Bloomer Girl; A Colorado Trailblazer
In 1858, a young woman from Kansas climbed to the summit of Pikes Peak. Julia Archibald Holmes was the first Anglo woman on record to make the climb, and she became famous for that accomplishment as well as for the way she did it.
Julia had arrived at the base of Pikes Peak with the Lawrence Party searching for gold. In late July, 1858, they camped near here and spread out to explore the nearby streams. Two of their group (William Hartley and AC Wright,) recorded their signatures on the red sandstone of the Garden of the Gods. Although their search for gold was largely unsuccessful, their explorations and those of the Russell Party near Denver, led to the “Pikes Peak or Bust” gold rush of 1859.
Julia was called the “Bloomer Girl,” because of her choice of clothing-the new “American Costume”-no corset, with pants or pantaloons worn beneath a calf-or knee-high skirt. They had walked across the Great Plains, and as they neared the Rocky Mountains, Julia was stunned by her first view of the summit of Pikes Peak.
“This day we obtained the first view of the summit of the Peak, now some seventy miles away. As all expected to find precious treasure near this wonderful Peak, it is not strange that our eyes were often stained by gazing on it.”
Julia Archibald Holmes. “In all probability I am the first woman who has ever stood upon the summit of this mountain, and gazed upon this wondrous scene which my eyes now behold. How I sigh for a poet’s power of description, so that I might give you some faint idea of grandeur and beauty of this scene.”
Julia Archibald Holmes in a letter to her mother, August 5, 1868.
For more information:
www.springsgov.com
www.rockledgeranch.com
Marker is on Gateway Road, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
