Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-02-08

II third. first needn't Spurn you.
Ashes to ashes. dust 70 dustl
Behold the final station
Not we Ia1U. but then We must
Accept the situation
80 E
4 Written Tor the CHRONICLE.l
] DAKOTA.
The Land ONCE and 0iieers-Rapidity OF Set
tlsmRnt-GorernmPut Land-Selecting Clain
inducements 20 Immigrnte-Dakota Gener
ally-The Black hlllE-Soeial Equality.
Elk POINT, D. T., Jan. y, II.
! EDITOR CHRoNICLE:-It was, per
haps, uncourteous to leave such o
your readers as had followed the er
ratio course Of my pen, so long at Ell
Point; but hoping they may excuse
the long stoppage, we will again SCI
our face wilderness-ward.
/ The peninsula OF rich valley tha
lies between the Big Sioux and Mis-
souri, rivers, is terminated a littl'
above Elk Point, by the uplands
which rise wall-like from the valley
Above this point the valleys OF thC
two rivers diverge, that of the Sioux
tending to the east and the Missouri
To the west. AS we proceed up the
! valley Of the Missouri, the table land
enerOaehes on the river, till a little
! before we enter Nermillion there is
/ little more than room for road be-
tween the bluff and river. And here
/ before we enter the beautiful little
/ town, let us bid adieu TO the treacher-
Gus, shifting
I -a stprn arr-nDy -
Imagine a stream, at this season OF
the year but little larger than the
MahOning, wandering through wide
! fields of quicksand, which in time Of
high water forms its bed-this said
scarcely less treaeherOus or liquid
than the river itself-and you have
the Missouri. On one side an extent
{ Of level bottom land, with the upland
rising abruptly from it, frequently
miles from the river, and on the other
I high broken bluff, without a shrub
7 to cover their nakedness, n strip OF
tall, mbrella-Iiket topped eottOnwOods
on either bank, and you have the bal
ance of the picture. Here the river
shifts and changes its yielding, quick
sand banks, with rapidity and ca
priciousness that only the Missouri
| can. Where is bluff or farm now,
NAV be the channel Of the river af-
ter the spring freshet. Land owners
| sometimes find their estates on an
opposite bauk OF the river, and in
| another State than where they were a
/ few years before. A few years ago a
| richly laden steamboat was lost near
here. About month ago snme hunt
/ ers found on the prairie, some distance
from the present channel, traces that
| led them to search, and, presto, there
was the lost boat, bottom side up, its
cargo Of whisky and other necessities
In good condition.!
vERAIILLION
Is q most picturesque little village,
scattered amongst the bluffs and brush
that fringe the Missouri and Yer
million rivers. 1t has one principal
street. rnnning parallel to the foot OF
the bluffs.
The principal attraction of Vermil
lion-to us, at least-was the United
States land Office which is located
there. The building occupied as a
Land Office, is a neat, modest little
structure, loOking-eXcept the . L. S.
Land Offirer painted on its side, and
the brass field-piece under the win
dow-not unlike a newly built school
house on the Western Reserve. We
are in search of government land, and
apply to the officials for information.
Now United States officials are not
usually the most obliging OF mankind
especially are Land Office officials
prone to be troubled by undue eXpan-
sion of the Uranium. It is, therefore,
a pleasant surprise to find here gentle
men of the first Eater-cOurteOus, and
as ready to show and tell what they
could of the land in their district, as
merchant would be to sell his goods.
We get the necessary plate and in
struetiOns and started fOr
vERMILLIoN VALLEY,
Where. we are told, there is good
water, bottom land that produces
excellent grass and moderate supply
of timber. We reach the upland by
going up a wooded ravine back Of the
town, and for the first time, in Da-
kota. feel that we are out Of reach Of
the Missouri and its spring freshets.
A mile OF two across these uplands
and the beautiful Vermillion Valley
is in sight. The narrow river winds
from side TO side of the valley, fringed
here and there with q little timber;
in other places only willows on the
banks. The valley, from a mile TO
three or four in width, Is bounded by
bluffs, something after the manner Of
the Missouri, only not so high and
broken. To the left a mile or more,
the valley of the Nermillion opens
..F mi hnf NJ
rises a singular hill, which retains its
old Indian name of Spirit Mound,
and to the right the course OF the
river may be traced for miles by the
willows that border it. The country,
as we proceed up the stream, has been
but lately settled, as can be seen by
the newness OF the buildings. Three
wears ago there was but q single
house above Spirit Mound; now we
see houses, stores, mills-everything,
in fact, that one would expect to find
in an old, settled country. 1t does
not take the long, weary years to set
tie a prairie country that it did our
own timbered Ohio. Here the Indian
and buffalo retreat to the music of the
moving machine and steam whistle;
the surges of the steam paddles sink
the canoe, and the war-whOOp and
death knell are drowned by the piano
aud sleigh-beils. Savageism does not
lurk in the prairie grass as il does in
the woods. There is here no long,
intermediate state, during which man
develops through the successive states
of the hunter and trapper, the pioneer
and the backwOodsman, into the civ
/ ilized citizen. The country changes
as if by magic, and what is lonely,
wind-swept prairie one year, may the
next be comfortable farms. OF course
there is the sod house, the stable of
poles and hay, and the poorly pro-
Z ducing acres of breaking, for the first
year, usually. But with capital and
cattle, comfortable, even sumptuous.
homes may rise at once from the prai-
Tie, as they have. and are now, rising
in many places along this valley.