Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-06-01
THE GREAT PLAINS.

ment is now checked along our whole
| frontier, having reached a region ol
| twice the extent of our whole Allan.
! tic slope, the national conditions OF
which are SO different from those oi
the prairies or woodland farther east.
as to battle the means of improvement
used there. Formerly it was all char
acteriZed by the one word, desert,
from that its capabilities are authOri-
tatively affirmed. Many are inquir-
ing what they are and how they shall
be developed, and the curiosity is APP
pealed to by natural features utterly
unlike those of the east. Close be-
yond the rich farm lands of Nebraska,
Kansas, and the still more inviting
country to the south, an almost unin-
habited tract, stretches from our
northern border to the Rio Grande,
and from the Rocky Mountains four
hundred miles eastward, almost with
out rain, rivers, hills, trees, material
for building or capacity to produce
crops, and yet capable of making
larger returns for capital and labor
rightly expended than any of the now
settled parts of the country. This is
simply because cattle-raising, which
will be the one great business here,
costs but little, after the purchase of
the original stock, in labor and appli-
ances to carry it on, while the adven-
turer is being enriched by the increase
of his fiOcks. Neither population nor
products can be as large as on an equal
area in the East, but no part of the
plains which have seen, and few of
lfnl, II hoxra hno o-1 frraff for
turage. On their vast extent could be
produced beef enough to supply all
our eastern cities, while the herders
could almost entirely subsist upon
the produce of the irrigated valleys
Deer and buffalo will be plenty for
years; coal is found in large quanti-
ties; pineries jut out far eastward
from the mountains, and natural
meadows afford hay in abundance.
Thus the necessaries of life most diff
cult of transportation can be produced
here. Such, in brief, are the capabili-
ties of the Great American Desert.
But the dry, pure air of this climate,
with its entire freedom from the dele
terious influences prevalent elsewhere
is its greatest attraction. No where
within our national boundaries are its
health giving qualities equalled. All
physiological operations seem to be
accelerated; diseases elsewhere invet-
erately chronic are eliminated, and
recovery from accidents, as j have
myself experienced, is very rapid.
There is more energy and exuberance
of life, so that some think that life
must be shortened as if over stimula-
ted, but the rarity of natural deaths in
this climate and its resemblance to
that enjoyed by the hale old Bedouins
satisfy me that their fears are un-
founded.
Approaching the plains from the
Missouri river by the middle route,
up the valley of the Kansas, and pass
ing through two hundred miles of the
finest farm lands on earth, we strike
their eastern border at ElsmOuth. Up
to this place the landscape had the
general character of prairies further
east, but with softer contours and the
clearer outlines and deeper light and
shade produced by the purer air; but
from this on it seems to the new-com-
er a dead monOtony of 4 nearly fiat
yellow-green plain, cut by the dry
channels of what are mapped as rivers
and creeks, and swept by searching
winds; seemingly the most comfort
less region on earth. How a few
weeks experience changes all this,
and how life on the plain has become
to myself and others the most enjOya-
BILE will presently appear. What a
few years can do to bring about the
highest degree of comfort and refine
ment will be seen when one gets to
Denver.
Becoming used to this country is
like viewing an obscure painting, our
interest growing as its meaning be-
comes clearer. Once familiar no 9TH
er is so Ineligible, for the elearness of
the air and nakedness of the land
scape exhibit the topography of thous-
ands of square miles at one view, and
the expert may infer much of what
lies beyond. This is the more neces-
sary since beyond the government
surveys the published maps are very
unreliable, even the Kansas-COloradO
boundary, where it crosses the prin-
cipal stage line to Denver, being un-
determined within several miles.
One thing especially deceptive in the
mans of the plains is indicating as
streams, often as rivers, channels
through which water never flows,
except for a few hours after heavy
rains, when, from the then great de-
elivity the water quickly runs off in
the sudden floods, which having
caused so much damage in Western
Kansas, and, in its early days, swept
away the best part of Denver. The
hard abode-like soil, too, sheds the
water very quickly, and this, as much
as the lack of rain, which in spring
and early summer is. not so great as
commonly supposed, causesthe drouth
which prevents agriculture by the
ordinary methods. Enough rain fell
in the early part of last year to have
produced crops in deeply plOughed
ground in many parts of the plains.
The sameness of the landscape at
first sight is increased by the clear
air and the uniform color of the high
er ground, making distances indis-
tinguishable, except by a practiced eye
$50 much so that have known crows
to be mistaken for buffalo,, and when
the whole back ground is blended in
to a vague featureless ring of dusky
green. Far otherwise when to the
plainsman it recedes into the long
distance, the intervening space part
ing into numerous wary bridges, with
some well known divide" or the
far off me untains closing the view.
The mirage, too, is almost daily seen
playing around the horizon, lifting it
into the sky and showing objects
otherwise beyond the view. The sky
is generally clear to the horizon, sun
rise and sunset made beautiful by
shifting tints seen in other lands only
from high SUBMITS, and most nights
here are as bright as the brightest in
the East. The violent storms so fire.
quent here in summer may be watch
ed sweeping along for hours with in
discribable grandure, and the sudden
floods which follow suddenly filling
the dry channels, their front rushing
down like a breaker in an estua-
~, are such as are seldom seen else
where.
Still greater is the novelty in or
ganic nature. Few plants or animals
of the Atlantic coast are found, and
instead are new species situated to
their peculiar circumstances. AL
nature is changed, and man changes
with it to the life and habits of an
Arab, best situated to country where
shelter is seldom needed and open air
life is constantly enjoyable. Then
permeating all is the exhilerating
health giving dry, pure air which
arrests disease in the living as effect
ually as it prevents decay in the dead
organism.
Such are some features of the land L