Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-12-27

CrookSton. Mimi, Dee. lS.-A year
or two ago representatives OF Cana
dian railroad company, in connection
with another company, each owning
large bodies of land in the Canadian
northwest, persuaded a number OF Da-
kota farmers TO remove to the province
of Alberta. Most of them who went
up there We're in hard luck, so to
| speak, being heavily in debt, mortgages
covering their real and personal
| property. The Canadians, so anxious
to get rev settlers, paid off the per
sOnal mortgages, but took new ones in
! their own names, and in some instan-
ces, like Jones, paid the freight
Failing in their efforts to attract i'm
migration from Ontario, Quebec and
England, after the most tempting al
! lurementS and promises of subsidies
to leaders, these northwest Canadian
officials sought recruits among discOn-
tented. unsuccessful. imprlcticable and
/ unthinking Americans, native, natural
lied and unnaturdliZed, and managed
by lifting their personal Indebtedness
| to get Il good many to go. These farm
ers could not succeed in a country near
markets and possessed of many ad-
vantages because they were not built
that way. but they were led to believe
that they could succeed in a region
hundreds of miles north. not exactly
| I civ I1It ny.
enough to it to produce reindeer moss,
the only heritage of that cold and deS-
olate land, so hopelessly beyond any
possibility of general growth, and for
ever remote from trade centers, should
a favoring year ever give them crops
to sell, and no competing railroad,
should that happy event occur.
Some of these deluded people have
returned, others are still there because
it is too far to walk back. There is a
limit to successful agriculture in the
north, and these people went right to
it. One does not censure them; they
were deceived; one pities them.
| Now comes an equally crazy propo-
, sition and one which has gathered a
large party of victims; indeed, this
last project passes out Of the realm of
: schemes and propositions into the do
J main of positive wickedness. In brief
the story is as follows: Last spring a
Norwegian preacher, living at this
place, having exhausted his usefulness
as a regular pastor, went to the Pa
cifc coast to hunt up a location. He
e looked around Washington a little and
went up into British Columbia as far
as the valley Of Bella Coda river, 400
miles north Of Victoria and sixty miles
distant from the nearest point on the
route of Alaska steamers. The valley
is timbered to the waters edge and
there are no settlements, except fish
ing and Indian trading stations. with
in 200 miles; all about are nigh noun
tains and directly south of it one OF
the largest glaciers in British COlum.
bia, the vast icy field glistening in the
; sun when the brief summers heat
melts off the snow. The climate OF
: the valley is much like that of the en-.
tire coast through to Sitka. The fOgs
and winds of the ocean bring rain in
=. stead of snow on the level of the sea
and the cold is never excessive. except
| on the mountains No farming has
. ever been attempted at Bella CoOla
] nor within hundreds of miles of it.
There is no mode Of travel to it except
by boat, and the preacher, looking for
l location, reached it on a steam
] launch large enough for four persons
/ owned by a fisherman living sixty
| miles away.
Returning to Minnesota, the pros,
: pecting divine repCrted that he had
found nothing desirable in Washing,
ton; that farming was overdOne there;
that farmers had no markets for their
products, but that he had found an
earthly paradise 400 miles north of
these OyerdOne market centers. He
did not explain how his colony could
pay freight that long distance and
compete with the farmers living with
, in easy access of markets
Seventy men listened and believed,
and in October that number of natur-
allied and unnaturalized Morse Mime
sotans reached the waters of Puget
hcOult't anu tlubdIhetl IOI INV IlcIllcS III
far-Off Bella Coda. of whose advanta-
geS and resources no man can speak
from experience. These people must
cut down trees and build huts to live
in this winter. and clear the land for
tillage next year in which to plant in
an experimental way such crops as
they think may grow. They must
carry in provisions to keep them until
next season when they expect to gath
er whatever may possibly grow. They
cannot hope to more that clear a few
acres each and next season put in
vegetables and root crops among the
stumps. 1t is too far north for the
culture of fruits and the moist climate
is against the growth of grains. and
what they expect to do with their sur
plus is as problematical as the surplus.
1t IS Well1I own that the rainfall in
creaseS all along the coast in the direc-
! ton of Sitka, where it is over 100 IN
| cheS per annum.
With a sparse population these Bella
! Coola settlers must maintain their own
facilities of transportation sixty miles
| along the river to meet the semi
monthly steamers to Alaska. Distant
this selection of a home must
| claSsed with the pig in the pok
kind OF lunacy. a food such as d.
wasted the Fraser valley Of lower