Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-03-06
WESTWARD, HO!
Descriptive Letter OF Trip to Spokane Falls
Incidents En- Route.

were going, and when we informed him
he said twill go with YOU and started
on moments notice, without baggage,
| and is with us now. We reached St.
Paul on Monday night, at 9:35, expect
| ing to leave the next morning for the
west, but had to stay there until eight
o'clock p. m. This gave us some time
to look about the city. 1t is a nice
place and seems to be a business town
While there we called on j. C. Hollo-
way. He has a fine store and is doing
good business. We put up at the
Merchants, fine place. but must say
the poorest house for a hungry man
that ever saw. One thing they do not
forget, and that is to charge you rs
cents meal. St Paul is great rail-
road centre, there are over 100 passen-
ger trains running in there every day.
As we leave st. Paul in the evening,
we do not see much of the country until
we strike Moorehead, Minnesota. This
is city of 5000 inhabitants, situated on
the Red River, and is the county seat of
Clay county. The city is lighted by
electric lights and is supplied with ex-
cellent water works. They have a col
lege building costing S25, 900. The
next place we strike is Fargo, Dakota,
county seat of Cass county, place OF
10000 inhabitants, has twenty-eight
hotels, water works, electric lights and
street railway. Here are three large
elevators with a storage capacity of
100000 bushels. A great many brick
are manufactured in Fargo. Next we
pass the great Dalrymple farm of %. 900
acres under cultivation. The farm is
in fine country but it is terrible cold
place.
The next place | will speak of is
jamestown, Dakota, the county seat of
Stutsman county. This is beautiful
city on the Jim River, and has $500 in
habitants, mostly from Michigan. The
first thing that my eye rested upon was
a sign with two familiar names upon it;
Sarles e. Durstine. formerly of Boscobel.
They were not at home or I should have
seen them. Next we pass through Bis
marck and Mandan, Dakota, in the
night, and do not see any more OF the
country until we strike the Yellowstone
river at place called Glendive. Mon
tana, countyseat of Dawson county.
Population 1920. Here the North
Pacific railroad company's shops
and round-house are located. Next
we come to Miles City, county
seat of Custer county, beautiful place
on the Yellowstone Here our old friend
Z. Z. Showalter is located Unfortu-
nately we do not stop long enough to
see him, but drop him line to let him
know that we have just passed. Fort
keogh is just out of town to the west.
quite town of itself, post of ten COM
panies. The next place of any size is
Billings, Montana, 1,500 inhabitants.
just as we arrive here in the evening
we hear the cry of fire and rush out of
the cars to see the town all excitement
and lit up by a burning building some
distance from the track. 1t is large
frame, bat it is reduced to ashes before
we leave the town. We pass through
Livingston and Bozeman in the night,
the former place of $500. This is
where the railroad for the National
Park leaves the Northern Pacific. In
the morning we are in Townsend, Mon
tana. Quite town. All new buildings,
not yet painted. This is where Mr..
Tierney is located, but could only read
his name on top of his store, as we did
not stop here any time. The scenery
down the Yellowstone is grand, but
there is lots of snow. | think it would
be much bicer if that were off. The
next place of Importance is Helena,
Montana, the Capitol of the Territory.
Population 5000. This is fine city
and is nicely located. The main part is
some distance from the depot, so we did
not see as much as we had wished. One
thing we did see was Frank Meyers
cabin. He is teaming there. After
leaving Helena we cross the Rockies.
We have on three engines, and climb?
Oh, No! / would much rather 90 up
than down, though. After we get al
most to the summit, we go through the
Mullen Tunnel, the largest on the road,
although we pass through some good
ones before this. Then we have the
lamps Lit for some time. After we pass
through this tunnel the scenery is fine,
and we go down, down, down, at fear
full rate of speed. tell you. thought
we were running altogether too fast.
As we 60 down we pass over a great
number of trestle bridges. one of which
crossing O'Keefe's canyon, is $50 feet
high and $50 feet long; said to be the
highest for railroad purposes in the
world. We got out on the platform to
see this, and you may laugh when | tell
you that passengers braced themselves
and hung on to the railing and brakes.
If train ever runs off here there will
not be enough left to mark the spot
where it strikes. At Huron siding, q
station near the mines, most of the
miners aboard got off. There was a
man killed here by the cars. He was
lying in an old shed, no one seemed to
know who he was, nor cared to find out.
There is great excitement all along
here about the mines, and every little
town is full of men waiting to get in as
soon as the snow goes of. 1t is now
about four feet on the level.
We arrived at our destination Satur
day at noon. Spokane Falls is the
most beautiful place ever saw, popu
lation of 1900, is on the south bank Of
Spokane river, surrounded by heavy
pine timber, theriver falls $50 feet il
the space of half mile. The scener,
is grand. and the waterpower furnished
is unsurpassed. The stream is full o
the largest trout ever saw. and deer
etc, are plentiful 1t is warm anc