The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1907-07-17
e IS

In size Montana is the third state in
the union. With two exceptions, Min.
nesota and Wisconsin, Montana "hae
more water than any other state in
the United States.
At this writing Montana is the rich.
est and least exploited commonwealth
in America, says the Helena %Indepen.
dent. The population Of the whole
state is about one.tenth of the popula.
ton Of the city OF Chicago alone.
Montana is one of the richest mining
fields In the world: it is the leading
wool state: it has the most salubrious
climat its lands are cheapest: it is
the scene Of the greatest irrigation
pro jects the world has eve known.
The truth is 10 the west. The great
future growth of the country must be
western. Montana, bigger than Japan
and richer in natural resources, is the
least ''discovered" realm on the hem
isphere. 1t is at the dawn of a new
day. Montana is now the only new
country Of this republic.
Charles NJ. Harvey, in a stirring
article on the "Epic of the Vests
Expansion,' recalls in a thrilling
manner in the North American Re.
view, the history Of the once vague,
wild country west of the Mississippi,
that is now a great source of the coun-
-, -, ,~ 7 o~,D1I
"lf, as Petrarch says, history is
poetry freed from the e~ncambrance OF
verse;, then the soul Of the west must
have been soaring and singing from
the beginning. The region which sent
Lewis and Clark through darkest Am.
erica from the mouth Of the Missouri
to the mouth of tho Columbia: which
started Moses Austin from St. Louis
to get from Ferdinand VII Of Spain
permission to COLOMBO Texas; which
produced Becknell and the rest Of the
Santa Fe overland traders, who were
to Americanize much Of New Mexico
and some of old Mexico long before
Zachary Taylor's guns resounded
along the Rio Grande: which saw
John Golfer discover the marvels Of
the Yellowstone and get laughed at
when he told of them in St. Louis at.
terward J; which was with Marcus
Whitman and his fellow colonists
moving through South Pass on their
way to win Oregon for the United
States: which rode with kearney and
Doniphau through Mexico to the Gulf
and the Pacific: which stood with
Fremont when he raised the Nag OF the
star and the bear at Sonoma, at the
beginning of the revolt, which placed
California under the stars and stripes:
which was present at the meeting Of
the rails OF Cakes Ames and Hunting.
tons trans-cOutiuental lines at Pro.
montory Point, in Utah: and which
looked on remotely and impotently
while Sitting Bull and Rain in the Face
annihilated Custer and his army in
the Year Of q Hundred Years'-has
had poetry, melodrams and tragedy
studded throughout its entire annals.
But have we at last reached the
end OF the romance OF the west, of its
grand passion? Hardly. Yesterday
Josiah Quincy's wild men ON the Mis-
souri, held an exposition to which all
the world was hidden, and to which
all the world came. Tomorrow, be.
ginning with the Indian territory and
Oklahoma, the emaucipated race OF
Geronimo, Crazy Snake and Red
Cloud, reversing the defeats Of King
Philip, Pontiac and Tecumseh, will be
sitting in the legislative halls a,
Washington, helping ,o make laws
for the continent which they once