The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-05-30

William Jackson Armstrong Gives a
Glowing Description Of the
Snake River Valley.

empire of the richest land, level as
a foor, 5000, 600 of acres in extent
and watered by great river, lying
snugly under the green mountain
ridges of Montana and Idaho.
Many rumors of the great region
and it's richness had reached me
during my recent stay in Denver.
A hardened vetertan of observation
in Western booming schemes, from
San Diego,t to Colorado, I had accept
ed these rumors as one who accepts
the roseate promises of healing Chi
nese doctors, with a vastly liberal
charity of the hopes of gain on the
part of spectators in human credu-
lity. Invited, however, by the pro-
jectors of developments" here to
become their guest for a visit of in
spection, and urged by friends hav.
ing interest in the outlets of labor,
l consented to the May day excur-
sion, and like the doubling sinner to
the communion service, coming to
scoff," / have remained to pray
A REVELATION.
To one standing on the spot, this
Idaho Falls country is indeed rev.
elation. No reports of it can antici.
pate the reality. How a valley o1
such extent and fertility, needing
only a faint touch Of capital and
industry to change it to Damascus
garden, can have remained here
practically unclaimed by Americans
from the hands of the government
while for twenty years the feverist
tides of emigration and land
booms have swept on every side o.
it from the Missouri to the Pacific
is wonder. That such territory
existed inside Tho Union would have
been denied by almost any one with
logical intelligence. All the same
it appears the fact that until within
the three years past not one acre II
a thousand of this magnificent val
ley had taken the print of the set.
tiers foot. Its far expanse, covered
with dense sagebrush and wild
grass, stirred only by the winds ano
the leaps of the jack rabbit, gave
back the sun. The great Snake river
came down from the dim Montana
mountains, pouring volume O
crystal clear water as large as the
Ohio through the solitude. Ever
to-day not one acre in 200 is occu
pied for cultivation.
The region was designated on tn
maps of the government as "deser
land" That settled it's fate for I
quarter of a century, though, excep
in the single fact that the ready
water had not been turned on tn
waiting land, there was not the faint
est counterfeit of a desert. The sol
was as deep and rich as the bottoms
of Nebraska. Clear of the sage, i
would bear in the summers without
irrigation a ton of wild grass to thu
acre. The climate was the climate o
Colorado-clear, serene summers
winters steady and bracing after De
cember till the beginning OF April
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Twenty years since few straggler'
from the despised but thrifty sec
of Mormons, moved by some loca
or domestic discomfort, wandered
up over the borders of Utah into th'
lonely Idaho valley, and squattee
here and there in the solitude along
its sides. They plucked the stream'
from the foothills and turned then
over a few acres of the "desert" land
The acres blossomed like the rose
To-day these Mormon exiles art
rich. Their ploughed fields, Owe
which 1 have ridden for thirty miles
during the past two days, look hk'
the richest upturned gardens of tn
East; the soil is dark loam, mellow
as ashes. Clean cut and contrasted
side by side with the scraggy gra!
of the sagebrush from which the.
have been ploughed, run the lonl
green lines Of the fields of wheat ant
alfalfa, already sprung into vigorou
growth. Imagination left to itsel
would be helpless to transform tn
desert into a picture like this. Onl.
the fact, as it is here exhibited t
the skeptical visitor, could conver
his unbelief into credulity as to tn
wonderful possibilities of this "des
ert" soil. The Mormon farmer tell
you he will reap these alfalfa field
three times before the end OF tn
summer and that he will gathe
from six to nine tons of hay, whicl
he will sell for So ton at the neigh
boring railway depot. From hi
fields of wheat or barley, or oats, h
assures you that he will gather from
80 to go bushels per acre, and tina
there is never a failure of crops, sine
heholds the clouds in his own hand
and can squeeze them at will. Yo'
are inclined to believe his story
inasmuch as you see the baled ha,
| in his sheds and ricks. and in th
little town of Idaho Falls, in tn
center of the valley, you have seen