Cobweb Express

Summer Will Get Here!
by Mel McFarland

Spring Vacation is over and now we are looking at May, just around the corner. In the schools the children are probably counting the days. I know most of the teachers are.

A hundred years ago we had regular summer influx of visitors. When I talk to some of the school classes the children are amazed to learn how different travel was back then. Fountain was a regular stop for tourists on their way from the east and south before they hit the mountains. There were several places to stay, like the Hotel, but no motels. Down near the cemetery was a very large camp ground where you could find all sorts of rigs just parked, with folks camping out from all over. Up until as late as 1920 you could find horse drawn wagons fixed up much like modern motor homes. They had beds, but cooking was mainly done outside. Rambling through the tourist camp one could hear all sorts of stories about traveling conditions along the way, that has not changed much.

Those that found their way here back then were really out for a challenge. Many roads were barely maintained, much less marked with signs. Even people in Fountain would not drive to Colorado Springs, they took the train! When you wanted to take a trip in a car you might find a guide book telling you how to get where you wanted to go. The maps of the day rarely showed roads. Streams and rivers were a problem. The normal way to get across was most likely not a bridge. If it was in a town there might be a bridge. Even down along the Arkansas, the roads usually traveled on either the north or south side of the river, not crossing back and forth. Even the road from here to Pueblo stayed on the east side of Fountain Creek.

The biggest problem, not counting road conditions and water, was finding tires and gasoline, and forget finding a mechanic. You might find a blacksmith but a car owner made their own repairs along the way. Once they started building more reliable cars, and better roads, being a tourist became a whole lot less of an adventure. Probably nowhere else can you meet up with travelers from as many places as in our campgrounds in the summer, right here in the Pike's Peak Region. People from Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma have long histories of vacationing here. I see people from all over the world traveling here to enjoy our sights. The most common thing from people who have lived here all their life is that they have not been to most of our attractions.

CONTACT THE WRITER • MCMIDLAND@YAHOO.COM

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