The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-09-09


for Emigrants-Government surveys-The Future of
Editorial Correspondence of the Pioneer and Democrat
EN- ROUTE, July 1859.
The exceedingly fertile soil and abundant
distribution of wood and water which we
noticed throughout the Sauk Valley and
around Alexandria, characterize the country
still more strongly with every mile of the
advance westward nearly to the Ottertail.
The soil is the rich dark loan of the best
agricultural districts of Minnesota from
one to three feet in depth, resting on a SUBJ
soil of sand or clay too far beneath the soil
for the plow to reach.
The rank meadows which mat the de-
pressions, and the low margins of the
streams, seem an almost superfuous provis-
ion, where the sweet grasses of uplands cover
the prairie sometimes up to the horses knees,
especially near the woodland heights of the
billy lake district, where man may often
wade up to his armpits in the wild hay
never mown except by the keen edge of the
prairie fire.
In among the groves of the billy lake
district l have mentioned, we found one
unoccupied claim shanty, about twenty miles
west of Alexandria; the only indication Of
prospective settlement to be seen along the
route from the latter place to Dayton.
1t is one of the landmarks of the road, and
is called in the parlance of the pioneers, the
+" Shanty," just as further down in the Sauk
valley the Y ankee Dutchman serves as
the living mile post of the Jehus thereabout.
1t is incomprehensible why all this por-
ton of Minnesota should have remained so
long unappreciated by the Press, and COM
paratively unknown to the emigrant. do
not hesitate to say, that the whole of the
western slope of the Upper Mississippi
north of a line drawn from the headwaters
of the north branch of the Crow to Pelican
Rapids on the Otter Tails the finest con-
tinuous breadth of agricultural country in
Minnesota and doubt if any Western
State can produce its parallel in complete
adaptation to the whole circle of the farmers
wants.
The elements seem to have been toiling
silently for ages to fill the soil with exhaust.
less resources of wealth-to collect the
sweet waters into cups of emerald and store
them with the rarest dainties, and weave
gorgeous carpets of velvet and flowers, and
hills of glancing lights and shadow, curtain
ed with the sombre drapery of groves-and
to be sitting here, their work done. like ser.
wants in Kings palace, waiting for their
master.
I must be allowed to express private
opinion-which the settlers hereabout ex-
press with more emphasis than would be
proper for mere cOrrespOndent-tha this
district has not met with the attention it
deserves in the apportionment of the sur
veys while the subdivisions are actively in
course of completion around Otter Tail
Lake and along the eastern bank Of the Red
River, from Breckenridge to Buffalo River.
The people about Alexandria complain
that they have been left with a meagre al
lowance of township lines, and settlements
are thus retarded from the difficulty of as
tanning the boundaries Of claims, and from
the apprehension of coming within the for
hidden lines of school sections, which always
embrace the most desirable locations.
With little more consideration from
the Government and the Press, make no
doubt that with the opening of the BUR-
BANK & Co.'S Stage route through this
country, the line of settlement in the Sauk
Valley will be extended within two years
in a continuous chain to the Red River
Valley.
No one who considers the effect of the
grasshopper plague of 1856 and 1857,
with the concurrent calamities of general
nature that have made the last two years the
most dismal epoch in the history of the
West, in retarding the progress of popula.
tion in this district, and who has witnessed
the prosperity of the Sauk Valley, in spite
of the gloomy horoscope, can doubt that
with the disappearance of these causes of
embarrassment, the impulse of growth will
be renewed with compensatory activity in
the future. JAW.
Fourth of July in the Woods-The Otter Tail, or Upper
Red River of the North-wassiota-A Pioneer
Head Of Navigation of Red River-Indian Insolenc
Editorial Correspondence of the Pioneer and Democrat
EN- ROUTE, July 4, 1859.
Avalanches of pellcans were sweeping
over the beautiful lake where we camped
last night; and in the dark bays Of the
northern bank, over which deep growth
Of wood cast its shadow in the setting sun,
the keen eye of Col. MOBILES deserted a
couple Of white swans, where, with May
NARD s rifle in his hand, he went to touch
the keynote of their dying song. The COL
onel did not succeed in eliciting that cele-
brated musical performance, from the we'll