The Montana post., 1869-03-19
BEAR RIVER CROSsING-CO-
RHINE.


observer" writing to the Salt Lake
Reporter, puts in the claims of Bear
River crossing for "the city of the Fu-
ture," as follows Since this was writ
ten that place has been selected as the
Montana station, and the town-Co-
rinne, located. observer" is inaccu>
rate in some things, but in general, well
informed:
There can be no harm in putting in
word or two in favor of the Bear river
crossing as the site of the great GENTLE
town of the valley. First, then, il is the
nearest point on the line of the railroad
to Montana, whose trade alone in it's
veriest infancy would support respect
able town. In 1867 sixty steamers, car.
rying probably 1000 tons each, were
dispatched from st. Louis to Montana
via the Missouri river. The rates of in
surance were nearly five (4.S) per cent.
The navigation is very difficult and dam
gerous, as high as ten boats engaged in
il having been lost in one season car
goes and boats a total loss. The last
two or three years have been very fa~
vorable, yet boats could only reach
Fort Benton between the middle of
April and July, inclusive. A man
building quartz mill pays five
times as much for a keg of nails the
first of April as he does the first of May.
PrOUided, as the statutes say, that navi-
CATION has opened meanwhile. A Mon~
tana merchant must get in his years
supplies in the spring. consequently on
ly turn his money once a year, which
won't do at all, with better way pos
sible. so that the bulk of Montana
freights will be carried by the Union
Pacific Railroad and transferred to wag.
ons somewhere in this valley. probably
at the nearest point to Montana, until
the Northern Pacific Railroad is built,
for which l believe a charter has not yet
been granted, has il? And if not the
bulk of Montana freights. still at least
oneehalf of them, the piecing out of
stocks, &c, amounting perhaps, to 49,
600 tons a year.
Second. 1t is the nearest point to the
northeastern settlements Of Utah, count
ing now some $4,000 souls, and to go
back an inch, il is connected with Mon
tana by a more or less useful country,
through which the overland coaches
have always chosen TO run, grazing and
arabic lands, minerals, salt, copper, gold
silver, &c.
Third. Although | can't speak from
the card on this point, it Is probably as
good a place for the divergence of the
Oregon and Puget Sound branch of the
Union Pacific, as any other, securing
IL Z Idaho trade as soon as it is built. II
is twenty-five to forty feet above the
le.fel of Salt Lake, is at the foot of the
grade running westward, and il is as
pistty a plat of ground in itself as there
is on top of earth.
Fourth. In Bear River Valley there
are at least 400 square miles of the pret-
tiest land. y, il does farmer boy 8
eyes good to roam over il, These lands
are mostly unocupied. An acre planted
in peach trees produces year after year,
500 bushels of choice fruit. Sixty
bushels of wheat without irrigation, has
been averaged through field of twen-
ty-five acres. With deep plowing, wheat
can be raised as above, four seasons out
of FIVE, without watering. 1t irrigation
must be resorted TO, there are the rap
ids in the river, fifteen or twenty miles
above. from which an acquia can be
cheaply excavated on both sides, water
ing all the land within sight, and a
man can be seen on the valley five miles,
the same having q fall of FIVE TO ten feet
per mile, both eastward and southwark.
Filthy. 1t is the only pure water, in
any abundance, between the Wasatch
and Humboldt mountains. The river,
as high as the crossing, is on an aver
age fifteen feet deep and two hundred
feet wide, navigable for boats of light
draught thence 10 Jordon Bridge, with
in a mile of the Temple in Salt Lake
City. A man steps off the cars at Bear
River on the steamer makes a tour OF
Salt Lake and is landed in the erusa~
lem OF the Mormons.