Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-11-27
TELLS OF TRIP
THROUGH WEST
Interesting Account by A. Decker
of the Development in the
New States.
SLOUGH HATS, FLOWING
MUSTACHES. REVOLVERS"
Not a Part Of Western Civiliza.
tiOn==Gradual determination
of Red Man.

The western frontier of which we
have been so accustomed to speak and
read is fast disappearing, but there is
still an upnorth. The sod house of
the homesteader the fiat roof dug-out
of t he white hunter and prospector
bear witness to the fact that the new
order of things has not been worked
altogether and that the wilderness is
not yet driven back all along the line.
Great Dakota Wheat Belt.
The Red river marks the beginning
of the great Dakota wheat belt where
the pioneer is asserting his mastery
over the prairie and exacting from it
the tribute of golden grain which
means sustenance for the hungry.
Out here all things center on wheat
and for good reasons. AS the millions
of the earth increase, the cry for
bread is rising higher all the while
and those that can answer it will be-
come rich. Early in the summer the
reaperS begin to sing their humming
song down in Oklahoma and the re-
frain rises in volume as it sweeps
across the yellow fields of Kansas.
| Nebraska, the two Dakotas and across
the borders into Manitoba and the
Northwest Territory. This song of
the reaper and the thresher is SWELL
ing its thunderous annual anthem
which is freighted with the greatest
haste to al! humanity.
| In the Red River Valley.
Speeding through the western por-
| tion of Minnesota, past pleasant farms
and forest fringed lakes, now the tim
Der gives way here and there to
patches of prairie The country is
still rolling aud somewhat uneven,
farm buildings become more numer-
Gus and soon the unevenDeSS in the
face of the country disappears. and we
know we are entering the Red river
valley. The grain fields show more
vivid green and now the horizon to
| the east is bounded by the Buffalo
river Far to the west a filmy blue
| fringe of timber marks the course of
i the Red river whose silent waters
move ever onward>to the mysterious
north. Far as the eye can see to the
| north and south stretches the level
| field and unbrOken view of growing
grain softly swaying to the impulse of
! the prairie breeze.
Power Of Modern Inventions.
The government keeps track of
every inch that this wheat grows each
| week and it knows with certainty the
condition of the bread basket of the
country. Th csc wheat fields are days
anu months away from British bake
shops. The price of wheat is, known
the world over, the telephone has
withered the space that separates
city aud town, counties and states.
Over plains above buffalo WallowS of
fifty years ago, farmers telephone
along barb wire circuits.
Deep sea cables and land wires hem
the buyer and seller of the world into
vortex cf competition whose
diameter is a minute and within whose
circumference is gathered all the pro-
ducts and all the purses of mankind.
| The locomotive has become the path
| finder of modern civilization. But
| fifty years ago the three Red river
valley members of the Minnesota
I territorial legislature came down from
Pembine to the capital at ST. Paul in
| a dog sledge, making the trip of three
hundred miles in sixteen days. AS
late as 1862, on the very day that the
! first locomotive whistle was heard in
ST. Paul, AIRED river caravan of forty
OK carts. loaded with SIS, 900 worth of,
furs. Indian moccasins and dried
buffalo tongue from Pembine, arrived
| at ST. Paul.
The Great Northern railroad today
brings into the twin cities from the
Red river country and beyond, five
passenger trainssdaily and 100, 900 cars
of freight per annum.
Vastness OF the Wheat Fields.
The man or woman who has never
seen a wheat field containing more
than d few hundred acres will look
with establishment upon the fields
here which extend both north and
south farther than the eye can see.
The train goes rushing along at fifty
miles an hour and yet there seems to
be no end to he vast grain fields that
meet the vision.
West Of he Red river valley comes
4 a rolling country known as the Coteau
Ecourtfy This extends to the Missouri
river, and its chief cities are Valley
ICity, jamestown aud Bismark
Missouri River from Different Points.
The traveller over the Northern
Pacific railroad sees the Missouri river
under Two greatly dissimila condi-
tiens. AT Bismark. n. d., it is
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