Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1906-12-13
A Letter from the Montana Boys.
Luck, Wisconsin,
Nov. %, 1906.

i
Editor Journal
After we had been out hunt
ing in the Wisconsin woods Yesterday
and had killed four rabbits, five par
tridges, one black squirrel and had
seen deer tracks, we left Mr.. Bergreen's
and Shroeder's where we had been
royalty entertained, for town stopped
over night and left at six O'clock a. m.
for st. Paul, arriving there at nine
O'Clock a. nl.; boarded the Great Nor
thern for Montana at ii o'clock a. M.
and arrived at Culbertson SATURDAY.
noon. We found this booming town
with many new buildings, both public
and private which have been erected
late this fall. Two new stores and
very large hotel are under contract to
be erected and completed before March
LIST, 1907. Culbertson has been town
for the past twenty years but it is only
in the last two years that it has devel-
oped. All the land around it is settled
for miles by all nationalitics but the
Danes are in the majority with the ex-
ception of the "old ranger" who has
been there for twenty years and the
most of them don't like to see the coun-
try settled up as they have to take up
and care for their great herds of cattle
and look after them.
Most of the Danes have settled forty
miles north of town where there is a
fine valley surrounded by mountains.
This valley it is understood, runs up
into Canada where Mr.. Rattenborg has
sold land for the past three years. Sat
urday night we staid out on the prairie
near the home Of a Danish settler and
as we did not have room, he made us
beds in shack near his house where
we all slept soundly with sweet dreams
about our future homes, but as it was
cold night and the shack not complet-
ed, we took the precaution to draw our
| caps down over our ears and leave our
gloves on our hands. Next morning,
the weather had moderated and it
commenced raining, but still we con.
sidered it pleasant for winter weather.
After breakfast, we started out to
take look at the land, visited
Frenchman's ranch which was first
started two years ago, and saw his
wheat which was the very finest, TWEEN
ty-seven bushels to the acre, and oats
sixty to seventy bushels per acre. He
owns one section, nearly all broken and
fenced. The land is black, being but
very little lighter than Iowa soil; but
as shown it can produce fine crops, all
right and everyone says the country is
all 0. X. One clerk informed us that
potatoes yield one hundred and seventy
five bushels per acre which brought
were buying ali they could at that
price. The Montana potato is large
and a fine eater, being dry and mealy
when boiled.
There has been more rain in the past
two years than they really needed, is
the story told by everyone. This talk
about this country not producing any
thing is all bosh; why, there are four
ranchers in this vicinity who can show
thirty-six children, an average of nine
to family. After selecting our claims
we went to town, registered, had our
papers made out by the U. s. Com
missioner, and hired men and teams
to haul out lumber and build claim
shacks on the parcels of land we had
selected.
| On Tuesday noon, we babe them all
goodbye expecting to see them again
in the spring.
| We Travelled all night arriving at st.
Paul in the morning at seven o'clock.
Coming through North Dakota, we
ran into snow blizzard, but twenty
five miles west of st. Paul there was
no snow. We left the latter city at one
O'Clock p. M. Tuesday and arrived at
Harlan at eleven o'clock p. m.
There are now forty claims taken up
in that section of the valley by young
Danish men and women, and many
more will arrive next spring.
Luckily we were fortunate to escape
the many wrecks which have taken
place lately on the Great Northern
principally caused by too fast running.
Many people in our home settlement
think we did foolish thing in leaving
home and taking up claims; but most
of the people who talk that way have
never been out of Elk Horn, or at least
no further than they could look back
and see mas coffee kettle.
We are all preparing to leave about
March LIST, and will take all the neces-
saries we need in farming and our
motto will be, "Win or Lose"
Hoping this letter may interest the
readers of the Journal" we are
Yours Truly,
MONTANA BoYs''
S. G. Petersen was an Audubon
business visitor Tuesday.