Traveling with Grace: Exploring Colorado Springs
This week’s entry for our #TravelTuesday series: Traveling with Grace explores Colorado Springs, a place Grace and her traveling companions were “sorry to leave.” To read more of Grace’s travels, click here.
Van Briggle Pottery Vase, National Museum of American History, courtesy of The Van Briggle Pottery Co. CE.237970.
Monday, August 18, 1947
Colorado Springs
Weather: Showery
This morning we moved from the Landis Terrance to the Cliff House where we are much more comfortable. We visited the Van Briggle pottery works where they showed us some of the process. Their work is very interesting, and all their pottery is in 2 shades an unusual blue green and a rose red. The business was established in 1893 and some of their work won prizes in the 1900 Paris Exposition and one piece is in the Smithsonian. The lamps and vases are especially beautiful, and the shades are made of plastic with flowers, milkweed and butterflies as decoration, very effective.
Garden of the Gods, the Gateway, Colorado. Photo by William Henry Jackson for the Detroit Publishing Co, c. 1898. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
We then went to the Garden of the Gods; a city park where huge red granite boulders rise in startling shapes and forms from the green turf. We bought a bottle of Colorado’s famous cherry cider to drink with our lunch (it tastes like the juice from a plump cherry pie and is very tasty when ice cold) and then we rode up Cheyenne Mountain, twenty two hairpin turns to the top. Halfway up is the tall gray memorial to Will Rogers, half church, half feudal castle in design, the flag flying from its battlemented tower and musical recordings oozing from loud speakers. Inside are various pictures of Will at different ages. At the top of the mounting 9,623 ft. is Cheyenne Lodge, built like an Indian adobe pueblo. On the way down – at a different level – we stopped to look at the small zoo, mainly rocky mountain animals. The view coming down is even more magnificent than going up and the inevitable Colo rainbow followed us back to C.S. [Colorado Springs] where the streets were full of snowbanks (actually hail stones).
Tuesday, August 19, 1947
Weather: Fine
This morning I made arrangements for the Pikes Peak trip for tomorrow, then went to where they mapped us out a beautiful trip for this afternoon. We made a complete circle around Pikes Peak and saw it from every angle. We went through Divide, Cripple Creek and Victor, the latter 2 places in the heart of the Gold Mine section where we saw lots of shafts and in the town, we saw the men turning in their little bags of nuggets. In Victor we saw a high school with a sign on it indicating that Lowell Thomas had gone to school here. The scenery over the High Drive coming back beggared description (the roads are among the worst we have encountered). They are cut right between the cliffs and we went through 9 mountain tunnels. Points of interest on the return were Rosemont lakes and dam, Cathedral Park, St. Peter’s Dome, Helen Hunt Jackson Falls and Seven Falls (yesterday they wanted to charge us 2.80 to see these on another road and here we saw them for free). Tonight, on the porch of the Cliff House 8 Indians in colorful costumes dancing for us, including 1 child.
Wednesday, August 20, 1947
Weather: Perfect
This morning we took a short ride to the entrance of the Cave of the Winds, a pretty winding drive up the mts, which took about ½ an hour, then we went to the station to take the train for Pikes Peak (named for Zebulon Pike, early explorer). There were mobs of people waiting and all trying to get on the first of 3 trains (a Diesel, the others are steam, and this is the most comfortable). Two men and Charles pushed me through the crowd, and we got on, but Mrs. Allers and Helene were left behind and had to take the next train 15 minutes later. The ride up was exciting, the train was at a 45-degree angle and we ascended slowly in order fully to appreciate the scenery and we are very lucky to have a rare good visibility and clear sunshine. Looking down we saw the tracks winding far above to the summit. The tracks are lined sometimes with huge boulders in fantastic forms into which one can imagine all sorts of things and about which the conductor wisecracked to the delight of the passengers, and again we ride on a carpet of exquisitely dainty alpine flowers. At a point near the top we can see a mountain range in New Mexico 165 miles away. Sometimes we can see the floor of the valley and from the summer Colorado Springs looks like a checkerboard and the Will Rogers shrine like a needle sticking up in the side of Cheyenne MT. The road has been in operation 56 years and they have never had an accident. We stayed on top 40 minutes and the engineer came back and talked to me. He is a student at Colorado Med and operates the engine as a vacation job. It is quite cold up here.
Thursday, August 21, 1947
Weather: Perfect
We had a nice ride to Green Mountains Springs, a dear little spa hidden away between green hills a little distance off the main highway. There is a pretty waterfall tumbling down in 4 or 5 cascades from the rocky heights and some lovely little cottages as well as a few rather pretentious stone mansions amid sloping gardens. Then to Woodland Park, Lake George and Tarryall. On our return to C.S. [Colorado Springs] we stopped at one of the numerous springs (a huge cigar-store Indian is crouched on the ground with an earthen jar held between his knees from which he pours spring water to thirsty travelers who bring cups, jugs, bottles, and what you to be filled at the fount). The water is slightly saline and sparkling. Then Helene and I made a tour of some of the shops in a section which looks like a bit of A.C. [Atlantic City] and Coney Island. I got an Indian bracelet to match my belt and some furniture for my Succoth [sukkah]. We went to bed early in preparation for our long drive tomorrow. We have really enjoyed our stay here and are sorry to leave.
Friday, August 22, 1947
Colorado Springs to Beloit
Weather: Fine
Left Colorado Springs at 8:45 with coats and sweaters on but it wasn’t long ere we shed both. We got box lunches in C.S. [Colorado Springs] and they were delicious. Sandwiches, fruit, potato salad, sweet pickles, jointed fried chicken sealed in cellophane and cakes. We also took spring water with us. We passed through a dust storm, not too bad but enough to show us how serious it is to have the topsoil blow off. This is really the breadbasket of the country (Kansas) plenty of corn and wheat but little else. Lost an hour en route. Arrived in Beloit about 7.
Thanks for reading “Traveling with Grace,” a series where we’re sharing (and annotating) posts from the travel diaries of Grace Amelia Hecht, native Baltimorean, b. 1897 and d. 1955. As mentioned in my introductory post transcription errors sometimes occur and I’ve made my best guesses where possible, denoted by [brackets]. – Rachel Kassman, marketing manager