The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-05-25
THE NEW NORTHWEST.

The northwestern extension Of the
Burlington Railroad now completed
through Wyoming almost to the Nom
tana line, has opened for development
an immense territory, whose resources
have hitherto been hardly suspected by
the general public and 10 half under
stood by those who were most familiar
with them. The line traverses, for
more than three hundred miles, a Sec
ton previously wholly without rail con-
nections, and although such an incl
dent as the opening up of such a new
and magnificent region would a score OF
years ago have attracted national atten-
ton, it occurred last year without excit-
ing much more thana passing paragraph
in the press. So much railroad build
ing has been done and SO much zeal has
been displayed in advertis ng the ex-
IRENE Northwest and the Pacific Coast
that this nearby territory has been COM
paratively neglected. So far as the pub
lie has had any impression Of this region,
it has been that it was, if not actually a
desert, at least sufficiently arid and I'M
inviting to be the foundation for the
now-acknowledged myths concerning
the existence of the "Great American
Desert"
1t has, however, been of late years
pretty thoroughly demonstrated and
rather generally conceded hat this re-
gion is admirably adapted to the breed
ing of cattle on a large scale, and this
degree of knowledge of its resources is
being succeeded by the inevitable dis
covery that much of it is well fitted by
quality OF soil and other conditions for
successful agriculture.
Tbarn 80 rn0I - 4La @EaI
Great West has gradually and with
much difficulty struggled out from be-
meath the cloud cast upon it nearly q
century ago, when early explorers mis-
named it the Great American Desert.
State by state, county by county, single
file, it has emerged in small detach-
ments, with much fear inc trembling of
those first settlers whom it had taken
into its confidence and invited to make
their homes upon its bosom. 1t was al
most as if a work of redemption was GO
ing on rather than a work of develop
ment of what already existed. In that
development the Burlington Railroad
has done more, perhaps than all other
agencies combined. 1t was the first line
to push out, without the encouragement
and assistance of subsidies, into the vast
region over which hung the blightingl
reputation OF aridity and barrenness. 1t
has pioneered the way for the sturdy
homesteader, made his path easy and
invited him 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 remained in pros,
perity and peace. AT every new inva-
sion by this enterprising railroad of a
new portion OF the western plains, this
same thing has happened as if it were a
part OF a regularly laid out programme.
First, the road, then a fringe of the
boldest and hardest settlers, locating
near its line as the same kind of people
fringed the navigable streams of the
older states in the older times when
there were no railroads; then a flow be-
yond these, and then the taking possess
sicn of the entire territory and the up
building OF a rich and strong commu-
nifty.
These e are being repeated in the
newly-reached regions penetrated by
this road, located in northwestern Ne
braska, 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 small
Ter states in the Union-is possessed Of
resources that qualify it to be the home
of a million people, and its future in
habitants are already moving in and
taking possession in drOves of thousands.
New towns are s%pringing up. Those al
ready organized-Ailiance, Hemingford,
Crawford, Edgemont, Newcastle, Sheri-
dan, etc.,-are enjoying a period of I'M
prece 'ented prosperity. Gigantic en-
terp! lses-minin5, ~irrigating, yes, yer
manufacturing have chosen this as their
fed of operations and on all sides the
results of wisely-directed enegy are ap-
parent.
The capitalist, however, is by no
means the only person whose presence
in this Newer Northwest is noticeable.
This is, if not a veritable ''poor mans
country" at least as good a territory as
the man Of moderate means can find
anywhere. Most of the land still be-
longs to the Public Domain and can be
had only Ivy homesteading-except that
in certain portions it may be taken
under the Desert LAM Act and title toit
secured by putting 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
citizens. 1t is rapidly being absorbed
in the same way the great mass of it has
gone, and the man who delays is DELHI
erately throwing away the last oppor-
tunity TO secure for himself and his chill
dren the heritage Of a liberal govern
ment.
Work Up Reputation,
1t should be the aim of every farmer
who makes a specially of poultry pro-