country. Nor
do we care to go back as far as the sixteenth century for the beginning
of an enterprise that is still very young and possibly a little fresh.
In 1803 the United States purchased from France a vast territory for
$15,000,000; it was then known as Louisiana, and that purchase included
the district long referred to as the Great American Desert.

In 1806 Zebulon Pike camped where Pueblo now stands. He was a
pedestrian. One day he started to climb a peak whose shining summit had
dazzled him from the first; it seemed to soar into the very heavens, yet
lie within easy reach just over the neighboring hill. He started bright
and early, with enthusiasm in his heart, determination in his eye, and a
cold bite in his pocket. He went from hill to hill, from mountain to
mountain; always ascending, satisfied that each height was the last, and
that he had but to step from the next pinnacle to the throne of his
ambition. Alas! the peak was as far away as ever, even at the close of
the second day; so famished, foot-frozen and well-nigh in extremity, he
dragged his weary bones back to camp, defeated. That peak bears his name
to this day, and probably he deserves the honor quite as much as any
human molecule who godfathers a mountain.

James Pursley, of Bardstown, Ky., was a greater explorer than Pike; but
Pursley gives Pike much credit which Pike blushingly declines. The two
men were exceptionally well-bred pioneers. In 1820 Colonel Long named a
peak in memory of his explorations. The peak survives. Then came General
Fremont, in 1843, and the discovery of gold near Denver fifteen years
later; but I believe Green Russell, a Georgian, found _color_ earlier
on Pike's Peak.

Colorado was the outgrowth of the great financial crisis of 1857. That
panic sent a wave westward,--a wave that overflowed all the wild lands
of the wilderness, and, in most cases, to the advantage of both wave and
wilderness. Of course there was a gradual settling up or settling down
from that period. Many people who didn't exactly come to stay got stuck
fast, or found it difficult to leave; and now they are glad of it.
Denver was the result.

Denver! It seems as if that should be the name of some out-of-door
production; of something brawny and breezy and bounding; something
strong with the strength of youth; overflowing with vitality; ambitions,
unconquerable, irrepressible--and such is Denver, the queen city of the
plains. Denver is a marvel, and she k