The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1913-03-07

of the prairie state; no floods, like
those of the Mississippi basin; no tor
rental rain, like those of the Pacific
coast; no whitening cold, like Mon
tana and North Dakota
When / was contemplating coming
to this region met lady. fresh from
the Wasatch region, and, trying to
give me an idea of the climate, she
told me she had made calls the pre-
.vious Christmas day all through the
middle of the day without any jacket
or wrap, so delightful and balmy was
it, came, and the next Christmas
there was a furious snow Storm with
thunder and lightning, and soon
after the thermometer fell to % de-
grees below zero in our capital city,
which white men, who had been there
since l847, had never before seen ap-
preached We heard of frightful cold
in Montana, and at Butte and Hell
ena; just after that, business called
me to those cities and Great Falls. I
dressed for the artic regions and
when l arrived at Butte the midday
air was soft and warm; at Helena on
February 18th l gathered wild flowers
on the south side of Mount Helena,
and also on the 21st at Great Falls;
two weeks afterwards the thermo-
meter dropped to 6 below zero and
for two days. That was in the winter
of 1898; "The Oldest inhabitant" re-
called no winter like it. Then the
summer of 1889 was the hottest that
white men had even known here
abouts; it was the boom" year in the
city where l lived, and Indian Sum-
mer weather continued, not only
through November, but through De-
cember and January, with almost no
snowfall; and the wise-acres prophe- |
sled hot and dry summer following,
for snow falling after mid-winter was
no good; only early snow would pack,
freeze and slowly melt to supply irri-
cation water through the summer. In
our city contractors used electric
lights and worked night gangs
through January. About February
st the spell of weather broke-snow
began falling; plenty of it, and wet
md heavy; would roll, slide and
reeze; for six weeks snow fell on an
!verage as often as every other day.
The next summer we had all the irri-
'ation water we desired, and it was
lot extremely warm
And what variety of weather in
'ur country in the same "a hours: yes,
nd on the same parallel of latitude
lso. remember morning in mid
darch, 1888, that the grass was start
ng green in my back yard, farmers in
he country had been blowing for
ONE time, the air was spring like; but
'hen the morning paper came at
reaktast time we read that the after.
DON snow had fallen so fast and
eavy that the express trains on the
ouble track roads in New England
I'd New York were stalled between
g towns, and the passengers had to
ted by bread and dough-nuts from
e nearby farm houses; and it took
night to move one train five miles.
it'll every engine, pillow and man that
'uld help.
There's another intensely interesting
Ct about our region that L enjoy:
ia that is our great fora; from the
ib-tropical to the artic, our high
fountain ranges and protected val
Us supplying the vast variety: such
eautfful columbines l have seen at
l altitude of over ten thousand feet
n the Uintah mountains, and deep
low drifts many rods. long only a
w feet away. l have been told that
lie whole state of Iowa has but 600
arieties in its fora, while in Utah
1ere is over 5000!
enjoy this climate, l like this. to
le. real Gem of the Mountains
nd Canyon county, with its high
rade citizens, its public institutions.
nd full appreciation of them; fact
nat pleases me is, that our old timers,
ioneers, plain people, value and are
roud OF our privileges as we'll as
hose who have been attracted here
ecause of them.
OBSERVER.