Autograph Letter unsigned (incomplete?). Camp Garden of the Gods [Colorado], June 30, 1878. 4pp. To Mrs. Libbie M. Betzer and Children.
The writer, who suffered from lung problems and had come to be cured by the Colorado air, gives a long description of the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs - “a lively place to camp…such grand scenery and such nice valleys…”
Named by two surveyors 20 years before, the “Garden” was composed of “red sand stone, very soft and jagged…330 ft. high…Echo Rock, white sand stone…right at the south point is our wagon and tent…I took the cold chisel and cut my name and date so that it will stand for hundreds of years…by good grit and hard climbing we can go to the top…two great high walls and up the crevices where the rock has fell from the top and lodged in the cracks making a kind of stair way…there is cedar and pines (scrubby ones) growing almost to top of the rocks…In the big sinner is a cave about 100 feet long and 6 feet wide…” in which it was irresistible to “hallow” and hear the “roar” of the echo. There were constant visitors, men, women and children, arriving in “fancy rigs” or on pack animals, fresh from the train station, many camping for the night by the roadside – all standing atop the rocks, which were fairly easy to climb without danger of falling, even for the women, everyone”hallowing and singing…to hear themselves answered back…all the noises you ever heard…” The writer thought he could get plenty of work, hauling freight to Denver and was told he only needed cows and five acres to farm and could build a nice five-room home for $1000.
A year after the writer visited the area, a Colorado Springs philanthropist bought much of the land and later gave it to the city. Eventually, it became the public park which it is today.