The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-03-01
THE UPPER MISSOURI.
The Wonderful Resources of the
Country.
A Few Suggestive Figures-.-Great Falls,
nj. IA Breezy Description of
the scenery---M Mineral
Wealth, Etc.

are always In sight, wearing every va
riety of shape and even in their hard
and barren surfaces presenting many a
fascination of form. Oft in the dis
tance the main range of the Rockies
crowned with everlasting snow, throws
a rugged front against The sky. while
nearer are others with silvery streaks
OF snow. This is the sign of water for
man and the promise Of grass for the
steer. The clear, pure atmosphere
brings remote objects near, giving new
SIZE and dIstInCtnesS to moon and stars,
and offering sunsets and sunrises of
richness and wide range of color.
One sun by day, by night ten thousand
shine
All Beyond the Mississippi" was at
one time considered a desert but it
has receded before civilization like the
Indian and buffalo which once roamed
over it. Of our public domain we
have 2, 2,lOO,OOO square miles in the west.
to $4,000 square miles in the east. The
west is characterized by Iargeness. Of
twenty-five states and Territories on
this side of the Mississippi only three
are as small as all New England. Mon
tana would not only cover all of New
England, but extends well over New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
while Dakota would make still lar
ger spread. Either one of these
territories could hold all the peO-
pie of the United States and not be
as densely crowded as in England.
According to the best estimates the
west contains 10000 square miles of
arabic land, $4,000 of grazing land.
10000 Of timber land, and 100000 of
waste and mountain land. Land often
considered worthless, however, has
proven the most fertile; artesian wells
have poured out their treasure upon
barren soil and made it blossom, while
Ottentimes all that a fertile soil needs
is treatment from some mineral stored
near by, as lime, salt or gypsum. The
stock raising interest of the country
has already passed to the west, while
the valley of the Missouri Mississippi
has become the chief food Producing
region OF the world The west is not
only great in the products of the rield,
orchard and garden, but it has mineral
resources simply ineXhaustibLe The
precious metals are found in all of the
western mountains, Montana last veal
producing $26,00OQ00, while the output
of the west since the trst discovery OF
gold runs into figures beWildering to
the imagination. But precious metals
constitute but small share in the
grand round up of western mineral
wealth We have coal many times in
excess of the deposits of Europe. 1t is
found in nearly every State and Terri
tory west of the Mississippi, and SO
are iron and lead. Single States can
supply all the demands of man,
kind for iron. Few States are with
out copper. The deposits of salt are
bOundless, and salt springs and lakes
can be made to yield unlimited guam
titles. sulphur is abundant, and borax
is had in masses sufficient to supply all
the world Tin is found, and quick
silver. Gypsum is everywhere, and all
the mountains are building stones,
granite and marble, of every Shade ana
color, world without end. There is 10
precious or base metal known to man
but that can be found in the west
When the center OF population has
crossed the Mississippi the west will
dominate in politics, wealth, agricul-
ture and manufacturing as it does now
in mining and stock raising.
The recorded observations of the up
per Missouri country were made by
Lewis and Clarke, whose expedition of
discovery was the first and most i'm
pOrtant one ever fitted out by the
United states government, and opened
a region as unknown as the interior of
Africa. The descriptions, maps and
recommendations have been justified
by later experience and surveys. The
next known was the result of
army explorations, and the stories
told by the numerous trappers
and hunters of various fur com
panies. Then came the accounts of
steamboat voyages. For years before
the rebellion the east learned much con.
cerning this country through Irvings
Astoria and Capt, Bonneville, Park
mans Oregon Trail, the Travels OF Rev
Samuel Bar ker and the heroic life of
Marcus Whitman, who saved Oregon
to the union. But the clouds of armed
strife Obscured the western land. and
only years after the war closed by the
advent of the railways was attention
once more conferred upon this mighty
region.
The water-chiseled Chasm through
which the Missouri rushes and m0r-
murS and rOars for eight miles below
this city has lost nothing of its majesty
and grandeur by the years intervening
since Lewis and Clarke made it known
to the world. 1t is succession of rap
ids, cascades and falls, and We do not
wonder that the great explorers lin.
gered along the banks and made eXtpn-
siye records in their journals of its
wildness and beauty.
In front Of this city the river is 2SOO
feet wide, calm and unrunied, and un-
consciousness of the rOughuess to come
the surface now sheeted with ice but
mile below it is narrowed to 800 and
the water is tossed to spray in its rush
to reach the first fall a vertical drop of
twenty eight feet. In the middle
of the river, and receiving the mist
from the fall, is a little island and the
same cottonwood tree in which the
eagle had built its nest, and which
led lewis and Clarke to give the name
of Bald Eagle to the fall. Next is COul-
ter fall, so named by Mr.. Gibson, of this
city, in honor of John Coulter, an in
trepid member of the Lewis and Clarke
who wandered alone for
more than two years in the Yellow
stone region Between the Black Eagle
and Coulter falls is the Giant spring.
whence flows a volume of water sufi-
cient to float a good sized steamboat
1t opens out like fan, with an outer
radius of some 300 feet, and is
100 feet from the river and
twenty feet above it, The water boils
up from the rocks ard flows over a Sc
ries OF terraces, with one of abrupt de
scent Of several feet, and is SO clear