Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-05-17
The Newer Northwest.

burlington railroad now completed
through northern Wyoming almost to
the Montana line, has opened for de-
velopmsnt an immense territory, whose
resources have hitherto been hardly
suspected by the general public and
not half understood by those who were
most familiar with them. The line
traverses, for more than three hun
dred miles, section previously wholly
without rail connection, and although
such an incident as the opening up of
such a new and magnificent region
would score of years ago have at
tracted national attention, it occurred
last year without exciting much
more than passing paragraph
in the press. So much rail-
road building has been done
and so much zeal has been displayed
in advertising the extreme Northwest
and the Pacific Coast that this nearby
territory has been comparatively
neglected. So far as the public has
had any impression of this region, it
has been that it was, if not actually n
desert, at least sufficiently arid and
uninviting to be the foundation for
the now acknowledged myths concern
ing the existence of the Great Ameri-
can Desert"
1t has, however, been of late years
pretty thoroughly demonstrated and
rather generally conceded that this
region is admirably adapted to the
breeding of cattle on a large scale and
this degree of knowledge of its re-
sources is being succeeded by the in
evitable discovery that much of it is
well fitted by quality of soil and other
conditions for successful agriculture.
There is real romance in the way
the great west has gradually and with
much difficulty struggled out from be-
meath the cloud cast upon it nearly
century ago, when early explorers
misnamed it the Great American
Desert State by state, county by
county. single file, it has emerged in
small detachments, with much fear
and trembling of those first settlers
whom it had taken into its confidence
and invited to make their homes upon
its bosom. 1t was almost as if work
of redemption was going on rather
than a work OF development of what
already existed. In that development
the Burling ton railroad has done more
perhaps than all other agencies COM
bined. 1t was the first line to push
out, without the encouragement and
assistance of subsidies, into the vast
region over which hung the blighting
reputation of aridity and barrenness.
1t has pioneered the way for the sturdy
homesteader, made his path easy and
invited Hmm to follow in convenience
and comfort. 1t has opened up for
him vast areas of inviting territory,
almost against his protest, and he has
gone into them 'doubtingly, but has re-
manned in prosperity and peace. AT
every new invasion by this enterpris-
ing railroad of a new portion of the
western plains, this same thing has
regularly laid out program. First, the
road: then a fringe of the boldest and
hardest settlers, locating near its line
as the same kind of people fringed the
navigab BILE streams of the older states
in the older times when there were
no railroads; then flow beyond these,
and then the taking possession of the
entire territory and the upbuilding of
a rich and strong community.
These scenes are being repeated in
the newly-reached region penetrated
by this road, located in northwestern
Nebraska, southwestern South Dakota
and northeastern Wyoming. Contrary
to the generally accepted impression,
this immense territory-three hundred
miles long by one hundred miles wide,
and in area equal to several of the
smaller states in the Union-is pos
sessed of resources that qualify it to
be the home of a million people, and
its future inhabitants are already
moving in and taking possession in
droyes of thousands New towns are
springing up. Those already organ
ized--Alliance, Hemingford, Crawford,
Edgemont, Newcastle, Sheridan, etc.
are enjoying period of unpre-
cedented prosperity. Gigantic enter
prises- mining, irrigating, yes, even
manufacturing-h chosen this as
their field of operations, and on all
sides the results of wisely directed
energy are apparent.
The capitalist, however, is by no
means the only person whose pres
ence in this Newer Northwest is notice
able. This is, if not veritable poor
mans country" at least as good a
territory as the man of moderate
means can find anywhere. Most of
the land still belongs to the public do
main and can be had only by home
steading-except that in certain por-
tiOns it may be taken under the desert
land act and title to it secured by put
ting it under bitches and supplying it
with water for irrigating purposes.
What remains is the last of the once
vast area that has given free homes to
millions of enterprising American citi-
zens. 1t is rapidly being absorbed in
the same way the great mass of it has
gone, and the man who delays is de-
liberately throwing away the last op-
portunity to secure for himself and
his children the heritage of a liberal
government.
n