COLORADO: 
About its 
climAte. 
BY 
J. C. DANA, LIBRARIAN, PUBLIC LIBRARY, DENVER 
CARROLL E. EDSON, M. D., DENVER 
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 
DENVER MEETINQ 
June 7th to 10th, 1898 
This special edition Is Issued at the suggestion 
of and In co-operation with the 
Denver Oommittee. PREFACE 
The scenery of Colorado has been widely advertised, li 
deserves all the praise it has ever received, and much more 
can be given it without either vain repetition or exaggera- 
tion. 
But the climate of this region of mountain, plain, val- 
ley, park and canon, of this “Backbone of the Continent,” 
of this land of sunshine, blue sky and tonic air—this climate 
of ours calls for a more widespread appreciation than it has 
yet received. 
It has attracted many to our state. It brings here thou- 
sands of pleasure seekers and thousands who come seeking 
for health, and finding it, remain here, a valued addition to 
the population. It should bring many thousands more. It 
is one of our greatest resources, and is inexhaustible. It 
vitally affects the character of our citizens. It greatly influ- 
ences, by cheering and bracing and inspiring each individ- 
ual, our civil and our industrial life. It deserves more con- 
sideration. 
The following brief statement, made as simple and as 
straightforward as possible, is based upon the writings of 
medical and meteorological experts, and draws its statistics 
from the reports of careful observers. 
J. O. D. 
C. E. E. 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
ABOUT THE CLIMATE OF COLORADO 
AND ABOUT ITS RAILWAYS . . . . 
RESORTS, SANITARIUMS, ROUTES OF 
TRAVEL AND RESOURCES 
WRITE TO 
B. L. WINCHELL 
GENERAL PASSENGER AGENT 
DENVER 
Published tn Denver, in December, 1897, 
by the Passenger Department of the 
Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway 
and Denver, Leadville and Gunnison 
Railway Companies Colorado: About Its Climate 
THE STATE IN OUTLINE. 
Colorado’s area is over 100,000 square miles, nearly twice 
that of all New England. Of this great region, the east- 
ern part, one-third of the entire state, is a rolling plain, the 
eastern border of which is 3,500 feet, and the western, where 
it touches the foothills, 4,000 to 6,000 feet above sea-level. 
The mountain system which covers the western two-thirds 
of the state is too complex to admit of brief description. It 
is enough here to say that behind the high ramparts of the 
Front range, four great parks or valleys or mountain basins 
stretch north and south across the state, with an elevatiou, 
as to their rolling or level floors, of from 7,000 to 9,000 feet, 
and that between these and the state’s western boundary 
are many mountain ranges and isolated peaks rising out of 
wide plateaus. In and out of this 60,000 square miles of 
mountain, park and table land, flow the Arkansas, the Platte, 
the Dolores, the Grand, the Bear and other rivers. Along 
these rivers and their tributaries are thousands of miles of 
valleys, some of them narrow canons and little more, many 
of them broad, fertile and inviting. These valleys vary iu 
elevation from 4,000 feet to 8,000 or 9,000 feet. 
Colorado climate is, of course, as varied, in many of its 
aspects, as is the surface of the state itself. On the moun- 
tain peaks, 14,000 feet above the sea, is perpetual snow, 
with scant Alpine vegetation peeping forth at summer be- 
side the drifts. In the lower valleys the climate is almost 
semi-tropical, and here delicious peaches, grapes and sim- 
ilar fruits are easily and profitably grown. Between these 
two extremes are found climates of all degrees of tempera- 
ture. Places at the same altitude, moreover, in different 
parts of the state, varying as to the trend of the valleys in 
which they lie and as to their exposure to the winds, vary 
also, and widely, as to their temperature and their attrac- 
tiveness as places of residence. 
Three things common to all Colorado, however, must 
never be lost sight of—blue sky, sunshine and dry air. All 
over the state it is true that, save in the highest altitudes— 
say above 7.000 feet—on most days through midwinter, it 
is possible for one to sit in comfort in the sunshine in any 
sheltered nook. It is this almost perpetual sunshine which 
has perhaps more to do witlT the exhilarating effect of Colo- 
rado’s climate on both well and sick than any other one 
factor. WHY THE CLIMATE MAKES FRIENDS. 
The Coloradoan visits his old home in Iowa, or Ohio, or 
Pennsylvania, or New England, or in the South, for a few 
weeks and returns to his adopted home, and “Did you have 
a pleasant time?” is the first question that greets him. And 
over and over again comes the answer, “O, yes; except for 
the weather. It was so damp and oppressive—or cold and 
cloudy all the time.” 
The climate of America as a whole is brilliant and sun- 
shiny, relatively, to that of much of the world; but the 
climate of the eastern states, when compared with that of 
Colorado, is so cloudy and damp and depressing that one 
who has lived here for a year or two feels most deeply 
when he returns there the lack of blue sky and cheering 
sun. 
The new life in the new country; the SAvitt passing of 
events; the possibilities of advancement and of fortune; the 
stir incident to the beginnings of things; all these are at- 
tractive to many, and go far to Compensate for the loss of 
old friends and for the breaking of home ties and for that 
shifting of the scene of one’s life which is a hardship to 
most. But over and above all the attractions of the new- 
ness and the swiftness of western things is the attraction 
of the climate of our state; and many who have come to 
Colorado for other reasons have been led to stay, because 
they felt that here, under our sun and the inspiration of our 
sparkling dry air, their life would be happier and fuller and 
more satisfactory than it could be imder the too often clouded 
skies of the East or South. 
THE SUNSHINE. 
The sun in Colorado—in that great tract along and among 
the eastern foothills, in which are located Denver, Colorado 
Springs, Manitou, Pueblo, Trinidad, Golden, Boulder, Fort 
Collins and Greeley; in that region to which the tourist and 
the invalid are most likely to come and in which they are 
likely to stay longest—the sun here shines for about sixty- 
two hours out of every hundred in which it is above the 
horizon. In Philadelphia the ratio is forty-nine. During 
the winter months, the trying time for the invalid, the differ- 
ence is more striking still. In Colorado we have from De- 
cember to March, 50 per cent, of all possible sunshine. In 
Philadelphia they get but 37 per cent.; a difference in Colo- 
rado’s favor of over one-half. In ten years there were in 
Denver, on the average in each year, 314 clear or partly 
clear days. In Chicago, in the same period, there were 
only 251; in New York, 262. During the three winter months 
the sun shines four out of every five days. Nor do these 
figures tell the whole story. One of the greatest advantages 
of this eastern belt along the front of the range is the early morning sunshine. There are no high mountain ranges for 
the sun to climb, as in so many high altitude resorts in other 
lands, but its first rays above the low eastern horizon are 
at once warming and cheering. The sun is up before the in- 
valid is awake, and the air is warmed for his outdoor life 
without a long wait till mid-morning. In Davos, Switzer- 
land, the sun on January 1 does not rise till ten a. m. and 
sets at three in the afternoon, a possible sunshine of only 
five hours. In Denver on January 1 the sun rises at half- 
past seven a. m. and does not set till after half-past four: 
more than nine hours of sunshine. 
Neither do the cloudy days preclude an outdoor life, as 
might be inferred. They do not bring the damp and raw- 
ness of the eastern or middle states. To many there is a 
restfulness in a clouded day from the constant intensity of 
clear blue sky. 
THE TEMPERATURE, ACTUAL AND FELT. 
The dryness and the rarity of the air make the sun’s 
direct rays hotter and seemingly more penetrating here 
than in lower altitudes. Colorado sunshine will dry the soil, 
soften the atmosphere, and warm up every one who steps 
into it after a winter’s storm in far less time than will the 
sunshine which falls through the damp and heavy atmo- 
sphere of the East. 
The dryness of the air of this great mid-continental table- 
land, and the consequent rapidity of evaporation, must be 
kept in mind in considering Colorado’s temperatures, would 
one gain an accurate understanding of the climate as one 
feels it. The average July temperature of Denver is 72.1 
degrees. The sensible temperature of the same month, the 
temperature that is, reduced to eastern terms, is only 57 
degrees. The Denver summer corresponds as to the feel- 
ings of those who pass through it, to that of Manitoba, of 
the Thousand Islands, of the Adlrondacks, or of the White 
Mountains. (Capt. Glassford.) 
The summer heat Is occasionally seemingly intense; but 
it is really little felt, causes very little inconvenience, and 
never any suffering. In the hottest of summer weather it 
is but a step from the heat of the sunshine into the shade, 
which is always cool. Sunstroke is here unknown. 
The coolness in the shade in Colorado, due to the very 
rapid dissipation of heat by reason of the rarity of the air, is 
something often spoken of but not easily impressed suffic- 
iently on those not familiar with it. It makes it possible for 
one to live with great comfort even during a summer when 
the general temperature, as shown by a thermometer ex- 
posed to the direct rays of the sun, would seem to be almost 
unbearable. 
The mean annual temperature of Denver is 50 degrees, 
and the mean annual temperature of all the most thickly 
3 populated part of the state, just east of the mountains, is 
from 45 to 50 degrees. 
Capt. W. A. Glassford, chief signal officer, department of 
Colorado, has contributed an article to the report for 1894 
of the Colorado state board of health on the subject of the 
actual as compared with apparent climate, and from this 
article some of the points given above are taken. “When 
the published record,” he says, “of the heat in Boston, New 
York, Washington, St. Louis and Chicago is above 100 de- 
grees it is simply unbearable; while the same recorded 
temperature at Denver is attended with little discomfort. 
Why? Because in the East moisture is present to a very 
considerable extent in the atmosphere, while in the West 
it is almost absent.” 
Owing to this great dryness of the air, and its small ca- 
pacity for holding heat, there is throughout the year a differ- 
ence of from 40 to GO degrees between the sun temperature 
and the air. It is this great difference which makes the sum- 
mer air so cool and comfortable. And in the winter, when 
the air is cold and bracing, one has but to step across from 
the shade into the sunshine to find the great warmth of its 
rays, 40 degrees higher. In mid-winter it is not uncommon 
to see two thermometers on the same veranda, one standing 
at 30 degrees in the shade, and the other in the sun at 85 
degrees. 
The cold air in winter is not apparent nor piercing as in 
damp climates, but clear and bracing, stimulating to nutri- 
tion and mental activity. 
SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER. 
Speaking again of that part of Colorado which is most 
inhabited and is best adapted to the wants of the pleasure 
seeker or the invalid, a strip of ten to fifty miles in width, 
where plains and mountains meet—the temperate belt, as 
Capt. Glassford calls it—one may say of the seasons: 
Spring—In Colorado we escape March; that is, this 
month here is so much less a time of rain and snow ami 
slush and mud and bitter winds, than it is in the East, that 
it passes without particular notice. During the month of 
March and in early April snowfalls are not uncommon; but 
they disappear very rapidly under the heat of the sun. In 
a few hours the snow has evaporated, there is no melting 
into slush or wet, and often twenty-four hours after one of 
these short snows the dust is blowing on the sunny side of 
the road. The rapid disappearance of the snow is as incom- 
prehensible to one who has not seen it as it is astonishing to 
the beholder. The temperature in these months does not 
often fall below 30 degrees, and commonly before the end of 
March the warm sunshine has begun to bring out the grass 
and to swell the buds on the trees and to call back the birds. April is a growing month, and in May the plains and the 
country generally are at their greenest. 
The mean minimum temperature for March for ten years 
at Denver was 27.6 degrees, and the mean maximum tem- 
perature for May was 68.9 degrees. The rainfall in the 
whole three months of Spring in Denver averages only about 
5 inches. 
Summer—June and July are the hottest months—and by 
August the mean temperature begins to decrease. The mean 
maximum temperature for July is 86.3 degrees. The direct 
rays of the sun are very intense and hot, but the air is cool 
and dry, and consequently the heat is easily borne. It is 
rare to see moisture on the soda fountains, and there is the 
comfort of a dry skin and unwilted collars. At sunset the 
air at once cools rapidly and the nights are always comfort- 
able. There are comparatively few nights in summer when 
one does not need a blanket covering before morning. It is 
common to have a heavy but short shower in the last of the 
afternoon or early evening during these months, especially 
near the mountains, but they are not an interruption to out- 
door life and serve to lay the dust of the sun-baked plains. 
Autumn—The autumn in Colorado, as in many other 
regions, is the most delightful part of the year. From 
September to nearly Christmas there is an almost unbroken 
period of delicious, sparkling days. All over the state it is 
not uncommon to have, during these months, a period of 
six or even ten or twelve weeks with scarcely a cloud in the 
sky from day to day, a brilliant sun, and high winds only 
on very rare occasions. The ground is dry, the air—as the 
nights grow cool—is even more bracing than usual. In all 
respects this is in Colorado the ideal season for the invalid 
or the tourist. 
The mean temperature of the air along the eastern foot- 
hills in Colorado (4,000 to 6,500 feet), taking Denver for ex- 
ample, for September is 63 degrees; for October, 51 degrees, 
and for November, 39 degrees. At higher elevations in the 
mountains the nights get quite cool in September, and ice 
forms at eight or nine thousand feet not infrequently in Oc- 
tober; but even in high altitudes storms or periods of ex- 
treme cold in these three months are infrequent. 
Winter—The fine weather of the autumn months often 
continues to the middle of November, and occasionally as 
late as to the last of December. A noticeable thing about the 
climate of the winter months in Colorado is that if one lives 
for a few years at a high altitude, even as great as that of 
Deadville—about 10,000 feet—and then spends a winter or 
two among the foothills at an elevation of from five to six 
thousand feet, he does not notice any great difference in the 
temperature of the winter or in the number and severity of 
the storms. In every part of the state below 10,000 feet and 
5 above 4,000 feet, there are during each winter several periods 
of from three to ten days of cold weathe'r, usually preceded 
by a snow storm, and perhaps accompanied by one or two 
days of considerable wind. But these periods of cold 
weather, even when on rare occasions the thermometer goes 
several degrees below zero, are not felt to anything like the 
extent that similar temperature is in a damp climate. And it 
probably is a fact that the physical sensations of a winter 
at eight or nine thousand feet or at five or six in Colorado 
are very similar, and that the covering needed, and the pre- 
cautions naturally taken against cold are of about the same 
nature in both altitudes. This fact is mentioned to call at- 
tention again to the persistent characteristics of the climate— 
dryness and sunshine—of every part of the state. 
The sun is more often clouded in the winter months 
than in the rest of the year; but it can not be too often stated 
that the winter’s sun is warm and invigorating, and that 
there are few days in the whole season so disagreeable as to 
make it impossible for any ordinary invalid to remain out 
of doors. 
There is no accumulation of snow along the eastern belt 
of country—Denver, Colorado Springs, etc. A few days or a 
week and all traces of it are gone save on the northern side 
of banks or sheltered places. And it disappears without 
melting into slush or icy pools: the dry wind licks it up into 
quick disappearing vapor. The snow does not house the in- 
valid save while it is falling. There is no piling up of drifts 
to give a long damp melting time in spring. 
Along the eastern foothills the average midday tempera- 
ture of the air is 45.5 degrees for December, 27.3 degrees for 
January and 48.0 degrees for February. The total rainfall 
in Denver for these three months in 1892 was 2.47 inches. 
The open street cars are run all winter. 
The clothing worn in Colorado, save high in the mount- 
ains, is such as is commonly worn in New York and New 
England and in the western states of about the same lati- 
tude; except that in winter the heavy overcoat is less needed, 
and in summer the thinnest underwear is apt to prove not 
quite heavy enough. 
Abundant sunshine, an invigorating, dry, sterile air; ele- 
vation above sea-level and unrivaled opportunity for out- 
door life, are the great advantages which Colorado offers 
for the restoration of the consumptive’s health. They are 
the prime factors in all such cures. 
Three facts are now well established: 
First—That pulmonary tuberculosis is a curable disease. 
COLORADO AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS. Second—Other conditions being equal, the completeness 
of the cure depends on the promptness with which the pa- 
tient is put in proper surroundings. 
Third—That of all aids yet found for the cure of this dis- 
ease, suitable climatic surroundings are the most efficient. 
The consensus of the best medical authorities is unani- 
mous that outdoor life amid sunshine and dry air, at a high 
elevation, assures the best results. 
“The most notable advance in the treatment of consump- 
tion achieved during the present century has unquestionably 
been the rapid progress in public and professional favor of 
the High Altitude sanatoria.” (J. A. Lindsay, M. D.) As the 
same writer says, “The High Altitude treatment of con- 
sumption is not a mere arbitrary innovation, but rests upon 
a solid substratum of fact, and its utility is explicable on 
lines of ascertained knowledge.” 
“I am as sure as I can be that recoveries from phthisis, 
judiciously treated at high altitudes, are much more numer- 
ous and much more lasting than those treated by any other 
method at any other place.” (Sir Andrew Clark.) 
“In selecting a climate for a consumptive, the first ques- 
tion which occurs to us is the inquiry as regards the propor- 
tion of pleasant, sunny days, in which outdoor exercise can 
be safely enjoyed.” 
“The first desideratum is a large proportion of fine, sunny 
weather.” 
“In all such cases (consumption) there is one essential 
and predominating condition to be fulfilled, as we have al- 
ready said, and that is the selection of a climate in which 
an outdoor life in fresh, pure air, can be largely followed.” 
(Burney Yeo, M. D.) 
Dr. Herman Weber, in his classic lectures on pulmonary 
phthisis, says: “Pure air is the most important means of 
cure—food and an outdoor life.” Speaking of the advan- 
tages of high altitude in the cure of consumption, he says: 
“The main features of a mountain rhsort important to us are: 
“I. The purity or aseptic ndture of the air. 
“II. Dryness of the air and soil. 
“III. Coldness or coolness of the air and great warmth of 
the sun temperature. 
“IV. Rarifaction and low pressure of the air. 
“V. Intensity of light. 
“VI. Sfillness of the air in winter. 
“VII. A large amount of ozone.” 
All of the factors are ideally present in Colorado’s climate 
—elevation, from 4,000 feet to any desirable height; as dry 
and sterile an air as can be found; prolonged hours of in- 
tense, warm sunlight beneath an unclouded expanse of blue 
sky, and less annual wind movement than any of the large 
cities of the country. 
7 Dr. Weber himself says, after speaking of European sta- 
tions: “More important to us in the treatment of phthisis 
are the mountain resorts of North America. In the Rocky 
Mountains of the United States we possess indeed an end- 
less variety of mountain climates.” 
“The effects on the invalid suited to such climates are 
increase of appetite, improvement of sanguification and 
general nutrition, strengthening of the heart and circula- 
tion, raising of muscular and nervous energy. Under the in- 
fluence of such constitutional progress, which is assisted by 
the local action of aseptic, dry, cold air, by increased ventila- 
tion of the lungs, we observe a gradual improvement in the 
state of the lungs, leading not infrequently to arrest of the 
disease and actual cure.” (Herman Weber, M. D.) 
Dr. F. I. Knight, of Boston, says: “There seems little 
doubt that in suitable cases the improvement in nutritive ac- 
tivity is much more marked in mountainous regions than 
on the plains.” 
“The region which I have found the best for this kind of 
treatment is the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in the 
states of Colorado and New Mexico, where the altitude ranges 
from four thousand to eight thousand feet.” 
“1 do not hesitate to say that the eastern slope of the 
American ‘backbone’ offers as good climatic conditions as 
the European resorts, or even better. 
“Colorado ought to be the sanatorium of the United 
States. I fully believe it has the stuff in it to merit this 
name.” (Carl Ruedi, M. D.) 
Dr. S. E. Solly, of Colorado Springs, by a careful analysis 
of 2,598 cases of pulmonary phthisis treated at various alti- 
tudes, shows that in high altitudes 70 per cent, of all cases 
improve as against 59 per cent, treated at sea level, while of 
cases in the early first stage 89 per cent, improve at high 
altitudes. 
“This inquiry,” he says, “has clearly demonstrated two 
things, viz.: that the majority of consumptives do better, 
other things being equal, the farther they are removed from 
the sea, and that they do better in high than in low alti- 
tudes.” 
“The final conclusion is that a consumptive treated in an 
open resort in an elevated climate has three times as good a 
chance of recovery as has one treated in an open resort in 
a low climate and twice as good a chance as one treated in 
a sanatorium in a low climate.” 
The figures and conclusions agree with those of Dr. S. A. 
Fisk, of Denver, Avho reports improvement in 07 per cent, of 
cases coming to Colorado, and marked improvement in 50 
per cent., adding: “I think these figures might be some- 
what increased in favor of the good influence of our cli- 
mate if only all patients would act cautiously and with dis- 
cretion, which, unfortunately, they will not.” “Taking cases as tliey come to us, we can expect improve- 
ment in two out of three; men do better than women, as tliey 
do anywhere; persons over twenty do better than those un- 
der, and those over thirty do still better.” 
Dr. S. G. Bonney, in a report of 200 cases, states “that of 
40 cases with slight invasion, in the incipient stage, 00 per 
cent, received material benefit; of 54 cases of more marked 
involvement, consolidation, beginning cavity or infection of 
both lungs, 79 per cent, improved; of advanced cases 55 per 
cent, improved, a large proportion in view of the character 
of the cases. 
“Of all cases 09 per cent, improved; 45 per cent, had 
marked improvement, and IGV2 per cent, complete arrest.” 
While in general Colorado benefits most cases of con- 
sumption, its chief efficiency is in the early stages of slight 
invasion, before there is marked involvement of lung tissue 
or serious impairment of the general health. These are the 
cases which should be sent promptly to Colorado. 
Colorado’s beneficent climate should be the first and not a 
last resort. 
Dr. F. I. Knight classes the cases most likely to do well 
here as follows: 
“I. Early apical affection. 
“II. Patients with more advanced disease, some consol- 
idation but no cavity or serious disturbance. 
“III. Hemorrhagic cases; early cases with haemopticis 
and without much fever are benefited. 
“IV. A small, quiet cavity is not a contra-indication. 
“V. Cases of consolidation remaining after pneumonia or 
pleurisy, do well. 
“VI. Laryngeal cases do no worse than anywhere else.” 
Unfortunately, as Dr. C. J. B. Williams says, “there are a 
certain number of cases where the best of climates avail 
nothing, namely, acute tuberculosis, laryngeal phthisis, ad- 
vanced excavation, and cases with intestinal ulceration and 
albuminuria.” 
Cases of advanced and destructive lesions; those compli- 
cated with serious disease of the heart, or with marked 
emphysema; those who have a marked erethic constitution 
and who do not sleep or nourish well in high altitudes, and 
those with marked sepsis, do not do well and should not be 
sent here. 
OTHER CONDITIONS OF INVALIDISM. 
Cases of bronchial irritation, catarrhal states of the throat 
and air passages, are generally improved. 
Many cases of asthma are permanently relieved. 
Dr. J. N. Hall says, in the Colorado Climatologist: “There 
seems no reason for thinking that any functional derange- 
ment of the heart is unfavorably influenced by residence at 
this altitude.” 
9 And Dr. H. B. Whitney, in the same journal, says: “A 
moderately high altitude is not contraindicated by any case 
of valvular disease where compensation has been constant 
and there are no present signs of threatened cardiac weak- 
ness.” 
And Dr. W. P. Munn, again in the same journal, says: 
“Only the functional cardiac trouble dependent upon ex- 
tensive'pulmonary involvement is aggravated at this alti- 
tude. Other persons having cardiac disease live as com- 
fortably and as long in Colorado as in any other region. The 
percentage of deaths in Denver due to diseases of the heart 
and to that closely allied condition, Bright’s disease, is 
shown by the records of the health department of that city 
to be very much smaller than the percentage due to those 
causes in any other city in the United States having a popula- 
tion exceeding 100,000. The same statement is true in re- 
gard to pneumonia and bronchitis. Irresponsible writers 
have imagined that these diseases ought to be more preva- 
lent and fatal here than elsewhere; from belief to assertion 
has been but a short step, and their erroneous statements 
have been disseminated and have been largely accepted as 
correct, simply because they have not been contradicted.” 
Dr. J. T. Eskridge, in the Colorado Climatologist, says: 
“High altitudes, and more especially the altitudes of Colo- 
rado which are sought by invalids, afford no form of nerv- 
ous or mental disease that is not common at sea level. Doc- 
tors have failed to detect any difference, attributable to 
altitude alone, in the causes, course, frequency and prog- 
nosis of organic disease of the nervous system between 
those observed in Colorado and affections of like nature 
treated at sea level.” 
The dry, clear air, without a trace of dampness, and the 
intense, warm sunshine, give a climate of great relief to 
many rheumatic cases. 
MEDICAL SUPERVISION OF THE INVALID. 
Too many invalids coming to Colorado depend upon their 
own ideas or the suggestions of their friends as to their 
conduct of life, often to their great detriment. Even physi- 
cians who have not lived here should not attempt to direct 
the patient in so new and different a climate. 
“It would be better for the patient if he would exercise 
more wisdom and acknowledge his ignorance, and with- 
hold advice altogether.” (Anderson.) 
“The benefit derived is dependent not upon climate alone, 
but as well upon conscientious attention to mode of life and 
management.” (Bonney.) 
“It is the duty of our profession,” says Dr. Herman 
Weber, “to teach the public that it is a great mistake to 
think that the invalid and his friends are able to manage the 
dietetic and hygienic treatment of consumption, or that it is 
10 enough to go for a season to a certain climatic health resort, 
and that the climate itself is able to cure phthisis, without 
the assistance of local doctors. Many valuable lives are lost 
through this error, even under the most favorable climatic 
circumstances, lives which might be saved under strict 
medical guidance.” 
Such is the unanimous and unmistakable verdict upon 
the advantages of elevated climate. Colorado fulfils all the 
conditions to a remarkable degree. 
Resorts of every desirable elevation from 4,000 to 10,000 
feet are within easy reach of large centres of population. 
The soil and air are remarkably dry—there are but 14 
inches of rainfall in the year, and at some stations even less 
—no periods of prolonged cloudiness or rain. 
Its average mean relative humidity is only 52 per cent., 
and its absolute moisture averages but 1.8 grains of vapor 
to the cubic foot. 
Its temperature is cool and bracing, restoring the wasted 
energy and stimulating the nutrition, lending new zest and 
hopefulness. 
Its sunshine is brilliant, penetrating and continued, with 
a higher average number of cloudless, sparkling days than 
any other climate. 
Attractions to an outdoor life are present on every hand, 
and the invalid is irresistibly drawn out into the pure, fresh 
air and dancing sunlight. The wide horizon, with its beauty 
of soft, level plain or grandeur of mountain peaks, is a con- 
stant joy, and the enforced quiet of recovery loses all its 
irksomeness. 
“It is not contended that our climate is the be-all and cure- 
all, but we know that the absence of endemic phthisis and a 
dry soil are strong arguments in favor of this being a cura- 
tive climate. We know, further, that an outdoor life is 
possible during more hours of the day and during more 
days in the year than in almost any other climate on the face 
of the earth; but the most conclusive testimony to be found 
as regards the curative influence of a life in Colorado, is in 
the thousands upon thousands of people who have found re- 
covery here and pitched their tents, and who can in their 
own persons bear testimony to the fact.” 
COLORADO IS A HOME, NOT MERELY A SANATORIUM. 
The most fortunate and valuable feature of Colorado as a 
climatic station is that all its benefits and health-giving con- 
ditions are at hand and offered to the invalid without his 
going into exile to obtain them. He has not to seek a wilder- 
ness or a small sanatorium on some isolated Alp. More than 
any other factor should this fact appeal to the invalid. To 
recover his health in Colorado he does not need to exile him- 
self from the comforts of his daily life or human intercourse. 
For the clear, pure air, which is so abundant, even the ad- 
11 vantages of city life need not be foregone. To one with a 
family especially is it a rare privilege to find so easily a 
healthful outdoor life in sunny fields, a mile above sea level, 
and yet give his children the advantages of schooling and 
civil education, libraries, opportunities for music and intel- 
lectual enjoyment. Denver can rightfully boast of one of 
the very best public school systems in this land. Indeed, 
throughout the state the schools are all of the highest grade. 
With all the multiplied helps that a large city offers, there is 
always at hand the more varied attractions to a vigorous 
outdoor life. 
Colorado climate invites to outdoor life. There is no 
season of the year, and in fact th’ere are 'few days in the 
year, in which one can not be out of doors with compara- 
tive comfort. This, added to the facts that the air is brac- 
ing and the sunshine inspiring, leads to a great deal of walk- 
ing and driving and riding and bicycling and outdoor sports. 
The result of this on health is perhaps shown more clearly 
in the children of Colorado than in the adults. When one 
considers that a very large proportion of Colorado parents 
are people who came to the state as invalids, the healthy 
appearance of the children one meets on the streets and sees 
collected in schoolrooms or at play on the athletic grounds 
is something remarkable. They are full-chested, strong- 
limbed and bronzed. 
Under the sanitary that have been put in 
force in our cities in recent years, it has rapidly stepped to 
the front as one of the healthiest cities on the whole conti- 
nent, and this in spite of the fact that its population is con- 
stantly added to by invalids from the extreme East. 
The health of Denver, aside from the imported illness, is 
remarkably good, and even including the large proportion 
of deaths from tuberculosis in patients who come too late 
for a recovery, the mortality rate is lower than in most large 
cities, being but 10.48 per thousand. 
Twenty-three per cent., or nearly one-quarter of the whole, 
were due to tuberculosis. 
Surrounding such a city of rare freedom from foul, con- 
taminated air, lies the open, generous beauty of the country, 
appealing ever to the invalid as his strength returns and 
offering him new attractions to an outdoor life; wide areas 
of country still little more than a wilderness in which to hunt, 
fish and explore; most admirable opportunities for geological 
study; a varied flora of great interest to the botanical stu- 
dent; an insect life unusually rich, attractive to the en- 
tomologist; and unsurpassed opportunities for the study of 
bird-life, there being a larger number of varieties of birds 
found within this state than in any other of the Union save 
one. 
Within easy reach are wild, untracked areas, abounding 
in game of every sort, to tempt the rugged and the strong; 
12 for the zest of the chase, the wild hunt of the bear, are not 
for the invalid’s early days of the new Colorado life, but are 
a reward of patient, healthful waiting. 
Not only does Colorado provide pleasant and helpful sur- 
roundings for the invalid during his convalescence, but it 
offers a greater advantage still in the opportunity for em- 
ployment and business enterprise after recovery of health. 
In many of the famed health resorts there is nothing but the 
dwelling houses and the sanitarium on some isolated mount- 
ain side. When the patient is again able to resume his work 
in life, he is forced to return from his health-giving resort 
to the old conditions, exposing himself again to the treach- 
erous climate from which he fled. 
Colorado does not cure and then drive out, but rather 
welcomes the restored invalid, and holds out every induce- 
ment for him to remain. 
The vast resources of the state are only beginning to be 
appreciated. On every side agriculture, fruit raising, min- 
ing, all offer a wide field for development and a rich reward 
for enterprise. 
Cripple Creek was for long years only known as excel- 
lent grazing country for cattle—till in 1891 it was found to 
be a gold district of now famous values. To show its won- 
derful development, the figures of its annual output are 
given: 1891, 8125,000; 1892, 8400,000; 1893, 82,500,000; 1894, 
84,000,000; 1895, 88,000,000; 1890, 16 tons of gold; 1897, 25 
tons of gold. There are other camps, old and new, and many 
districts yet unexplored, which offer similar opportunities 
for investment of energy and capital. 
The resources of the state in coal and iron are equally 
great. The coal deposits are of great value, and the area 
of coal lands surpasses that of Pennsylvania by 8,000 square 
miles. Pennsylvania has 10,000, and Colorado 18,000 miles. 
Agriculture in every branch flourishes and is to-day the 
foremost industry, offering thus particular inducements to 
persons of moderate means who ought to follow an outdoor 
life. In 1895 00,000,000 acres were under cultivation, pro- 
ducing a wheat crop valued at over 8-1,000,000; alfalfa, 83,- 
500,000; corn, oats and barley, 8-1,000,000; with other gar- 
den produce at 84,200,000. The production increases yearly. 
Under irrigation, with a constant sun, there is no failure 
of crops, but large and abundant harvests are the rule. 
Fruit raising is rapidly becoming an important industry, 
and the rare quality of Colorado melons and peaches is open- 
ing a large market for them in Chicago and St. Louis. 
As all of these resources are developed, there comes in 
consequence more demand in all other lines of business, 
and new openings are created. 
Here, amid civilization and all the advantages of city life 
and intellectual surroundings, is open country and outdoor 
life—diversion and fields for occupation. With the restora- 
13 tion of health comes no need for expulsion from this Eden 
to the old threatening conditions, but a welcome and open 
opportunities for industry and livelihood. 
From start to finish the invalid is at home. There is no 
exile to foreign lands or strange customs. He is among his 
own people—in his own land. 
“Are not Abana and Pharpar better than all the waters of 
Israel?” 
COLORADO AS A VACATION RESORT, 
There is still one other claim which Colorado can boast 
—its unrivaled advantages as a vacation retreat. With its 
varied extent of mountain and valley scenery, its continued 
sunshine and weather which can be trusted for outdoor 
life, it is the ideal resort for the overworked business man 
or brain-fagged scholar. 
“There are many,” says Dr. Burney Yeo, “who, with vig- 
orous frames and much actual or latent power of muscular 
activity, become mentally exhausted by the strain of men- 
tal labor, anxious cares or absorbing occupations. Mental 
irritability usually accompanies this exhaustion, great de- 
pression of spirits, with unrest of mind and body. These are 
the typical cases for the mountains. The stimulus and object 
w'hich they afford to muscular exertion; the bracing atmo- 
sphere, rousing the physical energies and reawakening the 
sense of powers unimpaired and unexhausted; the soothing 
effect of the quiet and stillness of high mountain regions, and 
the absence of the human crowd, all these influences bring 
rest and renovation to the overworn mind.” 
_ Nowhere in this country can such conditions be better 
found than in Colorado. Its summer is cool, and in the 
higher parks and passes the nights are even cold. Its au- 
tumn, an unbroken stretch of glorious, cool, sparkling days. 
Game of all kinds is abundant, and the opportunity for 
camping, hunting and fishing ample and readily found. The 
railroads—there are 4,700 miles in the state—will carry one 
to within a short ride, by horse or wagon, of yet unbroken 
wilderness. By pack train a few days’ journey will lead to 
the wilds, where each spot visited is an undiscovered place. 
Wild game, large and small, are present on all sides, and 
without a care one can drop back to a life of pristine sim- 
plicity, free from all trammel of convention. 
Ranches, farm settlements, mining camps and summer 
resorts are scattered throughout the mountains in most un- 
expected places, and are connected with one another by 
railroads or by wagon roads. Camping outfits may be 
bought or rented in Denver or in any of the larger towns 
of the state. And at many of the small resorts special at- 
tention is paid to fitting out the camper. 
Nearer Denver, without crossing the main Continental Di- 
vide, are almost innumerable valleys, canons and parks, 
14 where one can camp with pleasure or find accommodation in 
boarding houses or on ranches. 
Bear Creek and Turkey Creek cations (7,000 feet) are but 
twenty miles from Denver. Boulder, one of the most attrac- 
tive towns, the seat of the State University, has an eleva- 
tion of 5,409 feet, and is at the entrance to the romantic 
Boulder canon. Longmont, Fort Collins, Greeley, lie in the 
midst of the fertile farming country to the north of Denver. 
Clear Creek canon, with its wonderful, wild beauty, and 
famed for the great railroad loop, at Georgetown, has many 
excellent opportunities for camping out as well as one ex- 
cellent resort, Idaho Springs, upon its sheltered plateau, with 
saline and ferruginous springs. 
The Gulf Road will take one into the mountains, to the 
resorts just mentioned, and to many other excellent places 
for outdoor or ranch life in a short ride from Denver. 
“There are plenty of places in Colorado where one may 
camp near the deer and the trout, and still be within easy 
reach of medical assistance if it should be needed. 
“One should not start before June 1, ordinarily, nor re- 
main out longer than September 15. 
“After the middle of June, the parks in our mountains, 
ranging from 7,000 to 9,000 feet in elevation, offer excellent 
places for campers. It is easy to find good fishing and a 
moderate amount of gome within easy reach of civilization.” 
(J. N. Hall, M. D.) 
A WORD ABOUT MINERAL SPRINGS. 
In the foothills and mountains of Colorado are many min- 
eral springs of almost every kind, both hot and cold. Notable 
ones, but by no means the most important and probably not 
the most valuable, are at Manitou (G,300 feet)—soda and 
iron. One of the most important and perhaps the largest 
group is that at Glenwood (5,200 feet). They are hot for 
the most part, and contain, notably, chloride of sodium, 
and give off great quantities of carbonic acid gas and sul- 
phuretted hydrogen. In the few years, eight or ten, during 
which they have been made use of by white men, their 
great value has been demonstrated. As at Manitou, accom- 
modations for invalid or tourist are here most excellent. 
The springs at Idaho Springs (7,500 feet)—hot and cold—have 
been long used, and with most excellent results. Those at 
Boulder (0,000 feet)—seltzer—are in high favor in that town, 
and water from them is bottled and shipped to other points, 
though not to so great an extent as is that from the soda 
springs of Manitou. Careful analyses have been made of 
many of the springs throughout the mountains; but the lim- 
ited number of people as yet in the state, and consequent 
small market for mineral water, has made it impossible to 
develop many of them or to test them to any great extent. 
Mention should be made of the spring at Deansbury. per- 
15 haps the only strontia spring in the country; of the Fisher 
Springs, near Morrison; of the Cottonwood Springs, near 
Buena Vista; of the Wauneta Springs, near Pitkin; and of 
the Mount Princeton and Heywood Springs, nine in all, in 
Chalk Creek canon, at the foot of Mount Princeton. A good 
hotel at these latter hot springs will be opened the coming 
season. 
RAILROADS. 
The Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf railway, known fa- 
miliarly as the “Gulf Road,” together with the Denver, 
Leadville & Gunnison railway, commonly called the 
“South Park Line,” cross the state from north to south 
along the eastern foothills, touching all cities and all the 
smaller towns of importance. They pass through the heart 
of the great agricultural country lying north of Denver—the 
oldest, the most thickly settled and most productive thus far 
of all the farming regions of the state. They cross the Ar- 
kansas valley agricultural region, which extends from Pu- 
eblo, both east and west, up and down the river; and they 
enter the coal fields and the coke regions near the state’s 
southern boundary. 
By the “South Park Line” they go from Denver west- 
ward into the very heart of the mountains; they cross South 
Park; then, passing through one of the greatest gold regions 
of the state, about Breckenridge, they reach Leadville (220 
millions of silver since 1879). By another branch of the 
same line they pass across the famous “Alpine Tunnel 
Route” into the rich and rapidly developing Gunnison county. 
The famous “Loop Line” runs from Denver sixty miles 
west into the marvelous gold producing regions of Little 
Gilpin (83 millions gold since 1879), and Clear Creek, tak- 
ing one into the very heart of the mountains in fifty 
minutes. 
The invalid or the tourist or the seeker of a new home 
who wishes to look into the different sections of the state, 
test its different altitudes and climates, and consider in turn, 
as a possible home, ranch, village, mining camp, town or city, 
will find every variety of scenery and every climatic change 
and every kind of community that the state affords on the 
“South Park” and the “Gulf” lines.