Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: A Portion of Estes Park, with Long's Peak in the Distance. (See Page 91.)] COLORADO THE BRIGHT ROMANCE OF AMERICAN HISTORY BY F. C. GRABLE PAINTINGS BY ALLEN TRUE COPYRIGHT 1911 F. C. GRABLE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE KISTLER PRESS DENVER COLO. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. The Old, the New, and the Ocean Between 1 CHAPTER II. Coronado 14 CHAPTER III. Light in the East 40 CHAPTER IV. Lieutenant Pike 54 CHAPTER V. The Lost Period 75 CHAPTER VI. Major Long 85 CHAPTER VII. The Pioneers 99 CHAPTER VIII. Christopher Carson and His Contemporaries 106 CHAPTER IX. General Fremont and the Mormons 125 CHAPTER X. Opportunity 143 CHAPTER XI. A Vanishing Race 153 CHAPTER XII. The Lustre of Gold 171 CHAPTER XIII. Some Men of Visions 184 CHAPTER XIV. The Stone Which the Builders Rejected 222 ILLUSTRATIONS. A Glimpse of Estes Park Frontispiece CHAPTER I. Face Page The Ocean Explorer 1 CHAPTER II. Coronado Before a Zuni Village 16 CHAPTER IV. (_a_) Pike and His Frozen Companion 66 (_b_) One of the Approaches to Cheyenne Mt. 74 CHAPTER V. The Trapper 78 CHAPTER VI. The Buffalo Hunter 94 CHAPTER VII. Pioneers and Prairie Schooner 110 CHAPTER VIII. A Government Scout 126 CHAPTER IX. Indians Watching Fremont's Force 134 CHAPTER X. Ventura, Historian of Taos Indians 142 CHAPTER XI. (_a_) Indian Chief Addressing the Council 158 (_b_) Winnowing Grain 166 CHAPTER XII. Making a Clean-up 174 DEDICATED TO THE PIONEERS OF COLORADO: Whose work in laying the foundation of the magnificent superstructure of our great State, as Abraham Lincoln said of the heroes of Gettysburg, "is far beyond our poor power to add or detract." PREFACE.