Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-26
VERY ENTHUsTAsTIC OVER IDAHO
One Delegate to the Convention Talk
of His State.

| One Delegate to the Convention Talk
| of His State.
| 'Tts astonishing the craze people have fo
! free lands" said Hon. 7. p. Keator o
Mountain Home. Idaho, who is to speak oil
"The Resources of IDAHO" at the Trans
| mississippi Commercial congress in place o
| Governor Mcconnell Of that state, who /!
| unable to be present, as he sat in the Office
| of the Millard hotel yesterday holding al
| animated debate with Hon. j. X. Clarke
brother of the big Montana banker and mil
| lionaire. s1l
People here seem to be astonished that
am not out in Idaho rushing in at the open
| ing of the Nez Perces Indian reservation ent
securing big 160-acre farm Free l nave
| answered innumerable questions about tina
section today and the only reason was moi
there is that Idaho has millions Of acres oil
land just as fine as the Nez Perces land and
|, or anyone else, can get as rich land as the
sun shines on in that state Il we VII! only
go and settle on it, and there is no need oil
joining in the wild rush for 1t, either.
"Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces was
gentle old savage with penchant for marry
ing young wives. He never wanted to fight
the whites, yet some of his braves killed q
white man deliberately in order to bring on
trouble and to make the chief fight l saw
him often in captivity and he never ceased
to regret that he ever dug up the war toma-
hawk and thus lost his tribe and finally his
beautiful lands. The government, however,
paid him for the lands and gave each sur
viving head of a family 100 acres to be Sc
lected before the rush came. Some or the
richest gold and silver mines ever discovered
are likely to be found in this reservation now
that white men can go into its mountains
and valleys freely.
"But we have some great mines already In
Idaho. and as gold mining state, to say
nothing of silver and lead, 1t is already very
near the top of the column. 1t Is partlcu-
larIy rich in Dlacpr mines The Boise valley
alone has produced over 600,000,OOO in gold
since the yellow nuggets were first discovered
there. The greatest silver mines In this
country are in the Occur De Alene region In
northern Idaho, while the sands OF the Snake
river literally glitter with gold 1t IL said
there is gold enough in the sand bars OF
the Snake river to pay off the national debt
but 1t is so volatile, of the variety known as
-four gold,' that so far no method has been
found that will save 1t. II you pan this
sand anywhere along the river you will see
the gold float of on the water like yellow
grease Why at Mountain Home we can get
gold and the finest fruit in the world from the
same ground. We are planting orchards there
of prunes, peathess tapples. pears and grapes
for eastern investors. and any OF the dirt
we dig out OF -the' holes where we plant the
trees will show color when it is 'panned'
"Climate. did Won say? Now, l know
Idaho is looked upon rather severely from
climatic standpoint, but in many of our val
peanuts. In fact. James Jay Smith, an
enthusiastic Idaho man, showed me in his
office in Chicago the other day magnid-
cent collection Apf semi-tropical products
raised In Idahc ttlis year" Idaho as a
state is destinedi t0r be close neighbor of
Omaha Two gyeat arunk lines of road from
Omaha cross EheS Nate and tap its great
mining and aeHaittural sections and the
big wholesale GTIns of this city sell hun
dreds OF thouSands Of dollars worth OF
merchandise yearly to our merchants.
"The opening Of the Nez Perces reserya-
tion only leaves ens more big Indian reserva-
tion in Idaho. that adjacent to Pocatello and
1t Will soon be opened up. The Indian has
about disappeared in Idaho and where he
once roamed are now the big cattle ranches
and fruit farms OF the prosperous settlers.
Why, Idaho marketed 100000 pounds Of
wool this year and cattle by the countless
thousands pasture out all winter In the val
leys. There are great irrigation enterprises
in which are invested millions One Of these
irrigation canals. the Boise and Nampa, is
22O miles long, including its branches, and 1t
is said TO be the finest and most profitable
canal in the United States Hunting, we'll
should say so. Deer, bear and elk are the
principal game. few days ago man came
down to Nampa and Just begged Colonel
Stearns, a noted hunter Of that region, to
come up and kill eighteen black bears that
had moved down in solid phalanx on his
sheep ranch. Colonel Stearns, who is now
the mayor of Nampa. and brother-in-law of
the late Carter Harrison Of Chicago, was or
ganizing an expedition when l left there to
tackle the bears.
Lots OF your Nebraska people remember