Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1887-1890, 1888-05-30
GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30 1888.
SeIIlii-V eek|y
4 FAIR REPORT.

Col. Searles the veteran editor of til
Montana Livestock Journal writes int
estingly and intelligently Of Great Fal
in the last number of that useful public
ton. Before writing on this city and til
neighboring country, Col. Searles actual
ly came here to see for himself what wer
their merits. This startling innovation i
commended to the attention of thos
newspapers which refer flippantly to TIN
Sand Coulee coal and can find the mos
obscure paragraphs that SANDER thi
town while fair, honest statements to olll
credit pass unobserved. But the trutl
prevails. Great Falls proceeds on hel
course. Like her mighty cataracts, she
sweeps away all obstacles to her progress
and finally wins the approval of broad
guage men such as Col. Searles. Refer
ring to the plan of this city and the gen
eral circumstances under which it was
founded he says
The town is located upon level plat of
ground on the east bank of the Missouri
just below the mouth of Sun river, has
wide, beautiful streets and alleys and
ample room to grow without climbing
hills OF encroaching upon the broad river
which sweeps IN graceful curve from
It's southern limit to its front and which
then PUSHES madly yet grandly down over
the series OF great falls below, from which
the place derives its name. But the beau
tl1ul plat OF ground the broad, unbroken
plateaus and far distant mountains which
please the eye upon every hand did not
inspire James j. Hill to cross a turbid
stream at that point with the Manitoba.
nor Col. Broadwater to pierce uncom.
promising mountain spurs, hew way
through deep canyons and bridge rocky
detlles to reach it with the Montana Cen
tral, nor did they possess charms enough
to induce Paris Gibson to spend DAYS aud
lights in his lonely tent upon the present
site OF the city, with no company save his
own thoughts and no sound to break the
solitude OF the place save the murmur of
me great river upon one side and the
moving OF coyotes upon the other.
NO, II was none nor all of these that
turned the triumvirate of practical men
to this favored spot. 1t was their great
1alth IN the unbounded and marvellous re
sources OF the surrounding country. They
ST." Water-power almost sufficient to
move the machinery Of the world; coal
peus mat The 1uel demand of ages will
not exhaust; wide expanse of agricul-
.urai lands, and grazing area uneXcelled
in the abundance and richness of its
grasses, and they founded city which
will grow and prosper as its water nowar
is utilized, its coal measures develoned
and its farming lands brought under tho
pillow and made productive. Time and
the same pluck and energy which have
thus far distinguished its leading citizens
Will bring all these about.
Colonel Searles who has seen Montana
tlllage develop from small beginnings to
Its present Importance, thus writes of the
capacity OF the neighboring soil:
The writer will confess he entertained
doubt as to wheat being raised without
irrigation in the vicinity of Great Falls
But visit there and an examination of |
The SOIL dispelled them. The soil is fine
SANDY loan resting upon clay. The ma
I'VE grass is what is generally termed
"oiue stem" or "blue jolnt'-a grass that
VIII not grow in our mountain country
only upon naturally moist lands or where
uplands are irrigated The country is
guiltless Of an irrigating ditch, but the
clay subsoil absorbs and retains sufficient
moisture in ordinary seasons to grow n
crop OF wheat to maturity. As high as
thlrty-slx bushels of Fife wheat have
been raised to the acre without any artifi- |
clal moisture. About six hundred acres
nave been put in this spring. The writer
IS nrmly OF the opinion that after the soil |
mas been thoroughly cultivated two or
three years no more difficulty will he ex-
perlenced in raising a crop of No. hard
wheat upon the broad plateau which
stretches for nearly fifty miles to the east
ward OF the city than is met in maturinp
a crop of the same cereal in the Drea3
valley OF the Red river of the north #
may partially fail in very dry summer.
put an average spring and summer will
bring good one.