Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1894-12-27

! Crookston, Mimi, Dec. lS.-A year
or two ago representatives OF a Cana
dian railroad company, lin connection
with another company. each owning
large bodies Of land in the Canadian
northwest, persuaded number of Da-
kota farmers to remove to the province
of Alberta. Most of them who went
up there were In hard luck, SO to
speak, being heavily in debt. mortgages
covering their real aud personal
property. The Canadians, so anxious
to get rev settlers, paid Oft 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 10 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 diSc0n-
tented. unsuccessful, impracticable and
unthinking Americans native, natural
J lied and unnaturdiized. and managed
! by lifting their personal Indebtedness
| to get q good many to go. These farm
(, ers could not succeed in country near
markets and possessed of many adj
yantages because they we're not built
! that way but they were led to believe
| that they could succeed in region
hundreds of miles north. not exactly
under the Arctic circle, but near
enough to it to produce reindeer moss
the only heritage Of that cold and des-
oiate land, 10 hopelessly beyond any
possibility of general growth, and for
ever remote from trade eenters, should
favoring year ever give them crops
to sell, and no competing railroad,
should THAT happy event occur.
Some of these deluded recple 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
1t. One does not cenSure them; they
were deceived; one pities them.
Now comes an equally crazy propo-
sition, and one which has gathered q
large party of victims; indeed. this
last project passes out of the realm of
schemes and propositions into the do
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 regular pastor, went to the Pa
ciiic coast to hunt up a location. He
ty.rly sN1 o,,l
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 timberel 10 the waters edge and
there are no settlements. except fish.
ing and Indian trading stations. with
in 900 miles; all about are high noun.
tains and directly south of it one of
the largest glaciers in British Column
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 Sftka 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 Coda,
nor within hundreds of mics of it.
There Is no mode of travel to it except
by boat, and the preacher, looking for
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.
found nothing desirable in Washing
ton; that farming was oyerdone there;
that farmers had no markets for their
products. but that he had found an
earthly paradise 400 miles north of
these overdone 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
Sound and embarked for new homes in
far-off Bella Coola, 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
tlIlage next year in which to plant in
an experimental way such crops as
they think may grow They must
carry iii provisions to keep them until
next season when they expect 10 gath
er whatever may possibly grow. They
cannot hope TO more that clear few
acres each and next season put in
lvegerahl,.s aud root crops among the
stnmpS. 1t ~ too far north for the
culture 81 fruits AMI the moist climate
il ageinst the growth Of gra' - and
what they expect 10 DO wa their sur
plus is rs prollemarical as the surplus
TX Is Nellki own that thu rainfall In
creases MI along the coast tn the direc-
ton W sitka, where It IL over 100 ii.
chcs per annum.
| With a sparse population these Bella