Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-09-18
BAD LANDS ARE A PARADISE
CONTINUED from Page IL

DAD LAND0 AMI Al fAkADlOE
Continued from Page II
men and women are making our west
factor in the state. |;
Some fifty miles north Of Dickinson
are the Killdeer Mountains which are
reached in one days drive 2by stage.
Jerry Palmer, the government official,
apples the rod and hanls the freight,
the passengers and mall to Oakdale set
close against the mountains in a heavy
lakewood grove and overlooking many
miles of grassy range dotted with the
traditional claim shanties and of and
on a 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 break
ers and across the Little Missouri to
Veigels survey camp some forty
miles further north. Tony, our driver,
proved a boon, being familiar with the
country, having been rider there for
many years, 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 had lost her life in a runaway ac-
cident while driving with her two chdl-
dren after berries. 49,
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 that Sam Bierline built and
afterwards sold to its present owner.
Contrary to the general superstition,
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 Missouri and not
know they are there until suddenly
you begin to descend. You are in the
breaks, and one OF the grandest
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 a fascination and
never be forgotten. No tumble of
descriptive ad5ectives could convey a
conception Of the jumbled mass OF
buttes and spires, pinnacles and peaks
that lies before you, glistendng 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 1t seems. Against
the sheer high wall of a fantastic butte
is patch Of the deepest green that
proves on closer search to be q ceda-
grove. The ranchman cherishes this
kind OF land and calls It winter range
and the more of 1t he can control Is
Offset by the less amount of 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 be, so sharr
the turns and steep the hills. We
passed a burning coal mine, and oui
of curiosity climbed down the bank 10,
a closer view. The burnt coal vein
could be traced for long way frcm
down the draw and gave evidence O,
years of hidden IRE, and at it's burn
Ing end seemed bent on undermining. q
mighty hill, which no doubt, in time
1t will do, the towering top falls in and
adds another group of freakish land
scape forms amidst the rest. Al
points where the fire was. hottest much
clay had burned to brickish rad
forming the substance called "scoria.
This scoria rock is abundant through
the Bad Lands and in many othel
places In western North Dakota pilst
IN immense big brickIel hills an6
bearing evidence Of preh, ,toric Goa
hres on much gTander scale. Leav
Ing the coal fire, which has nothint
else to do but smoke, we filled Gu,
pipes and Travelled on till nearly night
reaching Mr.. Vage1's camp in time t.
see the boys come In from work ana
Join them in q hearty meal.