PIKES PEAK TIMELINE

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 13, 2002

1803 Pikes Peak (not named that yet) acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.

1806 Exploration party led by Army Lt. Zebulon Pike sees peak for the first time.

1820 Dr. Edwin James of the Long Expedition becomes the first known white man to successfully climb peak.

1858 Julia Archibald Holmes becomes the first woman

to climb the mountain.

1869 Gold rush lures prospectors and explorers to the Colorado Territory - "Pikes Peak or Bust."

1871 Colorado Springs founded.

1873 U.S. Army Signal Corps builds U.S. Signal Service/Weather Station at the summit.

1878 Bridle path to summit constructed.

1878 Colorado Springs voters approve a ballot measure to tap Ruxton Creek.

1889 First carriage road completed.

1891 Carriage road abandoned.

1891 Gold discovered in Cripple Creek.

1891 Cog railway begins using the now-abandoned Weather Station as a terminal.

1892 Pikes Peak Timberland Reserve created; name later changed to Pike National Forest.

1893 Katharine Lee Bates ascends the mountain in a wagon; inspired to write words for "America the Beautiful."

1896 Colorado Springs buys 3,100 acres of the mountain from the federal government.

1901 First horseless carriage - a Locomobile Steamer - makes the trip to the summit.

1901 Railway completed along Gold Camp Road route.

1903 Colorado Springs buys 600 acres on south slope which includes the Seven Lakes area.

1913 Congress hands control of more than 10,000 acres on the mountain to the city.

1915 Pikes Peak Auto Highway is constructed.

1916 First Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb is run.

1916 Summit House is built on Pikes Peak.

1918 Barr Trail completed on the eastern side of peak.

1923 First fireworks shot from the summit by the "Frozen Five," five climbing friends who hike the Barr Trail.

1924 AdAmAn Club is created when another person is added to Frozen Five.

1933 Crystal and South Catamount reservoirs completed.

1948 Responsibility for the Auto Highway is given to the City of Colorado Springs under a special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service.

1953 Summit House burns.

1964 Current Summit House built.

1963 Land above 14,000 feet declared National Historic Landmark.

1967 City voters authorize opening peak's north slope, particularly lakes there that were closed to fishing.

1968 North Catamount Reservoir finished.

1988 Tunnel 3 on Gold Camp Road caves in; is closed to motor vehicles.

1992 North Slope Recreation Area opens to the public.

1997 Colorado Springs Utilities Department begins work on the multiuse plan, to address the future of the mountain. Public notice draws responses from communities, counties, federal, state and local agencies, special-interest and nonprofit groups, individuals.

2000 Pikes Peak Multi-Use Plan completed.

2000 Endowment for the Preservation of Pikes Peak established.

2002 Sierra Club announces the Wild South Slope Initiative, a plan to educate and involve the public in land that starts at the 10,000- foot level of Pikes Peak and swoops southward for 130,000 acres.

PIKES PEAK CREATURES

Animals and birds that live on Pikes Peak:

Mule deer

Elk

Bighorn sheep

Black bear

Bobcat

Mountain lion

Coyote

Marmot

Pika

Weasel

Pocket gophers

Rattlesnake

Voles

Gray fox

Porcupine

Squirrel

Skunk

Ptarmigan

Sage grouse

Raven

Bald eagle

Golden eagle

Red-tail hawk

Steller's jays

Pinon jays

In the lakes:

Cutthroat, rainbow,mackinaw, brown trout

A trip up Pikes Peak from the plains takes travelers through five of North Americas six ecosystems:

1. Plains/grasslands, up to 4,500 feet. Native grasses such as foxtail, barley and timothy; trees include wild plums, hawthorns, cottonwood, willow, and a little higher, mountain mahogany, bitterbrush. Rattlesnakes, golden eagles, prairie falcons, larks, badgers, kangaroo rats, prairie dogs.

2. Lower montane zone, 6,000-7,500 feet. Black-eyed Susan, columbine, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir; lizards, sage grouse, prairie dogs, voles, chipmunks, bobcats, mule deer.

3. Upper montane zone, 8,000-9,000 feet. Douglas fir, aspen, limber pine, lodgepole pine, blue spruce; Stellers jays, pion jays, mule deer, gray fox, porcupine.

4. Subalpine zone, 9,300-11,000 feet. Lodgepole pine, Englemann spruce and subalpine fir, juniper, huckleberry, kinnikinnik, tiger salamanders, belted kingfishers, beaver, coyote, bighorn sheep.

5. Alpine tundra, 11,500 feet and above. Willows, herbs, lichens, mosses, cinquefoil, phlox, penstemon; bighorn sheep, marmots, golden-mantled ground squirrels, pikas, ptarmigan, crows, ravens, golden eagles, elk.