The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-06-22

Timber vanishing-New and Rapidly
Growing Towns-Agricultural
Advantages, Etc.

A well posted correspondent, writing
from Deadwood, says: "Under the i'm
petus Of the rich yield and promise Of
the mines, the whole face of the coun-
try is rapidly changing. A half-dozen
saw mills running day and night are
rapidly denuding the Hills Of their fine
timber. Their beautiful refreshing
green is slowly changing, as the rocks
are bored, to the russet-gray of their
maturer age. And here and there one
sees a great red spot or a broad trail
down the rugged mountain side. These
are where the tunnels leading into the
mines are: and the iron tinge of the
ore has colored all about, and has
crawled downward. Along the gulches,
and in the numberless beautiful parks
scattered everywhere through the Hills,
are springing up cottages. stores and
shops.
Travel in almost any direction, and,
before you dream of it, you are at some
one of the multitude of cities of the
country; in fact one must he watchful
indeed if he do not pass them by before
being ware of their presence.
One finds everywhere, in his wander
ings through the Hills, the stakes of
pre-emptors, as public land, although
unsurveyed, may be located by these.
A few days since, while pursuing an
elk trail through the mountains, where
the broken, wild appearance of the sur
roundings suggested only game, and
wilderness, and solitude, 1 was amazed
to find crossing my way a veritable
fence, the poles of which were nailed
from tree to tree. 1 explored the re-
gion, and found that this fence, which
was apparently built without regard to
angles or points of compass, inclosed
about forty acres, and was the summit
of 4 lofty hill or mountain. The spot
was picturesque and beautiful almost
beyond anything 1 had seen in the Hills.
Here a beautiful spring bubbled forth,
the water of which plunged away
downward toward the valley. And
here, leaning toward each other and
meeting at the top, were two great
fakes of rock. They were each about
forty feet long, by perhaps twenty
broad, and had every appearance of
having been set on edge a few feet
apart, and then inclined towards each
other until meeting, forming a COM
plete canopy. I sat down under this
tent of granite. Utter silence was all
about, a V the signing and moaning of
the great pines which rose high above
this upper peak. 1 discharged my rifle
under these rocks, and the echoes were
almost ~deafening. then, with much
labor, clambered to the summit, and,
through breaks in the timber could see
twenty-five miles away, eastward be-
yond the foothills, the Bear Buttes,
which rise up 800 feet high from the
level prairie; and the broad sweep along
westward past Crook City, Redwater
and Spearfish, until away west, like a
low-hung dark cloud, lay what l sup
| posed to be the mountains of the Pow
der river country.
The prairies all about the Hills are Of
surprising richness, watered by the
many streams having their source in
the Hills. OF a rich loamy soil, they
are perfectly adapted to the purposes of
the farmer and stock raiser. From
this source will this season be furnished
the hay required by the Hills popula-
ton, the price of which is nov $50 per
ton, and also much produce. In the
beautiful Red Water and Spearlish val
leys is being cultivated a large amount
of vegetables, and some little corr and
barley; and the prairie for miles along
these streams is staked and claimed by
''sQuaiters.'
Montana has been recently excited
ly the reDort that Red Cloul has re-