Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-07-22
Progress OF Forty Years
In The Mouse Riuer Loop
ReuielUed III MinOt PAGEANT
Spectator. See. Founder. OF
The City Of Minot Pass
Through Hardships Of The
Early Days And Start City
Which Today Is One OF
Best Bushes. Centers In
North Dakota.
tBy George A. Benson.)

Minot N. D.. July 21.-Back across
the space OF forty years 'Minot folk
carried their minds today. In those
bitter. trying days OF 1882, they saw
tne founders Of their city trudging
along at the foot's pace Of oxen to-
ward the unattainable horizon, paus-
Ing at last. in this Mouse river valley
those early struggles against the ele-
!nsents, against fever and famine,
against death itself, and they saw the
pioneers triumphant at last. the soil
yielding to their efforts and giving
them life. They saw the early Minot,
q city Of tents and crude log huts,
and in the end, saw the new Minot, a
city Of much business and Of wonder
ful spirit: a Minot that cannot be
broken upon the wheel Of adversely.
Activities Stopped.
Today Minot paused in its activities
to honor those pioneers, some of
whom still are living in the city. In
parade and pageant, the folk OF this
city paid tribute to them and pledge;
themselves<anew to the work that wa.
begun here, forty years ago. Ana
with the people of Aiinot were men
and women from Other towns in
northwestern North Dakota, who
came here to pay a little Ct the debt
they " to those first settlers.
1t was a privilege to be a part Of
the celebration. l was a spectator
only, but 1 felt a part of it, for after
oil, We people of North Dakota, no
matter where we live, owe much to
the intrepid pioneers who drove>across
our plains in those days when civil
ration first began It's struggles upon
the prairies. We who live in the
Red River valley are indebted to the
pioneers Of the Mouse river district,
no less than to own. first settlers.
They were all a part of the empire
building force which gave III North
Dakota.
Because Of this, I have tried to
catch a glimpse Of those early days.
l went into the hills yesterday and
looked down into the valley, where
. nestled Minot, all snug and compact
along the ambling Mouse river, whose
trees gave it shelter and beauty. 1
looked around me, and saw wide
stretches OF farms, now colcred yef-
low and brown ana by ripened
the old trails, sstover which the first
pioneers trudged In their long and
weary journey to this district, and l
wondered If the people I saw in the
distance. some hustling through the
city and others far away under the
horizon moving over. the fields, ever
looked at those trails and thought Of
the people who first came over them.
I was in the hills again at shutdown,
and l saw the sum-, a huge red ball,
going down as it.rwere in some far
away valley, leaving the western. sky
al red and pink and purple, and I
thought how those long-ago sunsets
and the sky full Of stars which came
later were. the most varied spectacles
the pioneers could hope.
.,, Into the Past> Is.
I looked, then, into the past. I saw
the. trappers, j. F.. Booth and Edward
Booth, making their way into the
Mouse River valley. from the east 1
saw them struggling through the
small forest and the thick UNDER
brush: and 1 saw them, weary at last.
returning over their path. I saw Olaf
Olson, who was born. in Sweden and
who had settled in Michigan, coming
into the, valley in 1882 from Bis
mArck, where he had left his wife