Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1885-06-26
Nebraska Letter.

EDITOR GRAPHIC: In complying with |
the request of many friends to give
them description of northwest Ne
braska, ! shall resort to the columns of |
the GRAPHIC left Adair county, |
April 24th IN company with l.. Dotson.
We arrived at Council Bluffs the 25th,
where the writer for the first time
saw the Missouri river. We came by
| rail as far as Ainsworth in Brown
county. We had night ride to Nor
fork and the moon shons bright on the
beautiful Elk Horn valley. which
means the country from the Missouri
river to Valentine and which Is trav-
ersed nearly all the way by the Sioux
City and Pacific railroad. The Elk
Horn river is very crooked, the water
sluggish, has low banks and is fringed
with willows. The river is about one
hundred and.ffty yards IN width. The
valley contains some of the best farm
ing land l have ever seen and widens
out into beautiful undulating prairie
he country is comparatively new and
the land is worth from $40 to S25 per
acre.
The country about Oakdale is 4 fine
upland prairie with clear water. The
houses are principally sod and dugouts.
, From 0akdale to Alnsworth the land
, is sandy, in some places all sand. Aims
worth is the county seat of Brown
county, and is thriving town Of three
, years growth containing about twelve
hundred inhabitants and is surround
ed by a fine farming country.
| From Ainsworth we travelled the re-
. mainder of the distance, about one
0 hundred and forty miles, overland.
}. We travelled what is known as the
). Agency route from Valentine to Cor.
r don. Valentine is between the Mo.
brara river and Minichaluza creek
/ The former is a very rapid stream
r about hundred and fifty yards wide
;. with clear water and goes frothinf
over the rocks at the rate of thirty
). miles an hour.
From Valentine we turned nortl
n ward and entered the Sioux agency
h travelling about hundred mile
through the agency and ever some o
h the finest land IN the west. This re
4 servation is about three hundred mile
: in width, north and south, and extend!
east and west nearly across Dakota
>. and comprises thousands of acres o
s the best farming lands. One will no
+. see house for miles and miles and th,
. land does neither the red or white mai
| any good. The lazy Sioux are concen
n trated around a few towns callet
as agencies and are furnished with pro
y vision, clothing, wagons, harness
,e plows. guns and ammunition, and thos
70 who are not too indolent to drive q
Il team, after the squaws hitch up, ar
s paid for freightlng their supplies from
d Valentine to the agency. 1t seems
10 strange that the Government does mo-
a. settle these Indians ON portion o
ID land, sufficient for them, and let then
# root hog or die or throw it open +
"a settlement and change it into produc
?. tive farms, thus making it help sup
m port the Indians, thousands of Ameri
|. can citizens, and be profitable to tn
tn government.
/. The trip is quite interesting through
,e the above section, you not only see th
:. docile Sioux and white man drivinl
X teams in the same train. but il
g. the same camp on the sam
prairie, where ten years ago the savag'
Us chased the buffalo and scalped tn
white man. The trail is yet visible an
n. skeletons of the Buffalo, in vast nun
he bers. cover this great pralrle.
4 VIII write of this immediate locallt
n in my next letter. Yours
i A. c. RICE.
IN Rushville, Neb., June 14th, 1885.