News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-10-11
From Oregon.


Northern Pacific railroad just completed,
L thought perhaps yoHr readers would be
interested in an account of it by one who
has just travelled the whole length of the
road. | left Minneapolis ten days aft er
the celebration in that city in honor of
the Willard party. who We're on their way
to drive the last spike. 1t was intended
that the two cities. st. Paul and Mime
apOIis, should have 4 joint celebration,
ana the great men of the two towns got
together to arrange the prelimnaries.
But oil and water will mix better than
the people of st. Paul and Minneapolis.
The meeting resulted in row, and each
city determined to celebrate alone. st.
! Paul built arches and decorated her
! buildings, and gave grand banquet with
| the cheapest kind of wine, on which
the walters all got drunk and smashed
things generally. Minneapolis laid her
self out in a street parade. There were
| twenty miles of wagons loaded with ev-
erything Minneapolis possessed. Every
! body who had anything at all was eX-
! pected to put it on wheels and parade it.
! The two cities tried to Guido each other,
and both got in a passion. which has not
cooled off yet. "I'm the terminus OF the
road" shouted st. Paul, land the chief
city of the Northwest" You're
! liar" yelled Minneapolis, ''the road ter
inmates right here, and we've got bigger
mills, more people and more money than
any city west of Chicago" Then the
Mayors of the two cities wrote long let
tiers and the people Glared at each other
and shouted for blood, buckets of blood,
but they are so far. satisfied with liber-
al shedding of printers ink.
! Mr.. Wizards party consisted of
| choice selection of Germans and English
! lords. The Dutchmen drank gallons of
lager beer and said "Hoch! Humnel!'
and ''Dunder and blitzen!'' at the right
place. Some of the English noblemen
| wouldn't associate with the common lot,
| but demanded special cars. and sent their
| servants to keep the company of the
! ''bIawsted Yankees" Willard is Ger
| man, whose name is not Willard, but
! lIilgard.
! From Minneapolis the road runs al
most due north to Brainard, when it
joins the main line coming from Duluth,
| which place also claims to be the termim-
us, and so does Superior City. From
| Brainard the course is west, and the first
| place of Importance we reach is Fargo,
Ill the heart of the famous Red River
| Valley. The Red River is an insigniti-
cant little stream, flowing north, and has
| an awkward trick of overlooking its
banks every spring and flooding the level
country for miles around. | saw the
place once when there was nothing but
water to be seen as far as the eye could
reach. Fargo is composed principally OF
real estate men, who prOwl about the no.
tells and depOts in search of stranger
with money. If you go to Fargo you
must either buy real estate or leave the
town. People are getting so they leave
. tlN- l,,,,,
duces about 10 bushels of wheat to the
acre, and nothing else, There was Il
time when it produced more, but the
amount is steadily decreasing, as any
crop must decrease which is grown year
after year on the same land. Corn can
not be raised, neither can fruit, and it is
with difficulty potatoes and vegetables
reach maturity, many years falling en-
tirely. There are some parts Of Dakota
where they say the frost meyer comes ell
tirely out of the ground, and | can we'll
believe it for on the day passed through,
early in September, Il heavy OVercOat
was comfortable, and men were driving
self binders with overcOats on. while at
the steam threshers the men were obliged
to warm their benumbcd fingers at the
furnace fires. The wheat straw was
short and the shocks stood at long inter
walls. 1t is only the immense acreage
which makes the big figures of Dakota :
wheat production.
From the Red River to the Missouri
there is not Il tree in sight. and but very
little water. Nine months winter and no
fuel, except that imported from other
States, are the draw backs to Dakota.
There are some attempts made at tree
culture along the road, but they are the
sickeSt looking trees ever seen. The flu
ture forests of the country average about
six inches in length, and long before they
grOwI up, the 30-mile winds which sweep
over these uplands will blow them out
of existence. | always thought Yer
mont could turn out Il respecrnbip article
OF cold weather, but Minnesota and Du-
kOta can give the old State 20 degrees of
the thermometer the start and beat her
all to pieces. There has been an iul-
mense immigration into Dakota, but
seven-tenths of the people will remain
just long enough to prove up on their
land and then get out, if they can.
The stations along the road were pref
ty generally decorated in honor OF the
Willard party, which was just ahead of
the train on which | travelled. The dec
OratiOns consisted principally of ever
green bushes about four feet high. The
little pines were used because they were
the rarest and most costly things the
IL.
greens were imported into the Territory
ut tremendous expense.
At BiSmark, the new capitol of the
Territory, we reach the Missouri river, Il
sulky, sullen looking stream, crossed by
fine new iron bridge costing two mill
ions of dollars. This river has habit
of shifting its channel in sudden and
unannOunced manner. The channel is
now on the east side, and over it the piers
and iron trusSeS are built, while there is
a long reach of flats and mud OH the
west side which is traversed by trestle
work. | have an idea that the river is
meditating mischief to that two million
dollar bridge, and will play it an aWk-
ward trick some day.
On the west bank of the Missouri river
Is Mandon, railroad town consulting of
a struggling street of small saloons and |
groceries and one large hotel. The train
stops here for supper, but any one travel |
ing over this road will do well to pro- |
vide themselves with Il big lunch ba- kct, !
or small appetite. Poor. high priced |
meals are the rule, and there are hun
dreds of miles where it is impossible to |
get anything to eat.
The country west of the Missouri is |
more rolling, and here we first see the |
butte. A butte is 4 hill or small noun |
tain of sand and soft rock, rising alb |
ruptly from the prairie and having about |
One-thlrd OF the top cut Off so that in |
stead OF running up to Il peak as we'll |
conditioned hills should do, it is flat |
topped. 1t is usually utterly devoid off
vegetation of any kind. Along here are |
number of stations. usually colonies of !
people from Illinois and Indiana. The |
places look forlOrn and wretched. and if |
the people were from any other States |
except those named | should feel sorry |
for them. Dickinson is named after |
the Northern Pacific lobbyist at Wash |
ingtOn. There are lots of cities on the line |
named after the great men of the cOun- |
try, who seek to perpetuate themselves |
in this manner.
West of Dickinson we come into the |
bad lands the most appropriately |
named place along the whole line. The |
name was given long before the railroad |
was thought of, and by men who were
not interested in the country. The name
has given the railroad people a great deal
of trouble to explain when they insist
that 1t Is the finest country the sun ever
shone on. There isn't half an acre of
level land in the whole tract. If you
should take an enormous city, paint the
houses red, blue and yellow, then bonn
Daru 1t while so as to knock the place
partly to pieces, and you would have
pretty good representation, on small
scale, OF the bad lands" They say it
Is a hrst class sheep country. but unless
sheep can live on blue ana red rocks |
don't see how they manage it. Gcolo-
gusts say these lands are formed by vast
underlying coal fields bnrning up and let