Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-09
FARMERS TO own BOAT LINE
North Dakota Grain Men Are Back
of New Enterprise.
LACK OF. RAILROADS CAUSE
Mckenzie County Forced to Depend
Entirely ON River for Tr~ansporta-
ton FnciIities-TransfOrma-
tfOn of Range.

SCHAFER, N. D., Jan. S.-(Special.)-If
the efforts of several prominent grain
men of western North Dakota meet with
success one or more steamboats, owned and
operated by farmers viii be in service on
the upper Missouri next season for the ac-
comniodation Of the people who live on
the island as Mckenzie county, North
Dakota, is often called, .
BY a peculiar distribution of highland
and lowland in the land formation Of this
section of the Dakotas Mckenzie county,
with an area nearly as large as that Of
the state Of Connecticut, is completely en-
circled by rivers, IL we except thirty-siX
miles of western border.
A great bend of the Missouri forms the
eastern and northern boundary of the
county, the Yellowstone swirls past 1t on
the west and the Little Missouri crosses 1t
on the extreme south. Between the point
where the Yellowstone empties into the
parent stream and the place where the
Little Missouri joins 1t the big river bor-
ders the county for a hundred miles.
1t is safe to say that no other equal
section Of the Missouri has been used to
such commercial advantage the last year
as has this hundred miles. There is not a
rod Of railroad within the county. 1t Is
cut off from communication with border
ing territory on the west by the treacher-
Gus and on the south by he
shallow Little Missouri and its environ
ment Of bad lands" So it happens that
the. big Missouri as it flows along the
eastern and northern borders of Mckenzie
county forms the only possible means OF
communication that the county people
have with the outside world.
First Settlers Five Years Ago.
Five years ago the first settlers came in
and began to till the soil. Previous to that
POO, 900 head of cattle and horses had beer
ranged here. The last year $1,000 acres have
been cultivated and a bumper crop of q
900, 600 bushels of grain raised. a population
of 1000 is now scattered about on isolated
homesteads or In tiny hamlets around the
I prairie postoffices.
All mail and passengers, everything these
1909 people need, from a threshing machine
to a paper of needles, the Missouri rive
must bring. Everything hat they nay
to ship abroad, the products Of the farmi
and the thousands of cattle. horses anC
sheep from the ranches, the Missouri rive
must take. In order to do this a score o.
ferries have been worked overtime all alonl
the line the last season. Three Of these ar,
gasoline launches. The rest are only tn
.udest OF flat boats connected in a print
tive fashion By ropes and pulleys to over
head cables. When loaded at the shore, thu
hands push them off, adjust the ropes 81
that the boats meet tire current at tn,
proper angle and then the downward sweel
OF the river propsls them diagonally acros
it's waters. In case OF high winds an,
rough water the crossing Is not managed 5
easily. At breaking up times in the sprinI
and during the period of ice forming Il
the fall. all freight is tied up on eithe
side. Mail, express and passengers, If the.
cables in big baskets, forty feet above tn
channel.
should the river be filled with floatln
ice for some time, as often happens, tn
stock Of provisions in the county store
becomes rapidly depleted. An alarmin
shortage OF food has been experience
several times in the past.
Ferries Connect with Road.
The larger number Of these ferries cor
meet with points on the Great Norther
railroad. That they do an enormous bus
ness nay be judged from the fact tina
one reported net earnings OF $4,000 for IN
year BIS The past season the 500 has bi
for the country trade by putting in a stoC
ferry and soliciting its use by the rancher
Cattle were taken across the river at n
expense OF the railroad and railed froI
there forty miles to Plaza. the terminl
"a 49,. o. liz ENaVu a..r. ha.a -,