150 years since the first woman climbed Pikes Peak
August 1st, 2008, 8:58 am · 8 Comments · posted by Dave Philipps
Yes, festivities for the 150th anniversary of Julia Archibald Holmes’ climb Pikes Peak, August 5, will be subdued compared to the party thrown for the bicentennial of Zebulon Pike’s visit to the region, but her story is just as compelling. There’s a story about her in today’s Gazette.
She was a fierce reformer, abolitionist and suffragette. In other words, she had that crazy notion that all people should be treated equally. (Fun fact: the first man to climb Pikes Peak was also a lefty reformer.) In a man’s world, she wasn’t ready to be treated like a delicate doll, so she walked 500 mile with a group of prospectors from Kansas, climbed the peak with her husband, read some Ralph Waldo Emerson poetry at the top, and then, when the gold-seekers went home, she and her husband walked to Taos, where they lived for several years.
Oddly, what she’s best known for is wearing a scandalous, women’s lib outfit (pictured) while she climbed. She wore the “freedom costume,” better known as Bloomers. Compared to long, heavy skirts, Bloomers allowed women to move easily.
A living history interpretor will be playing Holmes this weekend and next week in various places around town, including on the Peak.
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Hate to break it to you, but the majority of abolutionists, suffragettes and reformers in the 1800s were republicans, who are basically responsible for the freedoms and liberties we now cherish, unlike the divisive and elitist democrats who then and still wish to divide, classify and generally ‘keep the man down’ with the so called ‘liberal policies’ of today.
Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with anonymous. Not only did Abraham Lincoln free the slaves, he was also a Republican and was over 6 foot 3 inches tall. Rumor is that he could do a tomahawk jam from the top of the key. Shrimpy Dem Andrew Johnson couldn’t even hit a left handed layup when he was wide open.
Anonymous is correct, but he’s referring to my Republican Party….not the goofball outfit they are running today.
I’ll bet you Obama would whoop Lincoln in one-on-one.
I never suggested that they were either Republicans or Democrats. I only mentioned that they were liberal reformers. The label for those types of people has changed over the years.
Oh, now you done it Phillips. Now you done gone and let the dogs out.
Edith Wharton shoots her free throws granny-style!