Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-10-14


is q thing unknown to them. Eli.
quette is not theirs Bat the poor
indian has q soul il it does dwell in
lazy tabernacle of clay. A per.
son has to get licensed here to get |
married, and judging from the num-
Der OF divorce CAGES and from per- |
sonal observations, we have con.
cluded that the climate is very
forward, and new corners should be
careful and not take in too much of
it at a time.
Now for something else. If you
will look on the rap you will see
that the southeast corner of this
Territory is cut off from the rest by
Snake river. will now try TO give
you little description of this corn
err. 1t consists of two counties
Walls- ALA and Columbia. Walla-
Walla is the name of the largest
town. 1t has population approx
imating 1000 also fort occupied
by United States troops, and is
general distributing point for
large country. The extreme south
east corner of the territory is occu.
pied by part of the Blue mountain
range. 1t is rough and mountain.
Gus aud covered with dense forests
of timber, and alive with wild game
such as bear, wolves, lynx, psnth.
ers, mountain sheep and deer. As
| naronn onp,aa doorp &c fho
mountains to the edge of the timber
he beholds broad prairie stretch
ing from the Oregon line around to
the Idaho line. distance of 20
miles, and all sloping toward Snake
river. There are no less than Is
streams running from the noun
tains to Snake river, and SONS of
them cut deep canyons This gives
the country rough, ridgey appear
ance. When | first came to the
Territory I was hunting land and
"struck" man who said if | would
go home with him he would show
me plenty of vacant land. We
started at noon, on horseback. We
Travelled until midnight, going up
hill most oil the way. After dark
| could not see how high we were
getting. But the next morning /
got up and Looked out. Great hedu
ems could see all over Washing
ton Territory and the largest part
of Idaho, and | think If it hadn't
been for the Rocky mountains, l
could have seen the court house 10
Lancaster. | looked across a deep
canyon to the next ridge aud could
see small box house. | asked
who lives over there? ga man by
the name of Hall. l have lived here
over two years and never saw the
man or never been to his house. 1t
is about mile On an air line, but
there is no way of getting there
except on foot, and it would be a
hard days work to get over there
and back. l know everybody on
my own ridge for ter miles up or
down, but that is entirely out of
the neighborhood." This is the
deepest canyon | know of. Some
OF the streams run Learly level
with the general surface. As per-
son goes toward Snake river the
ridges widen out from one to SIX
miles. This country all depends
on the mountains for timber; haul
ing it from two to thirty miles but
it is most all down hill. In some of
he streams they have put in a
fiume. | know of one fifteen miles
long. They are made in the shape
of pig trough. When the water
is let in they can float down cord
wood, rails, lumber, &c. Some men
working in the mountains made
each Of them skiff to fit the fume
and on Saturday night they would
come down in grand style. But
the owners of the fume soon put q
stop to that
The mountains are unsurveyed
except little along the edge, and
Uncle Sam allows settlers to get
out timber for their own use. These
canyors that | speak of are only
tributaries to the grand canyon of
Snake river. A person can stand
on the bluff and see the water al.
most straight below him over 1000
feet by actual measurement. 1t is
almost impossible to get down to
the water except at the mouth of
its tributaries. Down these there
are good wagon roads and at the
mouth of some of them there are
warehouses. The river is swift
and about quarter of a mile wide,
navigable for small boats about
eight months in year, and not a
tree to 5e seen on it's banks. Immi-
grants are pouring into this Terri
tory by the hundreds men of all
trades and professions.
think that [ never saw O coun-
try where there were more smart,
energetic men than here. There
are but very few that want to leave,
most of them have great hopes of
the future, and see no reasun why
they shouldn't have, for this il Ger.
tainly q foe country. They can
count almost sure on from 20 to 40
bushels of wheat to the acre are
less than 400 miles from salt water,
and have railroad already under
Roadway which, when complete,
will tap the whole country.
1 might write moro, but will