The Ely miner., 1913-12-26
FOUND HIS CLAIM
Claim Hunting Discontinued Last
TEaVeIOguG


the Iron Range" country. where l
"bIew in something over hundred
dollars, acquiring experience, and
promised a dissertation this week on
"The Roof Of the United States"
At Ely. on my return there, met
State Forester named Gibbs, who told
me there was still plenty of homestead
land that was worth having, located
in northern Koochiching county, and
gave me the addresses of parties at
Beaudette, in that county. and L
therefore decided to pass up" my
contemplated visit to the Creamer
district and try my luck in the
"Rainey" country, so doubled back
on the Iron Range railroad as far as
Allen Junction, where | took branch
line to Virginia, where l could con-
meet with the Canadian Northern for
Fort Frances, just across the line
from International Falls, which is on
the American side.
At Virginia l had the pleasure of a
six hours wait for the connection and
had some opportunity to look around
this metropolis Of the woods district.
Here are located some of the most ex-
tensiVe iron mines in the world. many
of them worked from the surface, with
open pits. Also, the largest saWmlll
in the world is said to be the one To-
Gated at this place, though the avail
able saw timber of the immediate VI
cinity is about thing of the past,
and the "grist', which keeps this mill
grinding, day and night, comes from
far up the northern extremity or the
state by railroad. The sawdust is
burned in huge furnaces to make
steam to run the saws, and is thus
disposed of and prevented from be-
coming an obstruction about the
premises. A large and up-to-date
daily newspaper office testities to the
prosperity and Importance OF the
business interests of the place.
At 1910 we finally found ourself
aboard the train, northward bound,
on an all-night ride, which gave US
little or no opportunity to observe the
character of the country passed
through. But during this interval
we again crossed over the backbone"
of the iron range and in the morning
found ourself we'll across the geogra-
phical watershed of the American
continent. from where all streams run
northward, their waters finally reach
ing Hudson Bay, and it gives one the
feeling of being on the very roof of
the country. or, likening it to mans
head-fairly on top and the big Lake
of the Woods" which furnishes un-
limited fishing grounds on both sides
of the international line, seems like
the little bold spot on top of your
Uncle Samuel's head-nOt this Uncle
Sam, however, for trials and tribula-
tions have not yet been able to bring
him to that state of honored old age.
At Fort Francis the train crosses
the Rainy river and passes into Can
adian territory. After leaving there,
an inuuisitive fellow in gold braid
CAP follows the conductor through the
train, asking all sorts Of question
about where you came from, where
you are going and when you expect to
come back. You almost reach that
state of mind that prompts you to
ask "what's it to you?" when you
suddenly realize that he is that big
bug-bear of the international traveller,
the customs inspector. But satisfied
finally that we did not intend to land
on Canadian territory Jour ticket
called for the first station after pass
ing back into the U. S. he passed on
without inspecting the contents Of
our grip.
Beaudette being the first station on
the two-cent fare and three-cent STREET
ches Of the road. others have the habit
of buying their tickets to that point
who really have no intention of get
ting off, and when we passed through
there at 4 o'clock in the morning we
happened to be talking to one Of these
parties, who was known to the con-
ductor, and so they took no pains to
call the station when stopping, and as
there was not light to be seen in
the place at that hour, we supposed it
to be some side-track place and did
not get off, and only realized that we
had passed our destination when the
con. came by and politely requested
us to ''dig up' again.
After giving him Our blessing for
carrying us past our destination, we
dug" going on to the next town of
Importance, which happened to be
Warroad, in Beltrami county, from
where we expected to double back on
the next train, which we Learned did
not 20 until 200 in the afternoon.
As this gave us half day to "kill'
in Warroad, and we had heard con-
siderable of the place, we concluded
we might as we'll look around"
bit. and so hunted up local source of
all information, the editor Of the
village paper, who proved to be
clever fellow, willing to oblige and
anxious to see the country fill up with
genuine settlers. He took us over to
the u. S. Commissioners office to look
up the plats and see if there was