Cottonwood chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1917-current, 1920-09-17
TELLS ABOUT MINES IN ELK
Transportation Has Been the
Drawback i'm this Section

principal resource OF industry to
the inattention of almost every
thing else. But there are some
things in which certain districts
or towns excel others and which
are indissolubly linked with their
renown. Thus Milwaukee was
noted for its beer Reno for div
orces and Mississippi for tad
poles and niggers. The Elk re-
gion has, because of its rich gold
production, never been consider
ed anything but mining region,
at least so by people who have
never visited this district and
whose only acquaintance or
knowledge thereof is such as
they have CLEANED from reports
emenating from there.
You can imagine our surprise
then as we looked over this val
ley and saw nice farm homes,
meadow and stubble fields and
even a few straw piles. Who
would have thought that grain
would grow here at this altitude
and surrounded on all sides by
mountains several thousand feet
higher than the valley itself
which has an altitude of $500
feet. One might expect some
attempts to be made at grain
hay but to find that grain act
ually matured here and that they
even had threshing machines
here was a real and pleasant re-
velation to us. Naturally the
acreage sown to grain is very
limited and neither does it es-
cape injury from frost every
year, but that they do some
times raise fine wheat and oats
and that of very good quality
we saw with our own eyes. The
grain is grown only on the slopes
near the bottom lands, at such
places where the snow disap-
pears in the spring several weeks
earlier than on the lower mead
ows which are entirely given
over to timothy and natural
grasses of which these lands
yield abundantly.
The seeding of grain has to be
done just as soon as the snow is
off the land and the snow may
be several feet deep yet in places
on the low lands while seeding is
being done on the slopes.
The total area in meadow and
grain is of course very limited,
the valley having an average
width of only about mile and
in some places less. These mead
ows produce a luXul,iant growth
of grass which is every year cut
for hay and which it is said is
superior feed for stock to that of
timothy OF grain hay. The
yield is not so heavy however as
that of a good crop of timothy.
As several days latter we drove
from Elk City to Finley Station,
point about midway between
Elk and Dixie. we noticed many
meadows and hay stacks as also
farm homes. This route the
greater part of the way follows
Red River, which at some places
is hemmed in by timbered slopes
from the mountain ranges, ter
minating in rocky bluffs extend
ing right down to the waters
edge. then again flowing peace
fully through meadows from one
half to a mile wide as for in
stance at Finley's. At Mr.. Fin
leys we saw some excellent
wheat and oats raised this year.
The heavy frost we had here the
latter part of August was much
heavier up there of course but in
spite of this the grain was well
filled and apparently had not
been seriously injured. Mr..
Finley said that he could grow
gram oIl Iilc SIOpCS Olily dDONS
the meadows and had to do his
seeding before snow was off the
low lands. There is no thresh-
er in this valley except the one
Mr.. Finley jestingly jointed out
to us hanging in the barn, con-
sisting of a small pole about six
feet long with a heavy club
about two feet long tied to
one end of it. Yet with this
primitive machine, if an old fash
ioned flail can be called a mach
inc. he threshed last year sever
al hundred sacks of wheat and
oats. With everywhere along
the creeks an abundance of grass
cattle looked sleek and fat.
This is essentially a stock coun-
try no attempt being made to
grow grain anymore than just
enough for seed.
Rut yva haua dioraccad froy,a