The Benson signal., 1917-05-19

plOIcIS, pIOSpcCLOES duU dUVeuCur0rS,
who sought what they craved in the
wild hills. There were one or two good
hotels for tourists, unusually extensive
general stores of the better class,
where hunting and prospecting parties
.,Ould be outfitted, and the high-living
extravagant cattle ranchers could get
what they demanded. Besides all
these there were the modest homes of
the lovers Of the rough but exhilarating
and health-giving life of the Rocky
mountains. Of course there were nu-
merous saloons and gambling halls,
and the town was the haunt of cow
boys, hunters. miners, IndianS-the old
frontier with few touches Of civiliza-
ton added!
What waA left Of the river, which
had made the valley-and during the
infrequent periods of rain too brief to
be known as the rainy season, it really
lived up to the name of river-f1owed
merrily through the town, when it
flowed at all, under the name of Picket
Wire. When the railroad came the
Picket Wire had been first studied in
the hope of finding a practicable way
over the mountains, but the ravine on
the other side of the mesa had been
found to offer a shorter and more prac-
ticable route. And, by the way, this
ravine, taking it's name from the little
brook far down IN it's narrows, was
known as the Kicking Horse"
Sc. the railroad ran up the ravine
and the Picket Wire was left still vir-
gin to the assaults Of man. But the
day came when it was despOiled of it's
hiGhertO long standing, unravished in
Aocence. Shouts of men, cracking of
whips, trampling of horses, groaning
of wheels, wordless but vocal protests
of beasts of burden mingled with the
ringing of axes, the detonations Of dy-
Mantle. The whistle of engines and
the roar Of steam filed the valley. Un-
der the direction of engineers, q huge
mound of earth arose across its mar
rOweSt part, nearest a shoulder, or
spur, of the mesa reaching westward.
No more should the silver Picket Wire
flow unvexed on it's way to the sea. 1t
was to be damned.
All that the huge, hot inferno of
baked plain, where sage brush and
buffalo grass alone grow, needed to
make it burgeon with wheat and corn
was water. The little Picket Wire,
which had meandered and sparkled
and chartered on at it's own sweet win
was now to be held until 1t filed a
great lakelike reservoir in the hills
back of the new earth dam. Then
through skillfully located irrigation
bitches the water was to be given to
the millions of hungry little wheatlets
and cOrnlets, which would clamor for q
drink. The fierce sun was no longer to
work it's unthwarted will in burning
up the prairie.
With the promise of water on the
plain beyond, Coronado sprang into
newer and more vigorous life. In the
language of the West it "boomed." The
railroad had been a forlorn branch
running up into the mountains and
ending nowhere. It's first builders had
been daunted by difficulties and lack
of money, but as soon as the great dam
was projected, which would open sew
eral hundred thousand acres for culti-
walton and serve as an inspiration in
it's practical results to other similar
attempts, people came swarming into
the country buying up the land, the
price for acreage steadily mounting.
The railroad accordingly found it
worth while to take up the long-aban-
doned construction work Of mounting
the range and crossing it. Men sud-
denly observed that it was the short