The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1913-08-12
CACTUS GROWS ON
MICHIGAN DESERT
Detroit Free Press.)

Muskegon, Mich.-People who find
poetry in solitude need not go to the
great American desert.
The cactus blooms within the boun-
daries of the State of Michigan. In
Newaygo county, eight miles due
north of the Commonwealth Power
Company's big dam at Corton, with the
post-office of Big Paririe on it's edge,
is tract as waste as any alkali plain
of the West. Western Michigan boos-
tiers resent the imputatiOn that all the
soil in this part of the State is COM
posed of pine barrens and blow-sand
Their resentment is with reason, as
the exact converse is true. Western
Michigan's increasing reputation as a
fruit. country proves this. But occa-
sional areas of the sand-blow can be
found.
For years there has been a legend
of cactus growth in Western Miclk-
gan. Story after story was told of the
mythical cactus, but nobody ever
pointed out where it might be found.
A few years ago monthly magazine
had a lengthy article on cactus that
was said to grow somewhere in the
1t is related in detail how tradition
ran that a remnant of the ancient
Toltecs of Mexico, driven north by the
conquering Aztecs who conquered and
nearly wiped out their nation to found
a new empire which died with Monte
yuma, fed northward, bearing maize
seed and the seed of the succulent
cactus.
They finally settled in Muskegon
county, so the story ran, only to be
wiped out finally by the wilder tribes
of the lake region. The only relic of
their presence were fields of wild
corn found by the early settlers and
the cactus.
Some of the old settlers strenuously
maintained until their death that the
story was true and that they obtained
it from the lips of POtawattomies and
Chippewas. Indians, they declare, re-
lated how an invading band of Sioux
the fierce prairie Indians of the Dako-
tas, swept into Michigan and fell on
the hapless Toltec village, killing men,
women and children and burning their
wigwams, so that this New Carthage
of the Toltecs suffered the fate of the
old Numidian town.
The Indians always pointed to the
north and west as the place where the
village was situated. This was taken
to mean the north end of the county.
When the story was circulated that
cactus was to be found in Blue Lake
township, local residents at once jump
ed to the conclusion that this must be
the place where the last of the ToltecS
persisted
Naturalists have thoroughly secured
the north end of the county, how
ever, but the tabled cactus, except for
isolated plants here and there, was
was not to be found. This is not sur
prisfpg, as the Blue Lake region is COW
cred with pine and scrub oak growth,
and a country that would produce this
vegetation would not grow cactus. So
the cactus and Toltec story fell into
! disrepute.
| Now the story is revived by the &C
tual finding of not only the specimen
of cactus, but whole acres of it, grow.
/ ing as high as a mans knee in what
is known as big Prairie" Newaygo
county.
Going north from Corton through the
! wilderness of underbrush and timber
there are three treeless and nearly fiat
plains. The two smaller are covered
with grass and every variety of wild
flower to be found on Michigan soil
The larger, known as big Prairie,
with the postoffice of Big Prairie on
its rim, is Michigan's desert.
! Nothing but occasional tufts of long
desert grass and the cactus grow
there. The brown sand drifts to and
fro with every breeze. When gale
blows the tiny particles of quartz swirl
through the air and beat with singing
blows against the face and hands
Hundreds of acres are included in the
tract, which is open and level as faI
as an eye can see.