The Pike expedition opened the central-west and southwest region to trade and the growth of industry and settlements. In 1870, Palmer created the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) and envisioned connecting Denver south to a new resort community and eventually to Mexico. He founded Colorado Springs along Monument Creek, due east of Pikes Peak, where mineral springs had been reported. The local newspaper detailed how mineral water was piped to the D&RG depot in 1871, but those improvements were lost in periodic flooding along the shifting creek basin.