I remember one train that I met that spring down on the Arkansas river, below Bent's Fort. One of the men asked me, if I could tell them how far it was from there to Pike's Peak. I said, "No sir, I can't tell you how far it is, but I can show it to you. There is Pike's Peak right before you," and I pointed to the snowcapped mountain that could be seen for hundreds of miles.
He said, "Oh, I don't mean that. I want to find out where the Pike's
Peak gold mine is."
I told him that I had never heard of such a mine. This seemed to surprise him, and in a few minutes the whole outfit was crowding around me, inquiring about Pike's Peak mine.
Then I told them what the report had been about the discovery of gold at
Cherry creek and Russel's gulch.
One man asked if I could tell them where Denver was, and that was a question I could not answer, for I had never heard of a place called Denver before.
I asked him what Denver was. A new mining camp that had just been named, or what.
"Why" he said, "Denver is a city close to Pike's Peak."
I answered, "Strange, you must have made a mistake in the locality of the city you are seeking. I have traveled all over this country for years, and I never saw or heard of a place called Denver in my life."
Then they told me that Dr. Russel, one of the discoverers of the gold mine, had staid all night at the town where they came from in Missouri.
When he, the Dr., was on his way home to Georgia, last fall he had told them what wonderful gold mines had been discovered up in the mountains, and there was a large city building in the valley that was going to be the queen city of the west, and they had named the city "Denver."