Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1883 — Ten Days in Dakota. [ARTICLE]

Ten Days in Dakota.

BY FRANK W. BABCOCK.

HUM. Thin |g the present terminus of the main line of the C. and N. W. By. It is on the Bast bank 6f the Missouri river,7Bl miles, by rail, from Chicago. The town was laid out in 1880, and now claims 1000 inhabitants. There are, probably, 700 or 800. The business K' of the town is at the foot of the , on the first bottom, which seldom overflows, and extends back from the river about 1000 feet; thence the surface rises in a series of terraces or “benches’’ of varying height and depth, to an altitude of 500 to 600 feet above the river, the first Dench is about 10 feet higher than the bottom, and but a narrow shelf where we crossed it; the next is 30 feet higher, and about 150 feet in depth. Hereon stands the Congregational church building, and the public school auilding. The third “bench” rises 40 faet above the second, and is a beautiful plateau, with an occasional ravine, stretching up and down the course of the river, with a gentle ascent toward the summit; for about 80 rods in width, thence by a steeper grade rises and breaks up into irregular hills, peaks and knobs, with ravines, deep gulches, sinks and chasms between. Tne landscape, viewed from the river landing, is pleasingly picturesque.

A VIHW FROM THE HEIGHTS s grand and awe-inspiring. Standing on the summit of the highest point, six hundred feet higher than the river, and two miles from the little town, its buildings “seemed but tiny speck's below.” Opposite is Fort Pierre, at the foot of the sombre hills west of the river, which rise in solemn grandeur and with more abruptness than those on which we stand. The sparse growth of cactus and the straggling tufts of sage and buffalo glass on their upper parts is lost in the distance, so that the crown and upper third seem entirely barren, and present only a dark frowning surface. Their middle and lower portions are covered with the greyish-light-brown buffalo grass of last year, while about the foot of the hills cattle are grazing on the green sward jnst putting into new life. To the right and left a haze of-blue smoke hovering above the tor bid waters, marks the tortuous path of this gjeat stream, wbioh has been robbed of its paternal glory as “Father of Waters” and given instead the significant sobriquet of “Big Muddy.” To the north and east, some miles distant, the rugged hills graduate into the less broken and, generally speaking, gently undulating plains of Hughes and Sully counties, thence far beyond the reach of eye or ordinary telescope, stretches this treeless, boundless sea of prairie, in which thousands are daily planting their shacks to try their fortunes in an untried land. As we stood here, emigrants with wagons and outfitting supplies, just off the cars, tugged slowly up the hills and,through the passes, to new homes in the “wonder-land.” Some of these, Ve learned by intervewing them, had been on their claims last year, some had selected on actual view this spring and others had never seen or been near their prospective homes. Much of the land is yet unsurveyed, but the resistless tide of emigration waits not for Uncle Sam to measure off his land, far on, beyond the lines run and stakes set by his surveyors, they pitch their tents, and set up their shanties. Some, in clubs or colonies, employ a surveyor, and, starting from the nearest Government survey stakes, run for many miles to get beyond the squatters, and locate their lines so that they hopo to be about right when the auihorized survey is made.

Our ascent of the hills was immediately after breakfast. Having fatigued our eyes upon the grand views, indulged in some meditations while resting our limbs, and learned all we could from interviewing emigrants, we returned to the modernized IDtSAL FRONTIER TOWN. *• More than 2000 acres are already platted into town lots, with uo sign of a halt. There are 3 hotels and one more building; 4 “Banks' 1 ’ aud another building; 5 general stores, 8 groceries, and hardware, Bor 10 confeotionarys, and miscellaneous small stocks, including millinery, Harness etc., ono church and 8 saloons, one school building, and 42 “attorneys” and “Real Estate Agents.” There are no agricultural lands within live miles and but little withiu 20 miles. It is truly “on the border.” Immediately west is the great Sioux reservation, covering that portion of Dakota west of the Missouri and south of . the Cheyenne rivet. The Missouri cannot be relied on, as a channel of commerce. Her little steamers have been ten days getting from Pierre to Yankton, a trip they ought to make in two days. These delays-are unusual, of course, but; American commerce will not trust to such slow and uncertain channels. This place and Blunt are two of the principal points at which emigrants leave the rail and procure supplies for locating in Hughes and Sully counties, and the western part of Faulk. And until other lines ot railroad are built, Pierre must be one of the trading points for the settlers who remain ib the sec* tion just mentioned. Aside from this, the only commercial importance of i ieiru is as AH OUTFITTING POST for the Black hills country. It is the base of sttpp’ics for the N. W. Transportation Co., which ruus a stago line (daily) and a wagon freight train, Horn Pierre to Dead Wood. This corporation uses about 2000 horses and mules, 10,000 oxen and a numoer of men T; eir freight is handled by machinery. Tired Ur their great broad-tired.

wagon, efcfch containing two tons of freight, are fattened together, and to the first one Id yoke of Oxen are hitched. £en of these sections form a train, under the care of a conductor, with a cook forth*train and driver or “801 l whacker** for each section* I had for companions of travel here a brilliant young lawyer of Michigan and a shrewd careful Vermonter of mature years, also of the legal profession. In the day we spent here, our intercourse was mostly, with the Bankers, Lawyers and Beal Estate Agents. They were all very corteous and manifested a patient willingness to enlighten our minds about the country, and especially the superior advantages of Pierre from their point of view. I believe each one of them would willingly have sold us any number of lots in his addition that we could have found the cash to pay for. We were attentive auditors and their arguments were listened to with well concealed amusement. ‘‘Booming” here is reduced to a system. It reminded me of Egglestons “Rise and fall of Metropolisville” and I came away from Pierre feeling like I has lived at least one day in romance. A wealthy corporation is largely interested in town lots here, having sold but one addition of 40 acres they have laid out 600 acres more and propose to spand SIOO,OOO if necessary, in buildings etc., to accomplish sales of their lots. No doubts are expressed here about the Capitol/being located at this point. W* LEFT THEM SOMETHING. on every hand and in various ways we were offered opportunities to invest. One of the smoothest ot them said to my Yankee friend: “You will not go way \rithout leaving us something?” “I think! shall pay my hotel bilk” quickly answered the Green Mountain man. So he and tho Wolverine paid their hotel bills, and not to be out done by my friends or mean with Pierre, I left them my good will, and permission to lay out ail their land in town lots. THE JIM RIVER VALEEV. Returning from Pierre, Sunday morning, we passed along a portion of the boundary of the Winnebago reservation on Medicine creek, where we saw a few lazy Indians, lounging along the banks of the creek, grazing their poneys on dead buffalo grass. Since much of my travel was in the night, the inquiry will naturally arise: “How can you speak from actual view of a country passed in the night time?” The answer is that my travel was so planned that