St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-22
|. DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE.
Us Mildness is Due to The Chinook and
the Pleasant Altitude.
AS COMPARED WITH OTHERS,
fits Equal Is Hardly to Be Found-.-Its
Products and Extensive
Mines.

Special to the Globe
CUSTER CITY, OAK. May lit has
been said, (and perhaps truly that one
half of the world don't know how the
other half lives. This will apply perhaps
better to Dakota than any one state or
territory in the United States. For in
stance, how many of the people living
in the east half pf Dakota know how the
people live in the Black Ilills-probably
not one in hundred-the climate is
different, the contour of the country is
different and the occupation of the in
habitants is altogether different. And
yet the people living in the states east
and south seem TO think and speak of
Dakota as if it were one small district,
and alike in all its parts. They speak
of it as the home of the blizzard, they
picture il in their minds as the cold,
frozen country of the North, where peo-
pie go clothed like the EsquimauX, and
the water in the wells freezes solid
forty feet deep. Now. however well this
may apply to the eastern part of the ter
ritory, it has no application to the west
ern part. and, least of all, to that por-
ton of country lying between the two
forks of the Cheyenne river, and laid
down on the maps as
THE BLACK HILLS.
1t is different here. and your CORE
spondent who passed his earliest years
on "Old New England'S sea girt Shore"
and remembers the fun we used to have
sleigh riding over the tops of fences, land
later on passed some years in the So
called sunny South, where, during the
winter months it was rain, rain contin-
ually. and still further West, into Texas,
where he was compelled TO ride in the
face of blue nOrther from Dallas to
Fort Worth-twenty-five mileS-and
came nearer freezing to death than
ever before or since. And
still on to the Rio Grande
in New Mexico. Here the winters were
mild enough. but the country had not
been visited by a
RAIN FOR TWO YEARS,
and the winds blew almost continually
a storm of dry dust, and the sand hills
travelled little slower. but almost like
the waves of the sea. And when you
go back from the Rio Grande you find
the number of inhabitants in the vii
lagos determined by the amount of
water their spring affords. If there was
water enough for one more man or one
more goat he would be there. In Utah
and Colorado the winters, and summers,
too. are not unpleasant. The winters
in Salt Lake and Denver are much the
same as in Custer, in the Black Hills,
with this exception: they do not feel
tfe influence of the soft chinook winds,
a a'I little W deeper sTei" and e"iG lies longer T
on the ground. Do your readers
desire me to state why this seemingly
unnatural phenOmena-an how | ac-
count for the mild winters and light
snowfall in a locality so far north-lsten,
and | will try to explain in word 1t
is owing to
THE CHINOOK WINDS.
think hear your readers say, "What
kind Of a wind is that?' 1t comes from
the west and takes its rise from the
warm current that strikes across from
the shores of Japan and meets our coast
about the mouth of the Columbia river
1t is this that warns the whole coast of
Oregon and migitateS the severity of
the climate of Alaska and causes the
flowers to bloom often in the winter in
the open gardens of Portland. 1t is a
fact, universally understood, that
warm air contains more moisture
than cold air. and this warm air
becoming gradually cooled as it sweeps
eastward and is forced into higher
altitude, this moisture is condensed,
and falls in rain all over what is called
the wet foot portion of Oregon, and
causes the deep SHOWS in the rocky
ranges of mountains lying between the
B lack Hills and the Pacific ocean.
Again. it is known that these mountain
ranges, which are very high west of
New Mexico and Colorado, take a dip
downward and form low passes west of
the Black Hills, through which these
warm winds blow comparatively unob-
structed, and when it reaches the hills
it has parted with all undue moisture
it is dry, warm and soft, and this is
what we call chinook wind. This
chinook wind generally follows imme-
diately on the heels of cold snap, and
WE HAVE COLD SNAPS
in the Black Hills-we generally eX-
perience three or four during the winter
when for a few hours the murcury
often drops to 20 below zero, but even
at that temperature the air is so dry
that one does not feel the cold as in
tensely as he would in low, humid at
mOSphere where the thermometer
registered 20 deg. warmer. These cold
snaps generally last about four days and
are most always followed by the warm
winds of which | speak, and should we
ever get snow deep enough for sleigh
ing (Which is seldom) we make the best
pOoolDlC uoC VI IL. hlONllIS llldb our
time is short. Our first frost in autumn
generally comes about the 10th of Sep
tembero in and around Custer City,
which, 1t must be remembered, is
little over 5000 feet above
sea level-while at Buffalo Gap-which
is thriving village in the foot hills
twenty-five miles east of this point and
i'll Custer county-the farmer is not
treated to his first frost until about the
1St of October. This is caused by the
difference in attitude, the latter named
place being located about 1000 feet
lower. The autumnS here are beauti-
full, and it is seldom we get snow until
the middle of December-and our
roughest weather occurs about the holi-
days. February is usually clear, cold
and bright; March the same. but
warmer; April, fitful snow and rain.
the snow melting as it falls. May usu-
ally warm and bright with an occasional
shower. Those who cultivate the soil
of our mountain parks and valleys, usu-
ally have everything planted by the 10th
of May, harvesting in August. Every
thing is grown in Custer county that is
grown in Iowa or MiSSouri-with this
ditference-the average product here is
about
TWICE AS MUCH
to the acre as is obtained in those states
except corn, the cool nights being un-
favorable to the rapid growth of that
grain. 1t is, however, successfully
grown here, with an average product of
about forty bushels to the acre. The
largest crop have ever seen grown of
wheat, oats and potatoes are grown in
the ranches around Custer, and the
quality is not excelled anywhere. The
soil is very rich and deep and pleasant
to work, as it is composed of the dis
integrated portion of the country rock
washed down from the hill sides. The
formation here is what is term by geolo-