Bismarck weekly tribune., 1885-11-06
Veritable Land of Canaan for
Those Interested in the Cat
tie Industry.
Some Interesting and Instructive Sta
(. tistics Culled From the Cen
s sus Returns. .
Two hundred and fifty feet to water;
Fifty miles to fuel;
"Six inches to hell.
"God bless our home!"

WuACu pISSouG 81 1uuCu dtUTaCUlVSu0SS anu
Importance as do those which relate to
the so called "Bad Lands" of Dakota
the mauvaises terres of the old French
explorers and missionaries. A brief de-
scription of them from several stand
points would not be amiss, preliminary
to those other most interesting figures
which it is more specifically intended to
produce here.
These Bad Lands extend from the
Black Hills along the western tier of
counties, a distance of 200 miles, taking
in the valleys of the Cheyenne, Grand
and Little Missouri rivers, until they
fade away into the valley of the upper
Missouri in Mckenzie county. They
are from five to twenty-five miles in
width.
The editor of the Bad Lands Cowboy
writes about them as follows, in the
story of the "Deightsome Land" by o.
II. Holt, Esq, of Bismarck:
There is a very general opinion in differ
ent parts of the country that the Bad Lands
are the most sterile and uninhabitable re-
gion on the face of the earth, The writer
well remembers the impression Of them he
obtained in his very youthful days from
and coal miner, however, this is the king
country of the world. In no other place
are there to be found so many favorable
conditions for the raising of stock. Bunch
and buffalo grass cover almost every inch
Of the ground. The raw sides Of buttes
are the only places where splendid grazing
can not be obtained. On many Of the
the summit, the slopes being the favorite
pasture lands of the cattle. Generally no
hay need be cut, as the grass cures standing
and keeps the cattle in as good condition all
winter as if they were stall fed. The only
reason for putting up hay is to avoid a
This very seldom happens, however, as very
little snow falls in the Bad Lands. In
spite Of the numerous cuts of the railroad,
there never has been blockade in the Bad
Lands, although they are common all over
the rest of the road. A curious fact with
the cattle is that the ones that have been
here year or two, and know how to "rus-
tle," will turn away from stack of hay,
paw away the snow from the grass and eat
that exclusively. Even in the dead Of win
ter meadow has very perceptible tinge
of green.
The Hon. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., who re-
Gently sojourned with us, describes trip
to Medora which he made while here, in
the following language In speak
ing of Medora, the principal town
of Billings county, in the heart of the
Bad Lands, situated as it is at the point
in western Dakota where the Northern
Pacific railroad crosses the Little Mis-
souri, river, it presents several points of
interest to the voyageur and student of
facts, in regard to the great interior pas
turable region. It is situated at the east
ern border of the great range and rancho
area, here sharply defined by the so
called Bad Lands, which constitute the
water shed of the Little Missouri and it's
immediate tributaries.
The sharply defined and corresponding
coal veins, outcropping upon the bold es-
carpment which borders the valley of the
Little Missouri on either side, with their
similar measures of intervening sand
stone, clearly indicate that the Bad Land
formation is the result of the action of
freshets, aided by the burning of exposed
coal mines; indeed the process is now 60
ing on. Recent washouts of considera-
BILE size are plainly discernable, and
within short distance of Medora are
seen burning coal veins, some of them
emitting flames, while above and around
the little craters thus formed is seen
scoria and burnt stone, similar to that
which crowns the hill tops and decorates
the sides of the Bad Lands throughout
their entire extent. Settlers have already
dotted the entire area east of the Bad
Lands with their shacks and sod houses,
and even on the first and second benches
of the Little Missouri valley where the
plateaux are broad enough to afford suffi-
cient tillable land. Whether the lands
now used for range purposes in the Bad
Lands and west of them will ever be
taken up for agricultural,purposes re-
mains to be seen.. The prevailing opin-
ion at the present time is that the Little
Missouri valley and the Bad Lands will
for all time constitute the eastern border
of the great pasturable region of the inte-
rior. Legally, it does form the limit
of that area, the Legislature of Dakota
having passed law exempting the west
ern tier Of counties from the operation
of the herd law, the provisions of which
are that the.cattle men shall keep their
herds off the lands of the "grangers" and
become liable for damages caused by their
cattle upon unfenced lands upon which
crops are raised. In view, however, of
the fact that lands have been taken up
in Kansas and Nebraska and successfully
cultivated for years, from 100 to 200
miles west Of what was formerally sup
posed to be the western line of practica-
bic agriculture, it will not be strange
thing If the settler shall claim as his own