Mount of the Holy Cross
Colorado mountain whose cruciform geology inspires religious devotion
Mount of the Holy Cross
✟ Christian | Holy Cross Wilderness Area (Eagle County), CO
Between Vail to the north and Leadville to the south, in the Sawatch Range, rises this unusual 14,005-foot mountain featuring a 1500-foot couloir (vertical cleft) intersected by a 750-foot horizontal bench, forming a Christian cross that keeps snow well into July. Because of its remote location, Mount of the Holy Cross was known largely in rumor and seen by very few until the celebrated western photographer William Henry Jackson took the first-ever photo of it. It became an American sensation. Jackson’s photo inspired a famous painting by Thomas Moran (now in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles) and a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in memory of the tragic death of his wife. Pilgrims flocked to see the cross by climbing a ridge on nearby Notch Mountain, where a stone hut was constructed in the 1920s to shelter hikers and host Sunday masses.
According to a Summit Daily article, this was also the birthplace of “handkerchief healing.” At the urging of a Denver pastor, sick people around the country began mailing in handkerchiefs, and the pastor carried them up Notch Mountain, prayed over them, and mailed them back to their owners. In 1932, he schlepped 2000 handkerchiefs, enlisting two rangers to help carry the load.
Between 1929 and 1950, there was a Holy Cross National Monument, but after a rock slide that marred the cross’s right arm, visitation declined, and the area was stripped of the designation and returned to the Forest Service. Today, Mount of the Holy Cross is the centerpiece of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area, created in 1980. Hikers summit the mountain to “bag” one of the state’s many fourteeners, or they climb a ridge on Notch Mountain for the iconic view and shelter. Pilgrims still journey here for inspiration, solitude, and prayer.
Sources: National Parks Traveler | 5280 | EARTH Magazine
Tour (hike) date: June 22, 2024
» Part of the “Holy Places” series at Blessings of Liberty «