The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-07-16
WHY Nnr CnLoNIzE Ira
/ Correspondents of the REe1srER:

special correspondence OF the REGISTER
Northwestern Wyoming is a de
lighfful wilderness. 1t is practically
uninhabited The few squatters who
have located there hold infrequeni
and precariOus intercourse with the
outside world by few trails laid by
the buffalo originally and rescued
from Oblivion by their associates, the
deer and antelope. Roads are un-
known and railroads are not even a
prophecy. The region of which |
particularly speak has been known
as the Big Horn Basin ever since
Fremont, experimenting the explora-
tiOns of Lewis and Clarke in the
early days of the century, gazed
upon its beauties from the summit of
the Peak which bears his name, fifty
five years ago. 1t is bounded on the
east by the Big Horn range, the north
by Montana, west by the National
park and south by the ShOshOne Res
ervation. 1t is ia miles long east
and west and s104 miles wide from
north to south. Last January by an
act of the Wyoming legislature this
region was erected into Big Horn
county and Basin City, a section of
sage brush on the bank of the Big
Horn river in latitude 4430 and lOngi-
tndo 1OO mao naVoad nc tho oOY,ptr
seat. Six miles down the river is a
ranch and post Office, the only one
in all that country, and the old her
NIT who represents Uncle Sam in
that solitude remem bered the watch.
word for blood and glory in the land
of his nativity and named 1t Gala
NO." He is a character for the story
books and his recital of the chief
events in his life would fill roman
Ger with delight. He drove bulls and |
fought Indians from Texas to Cali |
fornia before his beard was CLOWN |
and returned in time to put in three
years following the Stars and Bars
and participate in that sublime but |
ill-starred charge at Gettysburg, led
by his cousin. After the war was
over, his longing for the wilderness
and he took the trail for the
sources of the Missouri river. He
herded with the savages and the
buffalo. His hume was where night
Ound him. Wounded in a scrap
with the Crows, he was nuEsed to
health by young squaw and would
nave married her but she was killed
n the Custer fight. He turned back
% the haunts Of the deer and mount
lin sheep where the morning shadow
If Cloud Peak falls on Ten-Sleep
Lakes and there built the first habita-
ion he ever owned. 1t is his home
today. He is old and grizzled and
white, but his gray-blue eye has the
fire of youth and his rifle has not for
gotten its cunning. He has bunch
Of cattle and hundred horses, more or
less, and lives alone in the solitude.
Once week the trail rider dashes up
to the door of his cabin, which is bet
Ter named fort, and sings down a
sack with half dozen letters for the
and trappers who will call
or them between now and when the
now flies and then whistling up a
fesh pony from the herd, changes
lis saddle and without so much as a
word is off again for the next office
fifty miles away. That is life today
n the Big Horn Basin.
All this will be changed presently.
Carly in August the Register and
receiver of the u. S. Land Office at
Suffalo, 100 miles to the east, will be
a Basin City and sell at public auc-
ion the lots in what is fondIy hoped
will be a metropolis. Who will be
here? Hundreds. of people. They
viii come from all parts of the coun-
nv, from Chicago to Puget Sound.
,ol. Pickett has even sent to his old
Ome in Texas for party, and Dem
er will have a contingent in Pull
IAN car to Clearmont and junket
Nth rod and gun from there the 40
niles into the heart of the wilderness.
What will make a metropolis
Ialf a million of creamy rich acres of
alley land upon which 1.-THE water of
fe is to be turned, "And a desert !
aptized, prove an Eden disguised" ,
The American people are land hum
ry. Never more so. The cities are
Ongested with idle labor. The land
} filled with trsmps. 1t is high time
D swarm. Fate is pointing the fin
er to fortunes in the northwest; in
he KoOtneadi country, where the
auper of yesterday is the prince of
Oday; in the Flat-Head Lake region
Montana; in the Big Horn Basin
Ountry of Wyoming. 1t is Old the
iUhUav tn tho NatioDaI parL- tho