The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1916-10-20
HOW M0NTANAN
MADE A MILLION
NORTHERN PACIFIC FORCED
FLOCKMASTER TO BUY
LARGE ACREAGE,
Had to Have it for Grazing Purposes;
Railroad Insisted on Price of ST
Per Acre; Flockmaster could now
Sell it for Million Dollars.

It is not often that big railroad
forces a man into making million
dollars, but that is what the Northern
Pacific railroad did to Rudolph Mott,
one of the plutocrats of southeastern
Montana.
Mott is flockmaster. Years ago
he grazed his sheep on the open range
north of Billings on land owned by
the Northern Pacific. The sheep in
creased and multiplied uptil Rudolph
was man Of substance. The range
was free, the grasses were succulent
and nourishing. All Molt had to do
was to attend to the marketing of his
wool and mutton.
Then from the clear sky Of his con-
tent came thunderbolt. The legal
department. of the Northern Pacific
decided that the company would Ell
company's land, or sell the land to
flockmasters and cattlemen on easy
terms and long time payments. The
land had come to the road as a gov
eminent grant in consideration Of the
road being build into the west.
The Railroad s Offer.
The proposition to Molt was that he
could lease As 600 acres of land from
them in the Lake Basin country, for
grazing purposes, or the company
would sell it to him outright. In the
event Of sale, which was preferred,
Mott was to pay for the land at the
rate Of ST. per acre, 10 cents per acre
down, and 10 cents per acre per year.
Molt waxed wroth at the proposal
of the railroad attroneys. He had en-
joyed the grazing privileges so long
that he considered it public domain, as
did every other man in the sheep bust
ness. He declared that he would nei-
Their rent nor purchase.
But he had to have $4,000 acres on
which to Craze his growing flocks. He
canvased the country thoroughly.
There was no available tract of land
in all Montana sufficiently large on
which to pasture his sheep. After
several months Of investigation, he de-
cided that he was up against it. He
capitulated. He bought the land.
But he did not surrender gracefully.
He was loud in his protest at what he
considered an injustice.
The years rolled on, ten of them. At
i. the end Of ten years he had paid for
his land He made handsome for
tune out of his sheep. Owning the
land he could keep other sheepmen'
who sought to encroach upon his pas
lures, away. He began to realize that
he had not made such a bad invest
ment after all.
Comes the Dry Farmer.
Then some homesteaders went into
the Lake Basin country. Irrigationists
laughed at them because in those days,
outside of the irri gated sections, Mon
tana was considered an arid waste, fit
only for grazing purposes.
But the dry land farmers put in a
crop of wheat. The wheat grew. The
irrigationists poled fun at the dry
landers. The wheat ripened and was
harvested. It's yield was equal to that
of the irrigated acres. The irrigation
lists said it was a freak, that the pro-
cess could not be repeated. The next
year the dry farmers grew more
wheat. Then more dry land farmers
came and grew more wheat, and have
been doing it ever since. They dem
onstrated that wheat could be grown,
year in and year out, with a much
larger profit, the price of land con
sidered, than could be made Of irri-
gated land.
Bargain Looks Better.
With the demonstration of dry
land possibilities Mott began to think
more kindly of his bargain. The land
he was forced to buy began to take on
a value. Land buyers opened negotia-
lions with him. He was offered ten
times what he had paid for it.
The land which Molt paid 81 per
acre for, under protest, could now be
sold for IS times that sum. 1t is
worth in round figures $1,000,000.
incidentally it might be stated that
Mott started in life in the Billings
country without any means. Now he
is affluent. He rides about in a big
limousine car. and goes to Europe
once a year. Aside from his land hold
ings he has made fortune out of his
sheep. And while he does not con-
slider the Northern Pacific as exactly
a philanthropic institution, he has a
kindly feeling for the big railroad
which forced him into his realms of
plutocracy.