The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-07-22
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|tticiaI Paper sf the Cltr and County
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NUKE AbOU1 RAINFALL
Figures wont lie for Pierre. but its
orgar's will. The Arlington Sun is
one OF Pierre's most persistent and In
genious workers along that line. Here
is a good illustration Of it:
What do you know about the rain
fall out on the reservation anyway:
P%eterson's atlas says that the rainfall
out there is about IL inches. How he
knows IL only Peterson and God can
tell. There are two government OBJ.
%ServatiOn stations in this state east of
the Black Hills. One of them is in
Beadle county, and the other at Pierre
in Hughes county. Peterson gives the
annual rainfall in Deadly county as 81
inches, and the rainfall in Hughes
county as 10 inches. Why does Peter
son credit Beadle county with five
more inches than he does Hughes?
Maybe Peterson knows. And then, in
the same atlas, we find on the reServa-
tion it is about u inches. There isn't
an observation station on the whole
reservation. There never has been
one. We know that out in the Black
Hills the rainfall is create. than in
either Beadle county or Hughes. but
Mn the country between we know abso-
iutely nothing. Peterson has had no
stations out there, and his figures
! must necessarily be pure guess work.
We say this not In any way to belittle
his atlas, but IN all fairness. There
must in every work of this kind be
some weak points, and this seems to
be one of them. Pierre, according to
actual statistics. has as great a rain
fall as Huron. l2O miles east, and yet,
sixty miles west from Pierre he sur
misses that the rainfall is nine inches
less.
! Stockmen and others who have been
roaming over the great Sioux reserya-
ton for nearly thirty years and tum-
bled to the fact that it requires about
forty acres to pasture a steer wont
agree with the Sun: that God and
Peterson alone" know what the rain
fall is.
The Sun is also woefully ignorant
when it states that there are only
two government observation stations
in this state east of the Black Hills.
There are siXty-six of them, and from
at least fifty monthly reports are re-
ceiyed by s. w. Glenn, section direc.
| tor at Huron.
The Sun is also mistaken about
there not being an observation station
on the reservation. There are several
Though the reports are not regular
but enough are at hand to enable
even the ordinary individual but
casually interested to arrive at the
same conclusions as brought out by
Peterson's atlas compiled from official
statistics. There is a station at Cher.
~ Creek, on the Cheyenne river, sixty
miles west of Pierre, for one, and here
is the rainfall records from it since
they have been kept:
1896..........l3.56 1900. 1875
1897. ........ 1925 1901. ..l4.6A
1898. 1910 1907. 1875
1895. Average l4.l(
We could give the records at other
points west OF the river in full If nee.
essary. Suffice to say that SO far as
they have been kept, the average al
Grand River, thirty miles west OF the
Missouri on the Cheyenne reservation,
IS 1929 inches; at Interior, on the
western edge of Stanley county, 1912
while at Hotch City-whlch is twenty
five miles EAST Of Pierre-the v
age for the past ten years is 1874;
inches.
Peterson does not give the annual
rainfall in Beadle county at 81 inches
and in Hughes county at Is inches.
The Sun is deliberately mistaking it.
Peterson gives Hughes l6 inches,
which is the average for the coun.
ty as a whole-not at Pierre alone
where one or two cloud-bursts in
August of last year and the year be-
fore lifted the yearly precipitation
above the normal. The average for
Huron for the past twenty years is2o.63
inches. The average for Pierre for
the past thirteen years 1.-THE number OF
years the records have been kepu) is
1852 inches. The Pierre figures are
furnished by G. Fl. Hogan, U. S.
weather observer at Pierre who
ought to know. twill thus be seer
that the official figures from the
weather stations at Pierre and Huron
show a difference of AIS inches, max
ing Peterson's difference Of five inches
between the counties of Beadle and
Hughes approximately correct.
AS said, the rainfall at Pierre in
August of 1902 and August Of 1908 was
more than double the normal for the
month, being 4.82 inches in 1902 and
3.98 in 1908. while the average for the
month for the eleven years previous
was but 1.45 inches. This of course:
lifted the annual average for the past
twoor three years above tile normal.
on the strength Of which Pierre is