A Photographic Essay of the Tetons

by Andrea Downing

     Three or four months of the year, I’m lucky enough to get out to my home in Wyoming, where I am happiest.  It is just 5 miles down the road from Grand Teton National Park and about an hour from the entrance to Yellowstone, depending on the pesky tourist numbers.  I try to be out when the least people are about—April/May and late September through early November.  I haven’t yet spent a winter out here, being something of a coward, but it is on the cards.  For now, I thought I’d share a few photos to show why I love this place so much.

 

 The famous arches of Jackson town square

 

                     The Moulton Barn, apparently most photographed barn in USA

                                              Old Faithful at Yellowstone

                               

Chapel of the Transfiguration at Grand Teton

                                                                    the Aspens in leaf

                                                       Bison grazing at Yellowstone

                A bear at Lupine Meadows, Grand Teton--keeping my distance!

                                Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

                     Mount Moran behind a still-frozen Jenny Lake

 

                                                            Lewis Falls

and finally

the entrance to the Cunningham Cabin, an early homestead in Grand Teton NP

    The Cunningham Cabin proved to be the inspiration for my novella, Dearest Darling, part of the Wild Rose Press ‘Love Letters’ series and my one crack at a mail order bride story.  It won The Golden Quill for Best Novella, as well as several categories at The Maple Leaf Awards, and placed in both the International Digital Awards and The Chanticleer Awards.  

Here’s the blurb:

 

Stuck in a life of servitude to her penny-pinching brother, Emily Darling longs for a more exciting existence. When a packet with travel tickets, meant for one Ethel Darton, accidentally lands on her doormat, Emily sees a chance for escape. Having turned down the dreary suitors that have come her way, is it possible a new existence also offers a different kind of man?

 

Daniel Saunders has carved out a life for himself in Wyoming—a life missing one thing: a wife. Having scrimped and saved to bring his mail-order bride from New York, he is outraged to find in her stead a runaway fraud. Even worse, the impostor is the sister of his old enemy.

But people are not always as they seem, and sometimes the heart knows more than the head.

 

EXCERPT:

 

Emily liked the sound of his voice, low but not husky, a slight twang he had cultivated, but not pretentiously so. When he spoke, she envisaged melting caramel, something delicious, the way it could be so appealing as she stirred, with a shine and slow drip from the spoon, before it gradually solidified. Soothing. A liquid velvet.

But he hadn’t spoken today. Not since first thing when he’d told her to get ready. Not through breakfast, or as he helped clear dishes, or gave her a hand up into the wagon.

“You haven’t seen her. You didn’t see her picture, did you?” The questions came sudden, yet without malice.

Emily straightened, alert. “No. No, I didn’t.” Would I understand better? Is that what he meant?

“I keep it with me.” Daniel began to fish in his pocket. “Would you like to see it?”

“No. No, you keep it, please. It won’t change anything.” Emily panicked. She would be beautiful, the other, that would be the answer. So stunningly beautiful that just her photograph had enthralled him, mesmerized him into loving her. Emily couldn’t bear to look, didn’t want to know the answer. Didn’t wish to torture herself further. “And I’m sorry. I’m sorry for reading the letters.” A rush of words, they flowed out of her. “I should never have done that. It’s not like me. But you...well, you understand it seems—”

“You’re probably wondering what I see in her. Or what she sees in me. As for that, what she sees in me, I have no idea. Maybe, like you, she wishes to get away.”

Emily studied his profile, the planes and contours of his face, the eyes set straight ahead, the slouch hat low on his brow. He gave nothing away, was a man in control of his emotions, thinking, maybe still wondering how he had won that woman. Or maybe set on keeping the answer to himself.

Overhead, clouds scudded, scoured the sky, leached the blue, threatened.

“Did you ever ask her? Why you?”

“I did. She never answered. I’m thinking what she sees in me is husband material. I guess. She tells me about her day, the people she knows, what she does. As you read.”

“She just seems so...so outgoing, so...so very social to ever want this life. I found it difficult to believe.” She jutted her chin out, then turned to him, waiting.

He gave the reins a sharp shake. “I don’t know. I never asked if she knew what she was getting into. I described it. I assumed if she wanted to stop the correspondence there, she would have. I was pretty damn amazed and happy she’d wanted to come, written back even though I described the cabin to her, the isolation.” His gaze slid toward her.

“And you think she’ll make you a perfect wife, do you? Be happy living here? Cook your meals, mend your clothes, keep your cabin, have your babies?” Exasperated, she tried to make him think, think of what he was letting himself in for, how long a marriage like that could go on, how it could end up being even lonelier than he was now. Emily would seem to him to be trying to win him over rather than making him see the truth, but push him she must, save him, stop him. She knew those sorts of women, the debutantes, the socialites. Not a one would last out here, not for a single day.

His head snapped around to stare at her. “She’s been writing. She hasn’t stopped.”

 

Buy Links:  Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Dearest-Darling-Letters-Andrea-Downing-ebook/dp/B00NGWT816/   Also on Audible

 

Ibooks:  https://books.apple.com/us/author/andrea-downing/id547850055

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23348501-dearest-darling

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dearest-darling-andrea-downing/1120514529

Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dearest-darling-1

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/dearest-darling-love-letters-by-andrea-downing

 

 

KEEPING PROSPERITY ALIVE By Kathleen Lawless @kathleenlawless

Mining has always been a dangerous occupation, but for Western Pioneers life presented so many dangers that one more hardly seemed relevant if it meant prosperity.  Gold and silver lured prospectors West, after which they discovered the value of copper, lead and zinc.  Boom towns flourished and fell as the mines prospered or petered out.

Trying to prevent such an occurrence and foster the longevity and prosperity of Bullet is top-of-mind for my hero Brody, the senior Mason brother in the series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  Unfortunately, Brody made a death bed promise to his dying uncle to keep the presence of copper on their ranch a secret.  But some things, like valuable minerals, can only stay buried for so long.  Especially as the demand for copper grew in the late 19^th century with advancements in the electrical and telecommunication age.

This is how I picture the crew of miners who arrive in Bullet to work the mine.

For a limited few days, you can download BRODY'S BRIDE for Free from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SRHCQK8

 

Meanwhile, I am super excited for everyone to meet Shane and Lacey from the Proxy Brides series.  A BRIDE FOR SHANE is brand new today.

Tuesday Teaser: 

“I’m not afraid of dying,” Shane told Jones, the smartly-dressed lawyer who had been a frequent visitor to his jail cell lately. 

   “Only a foolish man would die for something he didn’t do,” Jones said.  “And I don’t consider you a foolish man.”

  “Just unlucky,” Shane muttered.

  “Whoever stole those horses deserves to be the one staring down the hangman’s noose, not you.  The true thief will keep right on thieving, and get away with it because you took the fall.”

  “I don’t need to be rehabilitated,” Shane said stubbornly.  “I’ve got no truck with a bunch of stuffy church ladies going all preachy on me and minding my business.”

  “Taking on a wife will help prove to society that you’ve reformed,” the lawyer said.

  Shane half-snorted, half-laughed.  “Who’d marry me?”

  “Apparently, Lacey Collins has agreed to that honor,” Jones said drily.

  Shane straightened.  “Lacey Collins!  Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”

  “So, you agree?”

  “Heck, no.”  He tamped down the image of Lacey that drifted into the recesses of his memory.  A cascade of wavy dark auburn hair and a temper to match.  Beautiful, willful, and used to getting what she wanted.  As his best friend’s twin sister, Lacey was out of his league and completely off limits!

  “She’s agreed to save your sorry hide, allowing me time to find the real perpetrator and get you pardoned,” Jones continued.  “As long as the union isn’t consummated, it can be annulled later.”  The man gave him a closer look.  “Judging by your reaction, that doesn’t seem like it should be an issue.”

  Shane eyed him straight back.  Clearly, the lawyer had never met Lacey. 

Claim your copy here.   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WRNS4P7

 

If you love Mail Order Bride stories, you won’t want to miss A BRIDE FOR RILEY on May 28^th, one of the Mistaken Identity Brides Series.  Notice how plain my heroine looks, on her way to become a nun.    

She was headed for the convent.  How did she wind up married instead?

You can pre-order Riley here  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YXZY8CQ

And check out the entire series here  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YYZSHYQ

My Story Inspiration for Choosing Bravery

By Jacqui Nelson

What inspires a Western Historical Romance Adventure story? History and love combined with adventure is my favorite mix, but I also adore iconic or intriguing settings. And the story I'm sharing with you today takes place on—and inside—a mountain.

Last month I shared my Story Inspiration pages (the page I've included in the back of all of my books) for Between Heaven & Hell and Following Faith. Today I'm sharing the Story Inspiration page for the story that follows chronologically...

CHOOSING BRAVERY 

Story Inspiration page ~ from the back of the book

While writing Following Faith and watching six-year-old Élodie Rousseau become such a fundamental part (even while mostly off-screen), I knew my next story had to be her grown-up adventure. I also knew she needed a larger-than-life man to match her big personality. 

A decade or more before, I’d met someone with the surname Bravery and tucked it away for future use. The right story hero never appeared to claim the name. After writing Following Faith and watching The Revenant, I knew Élodie’s match would be a legendary almost mythical mountain man. A man who’d been brought low by a bear, but could be lifted high by Élodie and her mountain home. A man named Bravery. 

When my research led me to Oregon’s Cascade Volcanic Arc, Newberry Volcano, and lava tubes, I knew the majority of their story would be underground—a challenging place to describe. When travel isn’t an option, a writer relies on pictures. I created a Pinterest board to help me visualize the story. For links to Choosing Bravery’s picture board and boards created for my other stories, visit my website JacquiNelson.com.

CHOOSING BRAVERY

The Cascade Mountains, Oregon – 1868

When legends collide, will the sparks ignite their love or drive them apart?

After her parents vanished in the wilderness, Élodie Rousseau found a home with an Osage warrior and a logging camp schoolmistress who joined forces to return Élodie’s beloved spirit horse. With them as her teachers, she became the legendary mountain guide, Yellow Feather. She knows everything about surviving and thriving in the wild, but something is missing.

Legendary Far North fugitive tracker, Lachlan Bravery, is tortured by his failure to find the one person who mattered most—the mentor who taught him everything he once held sacred. Driven to repay a dead man, his hunt for a notorious band of outlaws brings him to Élodie’s mountain where they must join forces on a final quest deep inside a cave with the power to destroy not only their unexpected love but their lives.

Brave the wild. Bury the past. Choose your destiny.

Click here to read an excerpt on my website.

THE LONESOME HEARTS SERIES 

Choosing Bravery is book 3 in my Lonesome Hearts series, which follows the frontiersmen and women who meet on the Oregon Trail and afterward. Each story includes one or more of the characters from the other books but is also a standalone read.

Click here to see a summary of all of my books on one page.

Hope you enjoyed my writing inspiration and that you have a fun Friday full of...flowers! ❤️💐

~ * ~

Download my FREE STORY Rescuing Raven

Join me on 

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Pinterest, my Website,
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Read my Wild Women of the West blog posts 

Buckaroos in Paradise by Rhonda Frankhouser

Recently, the world lost one of the coolest cowboys to ever straddle a horse. His name, Victor Arriola. He lived a good long life, and had some amazing experiences through the nine plus decades he graced this earth.

I met Vic when I was a child, maybe 4 or 5. He was stocky in stature, quick with a smile and a laugh, but eerily calm in spirit. As a child I didn't understand how a persons childhood and young adulthood could shape the person, but I understood so much more about his quiet confidence after I learned about his past. 

Vic, a Spanish Basque descendant from Nevada, was a father, a husband and a wonderful provider. It was only when he climbed upon the meanest horse in our corral, did I realize, he had a sort of god-like quality atop an un-ride-able Appaloosa named Jobo. 

As a budding rider myself, I watched in awe as he used only his thighs to quiet the horse into gentle submission. I knew I was watching something impressive when I looked over at my slack-jawed father, who had worked himself into a tizzy trying to get that damn horse to even allow him onboard. 

We leaned against the cold, silver pipe fence surrounding that pen and took in the sight of this magnificent horse, now under Vic's uncanny spell. The massive hooves that I'd always worried would trample me to death one day, smooth-danced under the Vic's quiet command. With a litany of almost silent clicks, Vic commanded Jobo to move right, then left, then forward and back in unison. The horse's silky chestnut ears perked back toward his steady rider, ever listening and understanding. 

Now let me remind you, until that day, none of us had seen anyone stay in Jobo's saddle for more than a minute or two. But this man, not tall in stature, but steeped in confidence, somehow settled the horse's soul. His trust seemed complete within minutes. His bond instant.

When Vic swiftly dismounted the horse, and dropped to his booted feet, we all knew the truth.  He was some sort of magician. That horse was always meant to be his - not his slave - but his partner. My dad's words are as clear today as they were when Vic slipped through those silver rungs of that fence, "I guess he's yours now." Vic just smiled that easy smile, his chin scruffy after a long days work, his eyes sparkling with untold knowledge. "No Ron, he's just not interested in being mastered, but he is willing to show you respect, if you show him respect in return."

What I didn't know then is that our friend and neighbor, Victor Arriola, had an incredibly interesting past that he chose to keep to himself. Not a secretive, wicked kind of omission, more a non-braggy kind of omission. He'd been one of the original Buckaroos from Paradise Valley, Nevada. The real deal kind of cowboy -  or better known in the region - a Buckaroo - which is a name derived from the Spanish word Vaquero.  

Before he met and married the girl of his dreams, had two strapping sons and moved to Central California, he spent his days and nights working side by side with other ranch hands, driving herds of cattle over the vast open ranges of northern Nevada. It was of no great surprise that one of his particular specialties was horse training. Buckaroos counted on a trusted mount to carry them through their daily trials, and this man, this regular man turned supernatural being, was one of those people who understood how to create an everlasting bond between horse and rider.

As I've gone on and on about my personal experience witnessing horse-whispering greatness, I'll leave you with a link to learn more about the fascinating life and times of the Buckaroos of Paradise Valley. 

In the meantime, I'm beyond excited that I've found a passionate piece of history to use as fodder for my next Western Romance Series. I can't wait to get started.

Thank you, Victor Arriola, for sharing yourself with my family. You were a great and true friend and will be loved and missed always. 

Thanks for listening. 

Subscribe to RhondaFrankhouserBooks.com and receive a #Free copy of Return to Ruby's Ranch - Book 1 of the Award-Winning Ruby's Ranch Series

SETTING THE STAGE - DON'T FORGET THE ADVERTS

 Post by Doris McCraw

writing as Angela Raines

As a writer sets the stage for the next story, we try to make it real. If you set it in the past, there is a resource many may not think about. Yes, we study traveling in wagons or stagecoaches. We look at what our characters might have worn. Yet, where did they get these items?. When did the stages run, and what were their routes. There is a place where all these things may be found and it's the advertisements in the newspapers.

Photo property of the author

I use 'Newspaper Archive' for a lot of my research. They offer so many options. I also set many of my stories in Colorado, so I use 'Colorado's Historic Newspapers'.

I'll give you a couple of examples:

From the May, 11th 1871 issue of the Rocky Mountain News (daily):

For Sale — A two-story brick house, furnished throughout — 80 x 150 feet of land, fine location. Price $3,500, best bargain in the city. John Clough & Co., Real estate and loan agents

From that same issue the following 'news' item was found:

A middle-aged lady from the country, who had never set for a picture, was in a photograph gallery yesterday for that purpose. Having adjusted her properly in the chair, the operator went to take a look at her through the camera, and was surprised to find she had tucked the bottom of her dress under her feet and under the legs of the chair all around. "Why, Madam., why fix your dress so for?" he asked; "you'll not look half so well that way." "Ah, I know what I am doing; my daughter looked through that thing when she was here to get her picture last week, and she says as soon as you look at that little glass the person you look at turns upside down."

Did you realize that auctions were a thing in 1871? Here is a copy of an advertisement that appears in the paper: 

Rocky Mountain News
May 11, 1871

So the next time you want to add some color, or tidbits for realism take a look at the newspaper; the ads, the personals, and those short pieces of filler. What a treasure trove there is. 

For the reader, you might want to check out a few issues of those historic papers. You might be surprised at what you find.

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Author of "The Agate Gulch" Novellas and "Kiowa Wells" novels.

Angela Raines - author: Telling Stories Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

Website: Angela Raines - author

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

Post (c) 2021 by Doris McCraw  All Rights Reserved

The Wild West and Motherhood by Sable Hunter

 

One doesn’t usually think about motherhood and the wild west being two topics with much in common – but they are. Without a doubt, every cowboy who ever rode a horse had a mother. Women braved the frontier just like men did. They emigrated, developing blisters on their feet from trudging alongside wagons bound for Texas, Colorado, or parts farther west. At the side of their menfolk, they homesteaded, working tirelessly as they took care of their families and farmed the land of Oklahoma, Kansas, and South Dakota. Many of these pioneer women ran businesses – with or without their husbands. Mercantile stores, cattle ranches, mills, and stagecoach inns were just some of the establishments women headed up in this rough and tumble world of men.
                                                    

Women of the frontier were called upon to take care of each day as it came. Many kept up with these jobs outside the home as well as taking care of their everyday chores – such as housework, cooking, not to mention enduring all of this while pregnant, tending the sick, or taking care of children. Can you imagine the strain and unrelenting toll of this life on the body and soul of these women?
Sometimes I think I have a hard time, but not really.

Thanks to these frontier women, the wilderness inched toward being tamed. They turned makeshift houses into homesteads, and lawless boom towns into thriving communities. We’ll never know the names of the majority of these women, their identities have been lost to history. We can merely see the results of their labors in the country they birthed.

To honor yesterday being Mother’s Day, I’d like to point out a handful of women who left their mark on the Old West. First being an Indian guide by the name of Sacagawea who escorted Lewis and Clark on their famed journey, traveling thousands of miles across treacherous stretches of wilderness, hostile territories, even fording fast rushing rivers. She did all of this while carrying a newborn babe – to boot. Her knowledge of plants and herbs not only kept the party nourished, but the notes and drawings she made along the way were a huge contribution to the natural history and knowledge we take for granted.

Even though she’d been sold at the age of 12 into what we might call slavery, her owner married her and treated her with great respect. She became a peacemaker between the explorers and the natives as they passed through uncharted territory. To me, she is a true symbol of grace and beauty in the face of tribulation. Sacagawea was honored in the year 2000 with her image depicted on a coin. She was holding her baby boy, Jean Baptiste, who grew up to be a military scout. Here is a statue erected to her memory.

Another mother of note was former Comanche captive, Cynthia Ann Parker. Her son, Quanah Parker, became a famous chief and forger of peace between white men and the Native Americans. She’s also one of the first promoters of public breast feeding, since we have a photo of her taking care of her daughter, Prairie Flower. 

Number three on my list is the mother of the Earp brothers – James, Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan. They loved their mother, Virginia. According to history, she passed on her common sense and a soft heart for animals and those less fortunate to her son, Wyatt, who became a famous Western lawman.

 

A woman who impresses the hell out of me was Maria Rita Valdez, who fought to keep her home after her husband died. Many tried to take it from her, but she stood stalwart and fought for her rights. Her not-so-tiny spread was known then as Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas – better known today as Rodeo Drive, famed shopping street in Hollywood, California. I don’t have a picture of her, but I do have one of the street. I’m not sure how she’d feel about this transformation, but that’s how the street got its name – from the ranchland it now occupies.

An early crusader for women’s rights was Abigail Scott Duniway.
 Here is a quote from her – one that fits these thoughts today.
“When women’s true history shall have been written, her part in the upbuilding of this nation will astound the world.” 
And she was right.
 This woman was one of the true mothers of our nation. She was not only a mom, Abigail was a teacher, an author, a small business owner, and a crusader for women’s suffrage in the old west. 
When only a teenager, she traveled by wagon train with her family over the Oregon trail. Along the way, she witnessed many things, including cruelty, starvation, and death. She later wrote a book about her experiences.

What worried her the most was watching women work themselves to death for their family but be denied any rights over their life or property. To give herself a platform, she founded a newspaper to raise awareness about the plight of the pioneer women.

When Oregon granted women the right to vote in 1912, she became the first registered woman voter in her county at age 78. And here she is: 

The old west even birthed great women authors – most notably Laura Ingalls Wilder. I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie as I’m sure many of you did.

In a day when few women had no true voice, Laura wrote timeless classics about family, pioneer life, and love.

I don’t really have to tell you her life story, we watched it play out in living color, directed by none other than Little Joe Cartwright.

Look at her picture, I think she resembles Melissa Gilbert – don’t you?

Closer to home, I want to remember my own mother. Her name was Pauline. She was a true character. I was born when she was 37 years old. She lost a baby when she was 17 and waited twenty years to try again. Mother could do anything – like the lady pioneers of the old west – she could run her household, sew like a professional, plant a garden, and harvest and can the vegetables. She could milk a cow, ride a horse, and paint a beautiful landscape. During all this, she made sure I went to school, went to church, took piano lessons, and received a college degree. Mother didn’t have a college education, but she was well read and taught me to love reading also.

When I started writing, my mother was my biggest fan. And these were no ‘sweet’ versions. She read and enjoyed my sensual books – once she became so enthralled reading one that she missed her ‘standing’ hair appointment at the salon. An unbelievable thing for her to do.

When the people of the town found out about my writing and ostracized me for it, I considered quitting. Her advice is why I’m still writing today. Her words will forever be with me. She waved her hand dismissively and gave her opinion of what I should do to the entire community - - “To hell with them,” she said. This should probably be our response to most who give us grief.

So, today I celebrate women who made a difference. I hope the same can be said of me someday.

Thank you for listening to me ramble.

Love – Rebecca Schaefer/Sable Hunter 


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Colorado Springs & William Jackson Palmer ~ Julie Lence

 

William Jackson Palmer
Colorado Springs Gazette

Being an east coast girl from upstate New York, one would think hubby and I would’ve retired to our hometown to be close to our families, but we didn’t. Hubby spent twenty years in the Air Force and one of his assignments was Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs. We fell in love with the area and decided to make it home when he retired. In the past 18 years, Colorado Springs has boomed in population and business, and every day, weather permitting, I get to see America’s Mountain.

Pikes Peak
Pinterest

Long before Army lieutenant and explorer Zebulon Pike traveled through the area and discovered the mountain that is now his namesake, Pike’s Peak, the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes called the area at the bottom of what is now Ute Pass home. It was Pike’s wish to summit the peak to map out rivers and the landscape, but feet of snow prevented him from doing so. He published an account of his travels in 1810 naming the mountain, Grand Peak, thus putting it on the map. Fast forward a few years to when gold was discovered in the area and folks rushed to the region, where businessmen established Colorado Springs’ first settlement, Colorado City, at the base of the peak. (Situated west of where Colorado Springs currently sits and Manitou Springs, Colorado City is now known as Old Colorado City.) Colorado City became the hub for selling mining equipment and supplies to those headed up Ute Pass to pan for gold. For a short time, Colorado City was also a territorial capital.

Those looking to strike it rich in the mines weren’t the only people coming west to Colorado Spring’s first settlement. Many came for health reasons, hoping the fresh air and sunshine would cure tuberculosis, and others came for business opportunities, including Colorado Springs’ founding father, William Jackson Palmer. Born in Delaware on September 17, 1836 to a Quaker family, Palmer had a fascination with trains at a young age. He eventually hired on with the Pennsylvania railroad and learned everything he could about the railroad industry and engineering and was the first person to suggest trains should burn coal and not wood, since wood was fast becoming short in supply. Because of his teachings, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the first to use coal.

Vintage Map
Walmart

A man who loathed slavery, Palmer served as a general in the Civil War and won a Medal of Honor for heroic efforts. After the war, he financially supported education efforts for the freed slaves and ventured to the Kansas Railroad and helped lay the tracks all the way to Denver. He and his friend, Dr. William Bell, founded their own railroad company, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The first tracks went to the Pikes Peak. The area struck a chord deep inside Palmer and he predicted the foothills would become a booming resort town. Purchasing 10,000 acres of land along the train route, Palmer laid out streets, hauled in thousands of trees to make the city lush and green, and erected lavish buildings resembling European style, to include the Antler’s Hotel. In 1871, his Victorian resort town was born. From the start, Colorado Springs wasn’t a boom town. Palmer used the breathtaking scenery to lure the rich to the area, along with capitalists, artists and intellectuals. Gold was discovered to the west of the peak in Cripple Creek in 1891. More of the wealthy flocked to Colorado Springs and for a spell, the city had more millionaires per capita than any other location in the United States. 

Durango & Silverton RR
ASCE Library

In 1870, Palmer married Mary Lincoln (Queen) and the two enjoyed a honeymoon in the British Isles. It was there he saw and learned about the narrow gauge railroad. The narrow gauge was cheaper to build, could make sharper turns and climb steeper slopes, making it the perfect type of railroad for Palmer to incorporate throughout the state of Colorado to make travel through the Rocky Mountains easier. To date, two of his tracks remain in place; the 45 mile trek between Durango and Silverton in the southwest corner of Colorado, and the Cumbres and Toltec 63 mile trek between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO.    

Colorado Springs today
4word

Palmer went on to bring the railroad to Pueblo. He co-founded the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, and drove the ‘golden spike’ at the Promontory Summit in Utah to finishing America’s Transcontinental Railroad. He eventually retired to Colorado Springs where he helped to establish the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, before passing away March 1, 1909. A statue of him riding his favorite his horse,  Diablo, sits in the intersection of Nevada and Platte Avenue in Colorado Springs across from Palmer High School, which is named after him. 

General Palmer Statue
and high school