Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1909 — John Stewart Tells Of His Trip to the Black Hills. [ARTICLE]

John Stewart Tells Of His Trip to the Black Hills.

Burke, S. Dak., June 25, 1909. Editor of Republican and Jasper County Friends: It is some tipie since I wrote to you. I have lived here for sixteen months and fgr the, good of my Jasper county friends I will tell you how I see things now. - The winter was not much worse than they are in Indiana. We had some pretty cold weather; March was a very able month. Then when we started our spring work it was dry, and a great many of the people were afraid we were going to have season. But the spring rains came and we have had a beautiful season up to the present. I do not think the wheat will make a large crop. It is spotted, but the foats look very fine. Corn looks good where it has been worked, but there has been so much rain that some could not be worked and the weeds are about to take it. No I don’t want to praise this country up, nor yet do I wish to run it down. I want to tell you just as I see it. I like the country very well. At the present time I am staying here from choice. I sowed over one hundred acres of oats, but did not put in any corn, as I am going to leave in September. The land is good here, and still raising in value. They are very busy at present selling relinquishments in Tripp county. There has been some Indian deeded land sold out there as high as SIO,OOO a quarter. But if one takes time and looks around, he can buy a relinquishment for from three to seven hundred dollars and prove it up himself. I must tell you of my trip to the Black Hills, as I just got home from there last night. E. W. Gwin and another neighbor and myself started June 15th on a homeseekers’ ticket, costing sl9 from Burke to Sturgis. I stopped one day there and went out to Fort Meade. It is about one and a half miles out of town, and is a beau-, tiful place. There are about 600 cavalry there, and very fine buildings, and all sorts of amusements for the boys; Great improvements going on at the present time. From Sturgis to. Vale, about 20 miles, I paid $1.50 stage fare. They have had great rains there and many of the culverts and bridges were washed out. After crossing creeks and draws and climbing hills I thought the roads were not very good. I went around the base of “Bear Butte”, it covers about a section of land, being 4,004 feet above sea level, and said to be about 1,400 feet high. About 700 feet up its side there is a flowing spring of fine water. There is a few good looking apple orchards in that part of the country. They raise corn there too, the earlydent and the bloody-butcher. They told me they raised from 25 to 40 bushels to the acre, where it was handled right. =========

Then I went through the irrigation district. I believe that that will make a fine country. The soil is the least bit sandy, and with water and sunshine I think they will raise anything they want too. They put locks in the ditches as they do in canals, and raise the water above the surface level. I was told that the dam was 125 feet high at Bell Fourche. It backs the water over thousands of acres of land. It is 51 miles round about the water. Supposed to irrigate the country two years without a drop of rain. But they have had altogether too much rain this year. Well I left Vale for Sulphur, 30 miles, paid $3.00 stage fare. That is where I have my claim and there I met H. H. Hayes and his family. They were all well and said they liked that part of the country. He has a nice piece of land along a creek, and he had 20 acres broke, corn, potatoes and beans and garden looking fine, and ho end to the grass, it stands from eight to ten inches high, as thick as the hair on a dog’s back. And mosquitoes, Oh, My! The water I drank from creeks was soft water, fine for washing. E. W. Gwin’s claim and my own joins H. H. Mayes’ on the west. We were well pleased with them. It can all be plowed. But twothirds of that township has been filed upon since I was there in February. If you would ask me if I liked that country, I could not answer that question at the present time because it takes two days to go and come from town. And the liverymen and hotel keepers are not there for their health. But there are hundreds of people moving in with their teams, tools and a man to go there, and also a little money. There is strong talk of two raidroads making for Bell Fourche, the N. W. and Milwaukee. I Baw the surveyors myself. They have located

a government townsite on the ditch, nine miles north of Vale, and great excitement prevails in that part of the country, over she railroads. E. W. Gwin and myself hired a man to haul our lumber and build our house, paying from $26 to s3l per thousand for shiplap and dimension stuff at Vale. My claim is from 3 to 4 miles from ,the Sulphur postoffice. I helped Mr. Hayes to dig a well while I was there; went down about 10 feet, struck some kind of rock, which when the air got to it, all crumbled. The next day, being Sunday, I went back and lookqd in the well. There was from 5 to 6 inches of seep water in it. I drank of it and it was good soft water. But he will have to go deeper yet to get a supply. If there are any of my Jasper county friends thinking of coming to that part of the country they’d better get a move on them. But of course I do not advise anything; what suits one does not always suit another. But you can get homesteads out from the ditch district, or you can get 80 acre homesteads in the ditch district, or you can take 40 acre homesteads up against government towns for 2% miles out. It costs S3AO an acre every year for ten years. Then it is estimated that it will take 40 cents an acre for all time to keep the ditches in repair. 1 think I will stop writing now for I could write all day and not be through telling you about this country, because we all see things differently. But if you go the road I went, you will see lots of cactus and prairie dog towns, and also things that you like and things that you don’t like. Well, guess I will stop now. Yours truly, JOHN STEWART.