River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-06-06
From Dakota.
GRAND Forks. DAKOTA. May Goth, 1876

GRAND Forks, DAKOTA. May Goth. 1878
EDS. JOURNAL: Il notice ON the first page Of
your issue OF May 10th. report about Dakota
Territory, evidently given by Reece Willin-
son.
do not desire to contradict his statement,
but as it seems to be only a partial report, |
should like through the same agency, to add
an appendix to it. He has evidently been in
the mountainous part OF Dakota, but he could
scarcely reach that part without crossing
some as beautiful prairie land as ever man
gazed upon; prairie, rich in all the essentials
for raising enormous crops of grass and grain,
and stretching in all directions until it meets
the horizon; teeming with game is its mantle
of green and dotted over with fairest flowers.
This beautiful and rich prairie, has made
glad the hearts OF thousands when they first
beheld it, and has made the weary and
sick at heart skip for joy after
nesting in their snug homes placed upon its
expansive and generous bosom. Here indeed
may the honest tiller of the soil, who has
tried hard to pay his interest, mortgages, and
heavy taxes, in the states, come, and
find home, free gift from a wise and
liberal government, one that will with his t,il,
furnish the means wherewith to feed aud
clothe his family, and enable him If not teo
far advanced in years, to have a competency
for old age.
The soil here is a rich alluvial deposit
with a clay subsoiD aud is the pnrest black
loan ever seen by any resident OF this place,
and will average two feet In depth. The sub
soil clay is known to be twenty -five feet, and
further than this s'deponent sayeth not" for
he has no means OF determining.
Now, Messrs. Editors, this may perhaps be
the paradise Lost" or it may not; but II it
is, there are times when we think it not fully
"Paradise Regained," for to tell the truth we
do once in while have mud, and such mud
as you never saw in River Falls, nor Mr.. Will
kinson, either, in his own cherished Clifton
Valley, or ON the sandy banks of Lake st.
Crolx mud OF which may be truly said SIT
sticketh closer than BROTHER
Now Sirs. sand is scarce here clustering
sand only as it is anywhere in Clifton Valley;
and as for those rocks. it would take man a
month to fill tea-cup here with them, as
tItre IRE nome W De lOuuu uuicSS tucy dic
carried here indeed heard one ofm neigh
bors say to-day tina. he saw little crying boy
going around the streets with nickel in his
hand, trying to buy some pebbles to throw at
the young ducks, and only refrained uttering
the yells of spoiled child, when kind
hearted philanthropist took him to where his
brick had been piled before he built his CHM
ney; and after the boys pockets were filled
to repletion, he made the little fellows heart
glad by taking him down to the river, and
giving him full instructions concerning the
art of making mud balls, and placing them
on a stick, to be used in place Of a sling for
hurting the sticky missiles upon the enemy.
Now, Messrs. Editors, once more to the so
Der part, for do not desire to trespass on
your space There is not a spot upon the
face of the earth better adapted to farming
purposes than the land | am sitting upon as
write this /; for in making this part OF His
| footstool the Almighty seems to have put to-
gether all the requirements OF the husband
man and made it a very Eden, and Tor the
truth OF these statements, refer you to any
candid men among your many neighbors
and friends who have made homes in the
Valley of the Red River OF the North.
Respectfully Yours,
ALEXANDER Oh DIAM.