Frederick Hastings Chapin: 1852-1900

Frederick Hastings Chapin was an American businessman, mountaineer, photographer, amateur archaeologist and author. He is best known for his exploration of mesas and ancient Pueblo ruins found in the Mesa Verde area of Colorado. ⎯Wikipedia

Editorial Comment for this plate:

A COLORADO CANON.

We take special pleasure in presenting our readers this week, with the lovely picture of a Colorado canon which was photographed by Mr. Frederick H. Chapin, of Hartford. The beautiful spot attracted Mr. Chapin’s attention while on a deer hunt in Cheyenne Canon. The scene is in the narrowest part of the canon, he tells, just below the point where Bear Creek and North Cheyenne Creek join at their upper ends. The photograph was made in midsummer, the year following the date of the hunt, when the scene was first discovered and admired. It is a characteristic Colorado canon picture. The group of trees on the right, Mr. Chapin writes, is Spiraea, a very lovely and interesting shrub found in many mountains and mountain parks. The trees above the Spiraea are Abies concolor, which grow in the mountains to a height of a hundred and fifty feet. They have very striking gray-green needles which give them a silvery look. Higher up in the mountains of Pike’s Peak is found that peculiar tree, the fox-tailed pine. In his interesting account of ” Rambles on Pike’s Peak Range ” which follows, Mr. Chapin tells more about this picturesque region. (p. 599)