Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1880-04-29
Written for the Herald.
THE PIONEER.

Across the dreary and trackless wastes of
the plains the pioneer has in his trail of
blood, toll and suffering erected monument
more enduring than marble or granite. En-
comprising the almost impossible and i'm
penetrable barrier of the Rocky and Sierra
Nevada Mountains, he has made his seal and
built the foundation of an empire destined to
outrival the traditional glories of ancient
Rome. "Westward the Star of Empire
wends its way" until it halts before the great
line formed by nature to stop its progress.
1t is with the pioneer of the present that
we have to deal-men of our time who have
forsaken home, friends and kindred to ex-
plore and develop a comparatively trackless
desert; men, of brains, nerve, resolution,
courage and answering devotion to the OBJ
| ject of their design.
When Marshall, at Feather river, Califor-
mia, discovered the golden sands glittering in
Capt. Suffers mill-race the first grand impe-
tus was given to cause, which, commencing
shortly after, is not yet ended. The first
great emigration to California was composed
of the youth and flower of the East, coupled
with the muscle and force of the Western
squatter, who, abiding on the outskirt of
civilization and seeking fresh scenes and pas
lures new, boldly struck across the great
ocean of waste for the new Ell Dorado on
the Pacific coast The pioneers of the early
days of California composed men of energy
ambition and intellect. Many of them fresh
from the colleges of the East, their youthful
imagination fired with the wild stories of
fortunes lying scattered through the wild, in
accessible canyons, and the storm and snow
clad SUBMITS of the Sierras and braving
the long sea voyage around Cape Horn they
swarmed over and peopled country inhab-
tied by class foreign to their language and
customs and who looked upon them with
suspicion and distrust.
Transforming themselves on their arrival
from the garb of fashion exchanging their
clothing for that of coarser nature they left
the coast for the scenes of the reported dis
coveries. Others, with prospectors outfit of
pick, pan and provisions, turned over rock
and dirt in hill, gulch and canyon in search
of the precious metal. No matter what oc-
cupation the pioneer followed in the East.
whether lawyer, doctor or preacher by profess
sion, the ruling passion seized him and made
him miner. Be it understood that mans
occupation cannot be judged by what he fol-
lows in the mining countries. have travelled
extensively through California, Nevada, Mon
tana, Idaho, Oregon and Utah, and never
have found a more intelligent lot of men
among the laboring class, the men of the
mining countries being far superior to those
of like rank in the older States. It was
common thing in the early days of mining
country to find professional men-ex-bank-
ers and ex-merchants working in the mines
with pick and shovel. What contrast is
this fact to the typical miner of Mark Twain
and Bret Harte, with his swagger and slang
phrase. The ideal differs considerably from
the real. How many were successful in this
race for wealth and colonization is hard to
tell The race for gold was the harder one
to win. Those who settled upon land and in
dustriously cultivated it were invariably sue
cessful, while on the other hand the gold
seeker was often doomed TO bitter disappoint-
ment. How many thousand have returned
to the States broken down in health. with
energy and ambition curbed by cruel disap-
pointment, will never be known. To the
steady and persevering pioneer the road was
clear and easily won.
California stands to-day among the first OF
the States in wealth and resources. She has
all the elements of empire, and her mines,
which have enriched the world by upwards
of two thousand Millions though slowly de-
clning in production, are inexhaustible; her
agricultural resources are unsurpassed. Her
climate, in a sanitary and luxurious sense,
bears comparison, in mellowness, richness
and beauty, with the tropics. while her COM
merce, stretching its broad hand across the
Pacific clasps and embraces the Orient, the
birthplace and cradle of civilization and pro-
gress.
Colorado next received the pioneers atten-
ton. Gold once struck in the Rocky noun
tains the question of the settlement of that
unknown and almost inaccessible region was
forever settled. The Rocky mountains,
known only in legend through Lewis and
Clarke, Bonneville and Fremont, were
swarming with pioneers whose wills and pur-
poses were as determined and inf1exible as
the hills that confronted them. For many |
years the pioneer struggled destitute and al
most penniless. With faith in the future as
proved by the past he stuck to his mines and