Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1902 — The Big Horn Basin. [ARTICLE]

The Big Horn Basin.

In the north western corner of Wyoming east of the-Yellow Stone Park surrounded by snow capped mountain peaks lies the valley of the Big. Horn. a Until quite recently and in many parts yet this basin is a vast solitude. The Union Pacific R. R. passing about two hundred miles south and the Northern Pacific equally as far away on the north. | A branch of the Burlington R. R. now enters this valley through ’a mountain tunnel at the north 1 and extends about one half of the distance across. The head waters of the Big Horn river are fed by melting snow from the Wind river mountain which lie at the southern extremity of ■ this valley a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. | To your left and along the east side are the Big Horn mountains. I The Shoshone mountains to the south west and a spur of the lofty I Rockies to your right rises out of the Yellow Stone National Park. These mountains are all snow capped until late in the summer. There you are in a valley four thousand feet above sea, one hundred and fifty miles long and eighty miles wide. Surrounded by a wall of mountains that afford scenery sublime in summer and a protection against blizzards and fierce winds during the winter months.

The present attraction for eastern people is the rich farming lands now being rapidly taken up under the Big Horn irrigating canal at a price that can not fail making the investment a safe and profitable one. The air is invigorating, pure and dry giving one a keen appetite. This is the present home and residence of Buffalo Bill. The town of Cody at the terminus of the R. R. is named in his honor, he spent the past winter there and in April took his departure to join his show at Madison Squ are Garden, New York City. Hundreds of skulls and horns of the buffalo are now lying all over the prairies in this basin. Antelope yet run wild. Plenty of bear, elk and deer in the mountains. Passing out of this basin enroute home the Burlington R. R. carries you around the north spur of the Big Horn Mts. in Montana where gazing out of the car window between Crow Indian Agency and the town of Garry Owen one can see the Custer Monument in the distance, and the intervening space is dotted with the glistening slabs that mark the final resting places of the 261 Cavalrymen that fought and died with Custer on the 25th day of June 26 years ago, A sad reminder of what odds the early pioneers had to face when the red men like beasts roamed at will over these wild western lands. But for a few few weeks vacation, a fishing or hunting trip and a chance to free the mind from care, there is perhaps no better nook than iff'the Big Horn Basin in the heart of Wyoming. Everett Halstead.