Hand County press. (Miller, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1893, 1882-05-03
The Immigration Pours.
Fargo Argus,

There are thousands of immigrants
coming into Dakota from the states
and from Europe every week, and 30
vast is the xtent of the territory that
this influx of population is hardly
preceptible. These immigrants come
TO buy or take up land and they pass
through the villages and cities out on
the boundless prairies and there at
once set about the work OF home
building. The increase in the wheat
crop this year will give one some idea
of the great immigration of 1881, and
from the increase next year we shall
be able to form something like an ac
curate estimate of the number of i'm
migrants which arrive this year. It
is perfectly safe to say that in the
whole history of this country never
did territory fill up so rapidly with
people az the great Northwest is now
filling up. The rush to Dakota far
exceeds the rash to the gold regions
OF California in 1Si9, and the succeed
ING wears. And we have better
foundation for the growth and pros
perity of great and mighty states than
ever any country had which depend
ed merely upon the production of
precious metals, and while our wheat
lands are the richest and most pro
ductiye perhaps in the world, we have
our mines of gold and silver, and
what is Of greater importance, coal in
abundance, and millions or acres of
fine grazing lands, where countless
herds Of fat cattle can feed and grow.
Within tho borders of the present ter
ritoIy OF Dakota We have the resour-
ces of a great empire. All these will,
in few years be developed to such
an extent as to astonish even those
who are indulging in the most san
guine anticipations of the future
There will be cities within our borders
that will rival in population, wealth,
enterprise and stability many of the
large cities of the east. The wide ex
panse of prairie will be dotted over
with the homes of thriving, prosper
ous agricultural population, who will
go on year after year adding to their
own and to the general wealth.
There are far greater possibilities for
Dakota than for amy other section of
the United States. 1t will take but
very few years, at the rate immigra
ton is now pouring in, to very mate
rally change the face of the country
throughout the Red River valley and
the valley of the upper Missouri. 1
Those who come here early will have
rich and rare advantages afforded
them. They must not come with the
idea that they will be free from incon-
veniences incident to change of 10
cation, but they are not coming into
land destitute of civilization. The
railroads, the great ciyilizers, are
pushing ahead of them, making their
path smooth and their way easy.
They have a great advantage over the
pioneers who turned their faces west
ward q quarter Of century ago, and
the sturdy settlers of half Il century
ago would not call it pioneering to
come to Dakota to-day. For then
families starting out from New Eng
land, to go 10 the far west" left in
their emigrant wagons, sought the
head waters of the Allegheny river, in
New York, built flat boats, loaded on
their goods and with their families
foated down that river to the Ohio,
and thence down that stream to the
places of their destination in Indiana
or Illinois. When they left their old |
homes they bade friends and neigh
bors farewell, never expecting to meet
them on earth again. The applica
ton of steam in these modern times
has changed all this A four days
ride over railroads will bring the i'm
migrant from far off New England
and set him, his goods and his family
down on his claim in Dakota, where
he can go right to work on land that
nature has cleared for him. He can
go back and see the "old folks at
home" every year or oftenor If he de
sires. He can make more money in
two or three years on the rich soil OF
the great Northwest, than he could
in life time OF toll on the rough
hard land Of the east He can become
here, what he never can there, an in
dependent farmer. And of these,
great and powerful states are made,
and without them a nation rs poor
and insignificant indeed,