The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1890-08-28
Montana.

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velous water power, immense smell
tiers, gold, silver and copper mines,
some Of her great resources.
Interesting letter from Col. Mack
j. Leaning Of Denver, Colo.
GREAT FALLS, MONTANA, August
lG, lS00.-(Special correspondence
STATE R~EPUBLIcAN). The Great Falls
of the Missouri were among the prom.
inent natural wonders first discov-
cred by Lewis and Clark in their
great exploring expedition to the
then unknown northwest. At this
point the famous expedition halted
and passed o winter. Little could
they have them imagined that in less
than a hundred years men would be
traversing this country, then so wild
and remote from civilization in steam
cars on half q dozen different lines of
! railway, or that the darkness of night
would be driven out by electricity,
generated by the power of the very
waters Of the great waters, whose
roaring torrent here bids farewell to
the mountains and thunders on to
the sea, or that this same power
would be driving the wheels of man.
ufacturing industries, propclling cars
and in many ways pointing to I'M
limited sources of wealth and pro.
gress.
A transformation from the center
of q vast wilderness te q busy manu-.
featuring, mining and agricultural
center is a vast stride even in these
days of extraordinary feats. Yet all
these things have come to pass.
For three quarters of q century
this great region remained in very
much the same condition as Lewis and
Clark found it. 1t was the u~ndisputed
home Of the Indian, the bear and the
buffalo. Even less than ten years
ago countless herds of buffalo roamed
at will over the very spot where |
now write, but the places that knew
them then will know them no more
forever. They are gone, never to re-
turn. The locomotive and the win.
chester rifle have triumphed, if it be
a triumph, and the buffalo is practi-
calIy extinct. Five years ago the
writer of this letter went into camp
on The spot where now is located the
magic city of Great Falls. lie was
then the guest of Hon. Paris Gibson,
the promoter and founder of this
wonderfully progressive city. How
wildly he portrayed what was soon
TO transpire in the way of building
great enterprises, of utilizing the
vast water power which nature had
here placed at the disposal of man,
of developing the only mineral re-
sources and building railways, the
writer well remembers. 1t was to
him, undoubtedly, one of those few
occasions when fortune prof
fered him great wealth and the prof
fer was refused. lie then regarded
the enthusiasm of his host as but the
sincere expressions of q visionary,
and many of his glowing predictions
fell upon him ''like a twice told tale
in the ear of a drowsy man.
During our s%ojourn at that time We
were invited to take a stroll up Cen
trail avenue, and the only way we
had of finding the venue aforesaid
was by four burrows plowed through
its center. We had gone but q short
distance when q band of antelope at
tracted our attention, as they gazed
in evident wonderment at the freshly
turned soil. Just at that time the
population of Great Falls numbered,
all told, II, Mr.. Gibson and myself
and 10 antelope.
But the ancient doctrine of the
survival of the httcsh has again been
verelied. The antelope are gone and
in their place have come, according
to the census just completed, 400
active, enterprising people. Probably
no town in the new northwest, GER
tainly no town OF city in Montana has
made so rapid and substantial pro-
gress in the same length of time, and
all this has been accomplished with
out the aid of brass bands or the
usual accompaniment of western
booms. No syndicate las been Or
ganized for advertising the city, but
its steady and rapid progress may be
solely attributed first, to its wonder
full natural advantages, and secondly,
to a disposition on the part Of shrewd
capitalists, as we'll as people of or.
binary manns to invpst their funds