New book by Cheyenne Mountain champion explores the curious slopes
Photo courtesy Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
Upon a visit to present-day Colorado Springs in 1863, the writer and explorer Fitz Hugh Ludlow remarked on a view that seemed underappreciated around town.
“A mountain which I admire more than Pike’s Peak … is the grand Cheyenne,” he wrote. “There is a unity of conception in it unsurpassed in any mountain I have seen. It is full of living power. In the declining daylight, its vast simple surface became the broadest mass of blue and purple shadow that ever lay on the easel of Nature.”
P.J. Anderson came upon the words while researching at the library.
“Damn,” he recalled thinking, “this is worth all the hours in the library.”
So one nugget was unearthed for his recently published book, “Cheyenne Mountain: Here’s Looking at You.” The title is a nod to Humphrey Bogart’s closing line in “Casablanca” — a line that was out of gratitude to the girl, an acknowledgement and appreciation of her simply being there.
This Gazette file photo from 2003 shows local attorney P.J. Anderson in a treed meadow near the top of Cheyenne Mountain. More than 20 years after advocating for the establishment of the state park, Anderson has written a book about the mountain’s history, “Cheyenne Mountain: Here’s Looking at You.” Gazette file
Such has been Anderson’s appreciation for Cheyenne Mountain.
While this city’s collective eye has fixated on the colorful history of its 14,000-foot backdrop, Anderson has long focused on the granite, antenna-topped monolith to the south. He has spent the better part of three decades roaming its broad shoulders and vast valleys and steep canyons, in search of its old trails, homestead ruins and ghosts.
Many adventures and misadventures — some chronicled in the book — were alongside his son, now an environmental attorney listed as co-author. Patrick Anderson followed in his father’s vocational footsteps.
But perhaps more than his legal work, P.J. Anderson has made a name for himself in his advocacy for local open space and trails while sitting on various boards and playing roles behind the scenes. Anderson was instrumental in lobbying for the creation of Cheyenne Mountain State Park, dedicated in 2000.
“Proudest thing I’ve ever done,” Anderson said.
Book cover for “Cheyenne Mountain: Here’s Looking at You,” a new books exploring the mountain’s curious past.
Now comes his first book. It comes out of a sense of duty he describes in the first pages:
“At age 76, I find myself in the position of having three four-drawer filing cabinets full of accumulated Cheyenne Mountain information to draw on for this book. It’s probably now or never.”
The book is dedicated to Myra Benjamin and Bert Reissig, grandchildren of Bert Swisher. Anderson credits the two for deepening his interest in the mountain. In the ‘90s, he worked for them to resolve a land dispute stemming from their grandfather’s mountainside homestead and the nearby antenna farm he granted.
Anderson tells the lesser-known story of those antennas sprouting — a project of engineer Charles Edmunds, who sought a point he deemed more prominent and better suited than Pikes Peak. Anderson sets the scene in a Manitou Springs cafe, where Swisher mentioned to Edmunds “his mountain.”
Anderson loves a character, and Swisher is but one of those Cheyenne Mountain has known. The book tells of the man climbing up and down the mountain between his job as a plumber in Manitou.
Also featured is William Dixon, who in 1875 reportedly installed a tollgate along Old Stage Road. And there was Thomas Dixon (no relation to William, Anderson surmises), who high on the mountain raised frogs in hopes of marketing the frog leg delicacy to the likes of The Broadmoor below.
Much of Cheyenne Mountain’s popular history regards the hotel’s visionary, Spencer Penrose, and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Anderson credits a definitive history, “The Cheyenne Mountain Story” by William Conte,” while differentiating his book.
“It’s got a little bit of everything,” he said.
It’s got geology (Cheyenne Mountain’s rock is thought to be 600 million years older than Pikes Peak’s). It’s got legends (the one about the dragon). It’s got tales of expeditions (Pike’s, Long’s and Fremont’s) and tales of plane crashes and fires (the “Big Burn” of 1853 was said to stretch all the way to Wilkerson Pass).
Anderson is partial to the expeditions. They came to life as he pored over maps and journals. One of his great tasks regarded what he determined to be the first depiction of Cheyenne Mountain and Pikes Peak together: a painting by Samuel Seymour during the Long’s expedition of 1820.
Anderson aimed to re-create the image 200 years later. His research took him to Colorado Springs Utilities property south of Fountain.
“I took this painting with me, walked up and down the creek,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I didn’t get the (matching) angles within 100 feet there.”
He came by more characters along the way. There was Joshua Fisher, another homesteader high on the mountain.
“His wife basically kicked him out of the house in Missouri,” Anderson said. “He came out here and was just a hermit, built a cabin to get away from everybody. He’d walk into town sometimes to get supplies.”
Fisher is the namesake of a new city-owned open space: Fishers Canyon. With the city currently plotting potential recreation on that side of the mountain, the book can feel timely.
Anderson writes of his hope that “this look back will serve to enhance the public’s future enjoyment of the mountain and its beauty.”
And he writes of his hope for the stories to continue as people continue to explore. Referring to “The Cheyenne Mountain Story” from 1988, “This is a continuation of Mr. Conte’s story 35 years later,” Anderson writes, “and nothing would please us more than someone else continuing and updating our story 35 years from now in 2058.”
Should people explore one day around Fishers Canyon, they will be around historic water rights that Penrose secured for The Broadmoor.
From whom did he claim those rights and lands for other attractions? Anderson asks in the book.
“Who were Raenike, Weaver, Shaw, Rose and Wolfe, and what are their stories? A fun project for another day.”
