The Dickinson press., 1905-09-23

are the Kildeer mountains which are
reached in one days drive by stage.
Jerry Palmer, the government official,
applies the rod and hauls the freight,
the passengers and mail to Oakdale,
set close against the mountains in a
heavy oakwood grove and overlooking
many miles Of grassy range dotted with
the traditional claim shanties and off
and on field of grain or fodder corn.
Here we secured the services of Tony,
ranch boy, and his team to haul us
next day across the Bad Land breakers
and across the Little Missouri to Veigel's
survey camp some forty miles further
north. Tony. our driver, proved boon,
being familiar with the country, having
been a rider there for many years, and
told us many things of interest about the
Bad Lands. people of the neighborhood
and game, and pointed out the exact
place beside the road, just over the Bad
Lands break, where Mrs. Sam Bierline
ten years ago lost her life in runaway
accident while driving with her two
children after berries.
The following day we took dinner at
the ranch home of Robert Wilcox on
the banks of the Little Missouri river,
deep down among the fantastic and
curiously formed Bad Lands hills, the
home which Sam Bierline built and
afterwards sold to its present owner.
Contrary to the general supposition, one
goes down into the Bad Lands, not up.
Driving along on the high uplands, you
may look for miles and miles across the
worst Bad Lands along the, Little Mis-
souri, and not know they are there until
suddenly you begin to descend. You
are in the breaks, and one of the grand
est panoramic views of nature lies to
right and left, extending far into the
smoky haze of distance, in the very spot
you just previously thought was level
prairie. They are a work of nature,
peculiar in themselves, that one must
see to appreciate, and once seen will
ever have fascination and never be
forgotten. No tumble of descriptive
adjectives could convey conception of
the jumbled mass of buttes and spires.
pinnacles and peaks that lies before you,
glistening in the sun nearby and fading
away in the distance to hazy blue,
with purple, golden, and here and there
an emerald patch. The cut draws are
timbered and often painted, as it seems.
| Against the sheer high wall of fantas-
tic butte is patch of the deepest green,
that proves, on closer search, to be a
cedar grove. The ranchman cherishes
this kind of land and calls it winter
range, and the more of it he can control
the less hay he'll have to stack. Our
road down through this spot was at best
crooked track and any single road of
it was no index of what the next would
Ebe, so sharp the turns and steep the hills.
Eve passed burning coal mine, and out
tyof curiosity climbe a down the bank for a
l SlOSCI V1CWs Lie Uulut NOdl VC1u SOu1O
be traced for long way down the draw
and gave evidence of years of hidden
fire. and at its burning end seemed bent
on undermining mighty hill, which no
doubt it will do in time, the towering top
fall in and add another group of freak
ish landscape forms amidst the rest At
points where the fire was hottest, much
clay was burned to brickish red, form
ing the substance called "scoria." This
scoria rock is abundant through the Bad
Lands and in f..any other places in west
ern North Dakota piled in immense big
brick-red hills and bearing evidence Of
prehistoric coal fires on much grander
scale. Leaving the coal fire, which has
nothing else to do but smoke, we filled
our pipes and travelled on till nearly
night. reaching Mr.. Veigel's camp in
time to see the boys come in from work
and join them in a hearty meal.
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