| COAL. | |||||
| Water. | Vol. Matter. | Fix. Carbon. | Ash. | Sulphur. | |
| El Moro | 0.26 | 29.66 | 65.76 | 4.32 | 0.85 |
| Connelsville | 1.26 | 30.11 | 59.52 | 8.23 | 0.78 |
| COKE. | |||||
| Fix. Carbon. | Ash. | Sulphur. | |||
| El Moro | 87.47 | 10.68 | 0.85 | ||
| Connelsville | 87.26 | 11.99 | 0.75 | ||
This analysis of El Moro coal was made from selected specimens; the average of ash in the coke will probably run up to twelve to fourteen per cent.
When we were at Cucharas once before (I have omitted to mention it in its proper place), we ran over to Walsenburg, a neat little settlement in Huerfano Park, and a headquarters for a large sheep industry, and visited the coal mines of this company near by. They own a large tract of land there, containing three seams of coal, four, nine, and five feet in thickness. Only the thickest of these has as yet been developed, sending out about seventy-five thousand tons annually. This coal analyses as follows, “No. 1” being the four-feet seam, “No. 2” the nine-feet seam:
| No. 1. | No. 2. | |
| Water | 3.23 | 2.97 |
| Vol. Matter | 40.93 | 40.08 |
| Fixed Carbon | 49.54 | 48.67 |
| Ash | 6.30 | 8.28 |
| 100. | 100. | |
| Sulphur | .62 | .65 |
It was old traveled ground, for the major part of the distance between El Moro and Cañon City, on the Arkansas, forty miles above Pueblo; and as we were anxious to save all the time we could for the new regions in the west, where we were sure the most romantic experiences awaited, we decided for another night-run, disadvantageous as they were, compared with day journeys. The next morning after our visit to El Moro, therefore, found us at anchor in Cañon City.
“What is there to see about Cañon City?” Oh, quantities of things. Here is a list of what its Record keeps “set up” as its “advantages, natural and otherwise:”
“Soda springs, iron springs, hot soda baths, wide streets, excellent town site, immense water power, exhaustless coal fields, good water works, best building stone, splendid lime rock, iron mines, mica mines, lead mines, silver mines, oil wells, irrigating ditches, abundance of shade trees, peaches, plums, pears, apples, walnuts, grapes, vegetables, grain, flowers, bees, fifteen thousand dollar school house, twenty thousand dollar court house, Masonic temple, city government, low taxes, streets sprinkled, seven churches, theatre hall, first-class dentists, two newspapers, excellent physicians, good teachers, brick and stone stores, excellent society, protection from cold winds, immense stocks of goods, railroad communication, good ranches, stock ranges, excellent hotels, military college, and kindergarten.”
Most of these items describe themselves, but others are worth mention. Right at the mouth of the Grand Cañon, which suggested the name, this site early attracted to a permanent home many of the earliest wanderers whom the famous Pike’s Peak immigration of 1859 brought to the country. Half a century before them, though, Major Zebulon Pike had made a station for part of his troops on this spot, whence he reconnoitered the surrounding mountains.
Basing their calculations upon the fact that their settlement, which from the first was called Cañon City, was the last place to which the big emigration and freight wagons could come from the plains, the pioneers had large hopes of their town as the one entrepôt and supply-point for the mountains. Merchants came here and crammed great sheds with stocks of goods sold at wholesale, while forwarders were busy in organizing ox-trains to carry supplies into the mountains.