The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-04-27
THE HEART Of WYOMING.
A FERTILE, WELL WATERED RE
GloN OF MUCH WEALTH.
AeouNos IN WILD GAME TO-DAY
There is No Worthless Land In the
World--All Can be Reclaimed and
Made Stories Of Reser.
walton to be Opened.

Naton 10 DC Openeu'
Entered for copywright in the of.
fee of librarian of Washington, All
rights reserved.l
Far up in the heart of Wyoming,
under the shelter of the great cont.
mental divide, are the valleys of the
Shoshoni and Owl Creek mountains.
Here, within u hundred miles of each
other are the sources of four great
continental rivers. II Is rich cOun-
try in all that the word implies, we'll
watered and fertile. A turquoise sky,
illimitable stretches of country, un-
settled and unclaimed, the red-scarred
buttes, a transparent atmosphere, the
distant purple mountains. the bril-
liant constant sunshine, the unbrokcn
silence of the wilderness, a coyote
sentinel on the sky line, an eagle soar.
ing overhead and Indians moving in
their own inscrutable orbit-that was
the central Wyoming of last year.
The sky, the sunshine and the purple
mountains remain unchanged, the coy
ote sentinels the skyline as of
yore and the eagle scars majcstlcally
in the transparent ether but the 81.
lence is broken forever for the air Is
charged with the sounds of conquest
with the chug of the walking BEAM
the clang of the hammer, the shrek
Of the engine, the barking of dogs
the laughter of children and all the
varied sounds that proclaim mans en-
pire or symbolic his dominion over
the wilderness. The hunger for land
the longing for opportunities, the in
stnct of migration are calling people
here from everywhere to build up an
other empire. Within a few years
Oklahoma and Texas have been set
tied and we have sent 100000 per-
sons to western Canada and still the
mighty procession rolls westward
seeking homes and opportunities and
land Is increasing in value. The most
valuable property asset in the world
today is land and there is no worthless
land in the world Where the desert
wastes of the Sahara stretch from
horizon to horizon a magnificent for
est stood until destroyed by the Ro-
mans. Sahara will again be reclaimed
and be valuable to mankind. Out OF
that ulcer on the map called Death
Valley the United States government
is making a paradise that will grow
all kinds of sub-tropical fruits and
support a teeming population The
sand hills of Nebraska will some day
be worth millions for their timber
and every kind of soil and plant will
contribute ultimately to the support
of mankind. A genius has robbed the
despised cactus of its spines and
taught it to yield a delicious fruit
while its stalks make fine fodder for
animals. In the Shoshoni country
there are boundless possibilities. It's
water courses carry more water than
the Platte river carries through Ne
its mountains are full of minerals and
coal and oil exist everywhere.
When this country is opened up
there will be another Denver there
and network of railroads. The tray
eler who views country through gold
trimmed spectacles or the plate glass
of Wagner car cannot estimate or
its resources. He does
not go down into the dark corridors
of the mines where the value of
farmers annual crop is dug out each
day, nor among the acres of sheep,
each worth a
the sleek and shrinking cattle on the
desolate mountainside that fill the
thousands of stock cars that rumble
eastward all through the stock season.
My trip beyond the railroad comprised
about 400 miles. | slept out on the
ground with my guide three nights
we went once twenty-four hours with
out anything to eat and once eighteen
hours without a drink-of water In
the desolate bad lands of the Powder
river up near the Big Horn mountains,
100 miles east of the reservation, |
travelled all one day in the alkali dust
Of the dry river bed without water and
without seeing a habitation and yet
for 100 miles the bed OF this river is
he roof of immense deposits of coal
and oil. Up towards the Red Wall |
had an opportunity TO verify the story
Of eagles killing coyotes. All this re-
sion is a great sheep range and the
coyotes hover around the focks. An
Did Mexican rancher in that quiet, self
way that men of the open
nave of speaking, offered to furnish
evidence of fatal conflict
he had witnessed the previous day be.
.ween a pair of eagles an,l a skulk- |
ng coyote. Ky-o-teys the herders call
hem and they become panic stricken
when attacked by eagles and are
quickly torn to ribbons. Here also
lifted the veil from a cherished fiction |
If so-called nature writer's and discov-
'red by interviewing about a hundred |
sheep men that eagles never carry off |
ambs nor kill them. One day we
net tall spare man riding horseback |