Thousands of years before Zebulon Pike's name became attached to this famous mountain, Pikes Peak was home to indigenous people. These First Nations left no written record of their sojourn here, but what they did leave were stone circles, carefully crafted arrowheads and stone tools, enigmatic petroglyphs, and culturally scarred trees. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers documented their locations, language, and numbers. In the 1800s, mountain men and official explorers such as Pike, Fremont, and Long also wrote about these First Nations. Comanche, Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Lakota made incursions into the region. These nations contested Ute land possession, harvested the abundant wildlife, and paid homage to the powerful spirits at Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. Today Ute Indians return to Garden of the Gods and to Pikes Peak each year to perform their sacred Sundance Ceremony.

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press This is the story of the other side of Colorado's best-known mountain- the region west of Pikes Peak. It includes stories of the first settlers and the founders of towns. It also tells of the bust years between world wars when the railroad tracks were pulled up and many communities vanished.

Ute Indian Prayer Trees of the Pikes Peak Region is a book about Culturally Modified Trees, skillfully shaped by the hands of the indigenous people of Colorado, which can still be found today in the Pikes Peak Region. John Wesley Anderson shares the beginning of his journey into the past which led him across the ancestral homeland of the Ute to seek an understanding of these living Native American cultural artifacts. John shares the wisdom of the elders from the Reservations who believe at the beginning of time Creator brought them to the Shining Mountains. The Ute knew Pikes Peak by the name Tava, which means Sun Mountain. This is a story about the People of Sun Mountain and their sacred prayer trees.

Native American tribes once traversed the east-west anomaly of the Rocky Mountains known as the Palmer Divide as a passage between the high ranges and the Great Plains. Lying between Denver and Colorado Springs, and named for William Jackson Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs, the offshoot range divides the great Platte and Arkansas River systems. Settlers homesteaded, farmed, and ranched the area. Railroad construction in the 1870s led to towns supporting commerce and tourism, particularly in the western section of the Palmer Divide, in what eventually became known as the Tri-Lakes Area. The area drew tourists who enjoyed hiking, wildflowers, and the outdoors, and facilitated such local industries as ice harvesting, lumber milling, ranching, and potato farming. A vast area north of Colorado Springs, the Palmer Divide retains a picturesque rural nature and cohesive small-town feeling--creating such social events as the Rocky Mountain Chautauqua and the Yule Log Festival, as well as the enduring Palmer Lake Star on Sundance Mountain.

Thousands of years before Zebulon Pikes name became attached to this famous mountain, Pikes Peak was home to indigenous people. These First Nations left no written record of their sojourn here, but what they did leave were stone circles, carefully crafted arrowheads and stone tools, enigmatic petroglyphs, and culturally scarred trees. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers documented their locations, language, and numbers. In the 1800s, mountain men and official explorers such as Pike, Fremont, and Long also wrote about these First Nations. Comanche, Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Lakota made incursions into the region. These nations contested Ute land possession, harvested the abundant wildlife, and paid homage to the powerful spirits at Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. Today Ute Indians return to Garden of the Gods and to Pikes Peak each year to perform their sacred Sundance Ceremony.

The story of Martiniano, The Man Who Killed the Deer, is a timeless story of Pueblo Indian sin and redemption, and of the conflict between Indian and white laws; written with a poetically charged beauty of style, a purity of conception, and a thorough understanding of Native American values.

Manitou Springs was founded in 1871 as a picturesque health resort nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak. The town grew as a tourist destination and adapted to the needs of thousands of visitors. Today, Manitou Springs is an eclectic mix of bedroom community and travelers' retreat, and examples from many architectural eras coexist in its scenic mountain valley.

Get your Rocky Mountain high on with creepy tales of demon dogs, pioneer phantoms, and Old West wraiths. Eerie tales have been part of the city’s history from the beginning: Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain are the subjects of several spooky Native American legends, and Anasazi spirits are still seen at the ancient cliff dwellings outside town. In the Old North End neighborhood, the howls of hellhounds ring through the night, and visitors at the Cheyenne Canon Inn have spotted the spirit of Alex Riddle on the grounds for over a century. Henry Harkin has haunted Dead Mans’ Canyon since his gruesome murder in 1863, and Poor Bessie Bouton is said to linger on Cutler Mountain, hovering where her body was discovered more than a century ago. Ghost hunter and tour guide Stephanie Waters explores the stories behind “Little London’s” oldest and scariest tales. Includes photos!