Our trolley ride finished, we alight at Brown’s Palace Hotel. This magnificent structure, covering an entire block, ten stories in height, built of brown sandstone, interior finished in Mexican onyx, and costing the neat little sum of $2,000,000, is the pride of Denver. Here “The H. J. Mayham Investment Company” has its headquarters in a suite of offices on the first floor. We are kindly received by Mr. W. H. Coombs, a representative of the company, who loads us down with illustrated and descriptive books and pamphlets.
It is now past noon, and from here our party scatters. Mrs. Shaw desires to visit Mrs. Edward Bicking, formerly Miss Madeline Ramsey, of West Chester, Pa., who is living in or near Denver. We consult a directory that gives Mr. Bicking’s address as 313 Ashland Avenue, Highlands. We immediately take a car, and after a lengthy ride arrive at the given address only to find they had moved to Golden, 15 miles west of Denver. Returning to the Union Depot, we take the 3.10 train on the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway, and arrive in Golden after a pleasant ride of forty-five minutes. We have no difficulty in finding the pleasant home of Mr. Bicking, where we meet with a cordial welcome. They persuade us to remain over night with them and we enjoy our visit very much. Mr. Bicking operates a large paper mill, and having no competition does a large and thriving business. Golden is a pleasant, healthy town, having an elevation of 5655 feet. It has about 3000 population and until 1868 was the capital of Colorado. It is situated on Clear Creek, a fine mountain stream, and near the entrance to the famous Clear Creek Cañon. It is surrounded by towering cliffs and great mountain ranges, amongst which it quietly nestles.
Years ago Golden was a stirring mining camp, but the excitement and bustle of the mining industry has been moved farther up the cañon, leaving this community in comparative quiet. Last July a cloudburst occurred in the mountains, and the flood, rushing down the cañon, swept through the town of Golden, destroying much property and drowning several persons. We took a walk in the evening with Mr. and Mrs. Bicking around the town and saw many traces of the awfully destructive deluge.
I learned before leaving Denver this afternoon that a trip for to-morrow had been planned for our party, over the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway, up Clear Creek Cañon to Silver Plume, 54 miles from Denver. The train is due in Golden at nine o’clock. It is our purpose to meet it and join the party. Having spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening, we retired about ten o’clock.
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
