The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-09
TREES SPRING UP.
Course of Arkansas River Can
Be Traced by Forest.
Giant Cottonwood Measures IL
Feet in Circumference.
BARREN 25 YEARS AGO
Believed That Trees Would Be
of Scrubby Growth.
Now Trains Pass Through Or
chards and Forest Groves.

Pawnee Rock, May "a quarter of
a century. ago there was not tree to
be seen along the Arkansas valley here.
"A few days ago some cottonwood trees
were measured on Ash creek, which
measured in circumference, two feet
above the ground over eleven feet
around. Twenty-Five years ago that
land was entirely barren of timber.
In speaking of the great change in
this respect that has come in western
Kansas, J. H. Wolf, an old resident of
this locality said:
1T was believed by the early set
tiers that timber would not grow on
the Arkansas river valley of central
Kansas, that the strong winds of
spring and the fall drouth would so
interfere with the root growth that if
the trees lived they would be scrubby
and unsightly things. But time has
proven this to be an error.
First Bridge in 1885.
"In the spring of 1885 the first
bridge was built across the Arkansas
river at this place 1 frequently went
to watch the worlmen drive the piling
in the river. 1 loved to watch the gilt
ter of the water in the sun light as
far up the river as the eye would
reach, without a tree or shrub to be
seen except the little sand hall plum
bushes on the south side of the river;
but now the course of the river can be
followed for miles by the growth of
timber on the banks.
ION my way to the river 1 would
pass where is now the farm of w. w.
Bowman on Ash creek, then as barren
of timber as the treeless prairie of the
great plains.
by my request. the other day Mr..
Bowman measured a cottonwood tree
which stands near his home, that two
feet from the ground measured, eleven
feet four inches in circumference.
There are a number of other smaller
trees in his yard and driveway
Animals Quite at Home.
Fox and grey squirrels have be-
come quite numerous and occasionally
an oppossum has been found. The
fragrant skunk, although a native of
the plains, is quite at home in the
brush, and when a few old snags and
hollow trees are found the raccoon and
the hootowl can be seen and heard.
Cottonwood, box elder, honey locust
elm, maple, black walnut and mulberry
are the principal kinds of trees.
in the winters of 1SS1-2, I fire.
quently went on hunts for jackrab-
bit, wild goose and duck which were
plentiful, and when tired would climb
to the summit of the old rock, there
to breathe the pure air, to rest and to
watch the long freight trains as they
crept serpent like across the prairie,
from Larned to Great Bend, distance
of over 20 miles, with nothing to hide
them from view.
But now the trains on the same
road frequently pass through orchards
of fruit trees and groves of forest
trees, which hide them from view.
From the top of the rock you look
upon the little city Of Pawnee Rock,
as it nestles among the trees that line
its streets and beautify its lawns. Sure
1y this is a beautiful sight when the
trees are robed in their summer green,
and later when the frost has painted
with many colors the leaves Of the
maple and box elder"