The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1907-10-10
GOV. CRAWFORD
Makes Strong Plea for Great
Waterway
ON TRIP WITH PRES. ROOSEVELT
Plan Means Much to South
Dakota

low citizens:
A few years ago dealer i'm wool
living at Pierre, South Dakota, wished
to ship 100000 pounds of wool from
there to New York City. Upon in
quiry he learned that the freight rate
was over $500 per hundred from
Pierre to New York, while from Sioux
City, Iowa, about 200 miles down the
Missouri River below Pierre the rate
to New York was so cents per hun
dred. Steam boat traffic upon the river
between Sioux City and Pierre was
very light and irregular only one or
two boats making the trip in an entire
season. This wool dealer however.
rather than pay the exorbitant rail-
road rate. succeeded i'm hiring a boat
to take his wool from Pierre to Sioux
City for 40 cents per hundred, includ-
ing placing ii on board cars for New
York
BY this means he shipped it from
Pierre to New York for 81. 20 per hun
dred instead OF $500. The next year
the railroad company was forced by
the threat of the river competition to
reduce its rate from Pierre to New
York to I.l5 per hundred, which has
since been the rate. This is an in
stance Of how waterway capable of
lloating commerce may be a constant
check upon Il railroad company, even
though 1t actually carries little or no
traffic. | represent one of the new
states through which the upper Mis-
souri, pours its swift and muddy cur
rent on its way to join the Mississippi
For many years this great river inter
posed barrier to the railroads which
entered the state from the east side
and stopped building when they came
TO its eastern bank. At Pierre, the
capital. situated upon its bank near
the geographical center of the state,
and at Chamberlain, about ninety
miles below, the Chicago and North
Western and the Chicago, Milwaukee
and st. Paul railway companies for
twenty years halted in the extension
OF their lines to the west About one
hair OF the state lies on the west side
OF this river and that portion was with
out a railroad except in the extreme
west, where two lines built north into
the Black Hills from Nebraska. With
IN that portion Of the state was n
country embracing about $4,000 square
miles used for Indian Reservations and
grazing lands, without a railroad
The chief output from that great
section Of the country, --cattle, horses.
sheep and woOl,-was brought across
the river by ferry and shipped by rail
from Pierre to Chamberlain. During
the past five years, the conditions
there have undergone great change.
The lands have been surveyed, the
Indian lands allotted. the balance tax
on by the homesteader, and the rich
pasture lands have been converted in
to farms
Three lines Of railroad have crossed
the river and extended to the western
border Of the state. The distance from
Pierre to Rapid City i'm the Black
Hills, by rail, has been reduced from
! 600 miles To 1913 miles.
The prairies are filled with settlers.
towns have sprung up like magic; ma
tural gas has been discovered: a COM
mercial revolution has come and the
traffic in and out Of the country has
enormously increased With this new
order of things upon us, our people
are awakened to the important part
the Missouri River may play in the flu
ture of our state.
I'm the old times before the railroad
came, the upper Missouri was the
route by which the Indian trader and
government soldier reached the far off
Northwest. Steam boats not only
came and went from St Louis to hide
pendence, but often passed on 1900
miles to FIT. Benton, Montana, carrying
soldiers, military supplies, scouts, trap
pers and Indian missionaries; bring
ing back furs from the Indian country
and gold from the placer mines.
10,
Pierre Choteau Jr George Catlin. Col
onel Atkinson, Generals Harvey, Sully,
Crook, Custer, and the City of ST.
Louis are names forever linked with
the history of that great upper coun-
try. inseparably connected with the
old days of the plainsman, the scout.
the trapper, and the buffalo now gone
forever.
Upon the discovery of gold in the
Black Hills in the seventies, there was
heavy river trade from Sioux City
to FIT. Pierre, from which point passen-
gers and freight were hauled overland
to Deadwood, 200 miles to the west
Today, with three lines of railway
crossing this river and traversing the
state from east to west on their way
to the Pacific and with the Northern
same thing i'm North Dakota and Mon
tana, the upper Missouri carries no
commerce. Nevertheless, it's sullen
current flows on, suggesting always a
way of escape when the railroad be-
comes too eXacting. The states lying
in the basin Of the upper Missouri are
part of that greater region lying be-
tween the Appalachian and Rocky
Mountains, known as the Mississippi
Valley, which we are told embraces
over $4,000 miles of river waterways,
over 40 per cent of the whole water
way system of the United States.
The Missouri river is very impor-
tant part of the MissouriMississippi
Ohio waterway. 1t drains the great
est stock raising and grain producing
section of the United States.
This great section embraces about
One-fuurfh of the limited States and tx