FRIDAY, JUNE 4th.
Having enjoyed a good night’s rest, we arose about seven o’clock, and after breakfast Mr. Bicking escorted us over his mill, which is only a short distance from the pleasant cottage in which they reside. The time arriving for us to start for the station, we bid adieu to our kind friends and join our party on the train under the escort of F. M. Shaw, traveling agent of the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway, bound for Silver Plume, up the picturesque Clear Creek Cañon, and over the Great Loop. We have U. P. D. & G. Ry. engine No. 7, with Engineer Si Allen at the throttle. The train is in charge of Conductor John W. Ryan, a member of Denver Division 44, who is an old friend of Brother Reagan’s. The two had not met for years, and the reunion was a happy one. It was through the efforts of Conductor Ryan that we are given this pleasant trip to-day.
Leaving Golden, we enter the wilds of Clear Creek Cañon, similar in many respects to Eagle River Cañon, the mighty sloping hills on either side being honeycombed with mines. In places the cañon is very narrow; the rugged walls overhanging the tracks almost meet at the top, a thousand feet above. The stream we follow is a shallow one, and here and there we catch sight of a prospector wading in the water with his shovel and pan, washing the sand he scoops up from the bottom of the creek in the hope of finding grains of gold. A diligent prospector, we are told, realizes in this manner from two to ten dollars per day. For 22 miles we follow the windings of Clear Creek up through this narrow, rocky gorge, and then the cañon terminates in an open, level
plateau of about one hundred acres, surrounded by seamed and rugged mountains, grinning with prospectors’ pits and the open mouths of mines.
Here is located the pretty little mining town of Idaho Springs, at an elevation of 7543 feet. We make a stop of ten minutes and get out to look around. We run right along the edge of the creek and several of the boys look for gold in the sand of the shallow water, but I hear of none being found. It is cloudy, a light rain is falling, and having reached a pretty high altitude the wind is chilly. Leaving Idaho Springs the open observation car is almost deserted, the closed coaches being far more comfortable, the most of our people caring more for comfort than for scenery. Thirteen miles from Idaho Springs we pass through Georgetown, a mining town of considerable size. Here we commence the Great Loop ascension; the railway winding around the mountain crosses itself at one point, and looking down we see nearly 200 feet beneath us the track where we had been but a short time before. Thus we climb until we reach Silver Plume, at an elevation of 9176 feet, arriving there at 12.20 Mountain time.
Leaving the train, we visit the Victoria Tunnel and Mendota Mine. Under the escort of the mine boss the majority of the party enter the mine, each one bearing a lighted candle, for the tunnel is dark as a dungeon. This tunnel is hewn from the solid rock and extends for 2000 feet straight into the mountain side before the rich vein of silver ore is reached. When we reach the end of the tunnel we are almost directly under the centre of the peak, a thousand feet under the surface of the ground. After procuring a few small pieces of ore as souvenirs we retraced our steps and were glad to get out into open daylight once more. On our return to the train we encountered a light snow squall. We leave Silver Plume at 2.15 o’clock for return trip, with Brothers Maxwell, Reagan, and Agent Shaw on the cow-catcher. A donkey on the track sees us coming, flops his left ear, switches his tail, and wisely steps aside. We arrive safely in Denver at six o’clock and find dinner waiting in our dining car, to which we all ably respond, feeling that in McDonald and his worthy attachés we have valued friends. After dinner our people scattered over the city, amusing themselves in various ways, and not having furnished the writer with reports of their experience, he can but note, “unwritten history.”
Brother F. H. Conboy, of Division 44, has kindly made arrangements with the managers of the Overland Park races to admit members of our party at reduced rates, and a number talk of attending the races to-morrow should the weather prove favorable. We are not very highly impressed with this climate at the present time, for it is entirely too cold and damp to be agreeable.