The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-06-13
WEALTHY WYOMING.
er.ph,s Description Of she Country
Betwsea Cheyenne and the North
Platte River.

Platte kiSer.
The Chicago Inter-Oe cores
pendent, 7. c. Macmillan, writes as
follows of the rich and fertile valleys
between here and the North Platte:
The bottom lands are somewhat
extensive, and, as in the case with
the streams that cross u path to
Fort Laramie and rise in the hills to
the west, are dotted with ranches al
most to their heads. Besides the adj
vantage the ranchmen discover in
locating on the streams is another
priced equally. l refer to the fine
grasses which border the creeks.
These are a never-failing revenue to
the settler in Wyoming. Here, while
the grazing lands are vast, the hay
lands are not SO easily found. A
hay-ranch is worth here what a r
field is to a stock-raiser in Illinois.
This will be understood when l state
that hay is often worth $25 a ton and
frequently much more. Last spring,
when / was en- route to the Black
Hills of Dakota and Wyoming, sew
eral of the members of our party paid
at the rate of 1856, and even $40, a
ton for it. The government posts are
usually supplied from these hay
ranches, and many q contractor has
grown comfortably well-off by selling
to the government his years hay
crop.
THE VALUE OF THESE VALLEYS
is, then, far greater than at first
sight. Where the present wealth of
the country is embraced in its pas
toral resources these valleys r an
important factor. In Illinois, when
a farmer wants to keep his cattle
where they will do the least damage,
he puts them in a wellfenced field;
in Wyoming, when a ~ranchman
would grow grass and look well for
his stock, he allows them to run all
V e the range. This for difference
in locality.
On the eastern side of the road on
the march northward we discover
here and there Indications of a
country belonging, as the ~geologisst
tell us, to the White River terri
tory, while to the west the granite
rocks begin, eliminating in the hills
that were, say the same authorities,
the shore of the great fresh-water
lakes of the middle and upper ter
tiary periods. This range of hills is
clothed with excellent pine, similar
to the timber of the Black Hills of
the north and the forests of Colorado
in the south. And these, not above
one days travel from our line of
march, r a never-failing supply to
the inhabitants of this part of the
Territory. Here again we discover
another source of wealtls to .Wyo-
ming. The Chugwater rises west in
the Laramie Peak range, and flows in
q circuitous valley down about east,
north, and northwest to the Laramie.
Near the headwaters of this stream
have been discovered iron mines, re-
ported to be of considerable value.
They are not above forty miles from
Cheyenne, and are evidently of sim
liar character and origin to the beds
met with on the road from Fort Lar
annie to Fetterman, and on the left
bank of the North Platte, not far
from the old Bridge or ferry. Along
the Chug, at least SO much of it as
we havsto travel, are a dozen ranches,
which give the valley the appearance
of q populous Illinois farming Sec
ton. The Chug has a border like
hat which we pass through nearly
one hundred miles long, which bids
fair to be as thickly settled as any
part of the Territory.