Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1902-10-30

itself, and the carrying trade from the
ranges, the cattle farms aud the towns
along this line has increased largely.
All of the southern part Of the big
Sioux reservation of South Dakota is
tributary to this line, aud the Indians
have of late years come to be worth
considering as shippers of live stock.
White grazers who occupy the lands
south of the reservation aud north of
the Elkhorn line have used the pas
turage of the Indians, sometimes
through agreements ratified by the
government officials and sometimes
without any authority. The whole
country has been filled with grazing
cattle and the shipment of the fat
beeves has made the settlers rich aid
brought revenue to the railroads.
The Northwestern has prohted
largely by this. Not only does this
line come in for the trade of the south
of the reservation, but it is the sole
means of travel and transportation for
n wide, long strip of moderately we'll
settled country south of the Dakota
line and north of the lines of the Bur
lington and the Union Pacific, which
keep south, close to the Platte River
valley. 1t is not until distance of
nearly 300 miles from the Missouri
river is reached that the Burlington
breaks through the territory of the
Elkhorn with its Billings line into
Montana.
The trade of the rapidly developing
cattle country with the trade from tie
corn and wheat and general farming
lands east of it and the mining coun-
try west has begun to tax the Elkhorn
to its limit. Heavy steel rails have
just been put down along much of this
-Oad and promlnint official says
while he will not state positively that
the double track is to be laid next
spring, yet he does say the policy of
the company is to prepare for the
largest traffic to be handled in the
west.
| The Burlington, too, is looking over
the Black hills and adjacent country
with q view to extending branch lines.
} One reason why the lines passing
through the treeless country of Ne
braska, Dakota and Kansas desire &C.
cess to the Northwest is that the lum-
/. Der region of that section is likely to
I prove an important source OF supply
ia the future
The Northwestern and the Rock Is
land are both believed TO have some
definite plans by which they can get
favorable terms on the transportation
of the commodities between the prai-
ries and the mountains, from the for
ests to the plains ana from the farms
to the mining centers of the north.
west. The Black hills are on the road
between the cities of the lower Mis-.
souri, valley and the mines and forests
of the northwest. Through the passes
of those hills the future roads eppar.
emily must go, as the Burlington has
already gone.
While the lines specially interested
in the Northwest are beginning to still
themselves the Chicago Great West
cru, which has no line west of the
Missouri river, is credited with plans
for extending both through Omaha to
the Kansas, Oklahoma and southwest
country and through Sioux City to the
Black hills and the northwest. An ex
perienced railroad observer gives it as
his opinion that the four lines named
are standing in the attitude of watch.
ing each other and ready to begin com
petive building the moment a move il
made by either one