The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1889-08-09
THE EXCURSION TO CHINOOK.
An Interesting sketch by the Leat,er Cor.
respondent.

CHINOOK, Mont, Aug. s.-A red lette
day fol, Chinook and Northern Montana
Gov. Il. F. White, Chief Justice H. NJ
Blake, and Sec'y of State L. A. Wake,
representing Montana; Coils G. A. Broad
water, president. P, P. Shelby, genera
manager and I. d. McCutcheon, attorne,
OF the Montana Central Railway; Col. 7
b. Merry of the journal; Judge Cornell
ius Hedges of the Herald; and A. W. Ly
man OF the Independent, left Helena YES.
terday morning, at 8 o'clock on special
to this place.
The run from Helena to Great Falls
was made in two hours and forty minutes
the fastest time ever made between
these two points. At Great Falls the il.
lustrlous party were Joined by J. H. Nc
Knight, A. E. Dickerman, Judge Doug
las, Ed Maclay, Robert Vaughn, Jerry
Collins, and D. II. McGinnis, leading citi-
zens.
After lunch at the Park hotel the spec
lal, in charge of Conductor Jerry Elan
nagan, proceeded on fast schedule to
Chinook, being Joined at Benton by Col.
D. searles of the River Press.
The party were also joined by several
military gentlemen and Messrs. McCul-
loh and Broadwatsr, post traders.
State officials and prominent citizens
OF Montana having been advised of the
statements published in the New York
Times of July 10Th by one Frank Wilke
son representing Northern Montana as a
barren, alkaline desert where no traffic
could accrue except that in buffalo bones,
which would necessarily soon be ex-
hausted, leaving this vast country wild
and solitary waste, these gentlemen.
deeply moved by the gravity of such
statements, determined upon making a
personal investigation of the character
and condition of the country.
MoNTANA's REvEI.AT1oNs!
Soon after leaving Great Falls green
tinge upon the surface of the range be-
gan to be apparent, indicating all ap-
proach to the great green ocean of YER
dure spreading out before them and ex-
tending to the eastern limits of the Jour
ney.
At Big Sandy, the great freighting point
for the Sweet Grass Hills and Upper Ju-
dith, evidences Of rapid developement
were unmistakable. The landscape of
verdure, also the th.'fs,r t,.e4a,e,,i>. s.,1,
fsdflfEnl EfhfTf EhfhT Admiration. Upon leaving
Assiniboine the great Milk river, with its
boundless expanse of meadow and graz
ing lands,and heavily wooded banks, lay
spread out in their lovliness before the
delighted visitants. All crowded to the
car platforms aud exclamations of sur
prise were heard on every hand, at the
charming scenery passing like a pano
rama before their gaze.
Arrived at Chinook the visitors were
met at the platform by a number Of the
leading citizens and welcomed to the ten
weeks city Of the warm west wind. Car
riagcs were at once entered and the party
was conveyed to the fields and gardens
in the vicinity. Here new and unlock
ed-for surprise awaited them. Vegetables
of all kinds were growing in the highest
perfection which had not received drop
tf water except that fs ling in tho form
of rain. They dug the large and hand
some looking potatoes with their own
hands. They walked through the way
ing grain above their shoulders. They
gathered samples Of the wheat aud oats,
as trophies of what northern Montana can
produce without irrigation in the dryest
season ever known in her history. They
drove through the wide extent Of level
land, covered with heavy growth of ma
tive blue joint and bunch grasses. They
carefully inspected the heads Of the grain
and fonnd them large and we'll filled with
the ripening grain. What particularly
impressed them all was the deep and
healthy green, observable everywhere
with nothing resembling the Wilkeson
sirocco or narohlng drduth,
Chinook they found to be a thriving
and we'll located town and, instead of the
buffalo homes described by the imagina-
tive WYilkeyon, they found the platform
and sheds Of capacious and handsome
freight and passenger depot filled with
moving machines, reapers, binders and
all manner Of agricultural implements.
After most satisfactory examination
of the town and its surroundings, the
whistle of the locomotive admonished
them that the hour Of return had arrived
and they reluctantly bade adieu to tbs
good people aud town with exultant hope
in it's future and with the fullest convic
tinn Of the depravity of the man WiIke
son who, with some base end in view, tht
. promoters of which were best known II
himself, had def1led his pen and prosti
tuted the power of the press to propagate
malicious and unmitigatcd lies agains
fair and promising section of our Crane
and God given heritage.
--l-------s-
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