Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-11-14

it on every hand, and Shimmering in
changeleSS sunshine !; huge patch of
snow looks down on il IN June. The
old red road winds az ~ among the
hills, following the L sis and Clark
trail for many miles. is often grown
across with coarse hel age, and hav-
ing the air of melan molly. The de-
serted pathways of men are all through
these mountains. The growth of
shrub and weed and blier are striving
the pick and shovel OF forty years ago.
Old fumes have rOttea and fallen and
still lie strewn in the rayineS across
which they once carried sc many
miners inches of water every day.
Even here and there I'D cabins lean
and rot, mementos of the womanlesS
and childless homes. Old dams lie in
the streams. Old stage bridges pre-
serve Still timber here and there at
either end. At one point we found
the rust-eaten blade Of large knife
at the mouth of an excavation.
There are graves too, dimly discerni-
able, but still to be known as the long
ago forgotten resting place of some
lone miner.
There are little towns built in
gulches and struggling up hillsides,
which long ago saw their last in
habitant depart and where now no
one ever comes Their hilarious
nights have not left an echo or their
reckless days sign. This was one of
the most fervid forms of mountain
life less than forty years ago, and
there are left now only the dimmeSt
signs of it amid the mountain silence
and shadows. Every reflective man
must have his moments of looking
back and his wholesome private re-
Elections upon the theme of what a
fool he has been in his time. OF these
philosophers the boundleSS West is
full, for those who endured the most,
now have the least.
1t be slightly too strong an inn
preston to say that the miner who
remained in southern Montana lived
in state Of chronic surprise. Before
he came he regarded it as the land of
gold. After he had reached the place
he remained under that idea. The
fever grew and reached it's climax
and declined, and he still thought and
said that the country was good for
nothing else. When the early times
were gone and the gulches were de-
serted and the placerS had played out.
and leaks had petered and his chances
were gone, he awo'st= slowly ..a-.ile
fact that Montana was not the land
of gold at all and that the real wealth
was in the soil. The small farmer
known as the tenderfoOt came from
Kansas and Iowa and seized upon the
opportunities he had neglected and
filled up the country he had expected
to see deserted They diverted his
fumes and bitches and turned the
sage brush and chapparral into fields
and farms. 1t was not the country
of camps, but of towns; not of wild
oats of either the natural or artificial
variety, but OF hay and grain. And
as time passed the deception grew
worse and worse. The desert put in
its claims. The country which the
early miners never visited, the edge of
the yellow and gray eXpanse that had
killed of thirst, and dust, and hunger,
so many of his companions who only
tried to hasten across it began also to
bloom. Cities Sprang up besides the
irritating ditch and contained more
inhabitants than all the miners ever
numbered. The waste and lonesome
acres began to have value greater
than they would have had if they
had been Staked off as mining claims.
The home maker came with enthusi-
aSm and some cash. At first the old
miner calmly awaited the miserable