Westward from the man on the hospital terrace swept the Rockies, flecked with the gold of the cottonwoods and aspens, beneath cloudless autumn skies. To the northwest stood Longs Peak, 14,255 ft., and to the southwest Pikes Peak, 14,110 ft., their shoulders cloaked with snow; on the way out to the horizon, amid intervening tiers and hollows, lay places like Clear Creek, where Colorado's first important gold strike was made in 1859. ("Panned out eight treaty cups of dirt," the prospector said, "and found nothing but fine colors.")
The prospect that extended...
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