The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-24
COWBOYS LAST STAND.
The Open Range Being Rapidly Dimin-
ished in the West.

The Open Range Being Rapidly Dimin-
ished in the West.
An interesting series Of articles on
the great west is being contributed to
the Outing magazine by r. d. Paine,
under the title of 1.-The Builders" this
title being applied to the pioneers of
early days and those who are COM
plotting their work at the present time.
In one of these articles Mr. Paine
says he wanted to find a spot where
he could see the cowboy in all his
pristine glory, and after traversing the
whole west from the Mexican line to
the Canadian boundary. he found him
making his final bow in northern Mon
tana. He says in this connection:
But it is not true that the open
range has wholly vanished. Its life
still runs wide and free. The heroic
bigness of it. however. is to be sought
no longer in the southwest. where the
cowboy has been most often framed
in story. He is making his last stand
in northern Montana. If you lay
and west. from Fort Buford to Fort
Benton. it will not cross a town in a
line 300 miles long. If you run the
ANU AAoA ia anu oOuSAB soy AhAO"oy NC
tween Malta and Glasgow, from up on
the Canadian boundary down almost
to the Yellowstone, stretch of $50
miles will be covered without finding
a settlement big enough to deserve
dot and name on the map. This is,
roughly speaking, the contrary of the
last open great range in the United
States. Its area is greater than the
combined extent of Connecticut. Mas
sachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont,
New Jersey and Delaware. It Il. not
SO thickly populated that men are in
danger of jostling one another.
Writing of the Milk River irrigation
project, Mr.. Paine says:
The future will see more than 10O.-
900 families. each with 160-acre
farm, filling this Milk River valley
from end to end. In this corner of the
state of Montana irrigation will in
crease the value of these open grazing
lands more than $50,000.000. Montana
will continue to be one of the great
est of the livestock states. But the
cattle will be found in small punches
as part of the diversified farming in
terests of ranches on these reclaimed
lands. Montana has only IL inhabi-
tants to the square mile Its arabic
lands are greater in extent than those
of all New York. Pennsylvania, Mas
sachusetts. Connecticut, Rhode Island,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, Mary
land and Delaware. More than half of
the state is government land, open to
homestead entry, of which almost 49,
100000 acres have never been sur
veyed. 1t raises more wool and sheep
than any other state, its copper mines
are the richest, its cities are growing
with immense vigor and solidity, yet
it is an empire in its infancy. which
is to be conquered and possessed by
the people from the older country to
the eastward, where the hunger for
land and homes will increase with
each new generation. The alarmist
swears the country Is going to the
dogs when a few rascals in high places
are exposed. But he does not know,
or he pays no heed, when 10 900 honest
men quietly 60 forth to build their
homes in new places, and thereby
clinch just SO many more rivets in the
keel Of the American ship of state. AS
the frontier passes, the nation wakes
stronger and more unified, and the
right arm Of the future is strength
ened to deal with the problems that
vex the present.
3 & D. ~ 81 Hna.L