Ladysmith news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1906-1907, 1906-10-13
ST. Paul to Duluth by the Hinckly
Route Varied Scenes
and Country.

A trip over the st. Paul and Duluth
railroad, recently the northern Pacific,
ca ries one through a. varied country.
Old, yet rew, exploited yet practically
untouched.
Out of ST. Paul the country is well
developed to Pine City, in Pine cou ity.
BY the way, Pima county used to be
represented as pine barren, while in
fact it IS unto our own county. Topo-
graphically it lacks the speedy rivers
and excellent drainage we have, but it
isn't sand, in fact the il is too heavy.
There is as much timber ard it used to
be pine, white and Norway, which was
mostly cut ere the great fire of 1894,
and what hadn't been cut was then
destroyed.
Beyond Pine City there is little dew
elopement. Hinckley, an old town
with two railroads, till continues in
primitive state. A drive of nine miles
discour es a half dozen settlers after
the village is mile in the rear. The
road transverses the ridges and hollows
and presents the country in its worst
form, which at best is nne too good.
Inquiry shows that all business men
leave settlement questions exclusively
to the landmen. The merchants
haven't any land to SELL" No one is
apparently selling much, although
there is broad expanse that some day
will support many dairy.
On northward you go-past towns that
suggest strikes among the painters
villages containing more shanties than
the writer ever saw before-for miles
and miles we see nothing in the country
save an occasional habitation in clear
ings proportioned for a garden patch,
one wonders what is the matter-the
opportunities are unhampered with
heavy growth of rubbish and yet un-
availed.
Farther on is the jack pine country
thick-yes, a rabbit would have to be
a lank one to get through. Miles and
miles of this country. After you long
for change, and at the point of hoping
for it, you are treated with more and
more of it.
Then the rocks, rocks that appeal to.
you only in their greatness. You Won
der how it is that at the apex of the
great north county, just ere you are
to be dropped down into the "zenith
city of the great unsalted sea-" as
Proctor Knott put it long ago, there
should prevail boulders in the measure
ment of which rods would be small
unit of measurement. Rocks that
cover vast areas and extend far above
the level, single outcroppings that
would furnish material for blocks of
buildings. And these become monoton-
Gus long ere you have passed them al.
And down you drop-but ere you deS-
cend, you pass mammoth excavation
that you are told is the canal for the
IlSW WdOSL pOWCL OIIctL IL W dlNCLC CIlC
St. Louis river and cause its current
to serve the interests of commerce.
mammoth undertaking that is to con-
serve natures legacy to man. Then
down you go, through deep and long
cuts in solid rock, over ugly ravines
where you look down upon the tele-
graph poles and up to see the farther
side of the right-o
Then Duluth, the great city of Lake
Superior-we saw it, and yet saw it
not-saw it at glance-a shivering in
the cold-such cold as is not enjoyable.
But Duluth is a great city, a throbbing
mart, a humming hive of industry-a
fine city sure. Her shipping is i'm
mense, her trade is likewise measured
on a cosmopolitan basis. If her size
outward is like that upward, she is
large. The lake on one side, the
mountains on the other and the town
to the level of each-such is Duluth.