Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-10-15
GREAT Change IN WEST.
Great Change Noticeable in the Con
ditions of Western North Dakota
Since Early Days.
Early Visitor Who Was in the State
With Pioneer Army Remarks
|.@ =. the Changes.

marched from Sioux City to North Da-
leo.a with Gen. Sully thought that this
region would never be inhabited by
white men; certainly not within per-
iod of thirty years, says the James
town Alert. At that time there were
only the buffalo. wild fowl wild ami
mails and wild Indians, with an occa-
siinal trapper and hunter of the white
race living along the streams, silent,
unprogressive, and generally opposed
to the settlement of the whites. One
of the early day soldiers, J. D. Harker,
OF rappen, who came to what is now
this state, in 1864, was then a young
man, fond of adventure. He wanted
to see the country and get a taste of
life in the far west. He Joined the
United States army and was partici-
pant in several OF the fights with the
Indians, getting the opportunity OF
seeing the actual life of the prairie
aborigines, and the actual condition
of the country as it existed at that
time. and which had, no doubt existed
in the same condition for many cen
turtles before. The soldiers thought
that it would be impossible to ever kill
off the buffalo, so numerous we're they
on the prairies Immense herds would
be seen, never out of sight for days
at time. The Indian always had his
at hand; and at times the buffalo were
SO thick that it was necessary for the
soldiers to form a line behind the camp
wagons to divide the travelling herds
CT buffalo and keep from being run
over and trampled to death.
The prairie grass was then much
thinner than now and the great cracks
in the ground. due to drouth and heat,
were SO wide that several times dead
soldiers were buried in them, being
made wide enough by a little; excava-
tion. This was done in Dickey
county, and elsewhere. and the report
of Gen. Hazen, made later, that this
country was nothing but a desert was
no doubt true as he saw it. The water
of the lakes or ponds was then nearly
all alkali, much stronger than now,
and there were more ponds in the
spring. The soldiers got accustomed
to drinking coffee made from the al
kali water that when boiled looked
more like cream than coffee.
The Indians had for centuries
burned off the grass, which scared the
top of the SOIL making the surface
hard and tough and shedding the rain
fall into the lakes and coolies instead
of allowing it to soak into the ground
and preserve the moisture for another
season.. as at present. The SHOWS of
winter also drifted readily from the
blackened and bare surface of the
country into ravines, and accumulated
in spots on the face, OF the country
ir stead of spreading out in sheet
and melting slowly in the spring.
soaking into the ground, as is now
done over the grass covered and cul-
tivated surface The soldiers little
dreamed that in less than twenty-five
years the Indians would be gone, the
buffalo become extinct, the prairie
fires stopped, the grass allowed to
grow thick. the land cultivated and
the state of North Dakota become
erected from the desert into region
Of prosperous homes, growing towns
and cities, giving to its people the
greatest per capita of wealth of any
state in the union. But such has be-
come the fact. H. -.-
Another change that has become APP
parent is the modification of the ex-
tremes of heat and cold that once pre-
vailed in this region; and which same
change has occurred over the countr...
comprising the states to the south OF
this. The cultivation of the soil and
the preservation of moisture i'll the
changing the climate in this respect,
and there is no doubt that this state
will undergo the same transformation
in the matter of modification of ex-
tremes Of climate and the growth Of
crops that were once impossible to
raise. that have been seen in the sta ,es
Of Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska. kan>
sas, and Illinois. And there is no
reason to doubt that the same .fse in
the value Of lands will be seen are as
well as in the older settled and toager
| cultivated states. s
In the early days the greater sa".ce
OF value to the country was the grass.
It fed the buffalo by the million. and
should feed the domestic cattle in al