Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1890-06-12
SOUTH DAKOTA.
The Greatest of the New States of
the Great Northwest.
IT'S VARIED RESOURCES.
A State Whose Agricultural, stock-Rais-
ing amt Mineral Al
Unsurpassed.

One of the best indications of the ad-
vancement and improvement of the
United States is the constant change in
an elaboration of it's geography. A few
years ago, even within the memory of
some who have not yet lived long enough
to be called old, the territory west of the
Mississippi and north of Nebraska's
southern boundary line was known by
all as the "Unexplored Region" or the
'Great American Desert" Now, that
very country is settled by thoroughgo-
ing, rustling Americans, and is at pres
ent attracting more attention through
out the civilized world than any other
section of the globe.
The most prominent portion of that
great Northwest territory is today, with
out doubt, that great political division
newly formed and clothed by our
national government with regal state
hood-South Dakota. No other section
Of this great western hemisphere is re-
ceiving one-half the attention that is
being bestowed upon South Dakota.
Formerly part of the bulky and I'M
wieldy territory of Dakota, kept SO long
in its governmental swaddling clothes
by criminally careless nation, it asked
for segregation and government of it's
own. After years of continuous strug-
gle and arduous labor it's people were
given the boon asked, and today South
Dakota stands young but giant state
royal past behind, glorious future
before, with the brains to conceive and
the energy to execute all needful, right
eous plans for the betterment of it's citi-
zens, the advancement of it's causes and
the glory of it's name.
South Dakota includes all that terri
tory lying between the northern bound
ary line of Nebraska on the south and
the 7th standard parallel-which sepa-
rates it from North Dakota--on the north
and the western boundary of Minnesota
and Iowa on the east, to the eastern
boundaries of Montana and Wyoming
on the west. The state is about 225
miles wide from north to south and 36(
miles long from east to west, and has ar
area of 76,620 square miles. It is divided
into seventy nine counties, Of which
twenty-nine are at present unorganized
In the center of the state, or rather ex
tending from the Missouri river on the
east to the Black Hills on the west, anG
from tho northern to the southern
boundary lines, lies the great Sioux res
ervation, containing over 100000 acres
of land, of which 100000 have just beer
opened to settlement. Think ofit-nint
million acres thrown open to the public
Enough land to give 100 acres each tx
$4,000 families. The reservation il
watered by the Big Cheyenne, Bad
White, Moreau and Grand rivers, beside
numberless small creeks and streams
The lands in this ceded portion of tn
reservation can be had only under th
homestead law, requiring actual settle
ment, with the addition that settlers pa,
$1.25 an acre for the same when the,
prepare to prove up.
This state has at present over 2,40
miles of railway, and to this total vii
shortly be added the great mileage Q
those roads contemplating constructor
of their lines to the Black Hills and be
yond.
South Dakota is essentially an agri
cultural and stock-raising state Wheat
oats, rye, barley, corn and all cereals at
tain their greatest perfection here. Veg