Pikes Peak Colorado: A Brief History

Much of the mountain areas before this event had been tropical and dinosaurs roamed the area. There is a lot of evidence to this effect, especially in Colorado and around the Pikes Peak area.

Many fossilized tropical plants and underwater creature’s fossils have been discovered.

A great deal of history surrounds Pikes Peak. For instance:

*Before the white man arrived, Native Americans thrived in this area for centuries. Pikes Peak was a spiritual place for the natives.

*Spanish explorers ventured into the area in search of gold and other riches as early as the 16th century.

*Zebulon Pike led expeditions into the Colorado territory and eventually discovered the mountain that would bear his name. However, he never set foot on it.

*Fur trappers and traders found the great bounty of the Pikes Peak region. The area was full of wildlife and trading with the natives was a friendly and profitable venture.

*Gold was discovered at Pikes Peak in 1859 and many easterners raced west to make their fortune.

*Many present day towns flourished during the gold rush. Some became ghost towns just as easily.

*Miners needed a faster way to send their gold back east and railroads were built. Tracks from Colorado continued west to the Pacific.

*Hauntings go hand in hand with the ghost towns of Colorado. However, it is found that even the established towns of the region have their share of other world visitors.

*There was only one way to get to Pikes Peak and further west and that was through a wagon road known as Ute Pass.

*Katherine Bates stood atop this famous Colorado mountain and wrote a poem that would eventually become the song, “America the Beautiful”.

*Pikes Peak became known as “America’s Mountain”.

There is so much to see and do in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. The natural beauty of the area, abundant wildlife, excursions into the past, will leave you searching for more.

Travel to the summit of the Peak by the Cog Railway and you will get a glimpse into the old homes and depots that lined the trail before the first railroad to the top was built.

As you stand atop this grand mountain, you can see the beauty of the state and feel its history.

There is so much history and legend here. So on your next ski trip or family vacation to Colorado, stop and take a look around. You are standing or visiting the exact spots that early explorers traveled centuries ago, long before civilization came to the territory.

Michelle Mouton Reunites with Her 1985 Pikes Peak HillClimb Winning Audi Sport Quattro

Michelle Mouton, one of the most successful and best-known female rally drivers of all time, will open Race Retro at the International Historic Motorsports Show at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry on Saturday, March 24, 2007 and will make a rare visit to Britain next weekend to be reunited with her 1985 Pikes Peak Hillclimb winning Audi Sport Quattro.

The 55 year-old French lady driver still remains to be the only woman to win a round of the World Rally Championship, sweeping the Audi to a record time of 11 minutes 25.39 seconds in Colorado. The World Rally held in Colorado was a 12.42 mile course that featured over 150 corners and climbed almost 5,000 ft. in elevation.

According to Michelle Mouton, “I was very pleased to win the race for myself–it was the first outright victory ever scored by a woman – and proud for Audi as it was the first time a European manufacturer’s rally car had won–it was something very special to beat the Americans on their home ‘soil’.”

The famous 1985 Pikes Peak near 500 bhp Audi Sport Quattro after 22 years was restored to its original glory not really by following the Volkswagen repair manuals that goes with the Quattro but through the relentless effort of the rally Quattro specialist John Hanlon. According to Hanlon, “The car has been stripped back to a bare metal body shell and fully rebuilt over the last nine weeks. Every component has been re-furbished to Audi Sport specification and we have imported the original BBS split rim wheels which the car competed on at Pikes Peak in 1985. The car will be in its authentic livery and technical specification at Stoneleigh. The fact that this actual car competed in the very last Group B WRC round (1986 Olympus Rally) is a huge factor of its appeal.”

Mouton said, “I was used to driving this Audi but the problem was the altitude. It starts at almost 9,500 ft above sea level ands we had to make adjustments to the electronic gearbox and turbocharger. The Hillclimb itself was very difficult as it’s very fast and quite narrow with no markers and sheer drops off the side–the event’s ‘Race to the Clouds’ title is very true–and I think it was probably the toughest challenge in my career.”

She also added, “There had been problems in testing which meant I wasn’t allowed to drive my car to the start, mechanics instead pushing me to the line, which made me mad and very determined. I really wanted to win, so I pushed very hard–sometimes almost too hard.”

It was in the year 1981 in Sweden that Hannu Mikkola scored Audi’s first World Rally Championship while Mouton won the San Remo Rally later that year and claim the first World Rally Championship for a lady driver. The Audi Quattro was also the first car with the four-wheel-drive and turbocharged engine to compete in the World Rally Championship.

A year after, in 1982, Mouton achieved an outright WRC wins in Portugal, Greece— wherein the Acropolis Rally was held– and also in Brazil where she was able to win a second place in the Driver’s WRC and contested 50 WRCs between 1974 to 1986. Audi won the Manufacturers’ World Championship in 1982 and 1984. Hannu Mikkola and Stig Blomqvist both win the Drivers’ titles with Audi for years 1983 and 1984 respectively.

John Hanlon purchased the Audi last March from a private collector in America, aside from Mouton the Audi Sport Quattro was also driven by Walter Rohrl for the 1985 Corsica WRC and afterwards was taken hold by John Buffum who has successfully campaigned in North America.

At present Audi is leading the way in creating the technology in diesel-engined sportscars in endurance racing and made history last year when it won the Le Mans 24 Hours with its diesel Audi R10 TDI.

We Interrupt the Broadcast – End of the World Delayed With 30,000 Years Added to Mayan Calendar

Did you see the Google April Fool’s joke for 2012, it was one done in conjunction with NASCAR, where they were going to supposedly enter a robot Google race car to compete. NASCAR had this on their website and so did Google, and it looked like a genuine news release, ha ha ha, jokes on us right? Actually, the jokes on me, as I wrote a piece on April 6, 2010 on the same topic, the article was titled;

“Will Robotic Race Trucks Take Over Pike’s Peak, NASCAR, and Formula One – One Day?” Anyway, I am glad to see “the world is listening,” and that makes me happy to contribute.

Now then, for this year’s April Fools and realize once again I am a little late on this. Okay so, I say better late than never. You see, I was going to write this article for April Fools Day 2012 but it was on my list of things to do pile? Sorry about that, but here it goes anyway, but first a word from our sponsor. You see, there was an interesting article in the February 2012 issue of Popular Mechanics titled; “That’s All Folks,” By Jeff Wise.

In this article they talk about all the potential calamities which could end the world. They told us not to worry about the Mayan calendar, but rather to consider such things as; “an asteroid impact, global pandemic, a takeover by the machines, a Gamma Ray burst, an Ice Age, ocean acidification, solar storm, Super Volcano, a geomagnetic reversal, a nuclear war, or an artificial black hole.”

Okay so, probably none of those things are going to happen this year or anytime soon. In fact, if this were not an April fools joke and as per the titled of this article 30,000 years really were added to the Mayan calendar, who would know the difference anyway? Do you see my point? Realize also, that every single person that has predicted the end of the world so far, well, they’ve all been wrong haven’t they?

Therefore, maybe you should save for a rainy day, and not pretend that you are going to win the lottery to solve your retirement nest egg challenges in your personal saving’s space. Now then, I am most certain that very soon robotic racing cars will be challenging humans to see which is the best. Just as IBM’s Watson beat the best human Jeopardy players, and just as IBM’s artificial intelligent computer became the chess champion, I would submit to you that the days of human race car operators taking the podium are numbered.

Therefore, it hardly matters if NASCAR and Google were only kidding us this time around, because in the future that will be the reality, and although it may not be this year, it certainly could have been, and in the future I’m sure we all know that such a reality is just down the track. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

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