Englemann Canyon Explained

Englemann Canyon (also spelled Engleman's Canon)[1] [2] is a valley along Ruxton Creek, in Manitou Springs, El Paso County, Colorado.[3] It is one of three canyons in Manitou Springs, the others are Ute Pass and Williams Canyon.[4]

Upper Englemann Canyon

In 1880, a trail was opened in Englemann Canyon to Pikes Peak.[5] It was called the Manitou Trail in 1883.[6] Zalmon Simmons surveyed the canyon for telegraph lines. The Civil War veteran and later inventor of the Simmons mattress decided that the canyon was suited for construction of a cog railway.[7] The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway, built by Simmons and completed in 1890, begins in Englemann Canyon and follows Ruxton Creek up into the Rocky Mountains for Pikes Peak.[8] The railroad climbs at an average 16% grade through the canyon past "stately spruces and jagged rocks".[9] The first third of the 8.9mile railway trip is through Englemann Canyon, alongside Ruxton Creek. Scenery includes large boulders, Ponderosa pine trees, Engelmann spruce, and Colorado blue spruce.[10] Sights in the canyon include Artist's Glen, Minnehaha Falls, Son-of-a-Gun Hill, Hells Gate, the site of Halfway House, and Ruxton Park.[11] [12] The Halfway House was the 22-room bed and breakfast along Ruxton Creek. Some of its guests were delivered by burros via a Pikes Peak burro trail. The accommodations became less desirable when the cog railway was built about 30 feet from the house. The Halfway House was a rustic hotel that served tourists who took the railway.[13] Minnehaha, named for its falls, was a hamlet with several cabins.[14]

In 1891, the canyon was described in The Illustrated American as "a narrow valley, with a steep mountain rising on either side, and the clear, sparkling Ruxton Creek rushing parallel to the track, sometimes dashing over rocks hundreds of feet below the train, and sometimes pausing for a moment to form a deep, smooth pool, such as the speckled trout loves to haunt."[15]

In 1925, a water utility power plant was built in Ruxton Park for $16,866 by the city of Colorado Springs.[16] [17] The stone hydroelectric plant generates electricity as Ruxton Creek flows into Manitou Springs from the mountain.

Lower Englemann Canyon

In the early 20th century, an electric trolley of the Colorado Springs and Interurban Railway from Colorado Springs terminated at Manitou Springs, and a trolley, called the "Dinky" carried passengers up lower Englemann Canyon (Ruxton Road) to the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway depot.[18]

In 1891 the canyon had one spring, the Ute-Iron spring,[19] Near the depot there were three mineral springs in 1913: Ute-Iron, Little Chief, and Ouray springs.[20] near the Iron Springs Hotel.[21] The current Manitou Mineral Springs on Ruxton Avenue are Iron Spring and Twin Spring.[22] [23]

See also: Iron Springs, Colorado.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Cassier's Magazine. 109. 1894.
  2. Book: Alexander Majors. Seventy Years on the Frontier: Alexander Major's Memoirs of a Lifetime on the Border. 1893. Rand, McNally. 308.
  3. Web site: Englmann Canyon . Geographical Names Information System, US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior . October 13, 1878 . January 17, 2015 .
  4. Book: Frederick Converse Beach. George Edwin Rines. The Americana: a universal reference library, comprising the arts and sciences, literature, history, biography, geography, commerce, etc., of the world. 1912. Scientific American compiling department. 427.
  5. Book: Frederick Hastings Chapin. Frederick Chapin's Colorado: The Peaks About Estes Park and Other Writings. 1995. University Press of Colorado. 978-0-87081-366-5. 215.
  6. Book: Samuel Edwin Solly. The Health resorts of Colorado Springs and Manitou. 1883. Gazette Publishing Company. 19.
  7. Book: Tim Blevins. Film & Photography on the Front Range. 1 January 2012. Pikes Peak Library District. 978-1-56735-297-9. 58.
  8. Book: Monahan, Sherry . 2002 . Pikes Peak: Adventures, Communities, and Lifestyles . Google books . 10. January 17, 2015.
  9. Book: Phelps R. Griswold. Bob Griswold. Railroads of Colorado: A Guide to Modern and Narrow Gauge Trains. 1988. American Traveler Press. 978-1-55838-088-2. 31.
  10. Web site: Along the Route . Manitou & Pike's Peak Railway . January 17, 2015 .
  11. Web site: Ride the Cog Rail to the Summit of Pikes Peak: The Trip to the Summit of Pikes Peak . Pikes Peak - America's Mountain . January 17, 2015 .
  12. Web site: Digital Collection Search: Englemann Canyon . Denver Public Library . January 17, 2015 .
  13. Book: Tim Blevins. Film & Photography on the Front Range. 1 January 2012. Pikes Peak Library District. 978-1-56735-297-9. 53-60.
  14. Book: Stop at Pike's Peak on your Way to or from the Expositions (for 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition) . Manitou and Cog Wheel Route Pike's Peak Railway, The Committee of One Hundred. 1915 . January 17, 2015 .
  15. Book: The Illustrated American. https://books.google.com/books?id=dKNAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA165. 1891. Illustrated American Publishing Company. 165. Up Pike's Peak by Rail.
  16. News: The Power of Privacy . R. Scott Rappold . The Gazette . November 1, 2008 . January 14, 2015 .
  17. News: Cobweb Corners: The old Half Way House in Ruxton Park . Mel McFarland, Historian . Westside Pioneer . Colorado Springs, CO . December 8, 2014 .
  18. Web site: Stratton Spring . Manitou Mineral Springs . January 17, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150202232107/http://manitoumineralsprings.org/stratton-spring/ . February 2, 2015 .
  19. Book: Colorado College. Colorado College Studies: Papers read before the Colorado College Scientific Society. 1891. The Inland Press, The Register Publishing Company. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 17.
  20. Book: Colorado Scientific Society. Proceedings of the Colorado Scientific Society. X - 1911, 1912, 1913. The Society. Denver, Colorado. 241.
  21. Book: Tourists' Hand Book of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. 1887. The Railway. 26.
  22. Web site: Manitou Mineral Springs (brochure) . Manitou Mineral Springs . January 17, 2015 .
  23. Web site: Mineral Content Chart . Manitou Mineral Springs . January 17, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150226093757/http://manitoumineralsprings.org/pdf_files/Mineral_Content_Chart.pdf . February 26, 2015 .

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