defined, and the still waters of the Plains have for some miles an alkaline appearance, besides being very scarce in summer. The Cherokee trail plunges into the mountains on the north side of and very near to Cache la Poudre, and henceforth we overtake no emigrants moving westward, none of any sort, but meet a few wagons making for

Boulder City or the Gregory diggings. Since we crossed Clear creek, on which there is on this trail a decent fringe of cottonwood, we had seen but the merest shred of small cottonwoods and some scrub willow at wide intervals along the larger water courses; but the pine still sparsely covered the face of the Rocky Mountains. Cache la Poudre has quite a fair belt of cottonwood, thenceforth there is scarcely a cord of wood to a township for the next fifty or sixty miles, and the pine is no longer visible on the hills near us, because they expose little but rock, and hence are swept by the annual fires. The high prairie on either side is thinly, poorly grassed, being of moderate fertility at best, often full of pebbles of the average size of a goose-egg, and apparently doomed to sterility by drouth. This region, though inferior in soil, and less smooth in surface is not dissimilar in its topography to Lombardy, and like it will in time be subjected to systematic irrigation, should the Rocky Mountain gold mines prove rich and extensive. Some of the streams crossed by our road might easily be so dammed at their egress from the mountains as to irrigate miles in width to the South Platte, forty or fifty miles distant, and at the price which vegetables must always command here should the gold mines prove inexhaustible, the enterprise would pay well. I was told at Cache la Poudre that encouraging signs of gold had been obtained in the stream, though it had only begun to be prospected.

"We were up and away betimes, still over thinly grassed, badly watered prairie, rather level in its general outlines, but badly cut by steep-banked water courses now dry. We drove fifteen miles and stopped for breakfast on a feeble tributary of Cache la Poudre, named Boxelder, for a small tree which I first observed here and which is poorer stufF, if possible, than cottonwood. This is the only tributary which joins the Cache la Poudre below its egress from the mountains. All the streams of this region are largest where they emerge from the mountains, unless reinforced below by other streams having a like origin, the thirsty prairie contributes nothing, but begins to drink them up from the time they strike it. The smaller streams are thus entirely absorbed in the course of five or ten miles, unless they happen sooner to be lost in some larger creek. Drouth, throughout each summer, is the inexorable and destroying tyrant of the Plains."

Here we leave Mr. Greeley and his party to pursue their journey to Fort Laramie, at which point they arrived three days later. If Horace Greeley could be restored to life and privileged to journey across the continent in these days, he would note that a great change had taken place in the appearance of the country he traveled over in an ambulance from Denver to Boxelder creek, fifty-one years ago. Instead of wild, dreary and uninhabited plains, he would pass through a thickly settled country all the way, along fine farms and farm houses, well cultivated and highly productive fields, orchards laden with fruit and luxuriant gardens burdened with choice vegetables and through towns and cities teeming with activity, all brought about through the systematic use of and intelligent application of water to the land. Instead of plodding along in a rickety, uncomfortable ambulance, drawn by mules, making twenty or thirty miles a day over rough roads and fording flooded streams, he would be whirled through the country in luxurious Pullman cars which cover more miles in an hour than the mules leave behind in a long day's drive. Yes, conditions in Colorado have changed, wonderfully changed, since June, 1859.

In 1900, Capt. William T. Drannan published a book, entitled "Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains," in which he recounts his experiences and adventures as a hunter, trapper, Indian fighter and scout. According to his narrative he fell in with Kit Carson at St. Louis when fifteen years of age and remained with the noted hunter, trapper, guide and scout until he was twenty-one years old. He called Carson "Uncle Kit," and relates many marvelous tales of thrilling adventures on the plains and in the mountains. In the winter of 1849-50, Carson established several trapping posts on the headwaters of the Cache la Poudre and placed young Drannan, then nineteen years old, in charge of a party of trappers. In chapter five of his book. Captain Drannan relates the story of his experiences and adventures that winter, the major portion of which is herewith reproduced in his own words :

"Uncle Kit, having made quite a sum of money, concluded that he would take over to the headwaters of the Cache la Poudre, to look for a new field where he could trap the coming winter on a large scale, and wanted John West and I to accompany him, which we did. Each taking a saddle and one pack animal, we started on the trip, taking a new route to Uncle Kit, as well as to Johnnie and myself. Carson took the lead, for, like a deer, he could find his way anywhere he wished to go.

"We crossed the Arkansas above Bent's fort, and from there we traveled along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, striking the South Platte at the mouth of Cherry creek, which is now the center of Denver, Colorado. Here we met Mountain Phil - of whom you will hear more in this narrative. He was living in a wickiup and had a squaw for a wife. Uncle Kit and I, being acquainted with him, stopped and had a chat with him while our horses were feeding. Uncle Kit asked what he intended to do the coming winter, and he replied :

"These things being understood, we rode off, Mountain Phil agreeing to meet us at Taos about two months from that time. After we rode away, I asked Uncle Kit why no one would live with Mountain Phil. His reply was: 'Phil is a very bad man, and I have yet to hear the first man speak a good word for him.'

"Late that afternoon we saw a band of Indians - ten in number - coming toward us, and when near them we saw that they were Arapahoes, and Gray Eagle, the chief, was with them. Uncle Kit being well acquainted, all shook hands, and the chief insisted on our going to their camp and staying all night with them. Uncle Kit, knowing the nature of the Indians, and knowing that Gray Eagle would take it as an insult if we should refuse to visit him, turned about and went home with him. He sent two of his men ahead to the village, and we were met by about five hundred warriors with all the women and children of the village. Just at the outer edge of the village we were honored with what they considered a great reception. Gray Eagle took us to his own wickiup, his men taking charge of our horses and packs. I had learned to speak the Arapahoe language fairly well and could understand anything they said. When supper time came. Gray Eagle came to Uncle Kit and said: 'I have a great feast for you ; my men have killed a very fat dog; supper is ready; come in and eat.'

"I remarked to Uncle Kit as we were going to supper, that I was very glad we came with Gray Eagle, for it had been a long time since I had had a good meal of dog. Supper being over, the chief got his pipe and selected six men from his tribe and we had a peace smoke, and he and Uncle Kit talked nearly all night. During their conversation that night he said that Mountain Phil was a very bad man, and that he would often steal their horses and sell them to the Comanches.

"It might be of interest to our readers to know how this stream acquired its name. There was a Frenchman by the name of Virees Robidoux camped on the stream spoken of, with a little squad of men ; they were attacked by a band of Indians, and the first word uttered by Robidoux was 'Cache la Poudre,' which means, in English, 'hide the powder,' and from that time on the stream has been so called.

"We arrived at our proposed trapping field and, after looking over the country, we found plenty of beaver signs along the streams and game in abundance, and Uncle Kit decided there was room enough for four camps. We returned by the way of Bent's fort, as Uncle Kit wished to employ the best men he could get to trap for him the coming winter. On our way to the fort, which was four hundred miles from the proposed trapping ground. Uncle Kit told me that he would have to leave me in charge the coming winter, as he was going to the City of Mexico on business, but said that he would come out and get the camps established and return to Taos with the horses before going there.

"We found plenty of men at Bent's fort, and, as usual, they were all broke, having squandered the money earned the winter before for whiskey and in card playing. Uncle Kit had no trouble in getting all the men he wanted, but had to furnish them with traps and provisions - which took considerable money - he to have half the furs caught by each of them. Everything being understood, we returned to Taos, the men agreeing to meet us there two weeks later. They were all on hand at the appointed time, but there being a large party to outfit, it took some weeks to make preparations for the trip, there being eleven in the crowd. It was about the last of October when we arrived at the trapping ground ready to begin work.

"We had good success trapping that winter, until about the first of January, when we had an unusually heavy fall of snow in the mountains, which drove all the game to the low lands, nothing being left that was fit for m.eat except a few mountain sheep, and the snow made it very inconvenient getting around to attend the traps. In the latter part of February I asked Charlie Jones one day to go down to Mountain Phil's camp and see if there was anything that he wanted, as we had kept all the extra supplies at our camp. Mountain Phil and his Klooch - that being the name he called his squaw, which is alfo the Arapahoe name for wife - were staying alone about ten miles further down the country from where we were located. On Charlie Jones' return, he said : 'It seems that Mountain Phil has been faring better than any of us, for he has been able to kill his meat at camp, thereby saving him the trouble of having to go out and hunt for it.' Johnnie and I did not understand what he meant by this. So, after hesitating a moment, Jones said : 'Boys, if I should tell you what I know about Mountain Phil, you would not believe it, but as sure as you live he has killed his squaw and eaten most of her, and he has left his camp.'

"We insisted that he must be mistaken, but he declared that he was not, saying he had seen the bones in the cabin, and further investigation developed the fact that he had beyond any doubt killed and eaten his Indian wife. From that time on, "Mountain Phil went by the name of the American Cannibal until his death, which was - if my memory serves me right - in 1863 or 1864, at Virginia City, Montana.

"It was in the month of April that Uncle Kit came in with a pack train for the furs, the snowfall having been so heavy that he could not get in earlier. Our catch had been light, as we had more snow that winter than has been known before or since in the history of that country. Uncle Kit was, however, very well satisfied with our work, with the exception of Mountain Phil, whom he had furnished for the winter, and who had not caught a beaver. We soon had our traps and furs together, loaded up and were on our way to New Mexico. The third day about noon we reached the Cache la Poudre crossing, where we again ran on to the American Cannibal. We stopped here to let our horses feed and partake of refreshments ourselves. Uncle Kit, after giving Mountain Phil a lecture for his past conduct, said : 'Phil, if ever you and I are out together in the mountains and run short of provisions, I will shoot you down as I would a wolf, before you get hungry.' Phil asked him why he would do so, and Carson replied: 'Because I wouldn't take the chance of being killed and eaten up by a cannibal like you.'

"It might be well to give a brief description of this cannibal. He was a large, raw-boned man, who would weigh about two hundred and fifty pounds, though he was not fleshy. He always wore his hair long and never combed it, also wore his beard long and never sheared or combed that. His hair grew down on his forehead almost to his eyes. In fact, he looked more like an animal than a human being.

"Three days' travel brought us to South Platte, where we crossed the river and made camp on a little stream called Sand creek. From here we proceeded on our way to Santa Fe, which took us twelve days. Furs being still higher this year, notwithstanding our small catch. Uncle Kit did fairly well out of his winter trapping on the Cache la Poudre." Crossing the Plains in the Early Sixties

The following description of a trip across the Plains in 1862 was read by Mrs. Walter D. W. Taft at the annual banquet of the Fort Collins' Pioneer Association in 1910:

"Railroad and steamboat travel ended at the Missouri river points - chiefly St. Joseph, Mo. ; Fort Leavenworth and Atchison, Kan., and at Council Bluffs and Omaha, farther north.

"From these points the travelers going to 'Pike's Peak' were obliged to depend upon vehicles of some sort for their further progress. There were three ways to choose from - by stage coach, ox team and horse or mule team. The stages were Concord coaches, hung on thoroughbraces, which were two huge straps made of leather and fixed to a framework, one on each side upon which the body of the coach was fastened. By them all jolting was prevented and in going over rough places gave a rocking motion - ^which made folks who were inclined that way thoroughly seasick - but for most people was an easy and pleasant motion.

"The time was six days from Atchison to Denver - about seven hundred miles - traveling day and night. They carried the mail. On the inside was room for nine passengers. The fare was $75 to Denver until the Indian troubles began, then it was $175. The baggage limit was twenty-five pounds, besides which the traveler, for his own comfort, took a pair of blankets or a buffalo robe and a supply of good things to eat (and sometimes to drink).

"The coaches were drawn by four horses which were changed every ten or twelve miles at 'swing stations.' They stopped at the 'home stations' for meals, which cost $1.50. The menu was decided upon by the stage company and consisted of bread, meat, beans, dried apples, coffee and the 'four seasons.' Sometimes there were potatoes and, as I remember, canned milk, though I am not sure. I know they did not always have fresh milk. The quality of the meal depended upon the cook. A good cook's reputation as such was known for miles. Our Mrs. Taylor was famous far up and down the line for her neat and attractive diningroom and her excellent table, at which was served various kinds of bread, coffee made to perfection and the variety of things she knew what to do with beans and dried apples.

"There were three seats in the coaches and room for three people on each seat. Lucky, indeed, was the passenger who secured a corner on the back seat. If one did not mind riding backwards, the next most desirable places were the two corners on the front seat. The use of the middle seat was optional, unless there were more than six passengers aboard. The back of this seat was a broad strap of very thick leather and could be removed. It was a case of first come, first served ; the seat you engaged was yours, and woe betide the poor mortal who must take the middle of the middle seat and stay there sitting bolt upright for six days and nights? At best it was a hard ride and was used by nabobs and business men who were pressed for time.

"Of the other two modes of crossing the Plains, each had its advantages. Mere travelers, those who were not interested in freighting, only wanted to cross, took passage in a mule or horse train, as better time could be made. It generally took thirty days to come from St. Joseph, Mo., to Denver, for coming west the wagons were loaded. You paid any price you could agree upon with the owner, from $30 up, and during the Indian troubles as high as $85, including board. Families moving out West came with their own wagons, driving the kind of team that suited them best. Travel by ox team was slower but cheaper ; they could live upon grass. Horses must have grain, which was expensive to buy, and when carried lessened the amount of freight. Six weeks was the time necessary for an ox team to make the trip. They traveled about two miles an hour, and were used by heavy freighters, as they could haul more cheaply.

"At first, until the Indian troubles began in '64, all wagons were driven independently. After that all wagons were stopped by the U. S. military at Fort Kearney coming west, and at Camp Wardwell (now Fort Morgan) going east, until there was a number of armed men considered sufficient for their own protection ; then they were allowed to proceed. At first a dozen men were considered enough, but later the number was increased to fifty and more until after a while the people grew afraid and liked to travel in large companies. I have knowrn of two such companies meeting, one coming west and the other going east, that were an hour and a half in passing. These companies were composed of several trains, as the wagons belonging to one freighter were called, and many single wagons; each train had a wagon boss, and from among the wagon bosses one was chosen to be a sort of captain of the entire company.

"It was interesting when the day's drive was ended to see such a company go into camp. Each train pulled out of line and went to the place chosen by the boss to corral. The single wagons were appointed places with them by the captain. Each wagon boss stood in the center of his selected ground and motioned his drivers into place until a ring was formed of wagons with only a narrow opening in one place. The horses and mules after being watered were tied to the wheels on the inside of the ring. The oxen were turned out to grass. Camp fires were built in the center; some got supper, others made the beds while the teams were being taken care of. The drivers of the ox teams took turns in night herding their cattle.

"After supper was a time for social enjoyment around the camp-fire. Such a journey was by no means lacking in pleasure. You saw all sorts of people. Every woman was shown the respect due a queen; a girl received homage fit for a goddess - anything was hers for the accepting. I know, for I was there.

"The air was clear, the stars shone brighter than I ever saw them any other place. The road was a broad, beautiful driveway, a hundred feet or more in width; for miles it was level as a house floor. Traveling by wagon was far pleasanter than traveling by coach. You knew j'ou were to be a long time on the road and you soon ceased to be in any hurry; you were at home whenever night come.

Mr. and Mrs. John G. Coy crossed the Plains in 1862, arriving at their present home, three-quarters of a mile east of Fort Collins, in August of that year. They were married just before starting for the West and this was their wedding trip. In the following story of their trip, its incidents and happenings, read at the annual banquet of the Fort Collins' Pioneer Association on Feb. 4th, 1909, Mrs.

"We started from Cuba, Missouri, bound for California, the 23rd day of May, 1862, with three yoke of oxen and a horse. Some of the oxen were young and not well broken, so the first thing we had to learn was how to catch and yoke them. When we camped, they were turned out to graze and when we wanted them we found they would not let us go up to them to put on the yoke, so we took a long rope, tied one end to the wagon wheel or a tree and made a slip noose in the other and laid it on the ground with some corn in the loop. When an ox came up to get the corn one of us gave the rope a quick pull and caught him by the foot; he was then tied to the wagon while we put on the yoke; there was often a good deal of difficulty in getting the two oxen beside each other to yoke them together, but in time they learned what was expected of them and we had no more trouble. We made about eight miles the first day, when we camped near a small stream and turned the oxen out to graze, built our camp-fire and got our first meal.

"We traveled along for several days without anything unusual happening until just before we reached the Kansas line. One afternoon we were crossing, or trying to cross, a muddy stream, the bridge having been burned, when the oxen in the lead refused to pull and turned around, while the wagon kept settling in the mud until they could not pull it out; so there we were. After a while a man came along on horseback and began inquiring about the war and about the soldiers. Mr. Coy was very much worried and tired and I think not in a very good humor and did not answer him very politely, so when he started away he said we should hear from him again. We were still sticking in the mud when some of Uncle Sam's soldiers came along and helped us out, and we went on our way rejoicing. However, we had only gone about two or three miles when two men came out of the bushes and halted us and said, 'The captain sent us after that gun.' We had a small shotgun hanging in front of the wagon inside the bows. Mr. Coy said, 'That is nothing but a little shotgun.' The man said, 'Let me see it,' and there was nothing to do but to give it to him; then he said, 'Hand out that revolver.' When we told him we hadn't one, he said, 'I will search the wagon and if I find one, I will kill you.' He began pulling over things in the wagon, when his companion, who had not gotten off his horse, said: 'Come along! I don't think they have one,' so they rode ofif. By the way, the one who did the talking was the man who had called on us when we were in the mud and we suspected they were afraid the soldiers were coming. We went a few miles further and camped near a house ; there were a good many people around there and some of them seemed to be stirring all night ; we did not sleep much and the next day we got over into Kansas and I thought we were much safer. We frequently heard of the guerillas or bushwhackers killing someone near where we were camped, but none of them ever molested us.

"The weather was warm and we made better time. When we came to a place where we could get wood we put some in the wagon under the bed. We did not need much except when we baked bread. I used to start the bread at noon and cover it over closely and by camping time it would be ready to put in the Dutch oven. It was made with the home-made yeast cakes and was always good. Soon after coming into Kansas we passed a farm where we traded the horse and saddle for two cows. We had been traveling alone, expecting to overtake a wagon train which had left about a week ahead of us. After leaving Atchison we made about twentyfive miles a day and expected to overtake the train in about two days more. We reached Kearney one evening after dark and made camp for the night; the cattle were very tired and all lay down by the wagon. In the morning, three oxen and a cow were gone. Mr. Coy went out to hunt for them and I stayed by the wagon all that day and night. At noon the next day, Mr. Coy came back without having seen anything of the missing stock. We yoked up the three oxen and one cow that were left and went back two or three miles and camped beside the river. We spent ten days looking for the lost cattle, but neither saw nor heard anything of them. While waiting here I saw many west-bound travelers pass by, among them a family which had several wagons and were taking all their household effects to Central City, Colorado, to start a dairy. The wagon in which the mother and children rode was drawn by fourteen cows, this being the easiest way to get the cows across the Plains.

"Having lost half of our teams and being delayed so long we concluded that it was too late to go on to California and decided to go to Denver and spend the winter. We were obliged to make our milch cow do the work of one ox. When we reached Cottonwood we found four parties camped there. I recognized them as some of the people who had passed while I was waiting by the river. Having been delayed so long that it was impossible to overtake the people we had hoped to, we were delighted to fall in with this party. In one wagon were Mr. Andrew Ames, his mother and two sisters; Mr. Sidney Stone and Miss Fritz. In the second were Mr. Platte, Joshua and Orvand Ames and Mr. Lon Rhodes, while Mr. Crane and family made up the third party and the two Snodderly brothers the fourth. Mr. Andrew Ames had been in Colorado and started a home and was now bringing his mother and sisters out. Miss Fritz, who had been finishing her schooling in South Bend, Indiana, was coming to join her family, who were already located here. We all stayed at Cottonwood a few days and while the men went out and gathered wood to take along, the women all did their family washings. The weather was very warm by this time so we started early in the morning and took long noonings, stopping about sundown in the evening. It was usually dark before we got our suppers and many a mosquito lost his life by falling into our frying pans.

"When we reached Fremont's Orchard the sand was so deep it was necessary to double up the teams and take part of the loads across, then go back and get the rest. We got up before daylight and started at once so that we could get over the sand before the sun got too hot. The women all walked and everybody was nearly famished before we got our breakfast at ten or eleven o'clock.

"We crossed the Platte at Latham, below where Greeley now is. Here we again had to double up the teams to pull through. The water was so deep it came into the wagon boxes; the bedding was all piled into one wagon which was higher than the others, and everything that water would hurt was put up on boxes. The women climbed upon boxes and bedding and rode across, but the men had to wade waist deep through the water to guide the oxen and keep them straight. Without crossing the river, Mr. Crane and family went on to Denver, but having been persuaded to come on with the Ames family and spend the winter here, we came on up the river with the rest of the train and came to the Cache la Poudre about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. We made our last night's camp on a high bluff near the present site of Greeley. Looking down from this bank we could see the water of the Poudre as clear as crystal. Helen Ames, who was a young girl at that time, was very much disappointed because she could not see any trout in the water.

about four o'clock in the afternoon on the first day of August. This was on Saturday and we all camped near the house. On Monday we moved into a little log cabin which stood across the road, but which we afterward moved onto the land which we took up.

"Taken all together, we had a good time crossing the Plains and with the exception of the scare given us by the bushwhacker and the loss of our teams, we had no trouble on the way. We passed two or three camps of Indians, but they were all peaceable and we were never molested by them."

In May, 1865, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the National House of Representatives, who was elected Vice-President in 1868 on the ticket with General Grant, Lieutenant Governor Bross of Illinois and senior editor of the Chicago Tribune, Samuel Bowles, the talented editor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and Albert D. Richardson of the New York Tribune, left Atchison, Kansas, in Ben HoUoday's Overland stage for a trip across the continent. Their route took them from Atchison to Julesburg, thence up the South Platte to Denver, where, in the mining regions to the west of that city, they remained several days, investigating the mining possibilities of Colorado. From there they journeyed north, crossing the Big Thompson at Washburn's station, thence across the country to the Sherwood Ranch on the Cache la Poudre and from there up the river to Laporte, where the stream was forded, and then on north to Park Station, which was then the gateway to the mountains on this route. In a series of interesting letters to his newspaper, Mr. Bowles graphically describes the experiences of the party on the trip, and these letters were afterwards published in book form under the caption of "Across the Continent." In one of these letters Mr. Bowles tells how the emigrants and freighters traveled across the Plains; of the perils that beset them on all sides, and the hardships they endured on that long, wearisome journey of 600 miles from the Missouri river to the mountains. It must be remembered that this was six years after the great stream of travel set in from the East to the Pike's Peak region, but the description vividly illustrates the methods employed in making the journey from the earliest date, in striking contrast with the experiences of the westward traveler after the railroads were built. He says:

"One great feature in the constant landscape was the long trains of wagons and carts with their teams of mules and oxen, passing to and fro on the road, going in empty, coming out laden with corn for man and beast; with machinery for the mining regions, with clothing, food and luxuries for the accumulating population of Colorado, Utah and Montana, and all intermediate settlements. The wagons were covered with white cloth, each drawn by four or six pairs of mules or oxen, and the trains of them stretched frequently from one-quarter to one-third of a mile each. As they wound along in the distance, they reminded me of the caravans described in the Bible and other ancient books. Turned out of the road on the green prairie for afternoon rest or night's repose, the wagons drawn around in a circle, as a barricade against Indians, or protection against storm, and the animals turned loose to feed and wander over the surrounding prairie for a mile - like cattle upon a thousand hills ; at night their camp fires burning; - in any portion or under any aspect, they presented a picture most unique and impressive, indeed, summoning many a memory of Oriental methods. The mule trains made from fifteen to twenty miles a day; and the oxen about twelve or fifteen. They depended entirely upon the grass of the Plains for food as they went along; and indeed the animals grew stronger and fatter as they moved on in their campaigns of work, coming out of their winter rest poor and scrawny and going back into it in the fall fat and hearty."

It was thus, that before the Union Pacific railroad was built, all emigrants and merchandise moved from the East into the great new West, and it was thus the pioneers, who first settled in valleys of Larimer county, covered the long, dreary stretches of the trackless Plains in search of homes in the wilderness.

In 1868, Mr. Bowles, editor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, again accompanied by Hon. Schuyler Colfax and Hon. William Bross, Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, made a second trip across the continent to the Pacific coast, this time by rail from Omaha to Cheyenne, over the just completed Union Pacific railroad to the latter point, thence by stage to Denver, passing through Laporte, Fort Collins and the Big Thompson valley, en route. From Denver the party, augmented by the addition of Governor A. C. Hunt and Dr. W. R. Thomas, then an attache of the Rocky Mountain News, but now the popular and well-equipped Professor of History and Irrigation Law at the Colorado State Agricultural College, made the circuit of Middle and South parks, traveled on horseback with pack animals, and camped out much of the time where night overtook them. They visited Golden, Black Hawk, Central City, Nevada, Idaho Springs, Georgetown, in the valley of Clear creek, and various other mining camps in Colorado, interesting mention being made of each in Mr. Bowles' book "Our New West," published in 1869. On this trip Mr. Bowles made a careful survey of the agricultural possibilities of Colorado, and predicted a great future for the farming and stock growing industries of the State, which time has since fully justified. In summing up his observation on these points he said :

"But inexhaustible as is Colorado's mineral wealth, progressive as henceforth its development, predominating and extensive as its mountains; high even as are its valleys and plains, in spite of all seeming possibilities and rivalries, agriculture is already and is destined always to be its dominant interest. Hence my faith in its prosperity and its influence among the central states of the continent. For agriculture is the basis of wealth, of culture, of morality; it is the conservative element of all national and political and social growth. Full onethird of the territorial extent of Colorado, though this third average as high as Mount Washington, is fit, more, rich for agricultural purposes. The grains, the vegetables and fruits of the temperate zone grow and ripen in profusion, and through most of it, cattle, horses and sheep live and fatten the year around without housing or feeding."

After speaking of the need of irrigation to get the best results, he gives a rough estimate of the agricultural wealth of Colorado for 1867 as follows: "A million bushels of corn, half a million of wheat, half a million of barley, oats and vegetables, fifty thousand head of cattle and seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand sheep. The increase in 1868 was at least fifty per cent; in the northern counties at least one hundred. Indeed, the agriculture of the northern counties, between Cheyenne and Denver, which has grown to be full half of that of the state, is the development almost entirely of the last three years. The soil yields wonderfully, north and south. * * * But hardly a beginning has been made in the occupation of the arable lands of the valleys and plains. The Cache la Poudre, the first branch of the Platte below

Cheyenne, has two hundred thousand acres of tillable land, only five thousand of which are as yet cultivated. Its oat crop in 1868 averaged fortyeight and one-half bushels to the acre, and its cows paid for themselves in butter in that single year."

The figures included in Mr. Bowles' estimate of the agricultural productions of Colorado in 1867, were furnished by Dr. W. R. Thomas, who had very carefully compiled them from results of his own personal observation while covering the Territory as the traveling correspondent of the Rocky Mountain News.

That Mr. Bowles possessed the spirit of prophecy when he predicted in 1867 that agriculture in Colorado is destined to be the dominant interest is shown by comparing the figures he gives of the agricultural products of the entire Territory for that year, with the products of the farms and orchards of Larimer, one of the northern counties alluded to, in 1909, forty-two years later, as compiled by the Fort Collins Courier. They were: Wheat 575,000 bushels, oats 325,000, barley 255,000, sugar beets 350,000 tons. Value of fruit crop $300,q0,0, value of alfalfa crop $200,000; the total value of all crops, including native hay, onions, potatoes and other vegetables, being $3,500,000. As additional evidence of the growth and prosperity of the county, it may here be stated that its population has increased from about 500 in 1867 to nearly, if not quite, 25,000 in 1909, and that its banks, on January 1st, 1910, held deposits aggregating a total of $3,448,965.58.

In the fall of 1866 a party of Union Pacific engineers, accompanied by directors of the Union Pacific Railroad company, visited Colorado for the purpose of examining the different routes which had been proposed for the road through the passes of the Rocky Mountains. Col. Silas Seymour, consulting engineer, was a member of the party, and in a very interesting little volume, entitled "Incidents of a Trip Through the Great Platte Valley to the Rocky Mountains and Laramie Plains," published by him in 1867, we find a good deal of local interest. After examining Berthoud and Boulder passes, the party left Denver on the afternoon of September 22, by Holloday's Overland stage to conduct further explorations in the Black Hills north and west of Laporte. Concerning this trip. Colonel Seymour says:

"We reached Laporte, a distance of sixty-seven miles by stage road from Denver, at daybreak on Sunday morning, and found most comfortable quarters at the stage station kept by Mf. W. S. Taylor, and were joined in the evening by General G. W. Dodge, chief engineer, and Mr. James A. Evans, division engineer of the Union Pacific railroad.

"We are now about to enter in real earnest upon the rough and adventurous features of our excursion. General Dodge commenced our education by intimating in the most gentle manner that we would be expected to feed, water and clean our saddle-horse during the trip. Our host at the station also informed us that he had no sleeping accommodations for us, and that we had better look around for lodgings.

"In view of such an emergency, Mr. Williams and myself had fortunately provided ourselves with plenty of buffalo skins, blankets and pouches. We therefore intimated to the landlord that one of us would occupy the lounge in the corner of the dining-room, and the other would sleep on the floor near the stove. Upon this, the cook, a buxom middle-aged woman, with a sucking child, called out from the kitchen, in not very gentle tones, that "that lounge was her bed." Mr. Chamberlin, an enterprising merchant in the vicinity, here came to our relief and kindly offered us the use of the floor in the back room of his log store, which we were glad to accept.

"The following day we spent in making preparations for our intended reconnaissance on horseback of the Black Hills and Laramie Plains. An easygoing black saddle-horse was procured of Mr. Chamberlin for the use of Mr. Williams. A chestnut mare, procured by General Dodge from Fort Collins, was allotted to me. He had previously selected a fine roan from the same place for himself, and Mr. Evans adhered to a large black mule which he had been riding for some days previously. He very kindly offered this mule to Mr. Evans, with the quiet remark, however, that he was apt to buck once in a while, which meant, as he afterwards explained, that he would occasionally stick his head down between his forelegs, kick up behind and throw his rider off over his head. Mr. Williams, who had some experience with mules on our trip to Berthoud pass, very promptly declined the offer.

"On Tuesday morning, September 25th, our party, consisting of Mr. Williams, General Dodge, Mr. Evans and myself, started from Laporte, fully mounted and equipped as cavalry, and armed to the teeth with breech-loading carbines dangling from our saddles, and revolvers buckled around our waists, accompanied by a supply wagon in charge of Mr. McLain, one of Mr. Evans' assistants, in which were our bedding and such supplies as we would likely want on our trip. Our course lay up the valley of the Cache la Poudre a few miles, and then we turned more northerly and followed up the valley of one of its tributaries, which again led us into the valleys of the Pitchfork, Stonewall, Poison and Dale creeks. To the right of us, toward the Plains, were what time had suffered to remain of the rough, jagged crests of the secondary formations as they had rested from the great upheaval of their portion of the earth's surface, when, during some former age. Old Vulcan had undoubtedly fallen asleep and allowed the subterranean fire, which he used in forging those immense iron wedges and other machinery with which he keeps the Universe in equilibrium, to attain too great a degree of heat.

"To the left of us were the higher and more imperishable debris of these same formations, blanked in the distance by the snow-clad summits of the primeval rocks, which have for so many centuries withstood the combined attacks of time and the elements. The objects of more immediate interest, however, were the Stonewall canon with its perpendicular walls of rock several hundred feet in height, and the Steamboat Buttes, which from a distance presents to view all the characteristics of a steamboat, with upper cabins, chimney, pilot-house, etc., the passer-by pausing unconsciously to hear the bell ring and the familiar cry of 'all aboard' before it shall start away.

"Our wagon, having followed the traveled road which we were compelled in a great measure to avoid, had obtained some distance the start of us, and we did not overtake it until about 2 :00 P. M. Having been in the saddle at least six consecutive hours, we were very glad to dismount, and, after unsaddling, watering and picketing our horses and extending ourselves upon the grass in the shade of the wagon, partook of a lunch which our commissary had made ready for us, after which a ride of three hours brought us to Virginia Dale, one of the stations of the Overland Stage Company."

Our explorers passed the first night out from Laporte at Virginia Dale, which Colonel Seymour describes as "a most beautiful amphitheatre, surrounded by mountains, with Dale creek running through the center, and is near the boundary line between Colorado and Dakota." The next day they followed up Dale creek to Antelope pass, where they obtained the first view of Laramie plains, "extending as far to the Northward as the eye could reach, bounded on the east by the Black Hills and on the west by the much higher range of the Medicine Bow Mountains, which form the easterly side of the North Park." That night was spent at Fort Saunders, built to take the place of Fort Halleck and Camp Collins. On Friday, September 28th, the party started eastward, diverging near Willow Springs station in a more northerly direction, crossing the Black Hills at Evans' pass, and going into camp for the night on Dale creek. The next night they camped on Lone Tree creek, and on Sunday afternoon they went into camp on Boxelder creek near what is now known as the Bristol ranch after a lunch in the middle of the day at Jack Springs. On Monday, the 30th, they reached Laporte, where they spent the night, Mrs. Taylor serving them an excellent supper of antelope steak and other fixings. On the evening of October 1st, Colonel Seymour and Mr. Williams took the stage for Denver, going thence east in the Overland stage to Fort Kearney, where they boarded a special train on the Union Pacific railroad for Omaha. As a result of his observations on this trip, Mr. Williams, who seems to have been imbued with prophecy, declared:

"First - That the great Platte valley, extending as it does, in a direct line eastward, nearly 600 miles from the base of the Rocky Mountains to the

"Second - That the Platte river itself was intended, in the first instance, to supply water to the early pioneers and emigrants in their pilgrimage to and from the Rocky Mountains; and subsequently to afford the means for irrigating the immense plains along its borders, and thus render it eventually one of the finest pastoral and agricultural regions upon the continent, and

"Third- - The perpetual snows upon the mountains were intended to furnish an unfailing supply of water to all the mountain streams which flow into the Platte, and, thus during all time, afford the means of irrigation to the extensive table-lands along the eastern base of the mountains."

Mr. Williams' predictions have been fulfilled. The valley of the South Platte and its tributaries from Julesburg to the base of the mountains are now thickly settled by intelligent, industrious and prosperous communities, and, several large and thrifty cities may be found where only the prairie dog and sneaking coyote held dominion when Mr. Williams traveled in the Overland stage from Denver to Fort Kearney. What Captain Long declared in the report of his exploration in 1819-20, "a barren region unfit for the habitation of civilized man," is now teeming with the life and activity of large and prosperous communities that have grown up through the magic of irrigation and the application of the life-giving waters of the streams that flow down from the snow-tipped summits of the mountains ; through irrigation and the genius and enterprise of man, the Great American desert has been made to "bloom like the rose," and those portions of it that can be brought under cultivation through the wise application of water, are today acknowledged to be the most productive sections of the country.

ized during the summer months by tourists from the Eastern states. The scenic attractions of the county and its charming summer resorts, with their hunting and fishing privileges, magnificent mountain views, so easily accessible, are yearly attracting more and more attention. Indeed, Larimer county, as a whole, for utility, beauty and for grandeur, picturesqueness and variety of attractions is not surpassed in the Rocky Mountain region. Splendid crops of grain, potatoes, fruit, alfalfa and native hay are produced in the valleys, glades and parks of the foothills, mountain potatoes being especially noted for their superior excellence over those grown on the Plains.

There are approximately 400 square miles, or about 256,000 acres, of plain land lying between the hogbacks, as they are called, and the east line of the county, and it was in the valleys of the streams crossing these lands from west to east that the principal settlements were first made and also where the first attempts were made at farming in Northern Colorado. The thrifty towns of Fort

Collins, Loveland, Berthoud, Wellington and Timnath are located on these lands and agriculture has reached its highest stage of development in their vicinity. This narrow strip of plain land now contains and supports a population of about 24,000 people and the population of the entire county is 25,270.

In 1880-81, prospectors discovered a number of rich silver-bearing leads on the northern slope of the Rabbit Ear range of mountains, in the southeastern corner of North Park, then a part of Larimer county, and these discoveries being made known soon attracted wide attention. Hundreds rushed in to secure claims and a bustling mining camp was established which was named Teller, in honor of United States Senator- H. M. Teller. A daily mail by a line of stages, operated by S. B. Stewart, was established from Fort Collins to Teller in 1881, the route passing through Livermore, Rustic, Chambers Lake and thence over Cameron pass into the camp. The town grew rapidly, like all mining camps, and in the latter part of 1881 had a population estimated as from 1,200 to 1,500 souls. Stores and a hotel were opened, a newspaper called the Teller Miner was established, and active development work in the mines was started. A daily stage was also put on between Laramie City, Wyo., and Teller, and conditions at that time looked very promising. Some two or three years before this, however, the rich pasture lands of North Park had attracted the attention of stockmen, and several thousand head of cattle were driven into the park in 1878-79, and a able property. That year a controversy arose between the counties of Grand and Larimer over the jurisdiction of the park, both claiming it and each contending for the right to assess and collect taxes from the property holders. The controversy arose over the construction of the act of the Territorial Legislature creating Larimer county, the latter claiming that, according to the boundaries established by the act, its jurisdiction extended to the summit of the Snowy range, or the Continental Divide. Grand county, on the other hand, contended that the western boundary line of Larimer county rested upon the summit of the Medicine Bow range, a spur of the main range. The Commissioners of Larimer county refused to accept this construction of the act, and the dispute finally got into the courts when Grand county sought to enjoin the Commissioners of Larimer county from exercising any jurisdiction over North Park.

The hearing on the application for the writ of injunction was had in the district court of Summit county before Judge Luther M. Goddard, later a Justice of the Supreme court, and the writ denied. Grand county appealed to the Supreme court which, in 1886, affirmed the decision of the lower court, thus putting an end to a dispute that had caused a great deal of ill-feeling. The opinion of the Supreme court was written by S. H. Elbert and clearly established the western boundary of Larimer county on the summit of the Snowy range, or Continental Divide, and also the county's right to exercise full jurisdiction over North Park.

Messrs. Haynes, Dunning & Annis of Fort Collins represented Larimer county, and Messrs. W. I. Hughes and Hugh Butler of Denver appeared for Grand county.

The principal water courses of the county are the Cache la Poudre and the Big Thompson rivers and the Little Thompson creek. The two first named have their sources high up among the mountain ranges which form the western boundary of the county, the last named among the high hills separating Estes Park from the Plains and discharges its waters into the Big Thompson river a few miles above the latter's junction with the South Platte. The Big Thompson heads in Estes Park among the snow-capped peaks of the Continental Divide, flows an easterly course through the park and empties into the Platte a short distance southwest of Evans. The Cache la Poudre heads in Chambers lake, situated at an elevation of more than 9,000 feet above sea level. The lake is fed by several small streams which head on the eastern slope of the Medicine Bow range. From the lake the stream pursues a zigzag course through deep, dark canons whose granite walls often rear their heads 1,500 feet above the bed of the stream, finally debouching on to the Plains about four miles west of Laporte. From this point the stream flows a southeasterly course and empties into the Platte a few miles east of Greeley. Among the principal tributaries are the Big and Little South forks, which come into the main stream high up in the mountains from the southwest; the North fork, which flows down from the northwest and discharges its waters into the main stream about fifteen miles above the city of Fort Collins; the Boxelder creek, which heads up near the Wyoming line, flows a southeasterly course and empties into the Poudre about five miles southeast of Fort Collins. The principal tributaries of the Big Thompson are Fall river, which joins the main stream in Estes Park; the North fork and the Buckhorn. It is from these main streams, after they reach the Plains, that water is drawn through an extensive system of canals and ditches for use in irrigating the cultivated fields and meadows of the farmers. In the mountains the water of the strearns flows with great velocity over rocks and ledges and are exceedingly turbulent in flood times. After they reach the Plains, vvhere -the fall of the country is less, they take on a tamer mood and flow over pebbly bottoms in a quiet and orderly manner. They are all beautiful mountain streams, carrying clear, cool water, and are well stocked with trout. The Laramie river rises in the Medicine Bow Mountains a short distance northwest of Chambers lake, flows a northerly course into Wyoming and empties into the North Platte a few miles below Fort Laramie. At some time in the distant past the head waters of the Cache la Poudre flowed into the Laramie, but some convulsion of Nature filled the channel and turned the stream into a deep depression known as Chambers lake. From this lake the water forced its way through the hills in an easterly direction and formed the Cache la Poudre river. The origin of the names of these streams will be given elsewhere in this volume.

Larimer county was named in honor of General William Larimer, one of the early settlers of Denver, whose name and memory are intimately associated with the early history of Colorado. General Larimer was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, October 9th, 1809. On reaching manhood he became prominently identified with business affairs in and near Pittsburg, engaged in banking.

and was the projector and President of the Pittsburg & Connellsville railroad, now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. After the panic of 1857 he located in Nebraska, and later at Leavenworth, Kansas. He came to Colorado in November, 1858, as one of the famous "Leavenworth Men," who founded Denver City on the eastward side of Cherry creek, as a rival to "Auraria" on the westward side. He was Treasurer of the town company, and a leader among Denver's pioneers. There was a strong sentiment in the Territory in favor of having him appointed the first Governor of Colorado, which was reinforced by several men prominent in Washington, but it was unable to overcome the influence that favored the appoint- ment of Gilpin. General Larimer bore an active part in securing men for the Colorado Union regiments at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was appointed Colonel of the Third Colorado, but as that embryo organization was merged into the Second Colorado, his commission did not take him into active service. General Larimer went back to Eastern Kansas in 1864, located on a farm near Leavenworth, where he died, May 16, 1875. During his residence in Colorado he was one of the most popular men of pioneer time. In addition to having one of the counties of the Territory named for him, one of the principal business streets of Denver was also given his name. A portrait of General Larimer appears in this volume.

Larimer county was a part of Louisiana province, which the United States purchased of France in 1803 for $15,000,000. Among the first visitors to Louisiana were the Spanish men-at-arms of DeSoto's expedition, under Muscogo, who, after the death of their chief, in 1542, descended the Mississippi river in rude ships and went out to sea. In 1682 the brave Sieur de La Salle floated down the great river from the Illinois river to the Gulf, and took possession of the country in the name of France, erecting pillars on the banks of the Mississippi to show that it was French territory. In 1699 another expedition was sent from France to Louisiana under Iberville. The first settlement in Louisiana was made by Iberville, seventy miles up the Mississippi, in 1700, as a military colony, to prevent the English from ascending the river. Louisana was given to Antoine Crozat in 1712, with exclusive control from Canada to the Gulf. Six years later, Crozat relinquished this vast but unprofitable empire, and it passed into the possession of the Western Company, organized by John Law. In 1764 the Louisianans were notified that their country had been ceded to Spain and the next year Antonio de Ulloa arrived to become Governor. The people were opposed to Spanish rule, and finally taking possession of New Orleans, they sent Ulloa away on an outbound ship, and established a government of their own, sending delegates to France to ask the King to again occupy Louisiana. Their requests being refused, the insurgents contemplated the establishment of a republic; but in 1769 Don Alexander O'Reiley arrived as the Spanish Governor, with 2,600 troops and fifty guns. The rebellion was suppressed, and its leaders were shot on the Plaza de Armas at New Orleans. At that time the province was defined as extending northwest to the source of the Mississippi, and westward to the Pacific ocean. In 1801 the great province was ceded back to France, but the treaty was kept secret. Napoleon intended to send to Louisiana General Victor and 25,000 choice French troops, to firmly establish a New France on the American continent. But the supremacy of Great Britain on the sea rendered this move impossible, and left the country without defense. Unable to garrison the new domain, and fearing that England would sieze it. Napoleon made haste to sell the province to the United States, for $15,000,000.

From the foregoing it will be seen that Larimer county was under the Spanish standard from 1542 to 1682, a period of 140 years. It then passed under French control and was French territory until 1764, when Spain again came into possession of the province and held dominion over it until it was ceded back to France, in 1801. Two years later the country came under the folds of the Stars and Stripes, where, let us hope, it will remain while the world stands. It has been twice under the Spanish flag, twice under the French tri-colors, and now adds brilliancy to the fortieth star in the firmament that graces the American flag.

Larimer county was created and established by an act of the first Territorial Legislature of Colorado, which met in Denver, Sept. 9th, 1861, but it was not organized for judicial purposes until three years later. The first white settlement in the county was made at Laporte, some say about eighty years ago. It is certain that there were white men, Canadian trappers, with Indian wives, living at Laporte in 1828. The late Philip Covington, father of H. C. Covington of Laporte, and M. M. Covington of Seattle, Washington, passed through this country that year with a caravan loaded with supplies for the American Fur Company, then operating on Green river, and remembers seeing French trappers at Laporte. These people were, however, migratory, here today and there tomorrow, their homes being established, temporarily, where there was the best trapping, and no permanent settlement was made until several years afterwards. Antoine Janis, a native of Missouri, born of French parents, is believed to have been the first permanent white settler in all that part of Colorado north of the Arkansas river. He staked out a squatter's claim on the river bottom a short distance west of Laporte in 1844, and resided upon it until 1878, when he moved to Pine Ridge Agency to join the tribe of Indians to which his wife belonged, where he died a few years ago. Years before this time the Cache la Poudre valley had been traversed by caravans transporting goods and supplies for the fur trading posts on Green river, and Mr. Janis' father had often made the trip from St. Louis to Green river as captain of a caravan. On one occasion, in 1836, Antoine, then a boy twelve years of age, accompanied his father, the route followed taking them through this valley, going and coming. It was on this trip that the river was named "Cache la Poudre" from a circumstance, an account of which is related elsewhere in this volume. In February, 1883, the editor of the Fort Collins Courier addressed a letter to Mr. Janis at Pine Ridge Agency, requesting him to furnish the writer for publication such facts and dates relating to the early settlement of the Cache la Poudre valley as he possessed. To this request Mr. Janis replied as follows :

"My Dear Mr. Watrous: In regard to the early history of the Poudre valley, I will say that as one of the party I have in my possession all the facts relating to its first settlement, including names of persons, day and dates. On the first of June, 1844, I stuck my stake on a claim in the valley, intending the location selected for my home should the country ever be settled. At that time the streams were all very high and the valley black with buffalo. As far as the eye could reach, nothing scarcely could be seen but buffalo. I was just returning from Mexico, and I thought the Poudre valley was the loveliest spot on earth, and think so yet.

"The gold fever broke out in 1858. Soon after locating my claim I moved over from Fort Laramie and settled on it. The place is just above Laporte, and is owned by Tobe Miller (Joseph Hammerly is now the owner of the place). One hundred and fifty lodges of Arapahoes moved there with me at the same time. They asked me if I wanted to settle there. I told them I did. Bold Wolf, the chief, then called a council of braves, who finally gave us permission to locate, and donated to us all the land from the foot of the mountains to the mouth of Boxelder creek. The donees were E. Gerry, Nicholas Janis, and myself. In the winter of 1858-9 settlers commenced flocking in.

"A company was formed composed of Nicholas Janis, E. Gerry, Todd Randall, Raymond B. Goodwin, John B. Provost, Oliver Morisette, A. LeBon, Ravofiere and others, which located a town site and called it Colona. We had the site surveyed and mapped out; and built fifty houses.

"I was born in St. Charles, Missouri, March 26, 1824. First came to Colorado in 1844. You ask me all the particulars. It would consume a great deal of time to give to you in full detail, and my health has been such this winter that I dare not undertake the task. Have been away, or I should have answered your kind letter before.

At one time Mr. Janis and his brother Nicholas were employed as scouts and guides in Colorado and Wyoming, and they frequently visited Fort Laramie for supplies and mail. Their names appear often in Coutant's history of Wyoming. Antoine was still a resident of Laporte when I came to Fort Collins in 1877, and he was highly regarded as a man, neighbor and citizen by all the early settlers of the valley.

Fremont had but barely begun his venturesome explorations of passageways through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast ; St. Louis was but a small trading post on the Mississippi; Chicago still in its infancy; only a small portion of the vast region between the Missouri river and the Pacific had been explored and it was practically destitute of the habitations of white men, when Janis located in the Cache la Poudre valley. Lewis and Clark had made their famous journey to the headwaters of the Missouri river, and thence across the mountains to Oregon and return. Lieut. Zebulon Pike had discovered Pike's Peak, and explored a small portion of Colorado, and Maj. Long had crossed the Plains a little more than a score of years before and erected a lasting monument to his memory in the discovery of Long's Peak. The American Fur Company had established trading posts in Western Wyoming and Eastern Idaho, but outside the trails made by these explorers and fortune hunters, little was known of what is now Colorado when Antoine Janis ventured into the Cache la Poudre valley in 1844.

In 1858, fourteen years later, John B. Provost, Francis and Nicholas Janis, Antoine Le Beau, Todd Randall, E. W. Raymond, B. Goodman, Oliver Morrisette and others came down from Fort Laramie with their families, looking for the most promising site for a town. After skirting the hills as far south as Denver, the party returned north to the "river of the hidden powder" and located on its banks a town to be known as Colona. This marks the first community settlement made in Larimer county, and from this nucleus the region has developed into the present populous and prosperous county, dotted with farms, towns and cities. The projectors of the town of Colona recognized that in the Cache la Poudre valley would some day be built up a large and prosperous community.

With the Great Plains extending eastward for hundreds of miles, the mountains to the west covered with valuable timbers, overrun with game and seamed, as they believed, with vast mineral deposits ; the snow-fed streams and a climate unequaled in the north temperate zone, these hardy men decided to build themselves homes and await the rolling in of a tide of immigrants that would result in the upbuilding of a country that would "blossom as the rose" and grow rich and powerful. They believed that a great city would some day grow up at the northern gateway to the mountains, located as Colona was on the great Overland route from Santa Fe to Salt Lake and the regions north and west of that city. But the great mineral discoveries south and jyest of Denver turned emigration in those directions, giving rise to cities like Denver, Pueblo, Leadville, Colorado Springs and others of less note; though in 1858, with the unexplored and undeveloped resources of the county and only a guess at the command of the locators, the situation at Colona seemed full of promise of a great future. The present day visitor at Laporte, to which name Colona was changed in 1862, can see remains of a town that once declined to trade lot for lot with Denver and even aspired to be the seat of the Territorial government. But a very few years ago there resided a man in Fort Collins who, having acquired a few lots in Denver in a horse trade, allowed them to be sold for taxes rather than throw away any more money on them. The town of Colona was located a short distance west of the present town of Laporte, but the ford of the Cache la Poudre being lower down the stream and practically at the point where the bridge crosses at Laporte, the site of the town was later abandoned and a new town site called Laporte was located at the ford. In 1859 Mr. Provost erected a log house on the south side of the river in which he kept a grocery and a saloon. This house is still standing and is occupied by Rowland Herring and family. That year Mr. Provost also built and operated a ferry across the river during flood times for the accommodation of emigrants, but the early June flood of that year carried his boat down stream, so that when Horace Greeley and party passed that way on June 21st, he had to ford the stream at considerable risk. Mr. Provost also operated a ferry at that point during the big flood of June, 1864, and, as the travel westward was heavy that season, he coined money, charging $10.00 for taking a double team across and $5.00 for a man on horseback. The same year that the Provost colony located at Colona, Mariana Modeno, a Mexican, located a squatter's claim in the valley of the Big Thompson, about three miles west of the present city of Loveland. He claimed to be and probably was the first permanent settler in that valley. Thus, practically simultaneously, began the history of the settlements on the two principal streams of the county. Colona, however, was the most important and most ambitious of the two, the Big Thompson pioneer wishing merely to establish a home where he could raise cattle and horses and live out his days in peace. Mariana's place aifterward became known as Namaqua, and was made an Overland stage .station in 1862. Mariana died in 1878. The family of George Hatfield, composed of himself, wife and one child, was the first family to make a permanent location on the Big Thompson. Other settlers, including Wm. A. Bean, John J. Ryan, John Hahn, J. N. Hollowell, Judge W. B. Osborn, Thos. H. Johnson and W. C. Stover, came in 1860.

In 1859 Rock Bush came from Green river, Wyoming, where he had been employed for two years on a ferry, and took up a claim on the north bank of the Cache la Poudre river, about three miles southeast of Laporte, where he still lives. At this time there was but one other settler on the stream between his place and the mouth of the river, and that was Robert Boyd, who also had a claim a little way west of the present city of Greeley. Mr. Bush was born in Canada in 1832, came west to Fort Bridger in 1857, where he remained two years and then moved to the Cache la Poudre valley. He married Johanna Forbes after he came here, by whom he has had five children, Rock Jr., Guy, George, Amelia and Gussie Bush. Mr. Bush is still living in the enjoyment of fairly good health and a serene old age. He is the only man left of that valiant and hardy company that located in this valley in 1858-9. In 1860, quite a number of settlers located in the valley, including J. M. Sherwood, F. W. Sherwood, A. F. Howes, Joseph Knight, Alphonse LaRoque, Joseph Mason, James B. Arthur, John Arthur, Thos. Cline, E. B. Davis, Daniel Davis, John Davis, G. R. Strauss, Joseph

Many of these first settlers came across the Plains in the Pike's Peak rush of 1858-1859 and 1860, and being disappointed in their quest for gold, sought homes in the fertile valleys of the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson rivers, and the population of the county in the fall of 1860 was about one hundred. Early recognizing the necessity for some form of government and rules and regulations governing the location of claims and the restraining of lawlessness by which life and rights of property might be protected, the settlers in the fall of that year organized a Claim Club association. Robert Hereford was chosen president; John J. Ryan, secretary, and J. M. Sherwood, judge, and a short but very stringent code of laws was adopted. As the Cache la Poudre and the Big Thompson valleys formed the district over which the association claimed jurisdiction, the code of laws and the association constituted the first form of government set up for Larimer county, and those who lived under it in the early days declare that more equal and exact justice was never meted out than while the association existed. Negroes were excluded from membership, owing to race prejudice. Each member of the association was allowed to locate upon and occupy 160 acres of land and was protected in all rights acquired by such occupancy. The uncertainty as to which government the region owed allegience, whether that of Kansas or Nebraska, made an organization of that character vitally necessary, for, while in the main the original settlers were peaceable, law-abiding citizens, with a just conception of the rights of property and what constituted law and order, there were a few among them whose conduct at times laid them open to suspicion of being outlaws and desperadoes, who needed to be placed under wholesome restraint. An association of the character named, bound together for mutual protection, whose members were so willing to live up to its salutary rules and regulations, soon gained respect and confidence, and few there were, indeed, who had the hardihood to lay themselves liable to fall under contempt of the association, for its judgments were severe and its penalities were executed with promptness and dispatch. All disputes were referred to the association judge. Dissatisfied parties could appeal to the president, whose decision was final.

When the Territory of Colorado was organized in 1861, Governor Gilpin appointed F. W. Sherwood, John J. Ryan and A. F. Howes as a board of commissioners for Larimer county. At the first meeting of this board an informal discussion developed that Mr. Howes favored the location of the County Seat at Laporte and the immediate erection of a stone court house. Mr. Sherwood took positive grounds against the proposition, while Mr. Ryan remained neutral. The result was that the board could not agree and failed to complete an organization, despite frequent and earnest appeals from the Governor. Early in 1862 Governor Gilpin appointed a new board composed of Joseph Mason, W. B. Osborn and James B. Arthur. This board promptly organized by electing Mr. Osborn chairman. The proceedings of that meeting show that among the first acts preformed was the laying out and establishing of three commissioner districts for the county, the boundaries of which remaining to this day, practically as they were then fixed. The records do not show that this board ever held another meeting or did anything else of a public nature, and their offices appear to have been declared vacant, for, in 1864, Governor John Evans, who succeeded Governor Gilpin, appointed Abner Loomis, John Heath, and William A. Bean, commissioners for Larimer county. They immediately qualified and at the first meeting elected Mr. Loomis chairman. This meeting was held at Laporte, beginning October 8th, and the principal business before the board at that time appears to have been the inspection and approval of the bonds of the new county officers. These were H. B. Chubbuck, county superintendent of schools; Henry Arrison, sheriff; H. W. Chamberlin, clerk and recorder; B. T. Whedbee, treasurer; James M. Smith, assessor; John E. Washburn, county judge. In July, 1862, there occurred an Indian scare on the Poudre that set the settlers wild with fright and a rush of men, women and children for a place of safety followed. A few days before a band of Utes slipped down out of the hills and ran off some horses belonging to J. M. and F. W. Sherwood. The settlers were afraid to pursue the redskins into the hills for they did not know how many Utes were in the band, but they kept a sharp lookout for fear the Indians would return and raid other ranches. On the day the second board of commissioners appointed by Governor Gilpin organized, a man named Bassett saw the Indian wives of several Laporte settlers picking berries and, mistaking them for Utes, gave the alarm. With a speed that seems incredible, the news spread up and down the river and nearly everybody rushed for Laporte. James B. Arthur and John Thatcher happened to be at Laporte when the alarm was given, and they started in hot haste for the Arthur ranch down the river, where there was a strong log house having loop holes for use in defending Chief Friday's band of- Arapahoes, then located on the north side of the river opposite the Sherwood ranch, and when Friday heard of the supposed raid, he ordered his fighting men to mount their horses and go to Spring canon in pursuit of their enemies, the Utes. Several settlers mistook Friday's men for Utes, although J. M. Sherwood was with the pursuing party, and dropped everything in their hurry to get under cover. When