The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-05-30
THE CHANGING WEST.

The west is changing. Everyone is aware of that fact. The
changes are slow, gradual, subtle, and oftentimes the greatest
changes arei in the viewpoint of the people rather than the land
scape. The west of the olden time, the west OF romance, pathos
and tragedy, is becoming more matter of fact every day. The
old cow trails, following the natural grades of the country, have
become automobile highways; the willows and alders that shaded
the trout pools and watched the members OF the fshy kingdom
come and go with passing seasons now see flies cast on barren
waters. True, there is fishing in the bigger streams like the
West GaIlatin, in many of the small trout creeks that escape the
eye of the passing motorist, in the mountains where there are
no roads and the fish are safe yet awhie-but fishing as we
used to know it is hard to find these later days. The range is
gone, the cowboy is now a catalog order productive only thing
left unchanged are the eternal hills, too big for man to mar.
But it is the passing spirit of the old west we mourn the
most, the courage to face adversely, the courtesy that was Unborn
and the hospitality that was found nowhere else save In the south.
And it is of this latter we would speak.
It has been stated that the city of Bozeman contemplates
charging a fee at the tourist camp this summer, collecting fifty
cents a day from every car that stays the night with us at the
camp grounds; welcoming the tourist with true western hospital
iy of this later day!
The only arguments which have been advanced, to our knowI-
edge, in support of this course are that it will mean revenue for
the city (enough to pay for policing and caring for the tourist
park and that it is being done in other places on the Yellowstone
Trail, notably in the Dakotas and Minnesota.
Let us take these things up in order. Is the city of Bozeman
so near bankruptcy that it must need charge passing guests for
the mere privilege of spending their money with us. The recent
quarterly report of the city finance officer was given more or
less publicity because it showed a gain of some $4,000 to the city
as compared with a like period last year. Furthermore a recent
estimate on the money spent in Bozeman by tourists last season
reached the sum of $4,000. 1t does seem as though we should be
able to make both ends meet and still let the passing tourist
enjoy a nights hospitality without paying for it.
Other cities charge the tourists a nominal fee. The tourists
expect to pay it. Since when did BOzeman have to go to the
Dakotas and Minnesota to learn how to conduct her own affairs
Did the old timers who made this valley what it is today take al
their lessons and their initiative from states bordering the corr
belt? Because some other towns charge the tourists for a camp
site, must Bozeman rush into cOmmerciaism and do the same?
The tourists expect to pay it! That is the best reason of all
For the love of Mike-lets disappoint them for once.
Surrounded with every advantage nature can give to max
our city beautiful, enjoying a name for hospitality, the naturs
stopping place for tourists who desire a few days rest en- route
why spoil it all for fifty cents a day?
The tourist trade can mean much to Bozeman, not only from
the actual cash spent here, but from the word to mouth adver
Using as well. Let's send every tourist away from here prraisin
cur town. Charge them fifty cents for the meager facilities Q
our camping ~grounds-lets do the thing right, improve the par
until it is the best camping grounds in the state-and make tn
tourist welcome to everything we have.