In the Shadow of Pike's Peak

In the Shadow of Pike's Peak by Millard Fillmore Stipes (1900) is a first-person travel narrative documenting the author's week-long vacation to the Rocky Mountains in August 1899. The work records detailed observations from a train journey across the Great Plains from Kansas to Colorado Springs, including the landscape features, settlements, and notable geological formations encountered. The narrative describes the vast prairie terrain—barren and undulating grasslands with scattered ranches and primitive sod houses. Stipes provides extensive commentary on the development of western Kansas settlements, the presence of prairie-dog towns, and the scarcity of water and timber. He reflects on historical associations, mentioning Quantrell's Civil War raid near Lawrence and the routes of nineteenth-century settlers. The journey culminates in the first sighting of Pike's Peak and the Rocky Mountains, which Stipes details through the evolving visual impressions as the train approaches Colorado Springs. He includes references to Major Zebulon Pike's 1806 expedition records.