A Guidebook To Colorado
by Eugene Parsons

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CHAPTER II ARAPAHOE COUNTY Area.
Arapahoe County originally extended to the Kansas line. In 1902 it was divided into 3 counties, viz: Adams County, the City and County of Denver, and Arapahoe County. The area of this county was then reduced from 4,723 to 823 square miles, by the creation of Adams and Denver Counties and by the enlargement of Washington and Yuma Counties. Discovery of Gold. In July, 1858, the first important discovery of gold in what is now Colorado was made in Arapahoe County. Green Russell and a dozen companions (mostly Georgians) had left their camp near the mouth of Cherry Creek and were prospecting up the Platte, when one of them, James H. Pierce,(2) found a sand bar that panned out a hundred dollars' worth of free gold. A short time afterward they came across a rich deposit of pay dirt in Dry Creek, a small tributary of the Platte, about a mile south of Denver. Here they obtained placer gold to the value of $400. Rush to Pike's Peak. The news of the find was carried to the States, and the rush to Cherry Creek and Pike's Peak followed in the spring of 1859, about 100,000 people crossing the plains that year. Arapahoe County was then a part of Kansas Territory. In 1861 Colorado Territory was organized, and Arapahoe was one of the original 17 counties of the Territory. It
got its name from a tribe of plains Indians. The word Ara.pah.oe is said to mean " Big Nose." Farming. The Russell party discovered all the gold there was in Arapahoe County; at least, no colors to amount to anything ever rewarded the search of other prospectors in the vicinity of Denver (although a trace of float gold may to this day be washed out of the gravel of Cherry Creek). However, the county is rich In dairying and agriculture, having a cultivated area of 30,000 acres. It is traversed by the Union Pacific, the Rock Island, the Colorado and Southern, the Denver and Rio Grande, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroads. The population of Arapahoe County in 1910 was 10,263. County Seat. The county seat of Arapahoe County Is Littleton, 10 miles south of Denver, on the Colorado and Southern and other railways. Its altitude is 5,358 feet. The population in 1900 was 738, and 1373 in 1910. Other towns in the county are Aurora, Byers, Engle-wood, Sheridan, and Deer Trail. The military post of Fort Logan Is about 9 miles south of Denver, on the Colorado and Southern Railway. It is the headquarters of the Department of Colorado, several companies of soldiers, the Twenty-first Infantry, being stationed here. The Loretto Academy is at Loretto Heights, a mile north of Fort Logan. Take train on Colorado and Southern. Game Preserve. Near Littleton is the largest game preserve in the world. Here are the Kendrick pheasan-tries and the rearing fields of peacocks, geese, quail, partridges, and other wild fowl. On the west bank of Platte River, between Littleton and Fort Logan, stands a log cabin erected in 1859 by Sam R. Brown. It is a suggestive reminder of bygone days. On Bear Creek is a trapper's cabin. Starting from Denver the route of a natural auto drive. traverses the western part of Arapahoe County along the wooded bank of Bear Creek, then winds through Turkey Creek Canon and turns north to Mount Falcon and other scenic features about Morrison CHERRY CREEK IN 1842 (From Rufus B. Sage's Rocky Mountain Life} " Sept. roth. Arrangements being completed for resuming my journey, I left Fort Lancaster [Fort Lupton] in company with four others, intending to proceed as far as Taos in New Mexico. . . . " Following the trail leading from the Platte to the Arkansas, or Rio Napeste, we continued our way some thirty-five miles, and halted with a camp of free traders and hunters, on Cherry Creek. " This stream is an affluent of the Platte, from the southeast, heading in a broad ridge of pine hills and rocks, known as the ' Divide.' It pursues its course for nearly sixty miles, through a broad valley of rich soil, tolerably well timbered, and shut in for the most part by high plats of tableland, — at intervals thickly studded with lateral pines, cedars, oaks, and shrubs of various kinds, — gradually expanding its banks as it proceeds, and exchanging a bed of rock and pebbles for one of quicksand and gravel, till it finally attains a width of nearly two hundred yards, and in places is almost lost in the sand. The stream derives its name from the abundance of cherry found upon it. . . . " Our route bore nearly due south for twenty miles, following the Platte bottom to the mouth of Cherry Creek, thence southeast, continuing up the valley of the latter. The Platte presented heavy groves of timber upon both banks, as did also its islands, while its bottoms appeared fertile. " The mountains [foothills], some fifteen miles to our right, towering aloft with their snow-capped summits and dark frowning sides, looked like vast piles of clouds, big with storm and heaped upon the lap of earth; while the vapor scuds that flitted around them, seemed as the ministers of pent up wrath, in readiness to pour forth their torrents and deluge the surrounding plains, or let loose the fierce tornado and strew its path with desolation. " Three or four miles before reaching our present camp, we passed a village of the Arapahos on its way to the mountains, in pursuit of game. . . . " The Arapahos are a tribe of prairie Indians, inhabiting the country bordering upon the South Fork of the Platte and Arkansas rivers. " Their territory embraces an extent of about forty-five thousand square miles, a portion of which is well watered and interspersed with numerous fertile spots. Timber is rarely found, except in the creek bottoms and among the mountains. A large section of it, however, is dry, sandy, and sterile, and almost entirely timberless and destitute of water. The game of these regions includes all the varieties common to the mountains, which are quite abundant. The territory also possesses large mineral resources, and includes, among its stores of hidden wealth, gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, coal, soda, nitre, salt, and sulphur, with vast beds of gypsum.'"