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57-588: Inspired by his first visit to Mount Blue Sky in the 1920s, carpenter and German immigrant Justus "Gus" Roehling dreamed of constructing a "Castle in the Sky" for his then girlfriend (and future wife) Edith. Financial backing was provided by Thayer Tutt (owner of similar attractions atop Pikes Peak and the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs ), and Quigg Newton , future mayor of Denver . With

114-444: A $ 450,000 settlement from the propane company for the loss—insufficient to cover the estimated $ 2 million in restoration costs, so the funds were used to rehabilitate the ruins into an observation platform. Crest House represents a mixture of several different architectural styles, including Organic , Futuristic , Art Moderne . The overall design is intended to evoke a shooting star, with moon-shaped light fixtures inside completing

171-486: A design by notable Colorado architect Edwin A. Francis , ground was broken in the spring of 1940. Roehling, his wife and his crew lived in tents at the Mt. Blue Sky Summit while construction was taking place. The extreme environment provided many challenges. No company would insure the building against loss or provide performance bonds during construction. Cold, damp conditions provided difficulties getting concrete to cure. All

228-470: A few miles up Ute Pass at Cascade . The road has a series of switchbacks, treacherous at high speed, called "The W's" for their shape on the northwest side of the mountain. The road is maintained by the city of Colorado Springs as a toll road . A project to pave the remainder of the road was completed on October 1, 2011. The project was in response to a suit by the Sierra Club over damage caused by

285-434: A propane tank on site, and fire broke out. All the occupants were evacuated safely, and although the volunteer fire department from Idaho Springs responded quickly, high winds and a lack of water hampered their efforts to contain the fire. Most of the steel, glass, and wood timbers, paneling, and flooring were destroyed in the fire, leaving only the cast concrete walls and outer stonework. The U.S. Forest service received

342-668: A ridge between the mountains and the plains. Over the next 35 million years, the Cretaceous seaway repeatedly widened as far as Utah and Wisconsin and narrowed to near closure. With no mountains present at the time, the Colorado area was in the line of the deepest channel of the seaway; but being on the Transcontinental Arch , the Front Range areas was relatively shallow and was near the last land to submerge as

399-530: Is a designated National Historic Landmark . It is composed of a characteristic pink granite called Pikes Peak granite . The color is due to a large amount of potassium feldspar . It is thought that the granite was once magma that crystallized at least 20 miles (32 km) beneath the Earth's surface, formed by an igneous intrusion during the Precambrian , approximately 1.05 billion years ago, during

456-677: Is now used for a peak further west.) It is thought that the Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A.D., however their oral history states that they were created on Tava. In the 1800s, when the Arapaho people arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as Heey-otoyoo' meaning "Long Mountain". By comparison, the Pawnee called the same mountain Tûs Pêh ("Where the Heavens Touch

513-501: Is required by humans and animals not acclimated to high altitudes. Altitude sickness may develop in those who are sensitive or who over-exert themselves. The summit of Pikes Peak has a polar climate ( ET ) due to its elevation. Snow is a possibility any time year-round, and thunderstorms with high winds gusting up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) or more are common in the afternoons. Surrounding areas have different climatic variations depending on location and elevation. Much of

570-600: Is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in North America . The ultra-prominent 14,107-foot (4,299.83 m) fourteener is located in Pike National Forest , 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado . The town of Manitou Springs lies at its base. The mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike , even though he

627-601: The 40th parallel north across the Great Plains of North America. The Front Range runs north-south between Casper, Wyoming , and Pueblo, Colorado , and rises nearly 10,000 feet above the Great Plains. Longs Peak , Mount Blue Sky , and Pikes Peak are its most prominent peaks, visible from the Interstate 25 corridor. The area is a popular destination for mountain biking, hiking, climbing, and camping during

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684-532: The Ancestral Rockies were eroding away while the shoreline was present during the break-up of Pangaea. This formation began right after Earth's largest extinction 251 million years ago at the Permian – Triassic Boundary. Ninety percent of the planet's marine life became extinct and a great deal on land as well. After 100 million years of deposition, a new environment brought rise to a new formation,

741-481: The Great Unconformity . At about 500–300 million years ago, the region began to sink and sediments began to deposit in the newly formed accommodation space. Eroded granite produced sand particles that began to form strata, layers of sediment, in the sinking basin. Sedimentation would continue to take place until about 300 million years ago. Around 300 million years ago, the sinking suddenly reversed, and

798-495: The Grenville orogeny . Through the process of uplifting , the hardened rock pushed through the Earth's crust and created a dome-like mountain, covered with less resistant rock. Years of erosion and weathering removed the soil and rock leaving the exposed mountain. Soils on Pikes Peak above the timberline (approximately 12,000 ft or 3,700 m) are classified as Cirque land . Forests at lower altitudes mostly lie over

855-517: The Earth"), and the Ute Indians called it Tava-Kaavi ("Sun Mountain"). Throughout its history, European peoples have called the mountain El Capitán, Grand Peak, Great Peak, James Peak, Long Mountain, and Pike's Peak. Early Spanish explorers named the mountain "El Capitán," meaning "The Leader". American explorer Zebulon Pike named the mountain "Highest Peak" in 1806, and the mountain

912-425: The Front Range are Interstate 70 , which crosses west of Denver, Colorado, and Interstate 80 , which crosses near Laramie, Wyoming. U.S. Route 34 travels through the mountains near Loveland, Colorado , although this route is typically closed from October to May. U.S. Route 24 travels through the southern Front Range west of Colorado Springs , eventually connecting with I-70 west of Vail, Colorado . Along with

969-495: The Front Range. Eventually, at about 10 million years ago, the Front Range began to rise up again and the resistant granite in the heart of the mountains thrust upwards and stood tall, while the weaker sediments deposited above it eroded away. As the Front Range rose, streams and recent (16,000 years ago) glaciations during the Quaternary age literally unburied the range by cutting through the weaker sediment and giving rise to

1026-616: The Pikes Peak area until the Cripple Creek Mining District was discovered southwest of Pikes Peak and led, in 1893, to one of the last major gold rushes in the lower 48 states. In July 1860, Clark, Gruber and Company commenced minting gold coins in Denver bearing the phrase "Pike's Peak Gold" and an artist's rendering of the peak (sight unseen) on the obverse . In 1863, the U.S. Treasury purchased

1083-713: The Spanish in the 1700s. The first American sighting is often credited to members of the Pike Expedition , led by Zebulon Pike . After a failed attempt to climb to the top in November 1806, Pike wrote in his journal: The first European ascent of the peak came 14 years after Pike's discovery, in the summer of 1820. Edwin James , a young student who had just graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont , signed on as

1140-499: The area near Pikes Peak has a continental semiarid climate, while other areas would be classified as hemiboreal . Front Range The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado , and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming . It is the first mountain range encountered as one goes westbound along

1197-658: The balance is for labor, because of the project's high standards and the rigors of working for a maximum of 6 + 1 ⁄ 2  hours per day at such a high altitude during a short season of April to October. Heavy equipment and prefabricated building components are slowly moved up the mountain's highway in the middle of the night to avoid any car traffic. Ground conditions are bedrock and alpine permafrost , soil and rock that remains at or below freezing temperatures all year to depths of up to 200 feet (61 m), only warming above freezing in direct sunlight or due to external sources. Problems with excavation and blasting exist because

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1254-683: The brown stony, sandy, loams of the Catamount loam or Ivywild loam series. The Devils Playground is a minor subpeak of Pikes Peak located on the northwest side of the mountain near the Pikes Peak Highway . The Devils Playground is named for the way lightning sometimes dances around the prominence during lightning storms. The Devils Playground is the highest point in Teller County at an approximate elevation of 13,075 feet (3,985 m). The first Europeans to see Pikes Peak were

1311-423: The current Summit House. The older facility will remain open to the more than 600,000 visitors annually through the end of construction in the fall of 2020 or summer of 2021. Around 40 contractors are working on the $ 50 million project. The general contractor, G.E. Johnson Construction Co., estimates that about half of the budget is for materials, many of which are prefabricated in downslope shops, and

1368-441: The damage and completed construction by the fall of 1941. Crest House opened to much fanfare in fall of 1941. Amenities provided to travelers by Crest House included a restaurant, gift shop, rest rooms, emergency oxygen, and an observation deck. It was particularly well known for its fried doughnuts , coffee , and hot chocolate. Early employees were Denver area college students on their summer break, who resided in bunks located in

1425-474: The earth as it recovered from this tremendous disaster. The uplifted mountains continued to constantly erode and, by 40 million years ago, the region was once again buried in material eroded from the central mountains. Suddenly, 37 million years ago, a great volcanic eruption took place in the Collegiate Range and covered the landscape in hot ash that instantly torched and consumed everything across

1482-760: The east slope of the Dakota Hogback. The non-chalky shales of the Pierre Formation formed in the final cycle of the seaway. At about 68 million years ago, the Front Range began to rise again due to the Laramide Orogeny in the western half of the state, draining from being at the bottom of a sea to land again, giving yield to another fossiliferous rock layer, the Denver Formation. The Denver Formation contains fossils of dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops . While

1539-568: The forests of vegetation, dinosaurs, and other organisms thrived, their reign would come to an end at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (which was formerly known as the K-T boundary). In an instant, millions of species were obliterated by a meteor impact in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula . While this extinction led to the demise of the dinosaurs and other organisms, some life did prevail to repopulate

1596-505: The granitic peaks present today. This was the last step in forming the present-day geologic sequence and history of today's Front Range. The Front Range includes the highest peaks along the eastern edge of the Rockies. The highest mountain peak in the Front Range is Grays Peak . Other notable mountains include Torreys Peak , Mount Blue Sky , Longs Peak , Pikes Peak , and Mount Bierstadt . The main interstate highways that run through

1653-458: The gravel and sediment that is constantly washed off the road into the alpine environment. In 2023, the toll road cost US$ 15 for age 16 and older or US$ 5 for age 6 to 15; from December 1 to April 30 the cost is reduced to US$ 10 for age 16 and older. The Highway is famous worldwide for the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb , a motor race held since 1916. The short film Climb Dance features Ari Vatanen racing his Peugeot 405 T16 up

1710-501: The landscape. An entire lush environment was capped in a matter of minutes with 20 feet of extremely resistant rock, rhyolite . However, as seen before, life rebounds, and after a few million years mass floods cut through the rhyolite and eroded much of it as plants and animals began to recolonize the landscape. The mass flooding and erosion of the volcanic rock formed the Castle Rock Conglomerate that can be found in

1767-446: The materials had to be hauled to the summit or fabricated on site, and the high elevation afforded a building season limited only to summer months. With winter fast approaching, Roehling and his team were forced to abandon the uncompleted structure in fall of 1940. Upon returning in spring of 1941, Roehling found that much of the glass and woodwork had been destroyed during the hard alpine winter. Undeterred, Roehling and his team repaired

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1824-864: The minting equipment for $ 25,000 (or $ 620,000 adjusted for inflation) to open the Denver Mint . Julia Archibald Holmes and James Holmes traveled to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in 1858, and reached the summit on August 5, with J. D. Miller and George Peck, making Archibald Holmes the first European-American woman to climb Pikes Peak. From the summit, she wrote in a letter to her mother: "Nearly everyone tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed; and now here I am, and I feel that I would not have missed this glorious sight for anything at all." Thirty-five years later, in July ;1893, Katharine Lee Bates wrote

1881-432: The motif. The highlight of the design was the two-story star-shaped glass and steel platform. The upper floor housed an observation platform, while the lower floor housed the coffee shop. The star-shaped foundation is still evident on the observation platform today. The other main design feature are the four stone arches that flowed from the star platform that housed the main entrance to the building. These arches, like

1938-419: The mountain, snapping and uprooting several trees. The tornado travelled 2 miles along Pikes Peak Highway and wind speeds reached 108 mph. No injuries were reported from the storm. At the peak, the partial pressure of oxygen is only about 60% of that at sea level. Water boils at 186 °F (86 °C) at 14,000 feet, rather than 212 °F (100 °C) at sea level. A faster rate of respiration

1995-421: The mountain. The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway , the world's highest cog railroad , operated from Manitou Springs to the summit, closed for repairs in 2017. After being closed for more than three years, the cog railway resumed service seven days per week (conditions permitting) on May 27, 2021. Road vehicles can be driven to the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway , a 19 mi (31 km) road that starts

2052-539: The permafrost in the fractured granite actually absorbs energy. The project is being constructed to achieve both Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification and Living Building Challenge . The new complex will include a visitor center, a communications facility for Colorado Springs Utilities, and the Army's High-Altitude Research Laboratory. On July 20, 2023, an EF1 tornado touched down on

2109-608: The rear of the building. Thayer's Broadmoor Hotel Company operated the Crest House until 1956, when it was sold to the Stewart Corporation, which also operated the Pikes Peak Summit House. Under the terms of the original lease agreement, ownership reverted to the U.S. Forest Service in 1969. On 1 September 1979, an employee of a propane company failed to secure a safety valve while filling

2166-478: The relief botanist for Stephen Harriman Long 's expedition after the first botanist had died. The expedition explored the South Platte River up as far as present-day Denver, then turned south and passed close to what James called "Pike's highest peak". James and two other men left the expedition, camped on the plains, and climbed the peak in two days, encountering little difficulty. Along the way, James

2223-479: The rest of the concrete portions of the building, were faced with native stone, in order to better blend in with the environment. In fact, it blends in so well that the building can be difficult to see from a distance. These arches are still standing today. The interior was purportedly of an old-world style that Gus Roehling was fond of. This included details such as knotty paneling, sturdy timbers, hardwood floors, and heavy doors. Pikes Peak Pikes Peak

2280-539: The roads that run through the Front Range, the Union Pacific Railroad operates two rail lines through the mountains. The first Overland Route , transiting southern Wyoming, runs parallel to I-80 for much of its way. The second is the former Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Moffat Route, which runs parallel to the Colorado River and through the 6.5-mile-long Moffat Tunnel . Originally

2337-518: The sandstone Morrison Formation . The Morrison Formation contains some of the best fossils of the Late Jurassic . It is especially known for its sauropod tracks and sauropod bones, among other dinosaur fossils. As identified by the fossil record, the environment was filled with various types of vegetation such as ferns and Zamites . While this time period boasts many types of plants, grass had not yet evolved. The Dakota Sandstone , which

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2394-635: The seaway opened. Shale and chalk were deposited over the area as Greenhorn of the Benton Group and the Niobrara Formation . Within these beds are found abundant marine fossils ( ammonites and skeletons of fish and such marine reptiles as mosasaurs , plesiosaurs , and extinct species of sea turtles ) along with rare dinosaur and bird remains. Today, the Fort Hays Limestone member forms flatirons or secondary hogbacks on

2451-505: The sediment-covered granite began to uplift , giving rise to the Ancestral Rocky Mountains . Over the next 150 million years, during the uplift the mountains continued to erode and cover their flanks in their own sediment. Wind, gravity, rainwater, snow, and ice-melt supplied rivers that ultimately carved through the granite mountains and eventually led to their complete removal. The sediment from these mountains lies in

2508-681: The song " America the Beautiful ", after having admired the view from the top of Pikes Peak. It appeared in print in The Congregationalist , a weekly journal, on July 4, 1895. A plaque commemorating the words to the song was placed at the summit. On July 17, 1913 William Wayne Brown drove his car, the Bear Cat , 20 miles (32 km) to the summit. The ascent took 5 hours and 28 minutes. The uppermost portion of Pikes Peak, above 14,000 feet (4,267 m) elevation,

2565-751: The steep, twisty slopes. It also hosts the Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb (formerly Assault on the Peak), a cycling hillclimb race first held in 2010, and the USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championships, a race first held in 2016. The most popular hiking route to the top is called Barr Trail , which approaches the summit from the east. The trailhead is just past the cog railway depot in Manitou Springs. Visitors can walk, hike, or bike

2622-669: The strata making up the section. Uplifted beds of Lyons Sandstone are found along the Front range and form the gateway to the Garden of the Gods . 30 million years later, the sediment deposition was still taking place with the introduction of the Lykins Shale . This formation can be best attributed to its wavy layers of muddy limestone and signs of stromatolites that thrived in a tidal flat in present-day Colorado. 250 million years ago,

2679-654: The summit from the west. Barr Trail can also be accessed via the Manitou Incline . Since the end of 1922, the AdAmAn Club, a mountaineering group, climb the Barr Trail on the east face of Pikes Peak each year on December 30th, stay overnight at Barr Camp, and continue to the top on December 31. Then, at midnight on New Year's Eve, the AdAmAn members and their guests ignite a fireworks display from

2736-526: The summit. Since 1969, the summit of Pikes Peak has been the site of the United States Army Pikes Peak Research Laboratory , a medical research laboratory for the assessment of the impact of high altitude on human physiological and medical parameters of military interest. On June 4, 2018, ground-breaking was held for a new 38,000 square feet (3,500 m ) Summit Complex which is being constructed next to

2793-539: The trail. Although the Barr Trail is rated only Class 1, it is a long and arduous hike with nearly 8,000 ft (2,400 m) of elevation gain, and a 13 mi (21 km) trip one-way. The Pikes Peak Marathon , a trail race held since 1956, is a round trip between the trailhead and the Pikes Peak. The Barr Trail Mountain Race is a 13 miles (21 km) round trip between the trailhead and Barr Camp. Another route, rated as Class 2, begins at Crags Campground, approaching

2850-664: The very red Fountain Formation today. Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside of Denver, Colorado, is set within the Fountain Formation. At 280 million years ago, sea levels were low and present-day Colorado was part of the super-continent Pangaea . Sand deserts covered most of the area, spreading as dunes seen in the rock record, known today as the Lyons Sandstone . These dunes appear to be cross-bedded and show various fossil footprints and leaf imprints in many of

2907-506: The warmer months and for skiing and snowboarding during winter. Millions of years ago, the present-day Front Range was home to ancient mountain ranges, deserts, beaches, and even oceans. The name "Front Range" is also applied to the Front Range urban corridor , the populated region of Colorado and Wyoming just east of the mountain range and extending from Cheyenne, Wyoming south to Pueblo, Colorado . This urban corridor benefits from

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2964-491: The weather-moderating effect of the Front Range mountains, which help block prevailing storms. About 1 billion years ago, a mass of magma rose to the surface through a much older mantle, cooling to form what is now known as the Precambrian Pikes Peak Granite . Over the next 500 million years, the granite eroded with no sedimentation forming over this first uplift, resulting in a local expression of

3021-624: Was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Pikes Peak was the home of a ski resort from 1939 until 1984. There are several visitor centers on Pikes Peak, some with a gift shop and restaurant. These centers are located at the 6-mile (9.7 km) and 12-mile (19 km) markers of the toll road, plus one at the summit itself. Along with other food, the Summit House sells special high altitude doughnuts , frying up to 700 per hour. The doughnuts collapse or go mushy if transported to lower altitudes. There are several ways to ascend

3078-668: Was deposited around 100 million years ago at the opening of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway from the Arctic to the Tropics, shows evidence of ferns and dinosaur tracks. Sheets of ripple marks can be seen on some of the strata, confirming advancing and retreating near-shore environments. These Dakota Group sandstone beds are resistant to erosion and have uplifted to form the Dakota Hogback ,

3135-663: Was later commonly known as "Pike's Highest Peak." American explorer Stephen Harriman Long named the mountain "James Peak" in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit during Long's Expedition of 1820 . The mountain was later renamed "Pike's Peak" in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to "Pikes Peak" by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890. Pikes Peak is one of Colorado's 54  fourteeners , mountains more than 14,000 feet (4,267.2 m) above sea level. The massif rises over 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above downtown Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak

3192-568: Was the first to describe the blue columbine , Colorado's state flower. Gold was discovered in the area of present-day Denver in 1858, and newspapers referred to the gold-mining area as "Pike's Peak". Pike's Peak or Bust became the slogan of the Colorado Gold Rush (see also Fifty-Niner ). This was more due to Pikes Peak's visibility to gold seekers traveling west across the plains than any actual significant gold find anywhere near Pikes Peak. Major gold deposits were not discovered in

3249-585: Was unable to reach the summit. The summit is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude . The band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the Tabeguache , whose name means the "People of Sun Mountain". Tava or "sun", is the Ute word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak. (In contrast, the name Tabeguache Peak

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