Pikes Peak as seen from Garden of the Gods Park
(By Hogs555 (Own work) Creative Commons (SA-3.0) license, via Wikimedia Commons)
For this week's Colorado State Open Thread, I want to present some of the local lore I grew up learning, as to what life under the shadow of Pikes Peak was all about before General Palmer got involved. For more, let's cross Ute Pass over the Orange Curlicue.....
OBVIOUSLY, there was human activity here before William Jackson Palmer "discovered" the Pikes Peak Region and decided to "set up shop" here.
So just what was going on?
Some things are reliable facts; others are local stories with perhaps a kernel of truth to them, others yet are mixtures between the two. It is my intention in this Diary to present what I have for purposes of starting an Open Thread discussion. So here goes.....
INDIAN LEGENDS.
Most available information about the Native presence here suggests that the Pikes Peak Region was a crossroads and a trading point between several Native Nations. The one Native name I've been able to find for the Mountain itself is Heey-otoyoo’ from the Arapaho language. Local lore states that the Ute Nation, which dwelt mostly on the Western Slope of the Continental Divide, would use what are now known as Wilkerson Pass and Ute Pass (today's US 24) to travel down to the junction of what are known today as Monument Creek and Fountain Creek to trade with the Plains Nations. In addition to the Arapaho, the Cheyenne, the Lakota (Sioux), and the Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche) were known to have been here.
In addition to the stream junction out on the plains, and the Passes (Ute and Wilkerson) created by those streams, there are two other geologic features prominent in local lore: what are now known as Garden of the Gods and the Manitou Soda Springs. The local lore says that our Native peoples considered Garden of the Gods to be highly spiritually active ground -- dangerously so -- and no one ever lived there full-time. Only professional Medicine folk -- Shamans -- ever spent much time there at all.
Garden of the Gods
(too dangerous to live in?)
attribution: Corbyrobert at the German language Wikipedia
The Manitou Soda Springs, on the other hand, were considered a place of healing, and were treated as "peace ground", open to everyone. The waters were considered to have healing properties for bodies and spirits alike.Today, this is known to be the case, as the mineral-rich waters contain lithium in addition to such trace metals as magnesium, copper, and manganese in exactly nutritive levels. (Iron Spring, which is full of, well, iron, was unknown to the Native Peoples. It was drilled long after the arrival of Europeans in the area.)
MOUNTAIN MEN, TRAPPERS, AND MORMONS.
MOST OF WHAT the "Mountain Men" left hereabouts were names. Fountain Creek is called that from the French "La Fontaine Qui Bouille", "The Fountain which Boils" or "Boiling Fountain". Most of the good trapping was on the Arkansas mainstem to the south, so we don't have much trapper impact here. It wasn't until gold was discovered (1850's) that any real interest in the area started appearing among European-descended people. One exception, however, was the Mormons. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in 1844, were expelled from their previous homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, and under their new leader Brigham Young were attempting to flee the United States altogether. In 1844 the lands now known as Utah were Mexican territory. So the Mormons fled Illinois and were seeking a reasonably easy passage from the Great Plains to this Mexican land. Ute Pass provides the best such passage in latitudes that were then reliably Mexican; much further north, and not only were the Cheyenne and Lakota Indians likely to prove problematic, but US claims relating to the Oregon Country meant that the Mormons faced difficulties from both whites AND Indians north of the 40th Parallel. Thus, the South Pass, Wyoming route was questionable at best for the Mormons. On the other hand, the Old Ute Trail through what is now known as Ute Pass provided fair passage to horse and hand carts, so many LDS passed this way into Utah. The Mexican War (1846) and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended it rendered Utah US territory; but the Treaty guaranteed their Utahn holdings, and by 1890 the LDS Church was no longer subject to the deadly, violent persecutions it had been subject to in the past.
AT THIS POINT, we essentially have arrived at the Civil War time. That War would have a young Pennsylvania Colonel muster out as a Brigadier General, and receive a very large set of Federal Land Grants for his wartime service. That General was none other than William J. Palmer, and as we say, the rest is history.
So, Colorado Kossacks, what's on your mind today?
:-)