The Mena weekly star., 1897-08-18
FRon MENA TO MOUNT MENA.
Extracts of Correspondence in the
 Carthage (r1o.) Press.

when at Carthage, been asked why 1 did not write something for the Press about this rough, new country. where 1 now make my home, and have con- cluded, with your permission, to let those who were wont to read my writ ings in the past hear from me once again.
 The new railroad through this sec tion of country, popuiarly known as the Port Arthur Route, is rapidly talk ing rank as one of the best railway properties in the United States and that it has opened up new empire in Western Arkansas and Eastern Texas is now an undisputed fact
 Much of this territory, less than 400 miles south from Kansus City. has laid here almost in state of nature since first formed. never having heard the shrill whistle of d locomotive, or the rumbling of heavily laden trains conveying thous- ands of car loads of the country's products through, and out of it, to the markets of the world Now great changes are being wrought. A coun- try heretofore sparcely settled, only the best lands in the fertile valleys being cultivated and these in very crude manner, is now being developed to sustain an hundred fold greater pop ulation and to produce a greater proportion of wealth.
 Mena, as the midway division point between Kansas City and Port Arthur, has been pretty well advertised, so will merely say at-this time, that, though but one year old, it has fully | 5000 people, with business indicating many more, owing to the fact that a country thirty and forty miles in ex- tent in all directions is tributary to it; the people coming here to trade, this being their nearest railroad town and best trading point
 As indicated by the heading attached to this communication. l desire to say as much of Mount Mena as of Mena. This has heretofore been known as Rich Mountain, probably owing to the fact that upon its summit at an alti- tude of 27O0 to 2S00 feet above the level of the sea was to be found the richest land known in all the west
 Here are also numerous never-fail- ing springs some of pure, soft water and others strongly impregnated with iron and sulphur-all being considered as excellent for the cure of many diseases, both by the farmers on the mountain and those who have been accustomed to come here during the summer months for health and pleas ure
 Although owning many choice tracts upon the mountain the Missouri, Kan sas X Texas Trust Co, an organization closely allied with the K C. P. x c. railway, Mir A. E. Stilwell being the president and leading spirit of both organizations, recently purchased a choice trace of 320 acres near the east efn enO or tue HlOunCdln, dlSO @@O acre tract little farther west, and changed the name to Mount Mena, connecting it with and making the summer resort now being esta ablished here, so far as possible, a Mena insti- tuition. Being much interested Tn this project and having secured five room farm house on the mountain for the summer, I, a few days ago, mounted my horse to ride across the country, leaving my family to follow by rail to from Mena and two and a half from the new resort on the mountain. The wagon road leads through the forests, over the hills and through the valleys. crossing pretty mountain streams, the clear rapid running water having a blue tint not unlike the washerwo- mans rinse water when prepared for use or what would sound more poetic, with tint as blue as the sky.
 Occasionally I would come upon farm with houses and cleared fields nesting in the timber. the growing corn and cotton giving promise of big crops but what struck my eye as the most promising was the orchards. heavily laden with as nice apples and paaehaS as | ever saw shOwinU that