Busted on Pikes Peak, 1020 COBJ, Vol. 49, No. 9 Pg. 28
| Author | BY FRANK GIBBARD |
| Position | Vol. 49, 9 [Page 28] |
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
BY FRANK GIBBARD
During the Colorado Gold Rush, pioneering treasure-seekers adopted the slogan "Pikes Peak or Bust." Pikes Peak was not itself particularly rich in gold ore, but it served as a landmark for prospectors who hoped to strike it rich in the Denver area.
Early prospectors who did try to search for gold on the Peak faced a long, arduous trek up the mountain. A good road was not available until the late 1880s. The famous Barr Trail, which allowed travel by burro to the summit, was not finished until 1918.
Meanwhile, in 1891 the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway Company (MPPRC) began operating a cog railway. Tourists could now travel from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak in relative comfort.
The MPPRC line ended at a wooden platform. There, passengers could exit the train, climb a wooden staircase, and check in at a hotel known as the Summit House. They could also ascend a tower with a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside or spend their tourist dollars at a nearby curio shop.
The railroad platform was bordered along its length by a stone retaining wall. The wall was constructed to keep loose rocks from falling from the hillside, where the commercial buildings stood, onto the platform and the tracks. The wall, which was several feet high, was not illuminated at night. The accompanying photo shows the layout of the buildings, the retaining wall, and the tracks.
MPPRC owned the summit buildings but leased them to Joseph G. Hiestand. Hiestand operated the Summit House and his curio shop, and paid MPPRC a 25% commission on his gross receipts.1
The Versatile Mr. Hiestand
Hiestand was an interesting character. Known as a photographer, mineralogist, and businessman, he was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to Manitou Springs. There, he owned a hotel and souvenir shop connected with the Ute Iron Spring, famed for its iron-rich mineral water. He was also the official photographer for the MPPRC. His photos of the railroad and surrounding mountain vistas remain striking even today. His curio shops in Manitou Springs and Pikes Peak featured an exotic collection of minerals, souvenirs, stuffed animals, and animal skins.
Hiestand's mineral collection soon gained international acclaim. Toward the turn of the century he sold part of the collection, including the minerals he had displayed at his shop in Manitou Springs, to a French actress, who proudly displayed them in Paris. Even after that sale, and another to a Pennsylvania dealer, he owned a seemingly inexhaustible collection of rocks and minerals, which he continued selling at his Pikes Peak curio shop. This curio shop was in operation, along with the hotel, when Phillip J. Watson arrived on the evening of July 2, 1902.
Watson Stumbles
Phillip Watson didn't take the MPPRC train to get to the summit. Instead, he got there the hard way, by walking from Manitou Springs. The 13-mile hike from Manitou Springs to the 14, 115-foot summit was a serious undertaking, even for an experienced hiker. Watson did not reach the summit until 10:00 p.m.
Once he arrived, probably quite exhausted, he entered the Summit House and asked for a room. The dismaying reply came back: all the beds were full. But there was another option: an enterprising hotel employee offered Watson his bed for the night for $2.2 Watson accepted, and then retired for the night.
The conditions in the employee's room, however, proved to be less than ideal. Watson's mountain climb had left him chilled, and try as he might, he could not get warm in the bed. To make matters worse, "he was annoyed by the presence of two other men who occupied a bed in the same room."3 After struggling to sleep, Watson got...
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