St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-17
S00NERS BY SCORES
ARE ALREADY GATHERING ON THE
BORDER OF THE RED LAKE
RESERVATION.
PROMISE OF A BIG RUSH
WHEN THE TRACT IS OPENED FOR
SETTLEMENT ON
MAY I.
"a
LANDS ExCELLED BY NONE.
Thosv Earf;Iify and Do.o 81
PROMISE OF A BIG Rush
LANDS ExcELLED BY NONE
Their Fertility and Resources Set
Forth by Circular From
FOsstOn.

Special to the Globe.
FOSSTON, Mimi, Feb 1e-The OPEN
Ing Of the Red Lake reservation on
May 1, 1896, has begun to bring it's
"sooners.' A few have already
reached here; the inquiries concernig
the land, ETC., are coming thick; a
commercial club was recently organ
lied here, and they are about to issue
circular letter, of which the following
Is, in general effect, a COPY:
When the Thirteen Towns. now mart of
Polk county, were first opened to homestead
settlement in 1888, it was thought that the
last really beautiful considerable tract of
government land in the state had been mt
upon the market, at least until such time
as the remnant of the White Earth reserva
ton should be heard from. But at that
time the Red Lake reservation was an un-
surveyed and almost unexplored country
even the pine land cruisers having skirted its
edges. but not invaded it's interior. Now
however after two different sets OF govern
ment cruisers and estimators, besides the
regular surveying crews, have tramped it
from end to end and from side to side by
section lines and by forty-acre lines. it is
established that there is still to be opened
surpass, the Thirteen Towns in natural
beauty and in fertility of SOIL And in ten
years from now the same characteristics
that make the Thirteen Towns notable
Beltrami county, the principal one being the
number of settlers per square mile for
there being no railroad lands to be extract
ed from the general mass, every quarter"
will possess its settler, If not its actual
family. AS nearly as can be ascertained at
the present time there are lands in about
fifty towns to be opened to settlement al
though not all the lands in such towns will
be put upon the market. But in some
thirty or forty towns practically everything
has been rated as AGRICULTURAL by the de-
partment, and all such will be subject to
homestead entry, except sections is and SO.
So that it is fair to make the estimate that,
aside from the pine lands of the reservation
there will be at least thirty-six full town
ships of agricultural lands settled upon, or
about 1000 quarters" AS under the terms
Of the treaty with the Indians the pine land
tracts must be sold at public auction that
procedure will divide many quarters" into
smaller tracts for homestead entry, so that,
while there may be some tracts in the purely
agricultural towns unfit for farming pur-
poses, the general summing up will amount
to about 1000 actual settlers added to the
population Of Northern Minnesota. Many of
them will, of course, have families, and even
two years would make a surprising change
in the surface, as well as the social life,
of the country.
Fosston has the best portion of the reser-
walton territory within its reach, and is
Immediately adjacent to large body OF
fine farming lands that are diversified q
character. One must travel but few miles
eastward from Fosston in a direct line be-
fore reaching the boundaries of the west
side of the reservation. Here he will find
himself in the midst Of popple brush, low
ridges covered with light timber of all kinds
here and there meadows set down between
the low ridges, occasional dots of pine trees
and once In while will cross stretch OF
wild country with sandy topsoil and clay
underpinning. After passing through this
one will at once discover that he is mis-
taken about the country, and that there are
fine prairie lands, with. adjacent meadows
the whole landscape being ornamented by
clumps of oak trees that stand out full and
bold with long trunks and bushy tops. max
ing good building and home sites. Here and
there a lake. small marsh or stream OF
water, showing that good water Is abun-
dant Along the south side Of the dimin-
ished reservation flows the Clearwater river,
a small logging stream. This is considered
the northern boundary of the lands to be
opened which car be reached from Foss-
ton. On approaching the lands to be OPP
whole reservation to be an endless hay mea-
dow, for in the summer season tall red top
and blue joint grasses stand up for an al
most endless Landscape. but the monotony is
occasionally broken by oak and popple
groves and small tamarack and cedar
swamps.
The pine timber to the south of Red LAKE
is in some places very heavy and handsome
and from appearances will afford fully thirt.
years Of numbering operations at the rate o
half a billion feet per year. There are. how
ever, portions of what are designated as pine
towns in which the hard woods predominant
and where the soil is very heavy; this being
more the in the townships to the south