The Call of Colorado, 1960s

good evening ladies and gentlemen this is Jack Douglas if I were to ask you to name the number one tourist attraction in Colorado what would your answer be well mine would have been Pikes Peak but I would have been wrong the favorite tourist attraction in this big Rocky Mountain State today is the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs this is just one of many pleasant surprises in store on tonight's armchair vacation as we answer the call of color this is Denver the capital of Colorado and the gateway to the Rockies the best panoramic view of the city is from a top the Sky Deck of one of the downtown Bank buildings and here miss Harriet akre of Texas is visiting her friend Miss phis Ray of Denver the city is situated in the valley some 5,000 ft above sea level so the air is clear and the summers are simply gorgeous in the heart of the downtown area surrounded by Swank department stores and hotels you'll see a miniature golf course actually all they do is putt however the land value is worth a king's Ransom just a few minutes from the Civic Center you'll want to visit the world famous elich gardens founded in 1882 by John and Mary elich who came to Denver searching for a site for their dream home eventually their 16 acre plot was transformed into an amusement Center as we'll see in a moment but the magnificently landscaped Gardens continue to be the main attraction at what is now 36 Acres of flowers and fun Under the Sun this huge floral clock is electrically operated and keeps perfect time the hands are made of wood but the numerals are living plants World Travelers will be reminded of similar floral clocks in Europe especially those in Switzerland elich Garden presents bigname dance bands and a playhouse featuring well-known Broadway and Hollywood stars and for the youngsters elich has its own kitty land a blessing for vacationers who hire a young babysitter deposit the youngsters with her for the day then pick them up again just before supper time the kids have a ball and they won't even know you've been gone Denver city park is one of the cleanest best cared for city parks we've ever seen and it has magnificent statuary throughout this sculpture the Bronco Buster was donated by a private citizen who wanted visitors to always be reminded of Denver's Western traditions in the background is the golded state capital building the old west lives on in Central City about 20 a prospector from Georgia struck gold in these Hills in 1859 and within 10 years the diggings had grown into a city of 40,000 by the turn of the century the gold gave out the people left in Central City was nearly a ghost town with only about 400 residents but then in 1932 Miss lilan Gish appeared in person at the restored opera house and Central City was born again nowadays vacationers pour through Bumper to Bumper and Central City is noisier and more colorful than ever there are dozens of curio shops to teas window Shoppers and the shop owners and store signs add to the old mining camp [Music] atmosphere but the opera house is still the heart and soul of Central City Miss Joan Van AR who GRE grew up in nearby Boulder Colorado tells us why to most of the tourists down in the street Central City is a city of honky tonk pianos quaint signs the face on the barroom floor and the historic glory hole mine it is also the home of the historic Central City Opera House where each year the Metropolitan Opera brings its famous stars to sing in such operas as travata fater Mouse it also premiered the ballot of baby do the opera house is also the home of famous drama Morris Evans came here with George Bernard Shaws the devil's disciple Helen Hayes performed here as Mrs mcing Shirley Booth was in the time of the cuckoo when I was a little girl growing up in these mountains riding horseback fishing with my family I used to every summer drive up the canyon and see these famous actresses perform I saw Julie Harris Triumph as the Lark I sat in the darkened Auditorium wishing that someday I would be able to perform on the Central City stage and this summer My Wish has been fulfilled because I'm now on the side of the foot lights performing in a comedy at the historic opera house most of the tourists don't realize the gold the art that Central City has to offer but it's the home of Opera drama and art it's a very special City for me in the garden of the old opera house is the Spanish arastra A Primitive type of War Crusher used by the early day miners a throwback to the Yer years when central city was known as the richest square mile on Earth We're looking now at the town of golden just a few miles outside Denver and from Golden the this winding sometimes terrifying Road zigzags its way to the top of Lookout Mountain and here at the very peak of Lookout they buried the old showman of the old west known to every man woman child who ever read a western as Buffalo Bill here lie William Frederick Cody and his wife Louisa buried here at his request so that they could look out forever at the Plains and mountains he loved so well Colorado is the highest state in the Union and offers people who love to look at or climb mountains a variety to choose from it has 53 mountain peaks over 14,000 ft we're on our way now to the best known but by no means the biggest of these Pikes Peak an excellent Road allows us to drive to the very Summit 14,110 ft above sea level and from here the view view is fantastic even with binoculars the City of Colorado Springs is barely visible in a valley below that outcropping of rock in the center of the picture 5 mil north of Colorado Springs is known as The Garden of the Gods a spectacular formation of huge rocks ranging in color from pink salmon to rosy red some vacationers odd by The Flaming p pink and red coloring of the stone have suggested that the garden of the Devils might be a better name than Garden of the Gods the pot marks caused by erosion make ideal nests for pigeons and other birds Drive South and slightly west of Colorado Springs some 35 miles to Royal Gorge over the entrance to the park are the Seven Flags that have flown Over The Gorge since 16 9 England France Spain Mexico United States Texas and Colorado spanning The Gorge and the Arkansas River below is the world's highest suspension bridge the bridge is a quarter of a mile long and it's a sheer drop of 1,53 ft to the river below they have an incline railway to take adventurous sightseers to the bottom of the gorge and when they say incline they mean incline the ride is perfectly safe yet you can't help gripping tight for dear life and one ride is about all the adults can take but not the youngsters well I'm a coward and the youngsters can have it just take a [Music] look notice the hands gripping the bars at the bottom of the The Gorge the Denver and Rio Grand follows the course of the river you can cross the river on this lows slung suspension bridge but watching it bounce and sway most folks stay right where they are through a telescope we look up from The Gorge to the Magnificent Royal suspension it's always a thrill to walk across a high long bridge and Royal does allow pedestrians they have the right of way incidentally and car s cannot exceed 10 mph Royal Gorge a tourist attraction that is really worth your number one tourist attraction is nestled at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains about a 10-minute drive from Colorado Springs we arrived to 10 minutes after 9:00 a.m. and already the cars were jamming the parking areas well this is the United States Air Force Academy the jet age counterpart of West Point and Annapolis Falcon Stadium the Academy's largest structure cost $3.5 million but the entire amount was contributed by Air Force personnel and their friends from all parts of the world the walls of the stadium are studded with plaques dedicated to the memory of Air Force Heroes of yester year in 1958 the Academy's first year its football team went undefeated and played Texas Christian to a z TI in the cotton [Music] bow the classroom buildings and dormitories are as modern as the AOS Space Age we live in the modern design is deliberate a reminder to the cadets who will be America's space Guardians Of Tomorrow that the horse and buggy days belong to the past and not the dynamic present the interdenominational chapel is the most eye-catching structure on the campus Protestant Catholic and Jewish Services can be held simultaneously on three different levels now it's hard to believe that at first some people objected to the design of the chapel personally I'm not much for modern architecture a lot of it I think is too functional and lacking in Beauty but in all my travels throughout the states I've never seen anything like this and neither have the millions who have toured the academy since its Inception the stained glass windows are multicolor Blues Reds yellow orange pink Amber rainbows and colored [Music] glass this bronze Eagle symbolizes the spirit of the academy and every Cadet Knows by heart the inscription etched on the polished Stone man's flight through life is sustained by the power of his knowledge now why do we have an air Force Academy Brigadier General Robert F McDermot answered our question well you know Mr Douglas I'm sure that every one of our 2 million visitors a year ask that question or have that question in mind when they come here and of course the 180 million people who have contributed about a dollar a piece have a right to that an answer to that question the reason for an Air Force Academy is similar to the reason we have an Military Academy and have had one since 1802 and a Naval Academy since 1845 in 1947 the United States Air Force became a separate service and the Congress felt at that time that the Air Force should have its own Professional School to provide a nucleus of career officers for the Aerospace age so we are not just another College we are a Federal Institution designed to do more than just impart knowledge we're designed to develop character to develop leadership and to motivate our graduates for a career in the United States Air Force so that they will take their places along a long blue line following behind such people as Arnold spotz Mitchell vandenbberg and dood little who contributed so much to aviation in this country except that we feel that our graduates will be contributing to space technology and the exploration of space the eagle looks on and the cadet Corp of the Air Force Academy is on review the March was composed by Captain Franklin J Lockwood US Air [Music] Force in a state noted for Mountain Majesty the vacationer can enjoy the opposite extreme at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument supervised by the National Park Service this desert of Dunes in South Central Colorado covers an area of 57 square miles and looking at these Windswept Dunes you sort of expect the Foreign Legion to march by at any moment here and there patches of wild grass try stubbornly to survive the parched and shifting Sands the small amount of moisture enables even trees to grow but not for long The Roots dry up and the trunks appear as skeletons against the sky and yet at the base of the trees the hearty Daisy blooms until the next wind piles the sand from 6 to 600 ft high and while you Marvel at the power of nature your youngsters will run wild especially City youngsters whose only contact with sand has been at the beach they've never seen sand dunes resembling the Sahara and they really have a ball well see them enjoy them the Great Sand Dunes near mosa Colorado in Southwestern Colorado near the borders of New Mexico Arizona and Utah time has stood still this is Mesa verie the ancient Indian cliff dwelling that is at least 1600 years old and perhaps predates the birth of Christ the wandering Indians who settled Mesa verie were farmers and at first they lived in caves or pit holes later they built flat roofed vertical walled houses in rows ultimately these rows of small houses or rooms became compact Villages which the early Spanish explorers called pblos pblos means Village and so these agricultural Indians became known as peblo dwellers or the peblo Indians the Spanish also gave this area its name Mesa verie the green table and Mesa verie reminds us that while the United States is less than 200 years old the American is much much older you can drive your car and trailer to The Very rim of the canyon the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Monument Western Colorado this wild and ruggedly primitive Gorge has been cut by the Gunnison River and it's called The Black Canyon because during most of the day the canyon seems as Moody as Nightfall as white as 1300 ft from rim to rim The Gorge Narrows to as little as 40 ft at the bottom the Black Canyon has been called 50 Mi of somber solitude but it's a must on your Colorado vacation an excellent paved Road leads us into the vast Rocky Mountain National Park it's August yet patches of the last winter snows are still visible on the ridges and this enormous National Preserve of natural beauty spreads out over an area of 410 squ mil of North Central Colorado and in Denver when they speak of spending the weekend in the mountains they generally mean the Rocky Mountain National Park the teenage blonde is Miss Peggy Peter Meer of Lincoln Nebraska and watch this wonderful little [Music] vignette jealously eyeing the proceedings from a nearby tree is the gray and white bird known as Clark's Nutcracker but unlike the Chipmunk it will not approach people once the food is gone so is the chipmunk and when he leaves it's time for us to also move on you can drive for days even weeks and not see all that's worthwhile in Rocky Forest Canyon Overlook is a favorite stop and incidentally the weather in August is quite cold here at the canyon in fact much of the plant life is similar to that found in Alaska but whatever the month this is God's country and as you look at it you get the smug contented feeling that a part of it belongs to you and if it doesn't belong to you it doesn't belong to [Music] anyone heading west we pass Chimney Rock in the distance the altitude is almost 8,000 ft and the air is like the bouquet of a rich wine this is the railroad station at Durango in Southwestern Colorado just a few miles from the border of New Mexico and we've come here to take a ride on what is probably the best and certainly one of the oldest Narrow Gauge Railways in America the Silverton of the Rio Grand the Silverton operates from early June through late September it leaves Durango at 8:30 a.m. arrives at Silverton around noon time pulls out for the trip back at45 returning to Durango at 5:15 all in all it's a full days trip on a 3ft wide track but what a ride and what magnificent country you'll see here are quick flashes of what you would see on the Silverton train of the Rio Grand what appears to be a town in the valley below is actually one of Colorado's finest dud ranches the a Wilderness Ranch the ranch is unique in this respect it can only be reached by the Silverton train which Puffs its way through the heart of the ranch the guests and Ranch hands know the timetable by heart and they ride or run to the stop to say howdy to the newest bunch of City Slickers many D ranches are situated on or near a river and the all wilderness is no exception there's nothing like Swift flowing water to keep brother and sis from getting bored and the latest Fad in the big country is river rafting on tire tubes you don't have to be an expert to try this all you need is a little courage and an awful lot of Youth well listen my friend you can spend weeks and months in this vast Colorado and wish you had years to see every mile of it take this little town for example the name of it is uray and in the summer you might look it over and pass it by but in the winter when the peaks of those San Juan mountains are covered with snow there isn't a village in Switzerland any prettier yet it's right here in Colorado or if you're a romantic in love with a Pioneer ways of life peblo is the place for you this building houses a full-size replica of old Fort peblo and inside you'll see how it really and truly was in those old days when men were forced to wear long beards and drank their corn from Earth and jugs and slept on hand webbed CS that had Bobcat or bear skins for a mattress yes and they had a hand Forge instead of a hardware store and you made your own Mister by the sweat of your brow but it was all yours and you were proud of it what a place this is this giant called Colorado it has mountains 3 Mi high and men who walk 10 ft tall in Pride and honor it is preserved the yesterdays with a crisp freshness of tomorrows and the days before the yesterdays are even more sacred to the people of this lovely State timbuk 2 that's in Africa but it's here at the Great Sand Dunes if you imagine it to be here where the trees are green the skies are blue the streams are Swift they're all here awaiting you when you answer the call of Colorado