La Junta, Colorado, to Pueblo, New Mexico Great American Railroad Journeys


La Junta, Colorado, to Pueblo, New Mexico

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Transcript


LineFromTo

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of North America

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with my reliable Appleton's Guide.

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CAR HORN HONKS

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Published in the late 19th century,

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'Appleton's General Guide to North America will direct me to all that's

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'novel...'

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..beautiful...

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..memorable...

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'..and striking...'

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..in the United States...

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As I journey across this vast continent,

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'I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.

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'And how the railroads tied this nation together,

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'helping to create the global super-state of today.'

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STEAM WHISTLE BLOWS

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I'm continuing my journey west on the South-West Chief train and now

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approaching the Rockies -

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the so-called continental divide,

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that represented a formidable barrier to the railroads

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and so to the unification of the United States.

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President Jefferson had needed only cash

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to acquire a vast amount of territory

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that doubled the size of his fledgling country.

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Out west, an even greater expansion would be achieved by war.

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My railroad journey began in St Louis, the gateway to the West,

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and took me across the Kansas Plains to Dodge City.

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Next, I continued to Colorado Springs in the Rockies,

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on to New Mexico's Albuquerque,

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before ending on one of

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the great natural wonders of the world.

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On this leg, I visit Colorado's La Junta and ranching territory,

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before crossing the Raton Pass into New Mexico.

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Present...

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This time, I'm transported back in time to the Mexican-American War.

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Soldier, your buttons are a mess,

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but you don't need to buttons to fight a war.

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-Are you ready?

-Yes, sir.

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Explore gun culture in the Old West.

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You have to remember that there was not a lot of law and order.

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And discover what drove railway expansion.

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Out it comes one more time,

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much longer and slimmer and giving off an extraordinary amount of heat.

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My next stop is La Junta.

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Appleton's tells me it's the point of junction with the main line

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extending to all points in New Mexico and Arizona.

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The first glimpse is caught of the Rocky Mountains

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still 60 miles distant.

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In 1845,

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a New York editor had written that, "The United States had a manifest

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"destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free

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"development of our yearly multiplying millions."

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This ideal, this God-given right, was to sweep all before it.

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In 1845, United States President James Polk

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was in dispute with Mexico -

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a vast, sparsely populated nation with a strong cattle industry,

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whose territory stretched to upper California.

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My next stop, La Junta, lay close to the western border

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between the United States and Mexico on the old Santa Fe Trail -

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an important trade route between the two.

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I'm heading eight miles east to Bent's Old Fort,

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in its heyday the south-west's only all-white settlement and trading

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centre on the Santa Fe Trail.

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Set up by fur traders in 1833,

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it welcomed trappers and Plains Indians dealing in fur

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and buffalo hides.

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But in 1846, this neutral outpost became the base

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for one of three United States armies

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on the disputed border with Mexico.

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Hasta luego.

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Present arms.

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-Sergeant.

-Yes, sir.

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-What unit is this?

-First Dragoons.

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Kearny's Army of the West.

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Fine looking body of men.

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-Excellent men, sir.

-What use are you making of the fort?

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Well, we are on our way into Mexico, to Santa Fe and the thought is

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currently being used as a warehouse

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and hospital for the sick and injured.

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-Mm. Men are well prepared for it?

-They are, they are well armed.

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Soldier, your buttons are a mess,

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but you don't need good buttons to fight a war.

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-Are you ready?

-Yes, sir.

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-Good.

-Go get me a Mexican.

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That's the spirit. Now, here's a picture of a soldier.

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-Are you ready to fight?

-Yes, sir.

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Well, you look smart, the Mexicans will be terrified of you.

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Thank you.

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-Sergeant.

-Yes, sir.

-I'm proud of you.

-Thank you, sir.

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-Permission to carry on.

-Yes, sir.

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Bent's Old Fort hosted Colonel Kearny's Army of the West,

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made up of his first United States Dragoons Regiment

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of 1,000 cavalrymen and an army of volunteers from Missouri.

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'John Carson is park ranger at today's living history museum.'

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John, in 1846 the United States forces are flowing into this remote

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place, Bent's Fort. Why?

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Well, President Polk has declared war on Mexico and Colonel Kearny's

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mission is to be the northern prong of the US invasion.

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In 1846, the Arkansas River, a quarter of a mile away,

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is the border between the United States and Mexico

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and this is the only place on the Santa Fe Trail to stop

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and use as a jumping off point.

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War had broken out over the annexation by the United States

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in 1845 of the then independent Texas,

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which had been Mexican territory.

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The two nations disputed the new border

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and whether Texas ended at the Nueces River or the Rio Grande.

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As tension mounted, the Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande,

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leaving up to 16 Americans dead.

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President Polk saw an opportunity

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and rushed a war request through Congress.

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The idea then was the bigger you are,

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the stronger you are and he didn't use the phrase Manifest Destiny,

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but that became a huge movement where the United States had,

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if you will, God-given duty to gain control of all the land

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from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

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Manifest Destiny captured the public's imagination and was the

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subject of a painting by John Gast in 1872.

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America pictured herself leading civilisation,

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liberty and progress westward,

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sweeping aside the natives and their animals.

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How did Colonel Kearny's mission work out?

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It went pretty easy compared to the other two prongs.

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Again, Kearny left here,

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got to Las Vegas and New Mexico and read his proclamation that that area

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was now going to be under the United States.

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Got to Apache Canyon on this side of the Santa Fe and Governor Armijo

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had a force of somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 men,

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but as the US Army neared that area, they left.

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So, basically Kearny walked into Santa Fe without firing a shot.

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'The two year war would fulfil America's Manifest Destiny,'

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but it came at a cost.

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Over 14,000 Americans and up to 25,000 Mexicans

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paid with their lives.

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So, how much land did the United States gain in the end?

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We would gain what's now the southern part of Colorado,

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Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, parts even of Wyoming,

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Utah, Nevada and California.

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-Immense.

-Huge, huge.

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With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,

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which ended the war in 1848,

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the United States gained the northern half of Mexico,

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representing roughly a third of the United States' landmass today.

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It also inherited a cattle ranching tradition developed under Spanish

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colonial rule.

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The legacy that would help to create the most iconic figure

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of the Wild West.

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Is the cowboy simply a figure from history?

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Well, there are still cattle, there are still ranches.

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The old skills must still be alive.

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I think I should give them a try.

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After all, in my life, I've worn more than one hat.

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Off the beaten track, south of La Junta, lies Las Animas County.

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I'm hitching a ride through this ranching territory

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with Steve Wooten.

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Hello, Steve.

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Thank you very much.

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Welcome.

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Good to see you, thank you.

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Steve, has your family been in these parts for long?

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Michael, we've been in this part of the country for four generations.

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My great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland in 1860s and he developed a

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cattle business, a sheep wool business

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and a goat business, where he traded on the railhead

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that they developed there, so that they could transport

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livestock and the produce back east.

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The arrival of the railroad at La Junta in 1875

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transformed its cattle industry.

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Large ranches could load cattle here and transport them east.

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Unlike the cowboys of the cattle drives, ranch families settled.

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Did he acquire much land?

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Through the years, he did, Michael.

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By the time Papa Joe passed away, he'd made seven ranches,

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one for each of his children and the total amount of those ranches was of

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greater acreage than all of Ireland that he left.

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That is amazing.

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President Abraham Lincoln's Homestead Act of 1862

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encouraged western migration.

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Any adult citizen who headed a family could, for a small fee,

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received 168 acres of public land to cultivate for five years.

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The Act distributed 80 million acres by 1,900.

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And do you still have to do the cowboy things,

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like branding and lassoing and riding horses?

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Yes, Colorado is a brand state, so we brand our cattle.

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We prefer to move our cattle horseback.

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It's our tradition, it's our heritage,

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it's been done that way since 1800 and we like to carry that part on.

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Gosh, Steve, you have a stunning property.

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Look at this terrain.

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Michael, we're blessed to be here.

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'Steve's going to show me the ropes.

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'It's a loopy business, but I'm game.'

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I think you'd better stand back.

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All right, let's get a bit of speed up now.

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Point it straight, there you go.

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Walk towards it.

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'In the 18th century, native cowboys, called vaqueros,

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'from the Spanish word for cow,

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'developed their roping skills using braided rawhide.'

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Later, when Western settlers poured onto former Mexican land,

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they learned a traditional ways of the vaqueros.

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By the 1870s, the classic Wild West cowboy as we know him had arrived.

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This loop, double or nothing, point it right, palm down,

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right at the front of the bail.

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There you go. OK.

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Step towards it.

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I'd say, yes.

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That's as close as I'm going to get.

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I'm going to steer away from this activity.

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You're game, all right!

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-Good job.

-Thank you.

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-Hello, Joy.

-Nice to see you.

-Good to see you.

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-Welcome to Beatty Canyon.

-Thank you very much.

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-What have you got in the pot, Joy?

-We're cooking brisket.

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Whoa! Look at that, that's huge.

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-One of your own beasts, of course?

-Of course.

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It's great to cook outdoors.

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I'm not sure whether today we're going to be able to eat outdoors,

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-what do you think?

-I think it's going to rain,

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-which would be awesome.

-"Awesome"?

-Awesome.

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We always need rain on the dry parade.

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THUNDER CLAPS

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That is so good. Cooked to perfection.

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And wonderful to have a beast straight off the ranch.

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I wanted to ask you,

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I'm using a late 19th century guidebook to go around

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and I believe that even then tourists were coming to visit

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ranches, is that right?

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I think then they were dudes from the east that weren't

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accustomed to the open space, the cowboy lifestyle, the horseback,

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cattle riding, wrangling, and so they were craving that experience,

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because Western lifestyle had been iconicized in dime store novels.

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Do you have dudes today?

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We do, but we're more of a traditional ranching experience,

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where you can get involved in all aspects of it -

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including the horses and the cattle, but the fencing,

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the windmilling and everything else

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that comes with raising cattle on a ranch.

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Why do you think people are so attracted by the West?

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I believe it's the open space and the quietness.

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It's difficult for a European to get a hold on how big this country is.

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Look, I've already come 550 miles from Kansas City.

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I'll be passing through Flagstaff, still 700 miles to go.

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I'm 2,000 miles from New York, more than 1,000 miles from Los Angeles.

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With a country like this, let the train take the strain.

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From La Junta station, I'm taking an Appleton's recommended itinerary on

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the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.

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Thank you.

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Built along the great trading route of the Santa Fe Trail after the

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Mexican-American war,

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this important railroad connected Missouri with New Mexico.

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It greatly influenced settlement in the south-west.

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This is the topographical highlight of the journey. As Appleton says,

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"The railroad climbs the mountains through the Raton Pass on a grade of

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"185 feet to the mile.

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"At an elevation of 7,688 feet,

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"the train plunges into a tunnel under the crest of the Raton Range.

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"The light of Colorado quickly vanishes

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"and that which flashes upon us again in a few minutes

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"is the warm brightness of sunny New Mexico."

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So long, Colorado.

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Howdy, New Mexico.

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Raton was a ranching town

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and trade centre that flourished thanks to the railroad.

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Today, alongside its many tourist attractions,

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Raton lists a vast 33,000 acre shooting and recreation centre.

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It belongs to the National Rifle Association.

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The NRA was founded in 1871 by Union veterans dismayed at the poor

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marksmanship shown by Northern Yankee troops

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during the American Civil War.

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Today, it's a powerful gun lobby.

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'I'm meeting firearms museum curator Robbie Roberts

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'to find out about guns in the Wild West and their legacy today.'

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Robbie, in the exploration and the settling

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-and the conquest of the West...

-Yes.

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..do the explorers and the settlers and cowboys, do they need the gun?

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Absolutely. It was an invaluable tool for the folks coming out west.

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Hunting to put food on the table,

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they were used for self-defence against the Indians and the outlaws.

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You have to member back in the Old West,

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there was not a lot of law and order and in a lot of cases,

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you couldn't tell the lawmen from the outlaws, OK?

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But their primary use was to put food on the table.

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Fur traders, pioneer settlers,

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soldiers and Native Americans relied on their guns.

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By the 1860s, a time of Civil War and great western expansion,

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a significant firearms industry has emerged,

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dominated by gun makers such as Colt,

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Smith & Wesson and Winchester.

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Probably the most recognisable is the Colt single action,

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the model of 1873.

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It's called the Peacemaker

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and it was actually developed for the United States Army,

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but it was so good that it went and wound up in the civilian market.

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And, literally, millions of them were sold over the years and

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they're still in production today.

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This weapon, then, represents a breakthrough, does it?

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Yes, sir, it does. Absolutely, because it is a revolver

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and the biggest advancement was

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it used a self-contained metallic cartridge,

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whereas the firearms that predated it were all cap and ball

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muzzle-loaders, basically.

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The American Civil War was followed by a series of Indian wars,

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as the United States Army pushed west

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and Native Americans resisted encroachment on their land.

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The Army shipped 37,000 Colt pistols to its cavalry

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as the standard issue sidearm.

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Now, what about the long barrel weapons?

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Probably, again, the most recognisable is the Winchester 1873.

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-Oh, yes.

-OK.

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And this was used by the Army, by cowboys, by Native Americans?

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All except the Army. They didn't really welcome them,

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because they thought it was a waste of ammunition.

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To give you an example - when Custer went to Little Bighorn,

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they were all shooting, their standard issue

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was single-shot rifles.

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The Indians, on the other hand, had repeating rifles.

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In the early 20th century, an advertising campaign marketed

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the Winchester as the gun that won the West.

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Hollywood reinforced this in the 1950s,

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glorifying the cowboy era and placing the iconic rifle

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in the hands of gun-toting legends.

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Is there an opportunity to fire a weapon today?

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You betcha. We'll go out and shoot a Colt and, you know,

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if we want to do that, we need to head to the range as we speak.

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Good.

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-You're going to hit those ducks, are you?

-I'm going to try.

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There's no guarantee in the shooting world.

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'Robbie exercises his constitutional right to keep and bear firearms.

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'Around a third of Americans either own a gun

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'or live with someone who does.'

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Even when you're ready for it, it's pretty loud, isn't it?

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Yes, it is.

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-How did you do, Robbie?

-Not very good,

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-but you'll notice I was pretty close.

-You were pretty close,

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I could see the sand being kicked up just beyond the target.

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Yes, I was a little high.

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Now, if that was an animal or if it was a bad guy out there,

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it wouldn't have mattered, because they would have been deadly.

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-You routinely carry a gun?

-Yes, sir, every day.

0:21:130:21:17

-Why?

-Well, because I'm going to protect myself and my family.

0:21:170:21:22

Now, I've never had to use it and I'm thankful of that.

0:21:240:21:27

I don't want to have to use it, but if somebody's there to do me ill,

0:21:270:21:31

I would rather be prepared than not be prepared.

0:21:310:21:33

So, you've never had to use it in your life?

0:21:330:21:35

-No.

-But every day of your life, there's been a risk that it might go

0:21:350:21:39

off accidentally, that one of your kids might get hold of it.

0:21:390:21:43

-I don't know, you're running a risk every day?

-No. One, you know,

0:21:430:21:47

gun safety is paramount and all the gun accidents that happen,

0:21:470:21:51

I guarantee you,

0:21:510:21:52

one of the three golden rules of gun safety was violated.

0:21:520:21:55

Is that the fault of the gun?

0:21:550:21:57

No, it's the fault of the individual behind the gun.

0:21:570:22:01

Does it not worry you that a high school student may come in

0:22:010:22:04

and buy a gun and massacre his classmates?

0:22:040:22:06

Well, is it something that we think about every day?

0:22:060:22:09

No. Is it a concern?

0:22:090:22:11

Sure, it's a concern.

0:22:110:22:12

Is there a gun law that's going to stop that?

0:22:120:22:15

Unfortunately, no.

0:22:150:22:17

To Europeans, these views are surprising.

0:22:180:22:21

Indeed, the United States astonishes us again and again.

0:22:210:22:25

But travel is meant to broaden the mind.

0:22:250:22:28

It seems that Americans are much influenced by a history that's bound

0:22:280:22:32

up with the Colt and the Winchester.

0:22:320:22:34

From the New Mexico border heading north,

0:22:360:22:39

there are now no passenger services

0:22:390:22:41

and the line has been given over to freight.

0:22:410:22:44

Appleton's draws me to Pueblo,

0:22:480:22:50

one of the chief cities of southern Colorado.

0:22:500:22:53

Once situated on the historic Denver and Rio Grande railroad,

0:22:530:22:57

my guidebook tells me that it has a large steel works.

0:22:570:23:00

I'd always thought of steel as coming from Pittsburgh

0:23:030:23:06

and the East, but the guidebook opens my eyes

0:23:060:23:08

to something that should have been obvious.

0:23:080:23:11

If you're going to build a railroad from ocean to ocean,

0:23:110:23:14

you needed a steel plant in the West.

0:23:140:23:17

I'm meeting general manager Ben Lutz at the sight of the original plant

0:23:190:23:24

that made this steel city.

0:23:240:23:26

Ben, this is a tremendous piece of industrial archaeology.

0:23:260:23:29

I have a real sense of history here.

0:23:290:23:31

And, indeed, this plant is mentioned in my 1891 Appleton's,

0:23:310:23:35

so you've been here a good long time.

0:23:350:23:37

Yes, we started manufacturing rails back in 1882.

0:23:370:23:41

Why was it that the plant was located here?

0:23:410:23:44

The Rocky Mountains are rich with iron ore and coal deposits,

0:23:440:23:47

which are two primary materials that are needed

0:23:470:23:50

and the railroads needed a supply of rail here in the West,

0:23:500:23:54

to continue their westward expansion.

0:23:540:23:57

William Jackson Palmer was the railroad tycoon

0:23:570:24:01

behind the Denver and Rio Grande western railroad.

0:24:010:24:05

Instead of importing steel from the East,

0:24:050:24:07

he decided that it was cheaper to make steel rails in the West.

0:24:070:24:10

His affiliate business,

0:24:100:24:12

the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, created the first integrated steel mill

0:24:120:24:16

west of the Mississippi.

0:24:160:24:18

And it was the railroads then that drove the existence of this plant,

0:24:180:24:22

the demand for the steel from the railroads?

0:24:220:24:25

Absolutely. This plant is here for rail

0:24:250:24:27

and that's still what we make today.

0:24:270:24:29

So, these great tubes of hot metal.

0:24:360:24:39

-Yes.

-What are they?

-So, these are blooms.

0:24:390:24:42

They come from our steel-making process.

0:24:420:24:45

Here, we are a 100% recycling operation.

0:24:450:24:49

Our primary source is shredded automobiles.

0:24:490:24:51

And you can make a reliable rail for the railroad out of shredded

0:24:510:24:56

-automobiles?

-Yes, we can.

0:24:560:24:58

The old steel mill used the British Bessemer method.

0:24:580:25:02

Four blast furnaces belted out plumes of smoke,

0:25:020:25:05

as steel was made from the chemical reaction between coal and iron ore.

0:25:050:25:10

So, this is the initial rolling process, called our breakdown mill.

0:25:120:25:15

This is where we'll start to change the shape from the round we saw

0:25:150:25:20

earlier into something that looks a lot more like a rail.

0:25:200:25:23

Much more of it appearing now and...whoa!

0:25:240:25:28

A lot of heat coming off that metal.

0:25:280:25:30

Yes! The rolling temperature here is about 1,900 degrees.

0:25:300:25:34

That's the optimal temperature for rolling steel.

0:25:340:25:38

How many rails do you make here?

0:25:380:25:39

So, every day, we'll produce about 1,000 rails.

0:25:390:25:43

-A day?

-A thousand rails per day.

0:25:430:25:47

Out it comes one more time.

0:25:470:25:49

Much longer and slimmer and giving off an extraordinary amount of heat,

0:25:490:25:55

as it disappears past us.

0:25:550:25:57

Pueblo's steel plant was acquired by the Rockefeller family in 1903 and

0:25:580:26:03

became central to a steel business that in 1906 employed as much as 10%

0:26:030:26:08

of Colorado's population.

0:26:080:26:11

One of the things that I noticed was just how long the rails were,

0:26:110:26:16

much longer than in the old days.

0:26:160:26:17

Correct. Lengths have progressed throughout the years.

0:26:170:26:21

Originally, starting very short just to what the men could carry by hand.

0:26:210:26:26

Today, the standard is approximately 80 feet.

0:26:260:26:29

So, you take these 80-foot lengths and then what do you do to them?

0:26:290:26:32

They travel in special trains that can take 48 pieces

0:26:320:26:36

of quarter-mile-long rail out to the field.

0:26:360:26:39

-That I have to see.

-We certainly will.

0:26:390:26:41

Then, a remarkable sight.

0:26:470:26:49

Very long rails coming out of what?

0:26:490:26:52

So, this is a welding plant,

0:26:520:26:53

where the 80-foot pieces that we produce are flash-butt welded

0:26:530:26:57

together into quarter-mile-long pieces.

0:26:570:27:00

And then loaded onto these enormous trains?

0:27:000:27:02

Yes, specialised trains made to handle the quarter-mile pieces,

0:27:020:27:07

taking them to the field where they'll be installed.

0:27:070:27:10

And are your markets in North America?

0:27:100:27:12

Yes, we supply all the major railroads in North America,

0:27:120:27:15

even the Amtrak Route from Kansas to Trinidad,

0:27:150:27:18

Colorado was made with rail from this facility.

0:27:180:27:22

I've been travelling on that very route

0:27:220:27:24

and I knew that it felt smooth.

0:27:240:27:26

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

0:27:260:27:28

The war against Mexico gained the United States the far West,

0:27:340:27:38

enabling railroads to be built from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

0:27:380:27:43

The United States Army and cowboys subdued the Native American.

0:27:430:27:47

The nation's Manifest Destiny was fulfilled.

0:27:470:27:51

Providence no doubt was at work,

0:27:510:27:54

but the bullet played at least an important supporting role.

0:27:540:27:58

Next time, I ride the historic railroad that sparked a war.

0:28:000:28:05

They aimed their guns at each other, shots were fired back and forth.

0:28:050:28:09

# America, America... #

0:28:090:28:13

Explore the origins of an iconic national hymn.

0:28:130:28:16

And ascend to 14,000 feet.

0:28:180:28:21

Oh, my word, we are going to the very edge.

0:28:210:28:27

That's unbelievable.

0:28:270:28:29

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