The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-08-22
70 the Editor of The Republican:

~"voyaged' owe the Cascade noun
tains by daylight, and obtained many
a magnificent view in transit, but
finally daylight faded, and we enter
ed the land of dreams, awaking just
in time to alight at Missoula.
We had previously ridden on the
"Milwaukee's" Olympian train. but
the trip from the coast to Aberdeen
gives a better opportunity to appre-
ciate its s%plendor. 1t is at least
one of the finest equipped trains any
where; having no superiors and but
few equals. Composed entirely of
steel cars, of the most modern make,
luxuriously furnished, and gliding
over a roadbed that is the marvel of
modern engineering, it certainly
appeals to all as the ultimate of rail-
reading.
After breakfast at Missoula, we
boarded a Jerk water" train on the
Northern Pacific, for Hamilton, the
metropolis of the wonderful Bitter
Root valley. Crossing the Missoula
river We We're soon speeding along
between two ranges of mountains,
but a few miles apart. The Rockies
and the Bitter Root. In many in
stances snow-capped peaks doomed
against the sky, and seemed forbid
ling, but in the valley quite another
condition invited, Here were nus
merous we'll established farm houser
with vegetation almost tropical, and
orchards everywhere. Shortly the
valley widened, giving greater oppor-
tunity for horticulturalists and
farmers, and tumbling down through
tl, a,t;n, uol1aN tnuipn fn tl,a
| north, runs the Bitter Root river. A
tream of beauty and filled with soft
cool snow water and springs of SINH
water, but with water and mountain
trout. Almost the fisherman's para
disc.
Our Impressions OF the valley were
thus far of the ecstatic kind; and it
almost seemed like a fairy land; but
| after reaching our destination, meet
ing the Wolgemuth families, and
taking in" the entire valley, by
| auto, we advanced our estimate of
it's value and virtues, some humid
| reds per cent
Real Fairy Tales.
We had been told fairy tales re-
garding it's fruits and climate, and
we expected that personal contact
would d%isillusion us, and that 1t
could o stand up to the mark Civ
Ell it by enthusiasts. Well; Either
we we're hypnotized. or "the half had
never been told" 1t is the veritabie
Garden of Eden. True, Adam does
not swell around there clad in a fig
leaf only, and no serpent ever tempts
an unsuspecting Eve, and man has to
earn his bread in the sweat of his
brow; but for all that it is an Eden.
Years ago that great copper king,
Marcus Daley, who knew a good thing
when he saw it, was captivated with
this valley, and he purchased $4,000
acres of it's limited area, spent some
two millions in getting an irrigation
| plant established, in building line
macaddam roads, lining the long e
nues with Carolina Poplars, in build
ing a castle that sports
| chambers with private baths, beside
ether modern conveniences; build
ing on every four hundred acres
| farm buildings for tenants, establish
ing a game preserve, setting out or
| chards, and ~cultivating the now fer
tile fields, (Note:-The valley would
be of little value if not irrigated) J.
building, among other things, u barn
where his horses could york out on
a quarter of a mile track without
leaving the barn, and adding many
minor details to it all, until 1t be
came a veritable drcamland for the
agriculturalist.
At forty-eight he passed away; but
the widow holds it intact, spending
her there, while continent
Europe seems good enough to sat
isfy her in winter. We autoed some
twenty-five miles over this estate
and for a brief period actually got
the idea that it was ours. but when
Uniformed that we could not even en-
ter the driveway leading to the cas-
tie our thoughts underwent
change.
Mitchell Boys Post.
We visited THE Inn" a hotel es'
tablished by the Bitter Root Valley
Irrigation Company, two miles from
a railway, and built to accommodate
the ~land-seekers that daily infesl
that valley for bargains. 1t is 9
dainty hotel in a dainty setting, ano
it's CUISINE equals the best. The Bit
ter Root company bought some fifty
thousand acres of land on the cas-
side of the river, but without water
They expended some three million
dollars under the direct superintend
ency of a Mitchell boy. Lee p. VOL
gemuth, in building a dam, over
half-mile long, and possibly Is fee
high, thus impounding water in !;
mountain lake, and furnishing suffi
cient for at least one hundred ant
sixty thousand acres. They bull
about ninety miles of canal, from
which the water is taken II
irrigate every foot OF that LAM
they own. Practically every acr'
of which is first quality frui
lands, although any vegetable o
grass will grow to the limit.
This company sells these lands
with water right, in tracts of ten o
more acres, and they will prepare ii
: plant an orchard of any kind of frui
desired, and at the end of five year
s turn it over to the purchaser with
I; full stand of trees averaging fv
years of age. and just ready to be
f gin bearing. They ask $4,000 pc