Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-08-29
Il. COOK IN NEIHART
Writes an Interesting Letter From
Silver Belt of Montana.
TOWN is BUILT IN NARROW GULCH
Is HustIine Little Place If 1t Has
Not Much Room for Expansion-Mr.
Cook Sees Some Good Crops in His
Travels,

Not Much Room for Expansion--Mr.
Cook Sees Some Good Crops in His
Travels.
HI. c.. Cook. is still doing Montana,
for the Anaconda Standard, and while
he was resting short time at Niehart
the other. day, he took time to write a
few lines to the Courier. In his letter
he says:
Neihart, Mont, Aug. 81, 1901.
This is the silver belt of Montana,
and some of the largest mines in this
part of the country are located here.
The town is built in a narrow gulch,
not over quarter of a mile wide, and
large mountains on every side rise to
a couple of thousand feet. The great
est of these is "Neihart Badly" This
old mountain is entirely bare of every
thing except loose slide rock, which
frequently roll down onto main
street" Prior to 1898 Neihart was a
booming silver center, but at present
it is on the wane, Notwithstanding that
the Diamond Railroad company" has
within the past year erected a large
mill here and are taking out immense
quantities of ore.
Built in Mountains.
The mill is built on the mountain
side and slopes up the hill, and is from
one story to 165 feet high. The top
floor is over 200 feet higher than the
level of the street. They run day and
night. and when the mill is lit up it
presents a nice picture on the noun
tain side.
Many Stores.
Neihart has number of good
stores, bank and plenty of saloons
the later is found in every town, ham
let and even cross roads in the state
In fact towns out here don't boom I'M
til there is a number of saloons. At
Kendall, new mine in the gold belt,
there are fifteen houses and in seven of
these are saloons. Montana people
may go hungry, but dry, never.
Great Service.
We are on the Great ~ Northern
railroad and have a a train here every
other day. / arrived Monday and am
sidetracked until Thursday morning,
so you see newspaper circulation don't
circulate very rapidly in some parts of
Montana. If the Courier had such
kick registered at once The Ana
conda Standard is a paper of national
reputation and is as large as any Chi
cago paper, but it is handicapped by
mail facilities. Montana is very
sparsely settled, in fact you can travel
for miles and not see a house All
that is needed here is population, but
] am afraid it will be long time be-
fore the state is settled very much.
Big Corporations.
Large companies and corporations
are settling the farming and grazing
lands, also all the water rights and the
small ranchmen will not be in it after
a while. The people here are begin
ming to realize this fact and the press
all over the state is agitating change
in the laws, so that it will not be pos.
sible for these land sharks to get ev-
erything that is good. This is GER
tainly a wonderful state and in time
will be one of the most important in
the Union. The soil is good and pro-
duces everything.
Fine Crops.
I drove 400 miles through the inter-
rior, besides a trip to the Dakota line.
and must say that never saw in Iowa
or Illinois such oats, wheat, grass and
alfalfa crops. In some fields it looked
as though there not be room to shock
the oats, while in one field I counted
fifty-one large hay stacks and another
crop of alfalfa ready to cut. On my
way from Lewistown in the stage l
saw thousands of cattle, sheep and
horses grazing on the range. was
shown one ranch of $4,000 acres, part
ly fenced, that would be good sized
farm in Iowa.
In Great Falls.
passed Sunday in Great Falls. It
is fine little city of about $4,000 peo-
pie. They have splendid waterworks,
electric light plant, electric cars, street
paving, good schools and churches,
and in fact it is an up-to-date city. A
large copper smelter is located here,
also car shops, foundry and every
branch of industry. Some of the bust.
ness buildings are handsome and
eclipse any in Ottumwa. There is
one seven story store block. and nu.
merous three and four story buildings.
The residence part of the city is fine,
every lawn is kept neat. while the
streets are boulevarded with a row of
shade trees on each side of the walk.
A Great State.
Montana is all right, but I would
like to walk into the Courier office just
to see Billy" Fields smoke cigarette
and tell how he and got out the cleo
tion edition and shake with all the
boys there. Travelling here is differ.
ent from similar work in Iowa, here it
is rough and tumble in cars, stage
coaches, while in Iowa we have chair
cars. Yours, H. G. Cook
IOWA REPUBLICANS ACTIVE.