The Switzerland of America Author:Samuel Bowles Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. THE GEOGRAPHY OF COLORADO. The Backbone of the Continent—The Mother Mountains of America—The Three Great Divisions of Colorado—Her Plains, Her Folds o... more »f High Mountain Ranges, Her Great Natural, Elevated Parks—North, Middle and South Parks; their Surroundings and their Beauties—The Unknown West of Colorado. In The Mountains, Colorado, August, 1868. As Pennsylvania is the key-stone in the Atlantic belt or arch of states, so is Colorado the key-stone in the grand continental formation. She holds the back-bone, the stiffening of the Republic. Lying a huge square block in the very center of the vast region bounded by- the Mississippi valley on the east, the Pacific Ocean on the west, and British America and Mexico north and south, the continental mountain chain here dwells in finest proportions, exaggerates, puffs itself up and spreads itself around with a perfect wantonness and luxuriance of power,—great fountains of gold and silver, and lead and copper, and zinc and iron,—great fountains of water that pours itself in all directions through rhe whole interior of the Continent, feeding a wealth of agriculture that is little developed and never yet dreamed of even,—great fountains ofhealth in pure, dry and stimulating air, — great fountains of natural beauty; she may proudly bid the nation come to her for strength, for wealth, for vigor,—for rest and restoration,—and may well call her mountains the Sierra Madre, the Mother Mountains of the Continent. Her geographical prominence and parentage are but type and promise of her future relations to the developed and developing life of the nation. Stretching two hundred and sixty miles north and south, and three hundred and seventy-five miles east and west, her territory has three natural subdivisions. The eastern third is of t...« less