I thought I had her figured out. After all, I saw the movie Titanic and the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. But this remarkable woman was so much more. Margaret (Molly) Brown died at the age of 65 – the exact age that I am now – but she made such a big splash in her ocean of influence that surviving the sinking of the Titanic was only a small piece of her powerful life story.

During a recent conference in Denver, my fellow attendees and I were given a 3-hour time period and told to “go out and explore Denver.” I chose to take a taxi from my downtown hotel and visit the Molly Brown House Museum. Dubbed “The House of Lions” because of the imposing lion statues the Browns purchased for the front of the house, it is located at 1340 Pennsylvania Street. Very few of the furnishings and artifacts are original to the time Molly Brown lived there, but careful study of photos made in 1910, have helped Historic Denver, Inc. with their extensive restoration efforts. Visitors have an authentic experience.

During the guided tour, it would have been entertaining enough if I had just learned of traits and tendencies that I have in common with Molly Brown. For instance, we’re both considered feisty, and, like her, I play the piano, love to entertain, and work in my church. Green is even our favorite color. She was born in Missouri. I was born in Alabama. Both states are in the Southeastern Conference for college football. Does that make us both Southerners? She once said of herself, “I’m a glutton for knowledge.” What a great way to describe curiosity and a desire to keep learning. Qualities I hold dear.

The trivial threads holding us together end at that point. Molly’s life story, as shared by the docent, unfolded as an amazing inspiration and picture of the power of what one determined woman can accomplish.

Even though she and her husband, James J. Brown, were millionaires because of a discovery of gold in Leadville, CO, her thoughts were on exposing unfair labor practices she saw in those mines and working in soup kitchens and charity efforts. She worked closely with Denver judge Ben Lindsey in the creation of a national juvenile court system.

In 1901, she attempted to win a seat in the state senate, in spite of a popular saying of the day (one that was strongly supported by her husband): “A woman’s name should appear in the newspaper only 3 times: at her birth, when she gets married, and at her death.” The pressure must have been tremendous, because she withdrew from the race before Election Day. It was no surprise to learn that she was active in the women’s suffrage movement.

Molly Brown was practically thrown into lifeboat #6 as the Titanic was sinking. Immediately after the Carpathia picked up all of the survivors they could find, Molly started helping fellow survivors, some of whom had lost everything. She raised $10,000 from Carpathia passengers before the ship reached New York. A couple of years later, she was helping in relief efforts during World War I.

You will see colorful stained glass windows, ornately-carved woodwork, and anaglypta wall coverings. You will learn that this house had indoor plumbing, electricity, central heat and a telephone long before other homes had these conveniences. But, most of all, you will leave wanting to know more about Margaret Tobin Brown and her indomitable – yes, unsinkable – compassion for others and zeal for life.

Haunted Denver Evening Pub Tour

If You Go:

Molly Brown House Museum website

About the Molly Brown House

Who was Molly Brown?

Upcoming Events:
Skeletons in the Wardrobe Tea
Saturday, October 31st 11:00 am, 2:00 pm – $24.00 / $18.00 children (6-12)
It’s no secret, Victorians loved Halloween and so do we! The holiday looked a little different back then, though. Do you know what costumes were popular or what games were played? How did the Victorians decorate their homes? Learn the history of Halloween and show off your own ghostly get-up at our spookiest tea of the year! Suitable for ages 8 and up.
A gift shop is behind the house where you can purchase postcards, books and videos, as well as vintage clothing, accessories, toys and games.

About the author:
Connie Pearson is a native Alabamian, wife of 44 years, mother of 3, grandmother of 12. A retired elementary music teacher/former missionary/now budding weight-lifter, travel writer and blogger. www.theregoesconnie.com

Photos are used by permission, courtesy of the Molly Brown House Museum:
House Exterior
Front Hall
Dining Room
Front Parlor
Kitchen

Pagaso Springs, Colorado

by Karin Leperi 

Albert H. Pfeiffer, a European immigrant and a comrade of Kit Carson, was a fur trapper, pioneer, soldier, and Indian agent, born in Germany on October 7, 1822. He was the son of a Lutheran minister from Friesland while his mother allegedly was a descendent of Scottish royalty. As such, young Pfeiffer was enrolled in the Military Academy of Stockholm, known for its excellence in military strategy. At the age of twenty-two, he immigrated to America, settling in St. Louis, Missouri in 1844. Seeking a more western experience, he moved on to Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory.

By the age of thirty-four, he married into an influential Mexican family from Abiquiu. It was rumored that his sweetheart and new bride Antonita, wore one of the most expensive wedding dresses for the time.

A few years later, Pfeiffer became a sub-agent when Abiquiu was a trading post. He reported to Indian agent Christopher “Kit” Carson. By all accounts, Pfeiffer maintained friendly relations with the San Juan Utes, more so than any other white man had before him. Reputedly, he was such a close friend of Chief Ouray that he was adopted by the tribe. The mutual reverence would continue throughout his life.

Then came the Civil War. Pfeiffer enlisted with the New Mexico Volunteers, serving under Colonel Kit Carson. He would eventually be promoted to 1st lieutenant, captain, and then colonel. Fighting mostly against the Indians, the two forged a friendship that would continue throughout their lives. According to Pfeiffer’s granddaughter Pauline Nielsen, “Recordings in military archives place him constantly by Carson’s side riding together from the start of his career. He was twenty years younger than Kit Carson, but history and writings tell of the close friendship that grew between the two. The relationship was a genuine one of man to man and officer to officer.”

Avenging the Heart

Pfeiffer had a penchant for fighting in the nude, or so it would seem. His first nude encounter happened on June 20, 1863, as a forty-one year-old captain based at Fort McRae, near today’s Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. (The fort has since been flooded by Elephant Butte Reservoir). The captain had taken ill and thought the hot springs, about six miles from the fort near the Rio Grande River, would be beneficial for his malady. He bathed in the curative springs, while his pregnant wife of seven years, Antonita, his adopted daughter Maria, and her attendant Mrs. Mercardo, bathed in a pool nearby. His three-year old son Albert had been left at the fort with servants. Additionally, soldiers accompanied the group to safeguard their bathing at El Ojo del Muerto, the Spring of the Dead.

Unknown to them, about twenty Mescalero Apache lie in wait, carefully concealed by rocks, waiting for the right moment. The Apache ambushed the party, snatching Pfeiffer’s wife, daughter, and attendant. Separated from Captain Pfeiffer by the Apaches, the soldiers quickly dispersed, leaving Pfeiffer to fend for himself.

Pfeiffer’s only thoughts were to save his wife and daughter. With his rifle lying close by, he instinctively leapt for the rifle, running to the safety of the nearby river bank, completely nude. Clothes were the least of his concern. According to the November 1933 issue of The Colorado Magazine, “He was followed by the Indians who shot at him, one of the arrows entering his back with the end coming out in front. In this condition, with the arrow in his back, he ran until he reached an enclosure of rock where he made a halt to rest and defend himself.” Later, he arrived at the fort with an embedded arrow just below his heart, more dead than alive. Still naked, Pfeiffer was barely recognizable as his sunburned skin peeled off in layers. “When the surgeon drew out the arrow from his back, the sun-scorched skin surrounding the wound came off with it, and for days the Captain suffered intense agony and lay for two months at the point of death,” according to the magazine.

Captain Pfeiffer knew the Apache well enough that they would keep the women alive as slaves. Unfortunately, when members of his party went after the women, the Apache shot their hostages as they retreated – viewing their captives as a hindrance in their game of “hide and seek.” Both Antonita and Maria died.

Pfeiffer was so despondent over the loss of his family that he vowed to kill Apaches to avenge their death. It almost became a passion. The Colorado Chieftain newspaper on June 29, 1871, read: “It was a bad day for the Apaches when they killed old Pfeiffer’s family. He made several trips, alone, into their country, staying, sometimes for months, and always seemed pleased, for a few days, on his return. He was always accompanied by about half a dozen wolves in the Apache country. ‘They like me,’ he said once, ‘because they’re fond of dead Indian, and I feed them well.'”

He had no love lost for the Navajo either, having battled hem victoriously in Canyon de Chelley, six months after becoming a widower. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel by brevet because of his bravery against the Navajo. To Pfeiffer, the Navajo and Apache were life-long enemies who he relentlessly pursued to his death. On the other hand, the Utes were like family to him.

David vs. Goliath Indian Style

The Utes and the Navajos both revered the healing powers of the hot springs, located at modern-day Pagosa Springs, in southwestern, Colorado. The Utes had laid claim to the land generations prior to the Navajo challenge, but shared the springs because of their sacred origins. Then, in late 1866, the Navajo challenged the Utes for control of the springs, fighting for several days to stake their claim. Unfortunately, it ended in a stalemate.

Colonel Pfeiffer suggested the dispute be brokered by having each Indian nation contribute one warrior to the fight – a fight to the death for ownership of the springs. Legend has it that the aging Colonel Pfeiffer volunteered to represent the Utes (or maybe they chose him), insisting it be fought only with Bowie knives and in the nude so no other weapons could be concealed. Other accounts suggest they were nude from the waist up only.

The Navajos chose one of the largest, and youngest yet seasoned warriors. Colonel Pfeiffer, by comparison, was rather short. A rather peculiar match as Pfeiffer was a mild-mannered, blue-eyed, bald-headed European – about 5’5″ in stature. However, what Pfeiffer had going for him was that he was known as a rather good Indian fighter with a plethora of battle scars and gunshot wounds to prove it.

The story goes that once the Navajo giant saw all the battle scars on the naked Pfeiffer, he became afraid and was easily defeated. The outcome was that the Utes retained possession of their sacred hot springs.

If You Go:

The Visit Pagosa Springs, Colorado website

Dog Powered Scooter Jor-ing in Pagosa Springs

About the author:
Karin Leperi is a multi award-winning writer and photographer with bylines in over 90 outlets that include print, radio, internet, and mobile media platforms. Her 1,500 plus articles cover topics ranging from culture, cuisine, luxury and lifestyle to aviation, photography, history, and nature.

All photos are by Karin Leperi and Jennifer Green:
Knife Duel Memorial
Pagosa Springs
Pagosa Springs Today
Colonel Pfeiffer Gravesite
Pfeiffer Homestead Marker

Mesa Verde is a place where natural beauty mixes with history in a uniquely dramatic way. One finds the earthy splendor of the American Southwest and a window to one of North American’s most unique groups of indigenous people—the Anasazi. Regardless of the current state of accomplishments in our modern American culture, the Anasazi still have one up on us since they lived in cliffs. Why do we live in houses when we could be living on the sides of cliffs?

Ancient Pueblo peoples, as their progenies prefer to be called, inhabited what is today call The Four Corners, which contains portions of the intersection of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Each state offers a first hand glimpse of what remains of this intrepid culture. Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park features some of the finest places to see their intact cliff dwellings from the Pueblo III period between 1100-1300 AD.

Evidence of settlement on the Colorado Plateau only dates back to AD 550, but signs of human presence on the plateau go back at least 10,000 years to the Paleolithic Age. For much of the known history of these people, they existed as tribes of wandering hunter gathers. Forging for food is easier than farming.

Corn and squash entered the picture as early as 1500 BC. Long before it had been domesticated in Mexico. Slowly these two staples spread to the Southwest of the US.

While historians are not sure what led to the people of Mesa Verde settling down after millennia of roaming, what is certain is that for over seven centuries their culture flourished in Mesa Verde. They worked together to maintain a water distribution system, divided labor, hunted, gathered, cultivated crops, made clothes, baskets, and everything else they needed to live and thrive.

The Anasazi are rich in history. What is emerging is from the archeology work is a complex and, somewhat egalitarian, society. They succeeded to thrive for millennium in a sparse land with harsh winters. The archeological evidence of the Anasazi date back to 1200 BC—a time known as the “Basket Making Era” since they had baskets, but no pottery, and lived in camps or caves, surviving off a staple of cultivated squash and corn.

They continued to develop and by 900 AD had large villages and a complicated trade system. Then in 1100 AD they took to the skies and made their villages on the faces of cliffs. The cliffs offered a variety of advantages from a tactical standpoint, and as protection from cold winds, which swept the valleys in the winter.

Ancient Pueblo People living in Four Corners fared better than many indigenous peoples in America. While the number of villages were reduced dramatically when the Spanish came, some held on, and today there are more than 60,000 modern Pueblo Indians living in 32 pueblos. As you drive through the park, there are dozen of stop off points where you can see for yourself these cliff dwellings. Turn your radio dial to 91.1 and you can hear the Uto language as it’s spoken today. The sheerness of the scenery, the history intact in preserved cliff dwellings, the grace and nuance of the Uto language from the radio—it’s an intimate encounter with the past amid some of North America’s most stunning scenery.

If you’re coming from Denver, you’ll enjoy the scenic, mountain-carved route along US Highway 160W and US 285S. I drove in from Grand Junction, along US 50. If you can do this drive in the fall, roll your windows down and you can smell the yellow and red leaves bursting in bright patches amongst ever-steady green pines. Carved cliffs of rock will add earthy tones to the pallet, and blue sky might cause you to turn the radio down so as to let the evolving panoramic fill your senses.

When you enter the state park, there will be plenty of places to stop along the way. There’s a lot of history burned into these hills from the seasonal wildfires. The Bircher Fire of 2000 ignited 23,000 acres. Evidence is everywhere. Sometimes the landscape will give way to dead forests with subtle green underbrush re-emerging under a skeleton forest.

If You Go:

♦ TripAdvisor’s Mesa Verde Page has plenty of reviews of the various sites to see and places to stay.

♦ Visit Mesa Verde has plenty of resources about treks within the parks.

Mesa Verde Experience Tour

About the author:
When he’s not traveling or getting mauled by rodents in the jungle, Luke Maguire Armstrong (TravelWriteSing.com) spends his time being rejected by girls in bars in Antigua, Guatemala. After taking the wrong lesson from Into The Wild, he took out a student loan and planned to hitchhike from Chile to Alaska. He stopped in Guatemala, where he spent four years directing Nuestros Ahijados’ health and education programs. He has been interviewed by Christiane Amanpour and featured on ABC News 20/20. His is the author of the travel anthology The Nomad’s Nomad.

All photos are by Luke Maguire Armstrong.

A War Was Fought In This Peaceful Canyon

by Glen Brewer

A hawk soars far overhead as the train leaves the little town behind and enters the canyon once known as the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas. Cholla cactus bloom bright yellow along the tracks. Except for the river itself, all is quiet. No highway invades the canyon, and the only people along the line are riding rafts or kayaks down the Arkansas River or enjoying a bit of fly fishing after a long hike.

As the vintage blue and white train climbs upstream following the banks of the Arkansas, the canyon walls grow ever closer and higher. Soon a fragile looking suspension bridge comes into view high overhead. It spans the width of the canyon from north to south. From the unobstructed view of an open railroad car, passengers can actually see light between the wooden boards that form the deck of the bridge.

A funicular railway brings people down from over 1000 feet above. Its tracks descend at a 45 degree angle with two cars balancing each other as one goes up and the other down. From the train an Alpine like cable car is also visible spanning the canyon near its top. Most people who visit the Royal Gorge see only this part of the canyon and often just from high above where the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park has been one of Colorado’s most popular tourist destinations for over 75 years.

Beneath the suspension bridge, the canyon is so narrow and the walls so steep that a place for railroad tracks seemed impossible. The river simply must occupy the entire canyon bottom. But in 1879 a “hanging bridge” was devised and built to allow the tracks to pass through the narrow space suspended above the rushing water. This bridge still serves today.

Further up the tracks towards Parkdale, the canyon opens up a little. Many little placements of rocks can be seen above on the canyon walls. These are the remains of forts built to defend the canyon. Old photos show these rock forts bristling with men and rifles.

A war of sorts was fought in this canyon. Armies were recruited, crude forts were built, and there was much brandishing of weapons.

It wasn’t a Civil War skirmish; the only one of those fought around here was at Glorietta Pass just south of the New Mexico border. This was a war for territory between two railroads: Colorado’s “baby road,” the narrow gauge, Denver & Rio Grande, and the big, standard gauge, Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe. But, many of the men involved had been soldiers in that bloody war: quite notably the D&RG’s president, General William Jackson Palmer.

In February of 1878, the Santa Fe had grabbed Raton Pass from the D&RG mere hours before crews were to start their surveys of that route. Only two months later, with the rich prospects of the Leadville mining boom in the daily news, the Santa Fe was attempting to do it all over again in the Arkansas River canyon. Clearly, there was barely enough room for the tracks of one railroad – certainly not two.

Santa Fe seized the entrance to the canyon west of Cañon City cutting off the D&RG for the second time. The outraged D&RG built forts upstream in the canyon to block the rival’s progress. Both sides recruited men well accustomed to the use of firearms – the Santa Fe brought in Bat Masterson with a crew of men from Dodge City. The resulting standoff was widely known as “The Royal Gorge War”.

Fortunately the battles were fought mainly in the courts – all the way up to the U. S. Supreme Court. In the end, Santa Fe was awarded Raton Pass, while the D&RG received the Royal Gorge route.

For many years afterward, the Royal Gorge was on one of the most scenic of several alternate transcontinental railway routes across the American west. Once the domain of such suggestively named trains as The Scenic Limited and The Panoramic, regular passenger service through the gorge ended July 27, 1967. The last regular passenger trains were D&RGW east bound Train 1 and west bound Train 2 proudly named, “The Royal Gorge”.

In 1999, trains of a new operator, The Royal Gorge Route Railroad, renewed service along the route. Trains travel twelve miles through the canyon as far as Parkdale and return to Canon City two hours later. The railroad operates year around (except for January) with more departures available during the summer peak season. Classes of service available include basic coach class, club class and various dining car options. Except aboard the special murder mystery, dinner trains, all is peaceful and quiet along the line, and the scenery is still as grand as ever.

My own memories of the Royal Gorge railroad go back to 1958 when I photographed a train at the bottom of the gorge. Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Train Number 1, The Royal Gorge, arrived and stopped just beyond the hanging bridge. It was a long standing tradition on the D&RGW to stop all passenger trains at the bottom of the gorge so that passengers might get off and enjoy the exceptional view. A concrete platform was provided for just that use.

Full Day Royal Gorge and Red Canyon Jeep Tour

If You Go:

♦ Royal Gorge Route Railroad
401 Water Street
Canon City, Colorado 81212
For more information call: 888.RAILS.4U or 303.569.2403
Or see their web site at: www.royalgorgeroute.com

♦ Canon City, Colorado
Canon City is 115 miles from Denver, 45 miles from Colorado Springs and 39 miles from Pueblo.

♦ Lots of information on dining, lodging and other things to do in the area may be found at: www.canoncitycolorado.com

All photos ©copyright Glen Brewer:
Headed down the canyon with a vintage, first generation, diesel locomotive
The old Santa Fe station now serves the Royal Gorge Route
Entering the canyon
Vintage diesels power the train
Open cars allow for an excellent view

 About the author:
Glen Brewer’s previously published travel and features have appeared in Travel Thru History, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post and the Vancouver Province. For more info: RailroadGloryDays.com