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Show 24 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. In 1858, gold was discovered near the present site of Denver, and with the discovery began the first chapter in the historv of Colorado. CHAPTER III. From records and statistics of the past twenty-five years, and conversations with the pioneers, I gathered the following stories: In 1859, immigration rolled into the country with al» most unexampled rapidity. Stretching far out over the plains, was an apparently interminable procession of white-topped wagons, moving, it seemed, at a snail's pace, many bearing the inscription, "Lightning Express," "Pike's Peak or Bust," "Root Hog or Die," "From Pike County to Pike's Peak," etc. Strange vehicles of all sorts crawled on the trail to the golden shrine. One pushed a wheelbarrow laden with supplies, and, it is said, took a boarder to help defray expenses. Another packed an ox with tools and provisions, and when weary and foot-sore from walking, swung himself to the creature's tail as an aid to locomotion. Many made the journey in pairs, with handcarts, alternately pushing and riding. Denver seemed a second Babel. The arrival of teams, the loud cracking of whips, shouting of voices, and the sound of the builder's hammer, made "confusion worse confounded" of tongues and matter. Dwellings and business blocks-shanties-rose with marvelous rapidity. |
