Cheaper to use the horses?

Today there is a substantial movement back to horsepower 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com
On the ranch, my father said it was sometimes easier and cheaper to use the horses than to get the tractor going, especially for mowing hay. Today, with gasoline headed higher once again, maybe we are getting closer to a time when a bag of oats makes as much fuel sense as feeding the John Deere.
If a person drives around the Tri-Lakes area, there is plenty of horse-drawn equipment now serving as lawn ornaments that once plowed, raked, bailed, cultivated, threshed and dug potatoes.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to know a few of those antique implements’ story? Perhaps there are a few of you out there that know those stories?
Perry E. Gresham tells of a close call while raking hay in “The Divide Country” near Elbert in his book “Growing up in the Ranchland.”
“Ranching and farming in those early days was much more rugged than it is today. The technological revolution has influenced the rural way of life. We did many things that are mechanized today.”
By way of example, Gresham talks of the potential danger. “We had mowing machines drawn by horses. The sickle needed sharpening from time to time, which was accomplished by stone wheel or a hand tool. After the hay was cut, we allowed it to dry for a day or two before we moved in with a horse drawn hay rake. When we worked frisky horses, these were dangerous occupations. I had a team run away when I was raking hay. The bumpy ride knocked me off my seat and down to where the tines were about to roll me over and over. I held on to the reins with the grit of a strong young country boy, and by the grace of God, the horses came to a standstill. I was fortunate enough to avoid an accident with the rake.”
The first half of the 19th Century was an age of discovery for farm implementation. Men like Jerome Case, Cyrus McCormick and John Deere successfully developed huge manufacturing facilities that began producing equipment that made the farming job that much easier than the old “scatch” endeavors up until then, writes Sam Moore in the “History of Horse-Powered Farming in America.”
“By 1900 sophisticated farm machines became available that embodied the principles of many of today’s modern implements. They performed nearly all the tillage, cultivation, or harvesting operations on progressive farms of the day. In some areas steam traction engines were being used for threshing or plowing, but they were too large, heavy and expensive for most farmers. The new implements were virtually all animal-powered. Even after the introduction of gas tractors, automobiles, and trucks during the first decade of the 20th century, the horse and mule population in the United States continued to grow until it reached the all-time high of 26.4 million animals in 1918,” writes Moore.
But for the next two decades, a real push to the gasoline tractors by agriculture colleges, extension agents, and equipment salesmen took its toll and by 1950, hardly anyone was still using draft animals.
Today there is a substantial movement back to horsepower in some organic farming circles as modern-day draft farmers claim farming with horses does less damage to land than gas-powered heavy machinery and reduces reliance on fossil fuels.
But before we get all fired up to switch to back draft-horse farming is this area, we need to consider some other factors.
The historic record indicates that it was a bit cooler and wetter back in the days of horses and hand implements in these parts. Rogers Davis, long-time director of the Lucretia Vaile Museum notes that you couldn’t hope to grow three-pound potatoes and get 383 wagonloads full with dry-land tactics in the modern age. All we need is a little water, and cool weather to go with our horsepower.
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Lost cities on Pikes Peak?

High time to start talking about water supply

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Real estate people will always tell you it is location, location and location. And they are right, to a degree. But when speculating, luck also seems to play a strong hand as well.
Consider the communities of Jones Park, Lake Moraine and Seven Lakes.
“It was rather difficult to climb to the summit of Pikes Peak until the observatory of the U.S. Army Signal Service was established there 1873 and a trail built up the southeast slope of Pikes Peak,” notes Ivan W. Brunk in his 1989 book “Shattered Dreams on Pikes Peak.”
“It was a long journey, but hotels at Lake Moraine and Seven Lakes enabled travelers to make the adventure a less arduous two-day trip to the peak,” writes Brunk.
“However, these hotels survived only a few years because of the opening of a much shorter route to the summit in 1880. The settlement at Jones Park lasted for a number of years, and there were many plans for rather grandiose developments, including railroads, resorts and a dam. But for one reason or another, none of these projects materialized.”
Partly because travel, to them, was primarily by burro or horseback, and partly because most things had to be hauled in by those means because very little agricultural produce was possible at that altitude, the populations remained small.
In 1890, the city of Colorado Springs purchased 784 acres in the Bear Creek drainage, including Lake Moraine, to improve the city’s water supply. Shortly afterward the city enlarged the natural dam there.
In the Seven Lakes area prior to 1902, various major players in the area’s history vied for the water rights, (and then the property itself) until the city was ready to complete its storage project there. Among those involved in such acquisitions were historic figures like Irving Hobart, The Woods Investment Co., and Dr. Mayo G. Smith.
By the authority of an act of Congress on May 1, 1902, the city was authorized to purchase 7,000 acres from the U.S. government for $1.25 per acre. Shortly after, they began a storage project that the city staff completed in 1905.
During that effort, the city’s contractors took 17 feet of water out the first lake and the bottom could not be found. At that time, the chairman of the water committee, a man by the name of St. John, said: “When the dam is built, the lakes of apparently no bottom will be covered by a large body of water, and one of the prettiest to be found in the state.”
A tunnel 2,330 long through the divide of Seven Lakes transports water to Lake Moraine and is called the St. John tunnel.
In 1948, Colorado Springs bought some of the land that had included Jones Park and then purchased the remainder in 1952.
Lake Moraine and the Seven Lakes area, and to a lesser extent Jones Park, continue to provide water for Colorado Springs though the area is not open to the public, being a primary drinking water source for the city.
The city recently began allowing access to the South Slope on a limited basis. No access to the area will be allowed without pre-registering, permits are not available on-site. There are a limited number of vehicles and users allowed each day to this secluded, high altitude recreation area.
Location and luck certainly has had a lot to do with development (or lack of) for these communities. But maybe it was something in the water.

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Photo 1: Seven Lakes Lodge

Photo 2: Early photo of Seven Lakes.

Golden influence remarkable in Pikes Peak region

Few realize how deep, pervasive and intertwined golden vein entangles area influence and origin

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Nearly everyone knows of the impact of Cripple Creek gold on the history and construction of the city of Colorado Springs.
Mansions that line “Old North End” streets like Wood, Cascade, and Nevada Avenues owe their existence to the wealth generated in the mines. Public buildings like the Main Post Office, the Mining Exchange, and even the old courthouse that now houses the Pioneer’s Museum were paid for with district dirt. But few realize how deep, pervasive and intertwined that golden vein entangles area influence and origin.
An example resides in the coalmines in the northwestern area of the city.
“The Pikes Peak Fuel Division, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Golden Cycle Corp., produced and sold lignite coal at its Pikeview Mine, located just north of Colorado Springs, for many years,” wrote Max W. Bowen in a profile about the Golden Cycle Corp. in the December, 1960 edition of The Mines Magazine.
“During the World War II period, the power plant Pikeview, having capacity in excess of 8,000 kilowatts, served in a standby capacity to the city of Colorado Springs, thereby insuring the city of sufficient power capacity to serve the numerous armed services establishments in the region.”
“The Fuel Division also operated a sand, crushed rock and gravel business, supplying most of the concrete aggregate used in the region for the past several years. Prior to abandoning the railroad (Midland) in 1949, crushed rock aggregate was produced in the Cripple Creek District and shipped to Colorado Springs by rail,” Bowen wrote in 1960.
The development of the Woodman Valley area is also very much tied to Golden Cycle Corp. presence as well.
The Golden Cycle Corp secured clear title to Monument Park Land Company in 1913.
“From 1913 this corporation, or its subsidiary Pikes Peak Fuel, held most of the land from Pikeview into Woodman Valley. From the shaft at Pikeview, tunnels ran north and west through most of the area south of Woodman Road. Although there was also coal north of Woodman Road, the surface rock made the area generally unsuitable for mining,” according John Kitch, Jr. in his 1970 book Woodman Valley.
By 1959, the two smaller valleys north of where the Modern Woodman of America Sanatorium had been serving tuberculosis patients for years, were being called Hidden Valley and Red Spring Valley.
“Both were slowly being settled by new residents who had purchased homesites from the Golden Cycle Corporation,” wrote Kitch.
The sanatorium closed to patients in 1947 and by 1950, it had been purchased by wealthy financier and philanthropist Blevins Davis. Davis wife was heiress to a fortune originally linked to James Hill railroad money. (Davis at one time was partial owner of The Gold Rush newspaper.)
“He promptly sold off the 180 octagonal Gardiner cottages, many of which can still be seen in the Pikes Peak area. A rumor circulated at this time that the property was to be used for a Summer White House, allowing the entire presidential staff to escape the heat of Washington,” Kitch writes.
The Sisters of Saint Francis Seraph were eventually the benefactors of that land, more than $2.3 million dollars, and a Broadmoor mansion. Renamed St. Joseph’s Convent, Mount St. Francis, the property was dedicated as the order’s Mother House of the Western Province in 1954. It continues to serve in that capacity.

Illustration:
Golden Cycle image.

Photo 1:
Portland Mill and and Victor in the mining district from a USGS photograph.

Photo 2:
Colorado Springs & Interurban car about 1908.
 
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