Store

“Colorado’s Mystic Mountain” “Huajatolla” is the Ute Indian name for the majestic and mystical twin peaks rising up out of the prairie in southern Colorado. Pronounced “Wa-ha-toy-a”, it means “Breasts of the Earth”, as the two mountains bear a striking resemblance to a woman’s breasts. More importantly to the local tribes, the mountains bring life giving sustenance to the world, for it is on the slopes of the Huajatollas “where the clouds are born that bring the summer rains.”

The Huajatollas, or Spanish Peaks, as they are more commonly called today, were a sacred to Native Americans far and wide. No warfare was allowed along its slopes, and diplomatic and trade missions often met there. Indeed, this region had always been a crossroads for tribes following herds, and for later Spanish conquistadors searching for Aztec gold.

Legend has it (and there are many legends surrounding these mountains-in fact, the Colorado Highway 12 circling it is known as the Highway of Legends) that a vast quantity of Aztec gold was dug from these peaks and sent south to adorn Tenochtitlan. The legend further states that the rain gods became jealous of the fine art objects the gold was turned into, and sent an avalanche to obliterate the mine opening, hiding it from humankind forevermore.

That hasn’t stopped a great many people from trying to find it, including Louis B. Sporleder Sr. From a base on his ranch on the eastern flank on the East Spanish Peak, he would spend his summers
hiking across the mountains searching for treasure. The closest he came was finding a Spanish rapier sticking upright at the edge of an immense rock slide.

Louis B. Sporleder Sr. was an entrepreneur, writer and mystic who pioneered along the Cuchara River at the foot of the Spanish Peaks. Born to German parents in St. Louis in 1857, “Louie B.” as his family called him, followed his wanderlust west until he came to the small trading post of La Plaza de los Leones, or, the Plaza of the Lions. In time, this small clutch of adobe homes grew into the town of Walsenburg, only a few miles from the slopes of the Huajatollas. Sporleder tried making a living in a variety of ways, including as a merchant, rancher and hotelier, but what he loved most was simply wandering the forests and canyons of the two Spanish Peaks and communing with nature. When he retired at 56, he had the time to pursue the consuming passion of his life, the study of the Huajatolla mountains. He made extensive researches into pioneer tales and Indian legends, some of which he collected and published as The Romance of the Spanish Peaks, of which a reprint is offered on the website www.HuerfanoWorldJournal.com as well.

Thank you for the purchase of this reproduction art print. We hope it looks wonderful wherever you hang it, and that it brings you pleasure for decades to come.

Book of legends about the Spanish Peaks, Pub. 1960 – The Romance of the Spanish Peaks by Louis B. Sporleder Sr. Experience the rich history of Huerfano County through the words of a man who lived it.

The book is a compilation of Louis B. Sporleder Sr.’s writings, from the 1870s to the 1930s. Sporleder was one of the early pioneers of Huerfano County- many of the artifacts in La Veta’s Francisco Fort Museum, came from him! This book contains some of the first chronicling of the legends surrounding the Spanish Peaks… the very legends for which the Scenic Highway of Legends was named.

30 pp, copyright 1960, reprinted 2003. 16 original block print illustrations by Lucille Philbrook Baker.