The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-07

valley of the Missouri above Bismarck and
Mandan has always abounded in game. 1t
is well watered and timbered; the winters are
moderated by the river and bluffs, and it has
long been the paradise of Indian tribes
Near Bismarck Lewis and Clark spent the
winter of 1S04-5. Here is the natural cross
ing for buffalo and Indians; all the old buff
falo and Indian trails converged from the
east and south to this narrowest place in a
stretch OF a thousand miles. Here Sibley drove
the Sioux across in 1862, and, naturally
enough, here the bridge and the town We're
built. The capitol the people had to fight
for, and much bad blood was aroused between
the people of northern and southern Dakota
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
Except from the Missouri at Bismarck to
the Yellowstone at Glendive, there is water
for croppage and stock. Cultivation and
tree planting will increase the rains in
these areas, as destroying the forests has de-
creased the rainfall in Ohio and Indiana.
The Cark's fork ditch runs from the
mountains, thirty miles, to Billings, costing
100000, and furnishing water at fifty cents
an acre. Irrigation is the password
to agricultural success in Montana. 1t is the
talisman which changes the wastes of buffalo
grass TO fields of green and gold and once his
bitches are made the Montana settler DlQS
defiance to sun and season.
What this Territory needs is capital and
labor. 1t has been the bonanza State for
cattle men who keep immense herds on the
government lands and get rich off Montana
grass. giving in return for princely income
the wages and board money of a score of
cowboys. In mines and cattle Montana has
poured out her wealth and received nothing
in return. Acres of tin. cans strew every
stage station and camping place. These con-
tanned meats and vegetables which could be
raised where they were used at one-tenth
their cost. The luxuriant bunch grass and
joint grass growing on even the lottlest
mountain slopes cures on the STALK and on
the ground, making excellent winter feed,
and probably not State in the West is so
we'll adapted to the production of cheap beef
and pure choice creamery butter as Montana.
HOMES IN THE NORTHWEST.
The country which the Northern Pacific
opens up, west of the Rockies, is accessible
by purchase, by timber claims by desert
claims, and by the homestead laws. Save
Minnesota, no part of it is anything like In
diana for soil, water, wood, coal, or nj Qderate
winters. The climate is dry-dry in winter s
cold and summer heat. Radiation is great
and the nights cool. 1t is good place for
the sturdy and the young They will find
plenty of country to grow up with they will
miss schools, churches and society until
they make them. They will find the climate
rugged, but healthy and, if possessed OF any
snap and will, can make themselves COM
Portable homes with as little effort as was re-
quired in Ohio and Indiana.
The great Northwest of the United
States is still a long ways from the
north star The Canadian Pacific
in a far higher latitude, is pushing west
at the rate of 400 or 800 miles with each wear
through the wheat-felds OF Manitoba and
on to the Pacific coast region, made habta-
bic by the warm waters of the Japan ocean
current
The inducements to settlers in Idaho are
cheap lands and easy wheat farming: in
Montana the mines and the cattle. Even in
the Bad Lands of Dakota and the rugged
hills Of Montana cattle winter without care,
and here the strife is between the ranchmen
who buys and fences his land, raising crops
and some stock, and the rarchmen who pas
ture on the free government land and are
of course, opposed to the ranchmen. The
same antagonism was common in the early
days of Illinois and Iowa
The Northern Pacific Company owns the
alternate sections for forty miles on either
side of the road. These are sold at from
-. so to Sc an acre, from Duluth to the Pa
cifc Land-seekers and settlers are carried
at reduced rates, as are also household goods
Any information regarding these lands--the
Northern Pacific or the National Park
can be had from Mr. Hen
ry J. Winser, OF the bureau
of Information of the Northern Pacific. Mr.
Winser has in press guide book and
itinerary of the great Northwest OF some 200
pages. fully illustrated 10 be issued this fall
by G. p Putnams Sons, of New York. He
accompanied the Press party from St. Paul
to and through the Park. His manual OF the
Park is by far the best of the several guide
books for tourists in that wonderland and
dispenses with the necessity of guide. His
long experience as journalist on the New
York Times and as a vigorous war cores pond
ent, as well as Il thirteen years residence at
Gotha As United States consul, made him an
acceptable companion to the newspaper
men, while his impertubable good nature
and anxious solicitude for the welfare OF
every one, and his thorough knowledge of
the Park and the Northwest endeared him
to each as guide philosopher and friend. To
him, and to Mr.. G. X. Barnes, general
passenger agent of the Northern Pacific, who
accompanied our party throughout the two
weeks visit to the Park, the press party are
indebted for much of the unbroken pleasure
OF the journey to the great Northwest.