Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-05-26
Lyman and Stanley
Counties Fast BecOm.
ing Farming Com
munities.
new RAILROADS PLANNED.
Believed Northwestern and Mil.
waukee Will Extend Their
Lines to the West of the
Missouri Soon.
This Excellent Article Was
Taken From Last Weeks
Weekly Mitchell Capital.


With a constant stream of settlers
pouring into Lyman and Stanley
counties and promises of railroad extern
sions, the country west of the "Big
Muddy is rapidly being converted
from a cattle country to a farming dis
trict. OF course the stockmen have put
up a strenuous fight to keep the land
for grazing places only, and have used
every argument to keep settlers from
breaking ground, and until recently
have succeeded in checking the sporadic
~invasions of farmers from the east.
They claimed and with justice too, that
the land was fit only for grazing pur-
poses and that attempts at farming
would result only in failure of crops
and then the soil once broken was
ruined for grazing, for the nutritious
''buffalo" grass upon which the cattle
thrive will not grow again after the
prairie has been once broken. How
ever, conditions are changed. 1t has
been proved that crops can be raised
west of the river and the irresistible
flood of settlers into the country has
forced the cattle men westward.
Today one can drive from Oacoma to
Presho along the stage road and never
lose sight of a barbed wire fence; in
fact on both sides of the road there is
an almost unbroken line of fence. The
green, gently undulating prairie is peck
marked with claim shanties and black
acres of ploughed land. There is hardly
a quarter not filed upon and there are
few sections on which some breaking
has not been done.
And still they come. The ferries,
both at Pierre and Chamberlain are
crowded each trip with the great farm
wagons loaded with the household goods
of the homesteaders.
The wagons bear the names of dealers
from all parts of Iowa and Nebraska
and the goods of the homesteaders bear
the names of dealers from Nebraska and
Iowa. The white canvassed top prairie
schooner is frequently in evidence. AT
Fort Pierre each morning n may see
an unbroken string of wagons filing
across the Bad river bridge. 1t will not
be long ere Pierre is the center of pop
ulation as well as the geographical Gen.
ter of the state.
That the Northwestern and possibly
the Milwaukee will build extensions
into the new country nearly every one
is confident. In fact the Northwestern
is at present making a survey between
Bonesteel and Pierre. The surveyors
were at work g Earling last week.
The road will probably run from Bone.
steel across one corner of the Rosebud
reservation, crossing the White river
near Edna. From the White river
north to the Medicine Greek valley,
then west through the valley, then
north to Pierre.
Some of the homesteaders who have
not remained on their claims all of the
time have had trouble finding their
shanties, as the theft of u~noccupied
claim shacks has not been uncommon.
One man who was recently indicted al
Chamberlain had stolen seven or eight
of them and was building for himself
from the stolen material a commodious
residence. Sometimes the cowboys in
a spirit of mischief move a mans shack
to a distant location, thereby causing
the owner some grief. In one case they
had moved an apparently vacant shack
a long distance when the owner who
had been asleep within. awoke and dis
covering how matters stood, or rather
moved, suddenly appeared before the
amazed cowboys and gave them tC
understand that he objected to being
moved. When he cooled off somewhat
the boys ~apologized for having disturbed
him and confessed that like the gang
who had to square themselves with the
wife of the man they had just lynched
by mistake, that the joke was OF them
The buffalo herd at Fort Pierre has
proved a great attraction for the home
steaders who pass through there.
Nearly everyone who visits the place
takes the six mile drive to the ranch
north of the town to look upon the
largest herd of American bison now in
existence. Another feature Of interest
at Fort Pierre is the huge buffalo bull
killed during the governors hunt last
winter and now on exhibition at the
Elk Horn. 1t is claimed that this is the
largest n ever killed. He stands
seven feet high at the shoulder and
weighed 1850 pounds. These are
strange sights to the people from Iowa
and Nebraska, and Mr.. Kemp, the sou
venir dealer at Pierre, does a rushing
business in photos of the herd.