The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-10
The Valley of the Arkansas.

it takes it source. 1t breaks through al
the barriers of the mountains, and follow
4 most riotous and tumultuous course TO
two hundred miles, gathering there hun
dred tributary streams, such as thu
Greenhorn, Huerfano, Apishpa, ITEM
! pas, Purgatoire, ETC., etc. 1t enters the
domain in which it thenceforth becomes
the servant and guide of the immigrant
seventy five miles north of the southern
boundary of Kansas, and runs thence ont
hundred and forty miles almost due west
ward. Then comes that geographical feat
ure remarkable only from its mention il
an act of Congress and in the newspapers
known as the Great Bend, being a north
east course for seventy-fve miles, then {
! south course for about hundred anC
| fifty miles, to the northern line of the Indi
an Territory.
Here are the three hundred and more
miles of valley-land, which are likely to be
talked about and written upon, and dis,
GUESSED and settled, for some three or foul
years yet to come. 1t is new accession
to the mighty dominion of the farmer
The distances given above are direct lines,
and the innumerable windings of the
stream are not counted You may get a
panoramic view of it all from the car-wir-
dow and form your own estimates. But
if you could travel through that broad
valley as we have, upon mule, and see
the sun rise and set upon the same waving
wilderness Of luxuriant grass and yellow
flowers every day for four weeks, and see
the mists of morning and the glare of
noon, and mark the undulations of the far
hills as monotonous as the poles of 4 tele-
graph line or the gait of an army mule,
then you will think the valley about six
hundred miles long,-which was very bad
then and all the better now.
That was only four years ago, and the
railroad was lying in embryo in the heads
of such men as attend that Topeka con-
vention, the chairman of the committee on
public lands, and the pockets of the east
ern capitalists. We thought it was very
beautiful, but the holes we dug in the loan
were for water, and not for any investiga-
ton of the soil. The long grass we look
ed at only with an eye to the tastes and
welfare Of three hundred army mules, and
not with a view to permanent settlement
see company of men measuring the i'm
mense distance with a GunterS chain or
wasting trgonometry among the abodes of
the prairie dogs: The acres of flowers and
leagues Of beauty belonged then to nature
and the genius Of silence. 1t was desert
Everybody conceded that. 1t was good
for nothing,-out of the world, silent, lone,
irreclaimable. That strange, ow-banked
river might flow on for thousand years
more; that rich soil might nourish its veg
citation for the good of the buffalo that
wandered here. 1t was of no possible in
terest to men.
But the strange magic of steam and
iron has worked its wonders in these soli-
tudes. Meddlesome men will not let the
geography is disguised, and has withdrawn
from the atlas the ominous aggregation Of
little black spots which meant to our
youthful eyes something to make one
shudder. The station-house and tank are
there; the plank village springs up like an
eXhalation; the black soil is being turned
upward to sun and lain, and school bells
Jingle upon air which has vibrated only to
the coyotes discordant concert from time
immemorial.
Possibly the reader would like facts
To begin with, it is a strange stream, this
Arkansas. Before reaching the western
boundary of Kansas, it drains country
larger than all New England. Though it
carries the melting snow of one-half OF
Colorado,-a country of wild gorges, I'M
trodden canons, unnamed peaks and path
less wildness,-it never overflows its banks.
Through some strange provisions of nature
it is almost always "even full" yet never
gets on tear and inundate the region
round. The secret of this is one of vast
Importance to the future of the Arkansas
Valley. The bed of the stream is COM
posed of sand and coarse gravel, and the
In place of all overflow, this subsoil is con-
stantly drinking up the stream from the
bottom. You may dig shallow well any
where in the valley-which l have seen
hrn -
will be filled with clear water to the level,
almost, of the adjacent stream. There is
no need of irrigation in this valley; it
matters little whether it rains or not. The
great ash colored stream, thousand feet
wide, is snow born, and flows OH and on,
after the manner of Tennyson's poetry.
But like all things else in this country, it
is subject to queer freaks. In a few places,
perhaps, the river bed is almost dry. 1t
seems SO, but it is not. Through the sub
strata of gravel the torrent is still flowing.
This, however, seldom occurs. l have
never seen the phenomenon; but there are
occasional years in century in which the
snowfall in the mountains is SO light as to
fail to furnish the usual volume of water.
The Arkansas is generally without bluffs,
This is a striking feature to the eye. Both
sides of the stream are alike. There is
first astrip of low and exceedingly rich land,
from one mile to one mile and half wide.
Then there is bench " of eight or ten
feet in height, and from four to ten miles
wide. This is ''second bottom" and bet
ter than the first.
The attrition of centuries between the
forces of frost and water, and the metallic
rocks Of the mountains. has filed this soil
with mineral matter. OF all lands in Kan
sas, those of the famous and beautiful kaw
Valley are supposed to be richest. This
soil is the same with that of the Arkansas
Valley. 1t improves by cultivation, In
mense crops have been grown in this same
valley, in the State of Arkansas, for many
years. 1t is strange that while these crops
were growing, and the valley above was
the same, or better, men set down this
future farmers paradise as 4 desert"
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