The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-08-02
LEIGH LAKE.
Prof. Cox Gives an Interesting Ac-
count of His Recent Visit in
that Vicinity.

count of His Recent Visit in
that Vicinity.
To most Minnesotans living in the
southern part of the state, surrounded
by all the comforts of civilization, it
does not often occur that within the
borders of our own state there are yet
vast tracts of territory which are sell
dom trodden by white men, being left
to wild beasts and the Indians.
], have just returned from Leech
Lake, where / have had charge of
party which was collecting specimens
for the natural history survey of the
University of Minnesota, and one
months outing in that region has
given me good idea of the country.
Leech Lake lies about 40 miles north
west of Brainerd and has total eX-
panse of water of more than 160 square
miles, not including any of the small
closely connected lakes. 1t lies in the
region of valuable pine timber, has
fine rocky shore in part and in many
places gradually sloping sandy beach
es. Other parts of the shore are
grown up with rushes, wild rice and
grass, thus affording excellent breed
ing and feeding places for the prolific
fish life existing in the lake. All the
timber not included in the Indian re-
servation is controlled by the Mime
sofa Logging Co. and was obtained by
the "pine deal' so familiar to all.
The coming winter this logging COM
pany will begin to remove the timber
and logging railroad is being built
at the present time by which the logs
will be shipped to Brainerd and either
sawed there or dumped in the Missi-
sippi river and floated to Minneapolis.
Until recently very few white men
lived in about Leech Lake. The
greater part of it, being included in
the Chippewa Indian reservation, is
reserved exclusively for the Indians
and the portion that is not included
is land on which no man can make a
living by farming. The soil is all
drift gravel and will produce nothing.
Occasionally there is ravine or valley
into which the decayed vegetation has
washed for many years that might be
cultivated for short time after it is
cleared of its underbrush and timber,
and on such places still open to settle
ment the cruisers are locating few
foreigners. A few men called cruis-
ers, men who are surveyors, are con-
tinually traversing the woods in search
of government claims that are still
open to settlement. They first find
the claim and then seek man from
whom they can get $50 or 500 for
locating him. One cruiser told me
that he had already eighty claims
which were open to settlement and he
expected to have no difficulty in get
ting men to take them as soon as the
summer work was over and the men
had their money. Notwithstanding
this, these claims are mostly far apart
and at best they are poor. Some of
them have little timber and this
may pay for settling on them, but
after the timber is gone there will be
nothing worth remaining for. These
statements are true, not only of the
region around Leech Lake, but of the
entire northern part of Minnesota, eX-
cept the extreme western portion
along the Red River. Frosts are fire.
quent throughout the late spring and
early fall so that crop is never sure
even if the soil would support it. L
noticed where frost had killed a small
piece of corn the 10Th of June this
year.
1t is poor country, however, that
is not good for something and so it is
with this region in Minnesota. Be-
sides the valuable pine timber there
is an abundance of game and fish.
Our party went from Minneapolis to
Park Rapids and from there had our
boat, all our provisions for month
and collecting outfit taken by wagon
to the southern part of the west arm
of the lake. The distance is forty
miles and the road, if it may be called
such, was not suited for century rid
ers. 1t was up one hill and down an
other, over logs, stumps stones, thro'
marshes filled with water, alongside
sloping hills and through dense under
brush. The trip took from early
morning until late in the evening and
at only one place on the road were
there any settlers and here only two
small cabins. Our boat and outfit
had been so neatly packed and
tied by our driver that they were
but little injured when we reached
the lake. Our business was in the
main to make investigations regard
ing the fishes of the lake, so we fshed
with seines on nearly every sand shore
shore in the west arm as we'll as in
several of the small lakes Immediate
ly connected with the main lake, also