The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-10-10
THE UPPER SUN RIVER.
Glorious Scenery Of the Mountains and
Canyons Around Great Falls.
6. C.-..uauaocoo ~ tho TprpvrNv I

Glorious Scenery Of the Mountains and
Canyons Around Great Falls.
Especial Correspondence of the TRIBUNE.l
AUGUSTA, Mont, Oct. 4.
1t is true that the many portions of
Montana offer a diversity of industries
and resources greater diversity than
many countries that have lived and pros
pered ever possessed. This can be
learned and impressed in no way SO well
as by visiting each portion in particular,
mingling with the people, and learning
in detail that which each portion offers.
1t is true that a pen-picture is some
times 80 we'll drawn that certain scenes
are made clear and impressive, but how
much more lasting and interesting is
each beheld in person. The travel it.
self, the mingling of scenery, the associ-
ates, and the associations which n
forms each adds a factor and coloring to
a given scene, and no pen, however IA
Gle. can supplant the link that associ-
ates the object and it's imagery pict-
ure. 1t is true hat descriptions of nat
ural scenery have been so clear, so en-
rapturing that one beholds the scenes
before him like a vision in a dream and
then after the charm has disappeared
and the spell is broken he feels there is
an inseparable link missing. Thoughts
similar to these would inevitably take
possession of my mind as I passed from
valley to valley and to foothill and
mountain along the lofty main range Of
the Rockies to the canyon Of Sun river,
so little known to excursionists.
There is of course more moisture in
the mountains than at a distance be-
yond, and the land adjacent to them as
a natural consequence is more moist and
possessed Of innumerablo streams like
living streams fresh from the mountains.
If such country at the base OF the noun
tains is Just broken by foot hills with
canon like valleys between them it offers
a field for grazing, limited agriculture.
scenery, beautiful climate and water UNI
equaled by any other in the world.
One will pass over a level strip of
country, a divide, and descend into avail
ley with mountain streams, ascend, pass
over a slight bench and perhaps into a
broad, level valley that extends magnifi-
Gently to the foot hills. These are green,
but only partly with grass, for there are
also beautiful hills of pine, fir and other
numerous evergreens that line them to
the ragged edge of the rocky peaks,
whose SUBMITS never vanish from sight.
In those valleys both large and small
are ranches and stockmen with herds of
cattle, horses and sheep scattered over
the ranges in valleys, foot hills and
mountains miles away. Only in the
most favored valleys is agriculture at
tempted on any scale and then only oats,
wheat and vegetables are raised and
those for the ranchman's home. The
valleys are mostly fenced in and kept
for meadows and immense quantities of
hay are cut, to guard against short
ranges or the cold and SHOWS of winter.
In some portions along the range there
is an absence of foot hills and a valley
parallel to the base of the range is OBJ
Sc, wed. In such instances the timber
reaches down to the valleys edge and
the bottom is generally broad and Gov
cred with luxuriant grass and trickling
streams. A man fortunate enough to
possess such a valley and a bunch of
stock has nearly gotten into the "Garden
of the Gods"
So the country appears from the up
per branches of the Dearborn to the
North Fork of Sun river and westward
to the mountains. This covers a very
large region, including the South Fork
of Sun river with all its branches and
Willow creek with it's numerous valleys,
SO level and broad. This region, for it's
area, is more thickly stocked and is bet
ter adapted to all kinds of stock than
any portion of Montana I have seen.
Herds of cattle and horses may be seen
together on every portion of the range,
and the solitary shepherd with his dog
and their charge of thousands of sheep
are encountered between. Further from
the mountains, and as the streams grow
larger and the valleys somewhat broader
giving a chance for larger tracts for irri-
CATION, are some very large farming
ranches, and the crops this year have
never beer excelled.
A. natural curiosity of this region and
one worthy a visit is the canyon of the
North Fork of Sun river as it en-
ters this mountainous pass. The river,
as it energies from between the two
ranges of the Rockies, which are parallel,
approaches tlc CdIloI. just dDONC WuiCu
occurs a precipitous fall of considerable
height and her the walls close to a mar
row channel only four feet wide, through
which the water passes and tumbles in a
mass below as if glad to escape from its
rocky embrace and in quietude gently
wanders on its way. To get over the
first range into the Sun river basin is a
difficult matter but for grandeur at no
other place to be seen, it will repay one.
1t is a region a hundred miles long and
from two to ten miles wide, heavily tim
bered, entwined in vegetable growth,
without a pass at either end and with
mountains on all sides. Above the falls
there is not a living thing in the water,
though as pure as the mountain now
There is a spring in this region of con-
siderable medicinal qualities which has
been tested by many who have visited
them for rheumatism and kindred all
ments. 1t is proposed to build a road
over the mountains and a hotel at the