The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-06-30

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thence over Crane Lake by steamer and
over Rainy lake with another steamer
| The Canadian route is more comfort
able and takes less time and the price
| is about the same. Then you take a
| steamer at Duluth and 90 to Port Ar
thur and get on the Canadian Northern
The fourth one, which is the most used.
is to go to Winnipeg to take the Cana :
dian Northern there
'Ihe people of northern Itasca have
been and are still looking for a rail
road built on Uncle SAINTS soil. The Min
nesota and Interna tional railroad is
grading between North Home and Rip
pie. This company intends to carry
freight to Ripple in July Ripple is To-
Gated on big falls on Big Fork river. The
waterfall is about thirty-two feet high.
This railroad will reach International
Falls some day. International Falls is
located on the Rainy river at the Koo-
chiching Falls, just across the river from
Fort Frances. international Falls used
to have the easily distinguished name,
koochiching. They made great mis-
take lately and changed, it to Intefna
tional Falls. The Duluth and Virginia
railroad is building towards this place.
"The work of the dam on the Kooch-
chin$ Fails was Started on sthe gf6tinas.
April ll22. 1861 TT will likely take
many human lives before the work is
finished. 1t will take one million dollars
to, do this work. It, will harness the
thirty thousand horse. power. which has
been sgoing to Waste all these years. 1t
will also destroy ;othe pretty natural
scenery. Never again will the waters
dance and play over the rocks. which
have taken so much wear with little
effect. G.iv.see ~ rs,f a,.
anyone can get. a good photograph
of koochiching Falls by sending fifty
cents to j. X. Erickson International
Falls, MINI. Send at once and get a
natural one.
at does not look reasonable that all
this work will be done without rail
road that can carry i'll the many needed
things directly. Some machinery has
arrived by the round about way through
Canada. Many homesteader has built
comfortable house with an axe and
hammer. few nails and window. The
roof is generally the hardest part. but
that is easy if you build in May. or
June and if you know how. Peel bark
from the birch to be laid on a roof of
poles. Lay bark on the same principle
as shingles are laid, with the outside
down; then lay sods or dirt on top to
keep it in place and prevent it from
curling up or cracking in the sun. A
pole is fastened on the lower edge, far
enough up from the bark that the wat
ter can run under this pole This
holds the sod or dirt from sliding off.
"The worst drawback that we have
here is that we cannot sell cord wood.
When the settlers clear land. they must
burn all that will not make saw logs.
When you think of all the poor cold
people that are paying big price for
fuel and how glad they would be to get
our wood at lower price, it makes a
homesteader feel as if it is a big sin
to do what he is doing, but he must do
it. or be ready to leave when the logs
are gone.
"This is funny country in one way.
The dry land is only a strip along the
river from one to three miles wide on
each side of the river Back of this is
swamp or muskeg, as it is called mere.
These swamps are covered with moss
from one to eight feet deep. This gives
it the name, muskeg The top of this
moss is generally level with the highest
land around, so the bottom of the
swamp is much higher than the river.
1t can therefore be drained at little ex
pense On top of this moss is a sickly
growth of spruce and tamarack. Most
of it is worthless. 1t is even too small
for wood. so it is easily cleared. The
low bush cranberry is very abundant
on these swamps.
"Under the deep moss is a soil that
looks like blue clay, when 1t is dug out,
but after lying in the open air for a
while, it looks like rich black SOIL Some
of this soil from two different places
was sent to the agricultural experiment
station at Minneapolis. 1t was analy-