The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-01-23

ed upon a new year with as much
real, substantial progress in
sight as on this particular first
day of A. D. 1900. For some
some time past it has been easy
to read on the fnger-board OF
Progress the legend g@3"To
Custer County in 1900 ~
While old Custer has managed
to retain the good name she &C
quired years ago as a county rich
in mineral, agricultural, grazing
and horticultural lands and pro-
fuse in river courses and living
streams of water and vastforests
of pine, at the same time she has
experienced seasons of depres-
sion, time of dependency, and
off and reverses through a period
of years-more especially since
the knockout" on her silver in
dustry. But she has kept plod-
ding along in an economical way,
stood off the wolf at the door,
kept her credit good, and ever
sanguine that her day of pros
perity would yet come in the
natural curse of events. Less
fortunate than most of the coun-
ties of the State she has never
enjoyed any of the benefits and
privileges that accrue through
railroad taxes and cheap trans
portation. While some of her
neighbor counties have for years
past received into their treasur-
les from twenty to fifty thousand
dollars annually from railroad
taxes alone, Custer has had to
be content with a straight levy
on her own personal assets and
internal resources for expense
revenue only. Her people have
struggled m%anfully on under
heavy taxation and made both
ends meet with Spartan heroism,
ever confident that the reward of
labor and perseverance would
ultimately.
The prospects now are favor
able that we will have q railroad
lengthwise of our county at a no
very distant day; that the Idaho
Midland will be in course of con-
s~truction by the coming spring
is almost a settled fact, and the
rapidity with which railroads are
built these days guarantees that
once the work begins it will be
but a very brief time till we hear
the whistle and see the horse.
The western railroads are all
paying dividends now and the
main lines are everywhere reach
ing out their arms to gather in
new territories. The whole West
is forging ahead at a rate that is
amazing. The developments in
our possessions to the Northwest
are giving o strong pull to all
the different branches of bust
ness. 1t used to be a saying:
That our Star of Empire set in
the Pacific Sea at SanFrancisco;
but now Seattle and SanFran-
cisco + only principal starting
points, and the Aurora Borealis
is formed to a reflection of the
gold beaches of our own Polar
Sea, while our Queen of Com
MERGE stands upon the threshold
of China's "open door" Verify,
our great Eagley Bird is immense
from tip to tip.
Good luck, like bad, goes by
doubles. While We have every
reason to believe that the Idaho
Midland will come u way, at
the same time the birds sing that
the j. w. Mackey Copper Co., of
Lost river, is seriously contemp-
lating the construction of q rail
way from Blackfoot to Houston,
and that will insure a branch to
Copper Basin.
But aside from the railroad
prospects there is a very percep-
tible change for the better com
ing over Custer county. The
farming, the stock-raising and
the mining interests are all on
the steady advance and upward
tendency. Fortunately, the min
ing industry is being gradually
more evenly distributed through
out the county. The copper
smelter at Houston and the new
copper plant being erected at
Copper Basin further up in the
Lost river country, places that
end of the county on more of an
equality with the central and
western portions so far as min
ing developments are concerned.
With increased mining comes in
creased prosperity in the indus
trial lines of agriculture and cat
tie and sheep breeding.
There is also a prospect of a
gold quartz mill being put in
next summer on the Rapp & Co.
prOuD of mines at Gton1ov -