Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1904 — THE RICH ROSEBUD LAND. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE RICH ROSEBUD LAND.

Comparatively Good Order Has Prevailed in Its Recent Settlement. Bonesteel, 8. D., Correspondence: The laud for which white men have sighed and died for half a century and in defense of which the fierce Sioux have given up thousands of lives since they first took possession of it centuries ago, has been opened by government action and settlers are streaming in. There are 2,400 homesteads on the Rosebud reserve and for these 75,000 applications have been made. The cost is nominal and since the land lies in the most fertile part of South Dakota, just west of the Missouri River, it is not surprising that there should be a great demand for it. It is probably the finest body of land which the government ever took from the Indians to give to the white men. Two years ago Bonesteel consisted of one house; three months ago the town

had 500 Inhabitants; to-day it is a city of tents and rough wooden boarding houses - and has about 5,000 citizens, a vast majority of whom are transients and will leave as soon as the drawing Is completed. It is the very newest of> tho boom towns of the West, and, besides containing all the ordinary ‘’freaks” of itsxilass of towns, boasts a number which are strictly new and original. But there will soon be another town in

the field which, according to its sponsors, is destined to become the center of industry of the Rosebud country. This town is named St. Elmo, and Just now contains nothing but the tepees of the Eagle Pipe family. But just as soon as the reserve is opened for actual settlers St. Elmo will spring up Jike a mushroom. Already various industries have bee* planned, and a telephone system, local and long distance, has been ordered; portable houses are at Bonesteel all ready to be moved to the new town at a moment’s notice, and a number of houses in this town will be placed on wheels and rolled over the prairie to St. Elmo when the time comes. An electric light plant is planned, the power to be obtained from a dam over the Willow Creek, which flows through the site of the town. Altogether, it is expected that within two weeks after the town is opened it will have at leas| 2,000 population.

A RANCHER'S HOME.

WAITING FOR THE DRAWING.