The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1903-11-11
THROUGH THE WILD WEST.
H. M. Olson Writes of His Trip to the
Pacific Coast.

| IdSIllS OUdSt.
The school year has again opened
and from the kindergarten to the
graduate department of the univer-
sity there is an army of students
and instructors more powerful than
all the armies and navies of the
globe. TO few of us who are eth
er unable to be back, or have been
graduated, the old country school
house or college, seems even more
inviting than ever and occasions a
feeling of regret each time we pass
it, that school days are ended At
the same time it is a consolation to
those of us who love our studies,
that though we may no longer have
occasion to study within the four
walls of the old school room our
school days have not yet ended in
the true sense, but on the contrary
the school has prepared us for and
opened for US the great school of
| life. And as we reflect we cannot
but feel gratefully indebted toward
parents for their unending sacrifices
and for the inspiration and encour-
agement Of our teachers, and the
man who has the district school
more at heart than anyone else, our
own Supt. S. J. Race.
But it is not until ehave battled
with many hard problem in the
school of experience that we can
really be said to be educated. For
education as such, however advanc-
ed, is at best only theoretic, and I'M
til put into actual practice it's bene
| fits cannot be half realized. Nor is
it to be understood that theoretic
education is not of value; on the
contrary, it is Invaluable, for with
knowledge of the theory the prac-
tical part becomes very simple and
efficiency is easily attained.
The ways of study outside a
school are many and various, and
travel among the best. Perhaps
one of the most profitable months OF
my school days was one spent in a
trip to the Pacific coast last spring.
It was the last week of school at the
state university. We were all bat
Ting with our final examinations,
and those of us who thought the or
acles would be propitious were pre-
pairing for graduation; while those
who had received one of those i'll |
omened yellow slips from the regis
trar were bewailing their miserable
existence. In the midst Of this sus-
pense telegram from Prof. Chas.
E. nBarneveld of the mining en-
cheering college of the state uni
versity, who was then at Butte,
with the junior class of the mining
college, instructed me to leave for
Butte and Seattle on the Northern
Pacific railroad on May 9th. On
the following day a letter arrived
urging me to take trip with him
to Vancouver Island that should
not stay to see myself graduate but
that Providence would take care of
that in my absence. This was a
rare opportunity to see the great
west in the company of a man who
had spent years there.
With map, a railroad guide, an
observant eye, and an inquisitive
mind the traveller can learn much.
That part of Minnesota along the
Northern Pacific from Minneapolis
to Clay county, east of Moorhead, is
not what the Redwood county farm
err would call good land. The soil
is usually sandy, often with gravel
subsoil; in places marshy or broken
by sloughs and scattered patches of
brush and poplar. Large tracts
near central Minnesota are burned
over timber lands. This was the
most dismal looking land on the
whole Journey. AS we entered the
beautiful Red River valley east of
Moorhead the scenes changed, and