Colorado, El Paso County, Colorado Springs
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The Central Garden Trail is a moderate, one-mile round-trip loop. It is paved and wheelchair accessible. This trail will take you between the towering Gateway Rocks into the heart of Garden of the Gods Park. Along the way you will have the opportunity to learn the stories behind the unique scenery.
Please stay on the trail. Beware of rattlesnakes, which are active in the warmer months. Help preserve the Park's fragile native vegetation.
Dangerous Rocks
Climbing on the rocks without technical climbing equipment is illegal, and it can be deadly. Many injuries and even deaths have occurred when visitors failed to heed this warning. Violations of the rock climbing ordinance can result in a fine of up to $500.
Technical rock climbers are required to register at the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center.
Right Before Your Eyes
What's so interesting about a rock? Rocks contain the clues that allow scientists to piece together the geologic story of life as it occured over millions of years. The ridges of rock stretched out before you represent chapters of the Earth's history of changing life and landscapes.
1) These ridges and cliffs began as horizontal sediments that were deposited as streambeds, sand dunes, beaches and sea floors as the environment changed over the past 300 million years.
2) About 65 million years ago, stresses within the Earth gradually pushed up the Pikes Peak Granite underlying Garden of the Gods.
3) Tremendous pressure caused by this mountain-building bent, broke and tilted the overlying sedimentary rocks into vertical positions. The once deeply buried granite now forms the mountains west of the Park. 4) Over thousands of years, summer rains along with spring's cycle of freezing water and expanding ice have weathered and eroded the upturned rocks into the shapes you see today. These forces continue to slowly sculpt the landscape.
Life Among the Rocks
This park is an intersection, or crossroads, of wildlife and plants from the Rock Mountains, the prairie grasslands and the southwestern desert, all converging to form a unique living landscape. Several factors contribute to the Park's great variety of organisms. The Garden of the Gods has milder winters than the mountains to the west and receives more moisture than the short grass prairies to the east. These red rocks provide protection from sun and storm. Finally, a variety of soils nurture a diversity of hardy plants that in turn support and shelter wildlife.
Sure-Footed Bighorn
Bighorn Sheep can sometimes be spotted on the rocky hillsides just to the north (behind where you are standing). It takes a sharp eye to pick out the gray-and-white sheep among the rocks!
The Local herd of bighorns graze higher up in the mountains during the summer and move down to lower elevations near the Park for winter. Preservation of natural habitat in the sheep's winter range is critical for these animals. This is especially true today, as homes and other developments continue to expand into bighorn territory.
The Garden's Human History
The tall spites of this area have served as a landmark to uncounted travelers. Evidence discovered by archaeologists indicate that people have hunted in what is now the Park for over three thousand years.
This rock garden was a traditional camping place for the Ute and other American Indians, who found plentiful game, useful wild plants and nearby water. Beginning in the early 1800's, U.S. explorers and adventurers spread word of the scenic wonders in this part of the Rocky Mountains. The 1850's and '60's brought goldseekers and then settlers who farmed and grazed cattle in the valleys bordering the red rocks. With the coming of the railroad in the 1870s, the first tourists came to view these unusual sandstone formations.
Today, this Colorado Springs City Park is visited by people from many nations. We honor the people in the Garden's past by preserving the Park's unique natural and historical legacy.
(Animals • Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 15 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
The Central Garden Trail is a moderate, one-mile round-trip loop. It is paved and wheelchair accessible. This trail will take you between the towering Gateway Rocks into the heart of Garden of the Gods Park. Along the way you will have the opportunity to learn the stories behind the unique scenery.Please stay on the trail. Beware of rattlesnakes, which are active in the warmer months. Help preserve the Park's fragile native vegetation.
Dangerous Rocks
Climbing on the rocks without technical climbing equipment is illegal, and it can be deadly. Many injuries and even deaths have occurred when visitors failed to heed this warning. Violations of the rock climbing ordinance can result in a fine of up to $500.
Technical rock climbers are required to register at the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center.
Right Before Your Eyes
What's so interesting about a rock? Rocks contain the clues that allow scientists to piece together the geologic story of life as it occured over millions of years. The ridges of rock stretched out before you represent chapters of the Earth's history of changing life and landscapes.
1) These ridges and cliffs began as horizontal sediments that were deposited as streambeds, sand dunes, beaches and sea floors as the environment changed over the past 300 million years.
2) About 65 million years ago, stresses within the Earth gradually pushed up the Pikes Peak Granite underlying Garden of the Gods.
3) Tremendous pressure caused by this mountain-building bent, broke and tilted the overlying sedimentary rocks into vertical positions. The once deeply buried granite now forms the mountains west of the Park. 4) Over thousands of years, summer rains along with spring's cycle of freezing water and expanding ice have weathered and eroded the upturned rocks into the shapes you see today. These forces continue to slowly sculpt the landscape.
Life Among the Rocks
This park is an intersection, or crossroads, of wildlife and plants from the Rock Mountains, the prairie grasslands and the southwestern desert, all converging to form a unique living landscape. Several factors contribute to the Park's great variety of organisms. The Garden of the Gods has milder winters than the mountains to the west and receives more moisture than the short grass prairies to the east. These red rocks provide protection from sun and storm. Finally, a variety of soils nurture a diversity of hardy plants that in turn support and shelter wildlife.
Sure-Footed Bighorn
Bighorn Sheep can sometimes be spotted on the rocky hillsides just to the north (behind where you are standing). It takes a sharp eye to pick out the gray-and-white sheep among the rocks!
The Local herd of bighorns graze higher up in the mountains during the summer and move down to lower elevations near the Park for winter. Preservation of natural habitat in the sheep's winter range is critical for these animals. This is especially true today, as homes and other developments continue to expand into bighorn territory.
The Garden's Human History
The tall spites of this area have served as a landmark to uncounted travelers. Evidence discovered by archaeologists indicate that people have hunted in what is now the Park for over three thousand years.
This rock garden was a traditional camping place for the Ute and other American Indians, who found plentiful game, useful wild plants and nearby water. Beginning in the early 1800's, U.S. explorers and adventurers spread word of the scenic wonders in this part of the Rocky Mountains. The 1850's and '60's brought goldseekers and then settlers who farmed and grazed cattle in the valleys bordering the red rocks. With the coming of the railroad in the 1870s, the first tourists came to view these unusual sandstone formations.
Today, this Colorado Springs City Park is visited by people from many nations. We honor the people in the Garden's past by preserving the Park's unique natural and historical legacy.
(Animals • Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 15 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
On Dec. 24, 1862, main body of Morgan's Raiders made camp south of here. Capt. Quirk and scouts entered town although USA troops patrolled area. CSA scouts wished to celebrate Christmas Eve, and dismounted at tavern. A patrol of 2nd Mich. Cavalry, USA, rode up with same desire. After skirmish, with slight losses, both parties stampeded without a celebration.
Original Federal Boundary Stone
This house, also called the Tin House because of its pressed metal siding has a symmetrical façade that is suggestive of a Colonial Revival influence. In the 1890’s a flour mill was located on this site but eventually closed because of continued erosion of the river bank. In 1906 the land upon which the house was built was purchased for “ten dollars gold coin of the United States”. For many years before World War Two, the house served as a bordello, one of many in town. The house, originally located just north of the present site was moved here in 1940 after the state rebuilt the levee. In 1979 the Downer Land Company purchased the building and renovated the structure.
The Pinal Cemetery served the nearby mill town of Picketpost/Pinal (1876 to 1892), which processed the silver ore taken from the Silver King Mine. Resting here in a cross-section of people from the surrounding area: the first settlers, miners, mill workers, mothers and children, merchants and others. Unfortunately, because many of their markers did not survive over time, most are unknown. After the town of Pinal was abandoned, the cemetery continued to be used by the residents of nearby Superior until Fairview Cemetery was set aside for municipal use by the Forest Service in December 1916.
This mosaic tile mural, one of the largest in the world with more than 466,000 California tiles, was created by dozens of artists as a W.P.A. Federal Arts Project in 1937 to grace the facade of the Municipal Auditorium. It was saved from demolition by caring citizens and moved to this site in 1982.
First church on Holland land purchase between Genesee and Niagara Rivers, Built 1818.
The State of Florida today joins the Sri Chinmoy International Peace Blossoms, a family of over 800 landmarks in 50 nations dedicated to the universally cherished goal of peace. May we, the people of Florida, forever embrace this lofty goal in our own hearts, and thus spread peace to our communities, to our nation and to all humankind. 
The first two sessions of the territorial legislature were held at St. Augustine and Pensacola. The hazards of traveling between cities 400 miles apart prompted legislators in 1824 to locate a new capital at Tallahassee, between the two cities. Log buildings that housed the government made way in 1826 for a two-story masonry structure. This was succeeded in 1845 by what is now the core of the present historic capitol. A dome and wings were added in 1902, and further additions made in 1923, 1936 and 1947. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and restored to its 1902 appearance in 1982.
This monument is erected by his fellow citizens of Leon County, Florida, as a testimonial of their high esteem for his character and public services.
Completed in 1841, the Union Bank is Florida's oldest surviving bank building. The business was chartered in 1833 as a planters' bank from which plantation owners could borrow against their land and slave holdings. The bank operated in a private house called "The Columns" until 1841. With John Gamble as its first and only president, it served as Florida's major territorial bank. The bank failed in 1843 because of crop failures, the Second Seminole War, and unsound banking practices.
Between 1832 and 1833 the following men applied in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, for federal pensions granted for their military service during the American War for Independence 
The oldest public building in Tallahassee. Construction was begun in 1835 and completed in 1838. Contains original slave galleries. The building was used many times as a place of refuge for women and children during Indian Wars.
When the Territory of Florida was opened to settlers in 1822, after the Seminole Indians were moved to central Florida, circuit riders came from South Carolina to start a Methodist mission. In 1824, they began the first religious organization in Tallahassee, the newly designated capital of the Territory of Florida. 
