Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-05-16
THE BLACK HILLS.
By R. F. Cable.


agement of the Chicago & Northwestern
Railway Company of the Fremont. Elk
horn & Missouri Valley Railway marks
a notable event for that coming health
and Industrial resort of the Middle
West, and Black Hills.
[ have just returned from a visit to
the new lands of the Manitoba, Assini-
5oia and Saskatchewan country in the
Canadian Northwest. 1t is not true that
SO, 900 American farmers have moved 10
these lands during the last year, but
from investigation | would say that
some 10000 have crossed the line to
enter on these lands and 1000 or 8, 900
more have visited them and made pur-
chases which they may occupy later.
The investors to a large extent come
from Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Illi-
nois, Wisconsin aud Indiana They
have deliberately passed by numerous
rich tracts of American land for acres
in a foreign country-a country in
which they must eventually become
the subjects of monarch, if they wish
to remain and engage in political as
well as agricultural pursuits. They
have chosen a climate which [ think
can be surpassed in innumerable sparse
ly settled regions of this country.
They have to a large extent isolated
themselves from native land and friends
They have gone where transportation
facilities are almost unknown, and they
have large and profitable nearby mar
kets yet to create.
| cite these points because | cannot
understand why Oklahoma. the Indian
Territory, certain valleys of New Mex
leo, certain parts of Colorado, the Big
Horn country of Wyoming, and the
Black Hills should have been pass ed
over. particularly mention the Black
Hills because of the important connect
ion of that section now with the Great
Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard by a
trunk line, and for the further fact that
they offer to the small farmer, the hon
est investor in mines, the cattleman,
and the tourist, opportunities for
pleasure and profit near to home.
It was June, 1874 that Lieutenant
Colonel George A. Custer, with various
companies of the Seventh Cavalry, the
Twentieth Infantry and the Seventeenth
Infantry, was instructed to reconnOiter
a route from Fort Abraham Lincoln to
Bare Butte, in the Black Hills, and
southeast and southwest of that point.
1t was the desire of the government to
obtain al the information possible as to
the character of the Hills, then occu-
pied by the Sioux. The expedition was
successful in all its purposes. 1t brought
back to Fort Abraham Lincoln the def
mite information that the Hills con-
tanned silver and gold, fine grasses,
timber, excellent water, and were suit
able for occupation by white settlers if
the Indians could be induced to relin-
quish their rights.
Out of this expedition grew the
frightfu. tragedy which ended ir June,
1876, in the massacre of General Custer
and the better part of his command on
the Rosebud, in Montana, but if Custer
and his troopers gave their lives for
the government that bitter June day,
the sacrifice passed beyond this in that
it definitely settled the giving of the
Black Hills to the industrial world. The
S oux returned no more to the happy
hunting grounds on the Big Cheyenne
or the Bellefourche and the white men
took possession of region which has
since become the third greatest gold
producing district on this continent.
But aside from their record as being
a district for the most profitable kind
of gold production, | was particularly
interested in passing through the Hills
to note their new industrial life and
it's growing re atoms with the rich and
almost undeveloped country of south
eastern Montana and nOrthe astern
Wyoming. Isolated as the Hills were
in early history from communication
with parts of the nation, they have
since commanded railway facilities
that give them close touch with Oma-
ha. Denver, Sioux City and beyond to
Chicago, the Great Lakes and the
eastern coast. THE Oaks, Chicago. III.
(CoJ timed next Waek \