Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-08-28

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Of sections on the south line Of the
town. Neither dol hope chat I came
through, the best line for the railroad
to run. There was no house in sight,
but I luckily struck north and, in
about "a half mile came to the house of
Mr.: Stall, who.appears to be a well to
do German farmer Mrs. Stall, her.
husband being from home, could not
give the distance to the next settler,
but thought it was four miles. I got
on the back track very soon, made
reasonably good time, and arrived at
the house Of John j. Ausbourne a lit
tie before dark, having travelled about
five miles Of what I call rather rough
road. T passed the aban donod resi-
dence of Mr.. Manley, costly situated
among the hills, but did not stop to
hunt the rai1road pass that is supposed
to exist across his farm. Well, on ar.
irving at Mr.. Aus bourne's house I rec
ognized his wife as an old acquaint>
ance. She is a sister of Mrs. Paul, of
Bearhead. She resided at Langola
about eighteen years ago., and was
known as Mrs. Shelbamer. - She sent
her regards to her old friends in this
part of the country. Mr.. Ausbourne's
farm is at the north end of Mound
Lake and embraces the outlet. He
claims a nice water power of thirty
feet fall, and according to the looks it
is there. In the morning Mr.. AUS
bourne very generously offered to CON-
duct me to q very picturesque spot,
which will in time become great
place of resort. If the Little Falls &
Dakota railroad is built, it must run
within about one mile north of Mound
Lake, which is about two miles long
and half mile wide, and is very deep,
no bottom having been found in some
places. The land surrounding it is
quite broken. We passed down on
the east bank or shore Of. the lake, and
as we got near the mound I noticed
that it projected out into the water.
We had to cross a soft marsh Of about
a dozen rods before wo reached the
base, and We then commenced to ash
cend tho mound, the ascent on the
lake side being as abrupt from the
bottom to the top as earth can stand.
The soil is hard gravel mixed with
clay, containing many stone Of consld-
cradle size, and is covered mostly with
burr oak timber. The oak that oocu-
pies the highest point is rather an
easy tree to climb, and I guess about
every visitor has went up it. I was
little out Of practice, not having
climbed tree for the last quarter of
century, but Mr.. Ausbourne and I
went up. On reaching the top the
scope Of our vision was badly dwarfed
by the hazey weather, so that I could
not see Sauk Centre, Burnhamvllle,
or any Of the important points that
are visible from this mound 10 bright
weather. Mr.. A. pointed out the VAL
ley through which the railroad will
pass, and other points of interest in
that country. The height of the
mound above the water of the lake is
280 feet; and the lake is very high,
as is shown by the fact that there is
fall of thirty feet in the first forty rods
of its outlet. An observatory Is or
100 feet high can easily be built on
the mound, and a very large portion
Of the territory around could be seen.
The water in the lake is the incest
lake water ever saw. Being fed only
by springs, it is as clear and pure and
has the taste of spring water. The
uplands in the surrounding country
are generally heavily timbered with
hard maple, and there are some ex>
tensive tamarack swamps. Very few
sugar bushes have been opened, though
hundreds Of splendid ones could be.
On leaving this place friend A.
went along to the next neighbor tow>
ard Sauk Centre, about 81 miles, aff-
ording me an opportunity. to get thor
oughly posted not only about that sec,
tion Of country but about matters and
things in general. He apparently
knows the value of time and allows
none to run to waste. All who visit
that country should make it point to
spend day or two with him. After
parting with him I proceeded on over
a very fiat country: filled with lakes
about two miles to McClure's Prairie.
a little prairie of about one hundred
acres, the only prairie between Little
Falls and Sauk Centre. i A small gro-
Gerry store is kept here, and I invested
in can Of oysters, some crackers and
cucumbers, but this diet did not agree
with me. 7 reached Sauk Centre quite
late that evening, and was pretty tired.
Our railroad meeting came off at four
o'clock P. NJ. on Wednesday according