The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1910-10-12
REDIsCOvERY OF AMERICA
Sixty Years Ago the Best Part Of
Our Country Hadn't Yet
Got Into the Picture

of rails west OF the MISSISSIPPI
river. We had a funny little spur
OF rails running between Naples and
Springfield, ILL.,, and q still fun
nier link running east OF Mem
phis; a whimsical attempt between
Vicksburg and Brandon. Down in
Alabama there was a short strip
which began and ended nowhere.
writes F. A. Miller in Leslie's
Weekly. Another streak of iron
wandered across another corner of
Alabama. and there was little
building In Georgia and the Caro-
inas. The southern tates. strange
ly enough. then led In railroad
construction, although there were
A number of lines i'm the northeast
that were wonderful In their way.
There was broken road from
Detroit to Chicago. with a wistful
jerkwater from Chicago to st.
Charles. Then. in Indiana. there
was q piece Of rail running from
Rushville to Madison-if you know
where these points were-but not a
foot OF rail west of the edge of IL
nnois. That was just 60 years ago.
Now look at the map.
There was not q foot of canal
built west OF the Mississippi river
60 years ago. although Maine had
a little canal. as well as Massachus-
sets and Connecticut. while New
York had several. Pennsylvania
one clear across the state. Mary
land one OF considerable length and
Virginia q very famous one-that
which George Washington planned
to extend from the James river
across the Alleghanies. About this
time the westhound rails wiped ou.
the theories of George Washington
and everybody else. Ohio had a
canal system OF some extent be-
tween the Lakes and the Ohio
river. Indiana had one running
from Toledo and Louisiana. and
Illinois had one from Chicago to La
Sale. But all these were wiped
out by rails. How absolutely an
tiquated all that sort Of thing seem,
today. Look at the map for the
sake of curiosity. 1t seems al
most unbelievable how ANAL was
that part of old America 30 long
thought sacred. Eight-tenths of
our crop-raising country then lay
undiscovered. Eight-tenths of
America-and the best part of
America-was out Of the picture
undiscovered.
After the Civil war the great
transcontinental lines went across
one BY one to the Pacific. Each
time one was built there came the
outcry that it was all folly. be-
cause 1t crossed q part OF the
country that could not support
railroad. The first government ex-
perts sent out to explore the west
unanimously reported that it was
wholly a hopeless country. Maj.
Long utterly condemned the whole
of Nebraska. Dakota was then
not thought worth mentioning. Yet.
one by one, the rails crept or rath-
er rushed west. At last the trans
| continental lines did not pause.
Everybody believed there were
railroads enough across the con-
tinent. Everybody always had
dreamed. and then other bodies
have found that everybody did not
dream big enough. Now comes
the transoontinental extension of
the Chicago, Milwaukee and st.
Paul railway. known as the Chi
cago. Milwaukee and Puget Sound
railway. Its western terminus lies
at the foot OF Puget sound. Its
eastern terminus lies at the foot
| Of the Great Lakes.
As the Hudson Bay company long
proclaimed that Canada could only
1 be q fox farm, SO the western COW
man declared to the world that
nothing west of the Missouri river
was fit for anything else but cows.
The arrowhead of our westbound
rails pierced the last of these alb.
| surd traditions. when 1t crossed
| South Dakota 1t changed the old
order of wide ranges and began
the day of the small farmer. the
| small cattle raisers; in short. the
L - vonplatt1p