The Charles Mix new era. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1???-1911, 1910-08-12
RUSTiCATlNG IN RAPID CANYON
DoANE ROBINSON TAKES
SOME ATTITUDES
Hills COUNTRY VERY DRY
The Hills Country Suffered Greatly
rom the June Orouth But
Its Depressing Effects
are Little Felt

l am spending the week at Pierre
Lodge, in the Rapid canyon, and am
Impressed with the fact that when a
South Dakotan's Information is not
exact he generally makes a sufficient
allowance to cover all contin gencies.
Every native of whom I have inquired
has told me Harvey peak is more than
5000 feet high, although the geologic
al survey long ago deterined it to be
1915 and the fact has been widely
published. | have taken the opportun,
ity to make barometric measurements
of a lot of elevations which en- ;oy
local celebrity for altitudenous pro-
portions and find in almost every case
the true height to be exaggerated by
from 500 to 1900 feet. Tamaha, for
instance, is 1850, instead of $500.
The big Belle Fourche irrigation
= project Is drawing to a finish ter
five years Of active construction work,
in which the highest earth dam On
earth has been constructed and vast
concrete works erected. In the end a
hundred thousand acres of good land
will be irrigated from it and a dense
RopuloLAoh ohu 0AlA L
will be the features of the tract. There
are a half dozen other possible pro-
1ects in the state which the govern
ment engineers have prospected, and
there is a total of perhaps half a
million acres susceptible of irriga-
ton in the state. The Little Missouri,
the Grand, and Moreau, Rapid creek,
Castle creek and several other streams
~debouching from the Black Hills each
afford water and physical opportunity
for projects varying in extent from
five thousand to twenty thousand
acres.
The Hills have suffered more from
the June drouth than n region |
have seen. The fertile mountain
parks that last year yielded the most
tremendous OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
wheat-head high grasses and other
crops according are now parched and
dry, the meadows SO bare o.. grass
that to use a familiar extravaganza OF
fifteen years ago, "a farmer has to
take along a bale Of old hay to prime
his mower with before he can get a
swath started"
There are, however, but few of the
inhabitants of the region who depend
upon the soil for a livelihood; most
of the mountaineers being engaged In
mining, wood cutting and like occupa-
lions, and when crops fail all of them
can resort to like occupations to
bridge over to a more prosperous agri-
cultural year.
Rapid Creek has a hundred miles of
trout-bearing course and | take it has
something like a hundred fishermen
to the mile, consequently the fish have
become exceedingly wise and the
tricks they resort to in the endeavor
to determine whether there is a hook
under every fly would make tales
worthy the most proficient natura
fakir. Perhaps it is enough to say that
they are ION to the ways of men,
In a recent letter w. E. Curtis in
terestingly describes the German col
ony in South Russia. More than II 1000
immigrants from this colony are citi-
gems of South Dakota, and they are
most excellent citizens, too. The TACT
that they have preserved all OF the
best characteristics and traditions of
the Germans through more than a
century of expatriation among a
dominating people of entirely differ
ent characteristics Is the best testl-
mony to their strength of character.
While they utterly refused TO assimil-
ate with the Russians they speedily
adopt American methods and inter-
marry with our people. and the sec
ond generation are genuinely Ameri-
can, which proves that circumstances
alter cases. While in Russia they
hold themselves aloof from civil af-
fairs, here they taken an active and
influential interest.
Rapid City has a new enterprise
this year in the shape of a sand-llme
brick plant which is making a mag
nffcent product. Chiefly the state has
hitherto been dependent upon import
atoms of a fine building brick suit
able for facing good buildings, but
the new proposition bids fair to sup
nIv tho demand for this article.