It's one of the best known mountains in our country, one that was seen first by travelers as they approached the Rockies from the east.

The majesty of the peak inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the words for a song she entitled America the Beautiful.

This 14,110ft mountain is known simply to you and me as Pike's Peak.

It is long dominated the landscape here above the city of Colorado Springs.

The name given to the mountain dates back to 1806, when it was first discovered by an exploratory expedition headed by the young Captain Zebulon Pike.

At that time in history, he was mapping for President Jefferson part of the western region of the historic Louisiana Territory.

From that time forward, Pike's Peak has been an important landmark not only for the trailblazers and trappers, but for prospectors and settlers as well.

Especially was this true in the late 1850s, when its location in the Rockies and at the western edge of Kansas Territory made it the best known landmark available to help identify the general location of newly found gold.

Early in 1858, two parties of gold seeking men, one from Georgia, led by William Greene Russell, the other from Cherokee Indian Territory, organized by Captain John Beck, joined as one along the Arkansas River and then proceeded along the Front Range of the Rockies, descending Cherry Creek to where it emptied into the South Platte River.

For days, the party, made up of over 100 frontiersmen and Indians, worked the streams and riverbeds without success.

Finally, in early July, after most of the original party had given up in disgust and started back home, the few remaining members uncovered small pockets of the precious metal not far from where Cherry Creek in the South Platte River come together.

The men quickly established a campsite, naming it after the Latin word auraria, meaning gold mine or gold region.

The news of what was found here, close to what is now downtown Denver, spread quickly.

A trader by the name of Cantrell visited the party here on July 31st.

Five days later, when he left, he was seen carrying a sack of paydirt heading for his home in Westport, Missouri, a town just east of the Kansas Territory.

Other traders and mountain men were quick to spread the word north to Fort Laramie, and south to Santa Fe.

Newspapers were soon printing stories and maps that had readers talking with anticipation.

Marion, listen to what it says here in the paper about what's happening out there in that Pikes Peak region.

Mr.

John Cantrell, an old citizen of Westport, discovered three ounces of gold, which he merely dug with a hatchet and washed out in his frying pan at a stream called Cherry Creek, not far away.

A French trapper named Richard dug out several ounces of the precious metal with nothing more than his ax.

A land sakes, Tom, that sounds too good to be true.

I can't imagine gold could be that easy to find.

Neither would I. Then again, why would they print it here in the paper if it werent fact?

How do you suppose they're getting out there?

Well, they got three different routes.

The effect of the writings and stories told and retold concerning the newly discovered gold grew to exaggerated proportions.

People everywhere seemed to be caught up in the excitement and possibilities of making quick fortunes out west.

Trails across Kansas Territory toward the Pikes Peak region were soon filled with gold seekers, loaded up with provisions for the 700 mile, two week overland journey from the Missouri Valley region.

By November, a party of would be miners led by William Larimer had established themselves on land directly across Cherry Creek from the auraria company These men from eastern Kansas called their new settlement the Denver City Town Company, named in honor of General James Denver, governor of the Kansas Territory.

Converging to the region as well were yonder siders, prospectors who had gone west to California in the gold rush of 1848, found little or nothing, and then gradually worked their way back east to the Pikes Peak region.

Most of the early discoveries of gold along the Front Range of the Rockies were made by a technique of surface or placer mining, known as panning.

With this method, the prospector placed gravel and sand that he had dug into his pan, added water from the stream, and then shook the pan vigorously, helping to make the heavier particles of gold settle to the bottom of the pan.

It took an experienced miner only a few minutes to thoroughly work the mixture, to gradually pour off the water, to pick out and discard the large rocks and pebbles.

And finally, if he were lucky, in the bottom of the pan would be the yellow gleaming that he was seeking.

What most of the prospectors quickly learned was that it was necessary to repeat this slow process 80 to 100 times a day, shoveling over a ton of gravel and sand just to separate perhaps a few cents worth of gold dust.

Where is all this gold they told us about in them newspaper stories.

I ain't seen none of it.

I've been up and down this stream for a week, and all I got to show for it is less than $0.50 worth of the darn stuff.

Disappointment and bitterness replaced earlier feelings of excitement and hope.

Over half of the thousands of people who made the long journey out of this region gave up and returned to where they had come from.

The gold boom was rapidly becoming a gold bust and would have, except for what happened here on May 6th, 1859.

On that date, a man by the name of John Gregory discovered at this very site near what is now Central City, the outcroppings of a rich load of gold ore a load of gold, ore is really a vein of gold, part of it sometimes lying close to the Earth's surface.

It usually is contained in rock that bears a high percentage of quartz.

Gregory's low discovery was one of the first of its kind in this whole region.

In the news of, it set off a stampede into the mountains that was unbelievable.

They found gold!

Where?

Out west in the Rocky Mountains.

Gold!

They're finding it everywhere.

Almost overnight, some 50,000 people rushed to the Rocky Mountains from towns and cities back east and from lands as far west as California.

Claims were staked.

Tents were set up, trails and crude roads cut into the mountains.

Mining camps sprang up everywhere.

Many times, miners found what looked like rich ore only to discover later that it was worthless pyrite, or what is called fool's gold.

Of course, any gold discovered in ore must somehow be separated from the rock in which it's found.

One of the methods often used was the rocker, a device that could be operated by just one person, and hence a very quick and efficient way to prove out a source of gold ore.

Used as well, was the sluice, a long, slanting wooden trough, usually operated by several men who shoveled in pieces of ore.

As the ore was washed by water, It slowly tumbled down the trough.

The heavier gold particles that broke off would sink to the bottom of the sluice and be trapped next to thin cross boards called riffles.

With these and other methods, out came the gold.

Close to a quarter of $1 million worth in those first few months alone.

When the news of the discoveries at Central City reached back east, people had more doubts than hopes.

Was this to be another false gold boom like a year earlier?

Another Cherry Creek hoax.

Newspapers sent very important men to see for themselves what was happening out west.

One such gentleman, Mr.

Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, returned from the Gregory diggings with important news for the country.

For you gentlemen, today, Mr.

Greeley, tell us if you will.

Have you actually seen gold dug from the various mining sites out there?

Yes, gentlemen, I must admit that I've seen what one company took out of the ground at a cost to them of not more than $25.

It was a lump of ore, estimated to be worth over $500.

Mr.

Greeley, how many people do you estimate are at the digging site at this time?

Well, I would venture to guess that there are some 5000 men and women up in the ravine where I visited, half of whom have been there for less than a week.

Approximately 500 new hopefuls arrive each day.

Have they found gold?.

No, no, those 500 new hopefuls are balanced by about 100 who give up and leave each day.

Most of those who go away are convinced that Rocky Mountain gold mining is one grand humbug.

Some of them have prospected only 2 or 3 weeks, but they've exhausted their provisions, worn out their boots, and found nothing.

What about the future of this gold rush and the region itself?

Would you care to comment on that?

Well, as you know, mining plays an important role in almost every useful industry.

Two cold pits are already at use in the digging sites.

A blacksmith has set up his forge and is busy making a good thing out of sharpening picks at $0.50 each.

As towns and cities grow, so too will the economics and prosperity of this area grow.

Gentlemen, mining will affect the growth of this region, perhaps more than any other industry.

The words of Horace Greeley not only brought credibility to what was discovered here in these rocky mountains, but encouraged as well countless numbers of Easterners to come west and seek a variety of opportunity in this region.

Mr.

Greeley also knew that it was more and more people came west to dig their fortunes in these mountains, that more and more land speculators, merchants and town promoters would follow close behind to try and make business fortunes.

During 1859 alone, hundreds of supply wagons rolled westward to the Pikes Peak region, carrying not only food, clothing and mining tools, but large quantities of lumber, building materials, even printing presses.

By the time Gregory had unearthed his rich discovery, 27 year old W. N.Byers had already published his first edition of the Rocky Mountain News, a daily publication that would keep the population informed of new discoveries in local events.

In April of 1860, the two early settlements of a Auaria and Denver City Town Company had been brought together as one by William Larimer.

The majority of people agreed to the permanent name of Denver City.

Central city was changing as well.

Gone were the tents and lean tos, the many mining camps, the dotted this whole area during those first months.

When W.N.

Byers designated this particular location central to all the other mining settlements, the name seemed to stick.

Permanent buildings not only began to take shape, but businesses were quick to establish themselves.

This is the original house built for Billy Cousins, the first appointed sheriff of Gilpin County.

Not far down this street was the home of the now famous Aunt Clara Brown, the first black person in this region.

She not only operated a very successful laundry business, but was the only nurse for miles around.

She also did much to establish this Methodist church that still stands today.

To the south and west, towns like Colorado City, Fairplay, Canyon City, Breckenridge and Oro city were developing fast.

Irrigated farming was now well established along branches of the Arkansas River.

Claim clubs, people's courts, mining districts were all trying to give some direction to law and order.

Pikes peakers agreed on one thing.

It was time for a territorial government.

On February 28th, 1861, in Washington, D.C., Congress finally gave in to the pressures of westward expansion and established territorial governments for Dakota, Nevada & Colorado.

The Territory of Colorado created from four others, was at last a reality.

It had been an eventful three years, starting in 1858.

By 1861, however, the excitement of finding nuggets and quartz gold was giving way to ideas of permanent settlements, government and growth.

For there were many who believed that the future of this new territory called Colorado, lay not in gold, but rather in farming and industry, scenery and climate.

They would be heard from in the years ahead.