The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1908-03-05
EMPIRE OF
THE PRAIRIES
South DakOta-tier Past, Present
and Future, Taken from
The World Today"

About a quarter of century ago
General Greeley said, That country
out there is a desert. fit only for
| Indians and wild animals to roam
/ ill., He was referring to North
and South Dakota, the empire where
today million or more people are
dwelling in happiness and prosper
I ity.
! Allen Reed in a recent issue of
The World Today gives very
comprehensive article on the rapid
development of that so-called "des-
ert." In referring to South Dakota,
he says:
South Dakota is another land of
interesting development with general
characteristics very similar to North
Dakota. In fact the story of its
developement as respects country
and town, railroad and bank. is
almost identical in detail with that
of North Dakota
Aberdeen for instance, which in
1887 had only 5000 population, now
has nearly 10000: Lead had in 1890
$500, it has now 1900; Sioux Falls,
the largest city in the state, has over
$1,000 popultion; Watertown about
1000; Huron, 5000, and Pierre, the
capital, about 1920, the whole state
showing population by the second
census of 1900, of 401 $40, of which,
by the way, only $4,000 were unable
to speak English. The State Uni
versity is at Vermilion and there
are denominational colleges at Hur-
on, Redfeld and Yankton.
Yet tits unbelievably new. Sioux
Falls, for instance, the first perma-
nent settlement in the state when
settled in 1857 by people from Iowa,
was several times all but depopulat-
ed by the Indians. Five years later
there was the famous Sioux war,
when the town was abandoned.
Three years after Fort Dakota was
built, and in 1870 the town again
sprang up until now it is the metro
polls of the state, with factories and
quarries and valuable water power
furnished by a ninety-foot fall in the
Big Sioux River. Lead is city
that is well known to the world be-
cause it is in the heart of the Black
Hills. Extensive gold stamp mills
are located there.
There are between three and four
thousand miles of railroad in South
Dokota owned by some fifteen differ
ent companies, which serve the state
with cooperation.
South Dakota is not only rich in
agricultural, but in mineral resources.
Up to the present time nearly $3.50,
000, 900 has been the value of the
output of gold, with deposits that
seem inexhaustible, while the silver
output has reached total of about
S6,000,0O0. In its farm products
South Dakota ranks, among the
states in the union, third in flax,
fourth in wheat and fifth in barley,
and the total gross value of It's agri-
cultural product is not far from S75,
000, 900 annually, which will be noted
as about half as much in one year as
the gold of South Dakota has brought
in third of century.
Unless statistics deceive, the state
has already secured over two 'thous-
and factories and the capital invest
ed runs close to ten millions. The
manufactured products aggregate
an annual value of about fifteen
million. South Dakota is also making
reputation for its hardy fruits and
berries.
In time, tourist trade will bring
money into the state as the hot
. springs in the Fall River country
gain their destined fame and their
modern sanitariums and hotels secure
the patronage due the medicina
character of the springs, famous
since Indian days.
South Dakota is in very trutf
growing rich. Its fifty million acres
!, of land are already worth about $3.50
600, 900, and will eventually have ;
money value of billion or more ant
/ support prosperously population o.
over a million. But these figures o.
the future are problematical when i
. comes to limiting them. They car
only be estimated in minimums; no
minimums as General Greeley saw
t them, but minimums as seen by The
eye of the big railroad builders wht
learn to preestimate what revenue