The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-12-11
I'M MESSAGE

1t is the aim Of this paper to make each and every issue
a truthful and favorable advertisement of it's home com
munity, but this weeks number is designed as a special
effort in cooperation with the mighty movement called
forth by montana Month It is hoped that thousands
of copies Of the story of Wolf Point and it's country will
reach the hands of those in distant states who are consid-
ering a new location in which to seek homes and carve
their destiny.
Migrating to a new frontier has since early Colonial
days appealed to American manhood and WOmanhoOd as
a great adventure. The primative frontier of rs years ago
has practically passed, along with the covered wagon,
Indian outbreaks and free homesteads, but there is still
the frontier of opportunity where adventurous, determined
and resourcefu people may carry on the earnest, alluring
battle of life and fortune with far greater promise Of vic
tory than III the slow, conservative, cOngeSted East. To
reach these opportunities the h0meseeker does not travel
by OK team, but in a motor car or on "the cushions" But
these new conditions do not lessen the thrill of the thOught
OF wrestling wealth from the virgin soil, attaining indie
pendence, winning a home for self and family.
There is something about life and the activities on the
thinly settled plains that once in the blood stays there.
Stays to breed pity for the ~huddled, hurried and worried
city crowds. Stays to breed a mild scOTn for the cautious,
incredulOus say-at-homes of the old home neighborhood.
Those thoroughly innoculated with the West sometimes
go back but they seldom stay. They just can't.
The editor of this paper has been over the route. He
feels qualified to speak to the westward bound by lifelong
experience. It was 81 years ago the 9Th day Of last June
that his father landed the family safely in Yankton, Da-l
kota Territory, after a journey by prairie schooner from
southern Wisconsin, across a wet and muddy Iowa. A
year later found us on a homestead 80 miles out. It was
a wonderful country of great productive possibilities and
blessed with greater and more uniform rainfall than east
en Montana, but how poorly it compared with eastern
montana III many OCnef Cn1nQS that enter largely into real
ness of opportunities. For instance there was no trunkline
railroad piercing the country and connecting it by fast
trains with eastern markets. There were no made roads
few bridges over streams, no telephones, no rural mail
routes, daily newspapers were unthought of, radios I'M
dreamed of. There were no rural schools for several years,
and organized churches were yet uninterrupted. There
was no Farm Bureau, no community clubs, no pure seed,
no pure bred slres, farm implements were crude. Worst Of
all markets were limited, except for grain, which had to
be hauled long distances without motor trucks.
Grasshoppers destroyed the scattering crops several
seasons. Although more than 500 miles southeast of here
the farmers were years discovering that corn could be
successfully raised. Many became discouraged and
trekked on in quest of a better country, DESERVING land
that in Is or 20 years became worth first 500 an acre,
then $3.50.
Twice again between that country and this we have
seen virgin prairie develop, after drawbacks and dis
c~ouragements, into productive farms of great value. The
losers were always those who quit. The winners were al
ways those who stuck and learned the methods that have
brought success.
Speaking in all sincerity and with confidence born Of
a half century of observation in the Northwest, we say to S
homeseekers that opportunity awaits them here in the
wolf Point country. Opportunities which, because of
modern facilities and agricultural progress, are far better :
than our fathers had in Minnesota and Iowa 80 to SO years :
ago. Ii you possess sufficient money and property to :
start you, and have within you those traits which every :
where and always are essential to success, then you will :
succeed on this cheap and productive land Montana offers. :
Where others are winning success and building up safely :
and surely from small beginnings you can do likewise :
II you have faith, courage and resource. =
Next issue The Herald will have something to say in re- =
ply to the independents final spleenish outbreak. The :
editor has been devoting about fifteen hours a day this =
week getting out a booster edition for Wolf Point Week =
md Montana Month, and has had no time for the disagree ::
duty that will be attended to next week. :
--O- %
Whoever you are, where ever you are, the Wolf Point =
community wishes you Merry Christmas and a New Year -
with Ifes richest blessings. If you get the Mon =