Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-09-03
The Northern Pacific Country.

Messrs. Editors Vacation led me, this season,
over good deal OF ground and not small amount
Of water, and in face OF the fact that more noted
tourists have been to the same places this season
and have already published their notes and con-
illusions In other journals having wide circula-
tion am inclined TO give you mine
You all brag 20 like -, that we don't knows
what to believe Of the West, after ALL" said one
Of my old neiehbors last year, in reply to Of
my statements. Perhaps others Of your readers
may desire to say the same before have done;
but perhaps II they reflect that such remark AZ
that quoted above admits the substantial agree
ment Of all who return East they may arrive at
the conclusion that there is something here which,
when reported in Vermont sounds like brag, but |
after all u.s. perhaps, perfectly true. Though I |
admit there are complimentary facts here, as
everywhere else, and the Greeleyism, I" Go West, !
young man p may very well have Its counterpart |
Of, Stay East, old man % for 1t requires young |
blood to adapt itself TO Western ways and things |
and not be homesick and sometimes even young |
blood has that disorder Let me then commence |
with some OF the
"MAGNIFICENr DISTANCES"
that may be traversed In this one field OF our |
common uncle's farm The phrase il already |
stale, that " Minnesotas as large a. all New Eng
land with Massachusetts counted twice" Allow
me to give you little of detail upon that matter
however. On an air line, this city lake City, |
Minnesota, ia about seventy miles from <ie Iowa
line 1t requires three hours to reach st. Paul
from here by express Over seven hours more
are consumed in the transit from st. Paul to
Brainerd which Ia very nearly the geographical
center of the state 1t requires about the same
length Of time to go from the last named place
either way, to Fargo Dakota, or to Duluth on
Lake Superior-lake OF all lakes most properly
named because OF its steady winds, clear and cold
waters, picturesque and grand scenery, not to
name its vast proportions. The inhabitants Of
Duluth are fully persuaded that minnesota
Point" il properly the farthest western limit Of
the Atlantic Ocean and, really, that point" II
we leave out all thought OF the shores beyond, is
quite a miniature Cape Cod.
TOPOGRAPHY.
All along the Mississippi the praires are more
or less rolling, generally the former, and our line
of railroad keeps under the bluff so much OF the
way to Minneapolis that we get only the lake and
river views. From that city northwestward we
have good opportunity to see the amount of cnl-
tivation already done in this lately wild region.
As we passed along, the immense fields of wheat
were just beginning to turn yellow, and there were
many fields Of promising corn, and fair variety
OF crops, for the West" There were several
herds Of cattle, and good deal Of unbroken
prairie, which is probably all out Of the hands Of
the government and held for higher prices now.
This part Of the country is fairly watered, and
has some very scattering timber, mostly oak. We
began to notice pines and other evergreen trees
before we reached En- Riuer station, and had
the daylight held out, we should evidently have
noticed our plunge into the pinery OF this North
west. As 1t was, we found Brdinerd at midnight,
entirely overshadowed with old pines. From
there TO Duluth, and even as far as we went down
the north shore, it was nothing but pine, inter
spersed, perhaps, with patches Of tamarack and
spruce, white birch and poplar. At one or two
points mills have been put in and are, of course,
doing heavy business-will do proportionally
more as the demand for lumber increases in Da-
kota For, when emerged from the forest on
the other side OF Branerd, on the trip west, we
were in practically treeess region all the rest OF
the way, and were assured that the same wonld
be true to the very confines OF the Black Hills
Perhaps an idea can be conveyed to you of the
fatness Of this latter plain when tell one of those
Dragging" but true stories man out there,
living seven miles from the railroad, and at right
angles with its track, harnessed his horses and
rode all that distance after he sdc the smoke Of the
taia he ,cdnted TO take and had plenty of time to
put them up, get his ticket, and check his trunk
before the train arrived. We passed over the
longest piece of straight track in the world (about
forty miles, think, just before reaching the
RED RIVER OF THE NORTH.
This river is navigable nearly its whole length,
and takes its way through very rich tract OF
country 1t IL likely to prove one of the greatest
Of natural curiosites too, from the fact, now as
serted to be such that once it ran The other pdy.
1t is well known that 1t " a twin with the Mime
sofa, like Vermonts own Mad and White. A
canoe can pass from the one into the other, and
very little expenditure, comparatively, would be
required to clear a channel for a Uerp light draft
steamer. between them The Red river has very
little current and the valley is continuous from
Pembina, put the accent on the "dl0 " remem-
ber,-to the Mississippi at Fort Saeling 1t il
now claimed that even Lake Winnipeg once dis
charged its waters this way, and Of course 1t fol-
lows that there was many times the volume Of
water here then, to the volume nop. 1t seems to
corroborate this theory when find all the signs
OF mighty river along these bluffs; and also
some to believe that the Mississippi, above
its jsnction with the Minnesota, is not capable Of
any such Misunderstanding, az it does, so near
the prairie level. May digress here to say that
this being proved, the legend Of
wIsoNA, THE BEAUTIFUL SIOUX MAIDEN,
might be true, after all, provided this mighty
change in the rivers has taken place at date ssf-
fciently subsequent TO that of the Deluge.
Maiden Rock &" perpendicular ledge juttng
out into Lake Pepin few miles north of this city.
| Its name Is accounted for thus: Winona, a Sioux
belle, became enamored of Chippewa chief who
was a prisoner to her tribe, and assisted him to
| escape. Refusing a brave OF her own tribe she
was about to be forced to accept him, when she
made her own escape to this rock, sang her death
song. and before she could be prevented. sprang
| from the rock into the water and was drowned.
Her body came ashore fifty miles below, at the
site of the pleasant city which rejoices in her
name. When it is considered that the edge of
the cliff is now at least hundred feet back from
the waters edge, and that the angle between the
perpendicular rock and the surface OF the lake il
filled halfway up with debris and covered with
good-szed oaks, the question whether any Sioux
maiden ever jumped so far is one not to be
answered easily In the affirmative. OF late 1t has
become fashionable with some OF the boat cap
tains to vary the legend, by telling how she was
tossed by the branches very gently to the shore,
skated over to the Minnesota side, where she
picked strawberries for her dinner, and then
went to Reeds Landing and swan over To
the Chippewas. But II the naturalists are cor
rect concerning the course OF the Red River
formerly, there would have been water enough
there to reach TO the perpendicular cliff above the
debris-n short, to put the site of Lake City
three hundred feet under water, where the rocks
seem to say 1t once was. But to return to
BUSINESS
St. Paul is getting to be wholesale city; Min
neapolis is seeking to vie with her, monopolzing,
largely, the lumber and -four manufacturing.
Braiuerd, brooded by her pines, is endeavoring To
hatch a large litter of railroad shops Duluth has
good deal OF shipping fishing and mining
trade; and Hopes to have-and rW have-mucb
more. Glyndon, Morehead and Fargo are getting
to be powerful agricultural centers and many a
little place Is aping them to its own advantage.
With the exception OF few brick blocks, Fargo
looks like huge state fair, just beginning.
The little cabins seem to overflow with goods,
the little hotels with boarders, the little-but no.
by any means few-saloons seem 10 be busiest OF
mn D..n -.