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 and Mineral Industries Are
Unsurpassed.


vancement and improvement of the
United States is the constant change in
an elaboration of its 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 un-
wieldy territory of Dakota, kept so long
in it's 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, a 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 sepa-
rates it from North Dakotf--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 800
miles long from east to west, and has an
area of 76,62O square miles. 1t is divided
into seventy mine 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, and
from the northern to the southern
boundary lines, lies the great Sioux res
ervation, containing over 100000 acres
of land, of which 100000 have just been
opened to settlement. Think oft nine
million acres thrown open to the public
Enough land to give 100 acres each to
$4,000 families The reservation is
watered by the Big Cheyenne, Bad
White, Moreau and Grand rivers, besides
numberless small creeks and streams.
The lands in this ceded portion of the
reservation can be had only under the
homestead law, requiring actual settle,
ment, with the addition that settlers pay
Sl.25 an acre for the same when they
prepare to prove up
This state has at present over 2,4O(
miles Of railway, and to this total viii
shortly be added the great mileage Of
those roads contemplating construction
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