Conservation Resources Lig-Free® Type I Ph 8.5, Buffered Along the New Line ■"^^to the Pacific Coast opportunities on the CHICAGO MILWAUKE,E, 6 ST. PAUL RAILWAY / F Where Things Move Fast STORY OF A 300-Mile Drive Through North Dakota and Montana Not so many years ago the western borderland of Missouri, Iowa, Minne- sota and Nebraska presented a ragged fringe of newly made farms, thrust into what then seemed a boundless, inexhaustible expanse of unoccupied, black soil — prairie lands. Sons of the farmers of that time, needing land, simply moved out ten or twenty miles upon the newly-surveyed areas, choosing and occupying homestead claims, almost undisturbed by competing land hunters. During the '80 's though, something happened. A fierce '* land-hunger " replaced this creeping of settlement, this normal expansion. The Dakotas in little more than half a dozen years saw more than 350,000 entrymen settle within their borders, and 100,000 pioneers added to the population of their newly christened towns and villages. To the extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway's num- erous feeders in these states, more than to any other factor, did this movement owe its existence. It drew to this prairie country not only farmers but thousands of uien and women from every known occupation, drew them ami made possible their successful occupation and up-building of these vast com- monwealths as we see them today. THOUSANDS OF HOMESTEADS OPEN TO SETTLERS. Nowhere in the United States under like conditions, upon a like solid area of plowable, black loam, in a like space of time, will so vast a number of homeseekers be accommodated, yet I dare say first hand, having just finished a drive of 300 miles or more along the extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway between Marmarth, North Dakota, on the Little Missouri, and the Musselshell Eiver, in the heart of northern Montana, that there remain within five to twenty miles of this new line to the Pacific Coast thousands of homesteads well worth your while to look at, and which will be occupied within the coming twelve-month. Getting In Stack a Third Cutting of Alfalfa Let me go a little into detail as to some of the things I saw, and tell you in simple language of these opportunities as they appear to me. Leaving Miles City early in October, 1907, I drove eastward toward the end of the track, then near the Little Missouri, making detours to the south of the right-of-way from five to twenty-five miles, to re-examine a country familiar to me for nearly thirty years. The first ten miles of my journey lay along the Yellowstone. There the ranchmen were busy with mower and bull-rake, getting in stack their third cutting of alfalfa. There for the first time I saw potatoes being harvested by a four-horse digger, doing custom work for the ranchmen, keeping six to ten pickers busy sacking, requiring three teams to haul the crop to winter storage alongside the grade of The St. Paul Road a mile from the field. A PROFIT OF $40 AN ACRE. I questioned the owner of one of these fields, while I watched the four- horse machine rolling out the ''spuds." He said, '' I raise 20 acres of pota- toes. I could raise 40 or 60 if labor was not so hard to get at this season. I hope the advent of The St. Paul Kailroad will, by another season, remedy this. In spite of the lack of labor to give the crop the necessary attention, the yield of potatoes from this piece of ground for the past two years has been quite 160 sacks to the acre. Last year they brought us right at home here $1.25 per sack. We will get a little more this year. Deducting all ex- pense, from seeding to storage, I believe there is easily $40 per acre profit. You see we handle the potato crop economically, as we do the alfalfa, and this land cost us $14 per acre three years ago. ' ' Between Miles City and Powder River, the government lands are pretty well taken, but between Powder Elver and Fallon Creek there remain thousands Oats— An Important and Profitable Crop of acres of good land open to the entryman, for which within the coming year The St. Paul Road will furnish a convenient market. Between Powder River and Fallon Creek, near the highest and dryest por- tion of the divide, I saw the first threshing machine at work threshing oats and rye from a sixty-acre unirrigated field, experimental two years ago. Its owner said: "These oats are threshing more than 50 bushels to the acre. For every pound I have raised here, I got $1.50 to $1.75 per hundred at my own bin. People scoffed at my efforts here in the beginning. I was a mechanic right out of an eastern city. I work for myself now and the scoffers are look- ing for locations. I like working for myself and would not like to go back to the old life. Mark what I tell you, all the land along every one of the tributaries of old Fallon Creek, within 20 miles of this new railroad, is going to be claimed and farmed, and that right soon. Why not? We grow the stuff. I have no water rights or water rents. Here are timber and coal at hand and a healthy climate. What more do we want?" Making- a detour south along Fallon Creek, across the divide to Little Beaver, a drive of 50 miles, I counted only five ranches on upper Fallon. Its tributaries are beautiful. Its remoteness from market and lack of surveys is all that has kept this country back. NOT ONE CLAIM IN FIFTY TAKEN. Can you grow alfalfa without irrigation? This question I put to ranch- men every day of my journey. In two notable instances the answer was a prompt affirmative. One of these ranchmen, whose guest I was for a day as I journeyed down this beautiful valley of the Little Beaver toward Marmarth, where its waters flow into the Little Missouri, said to me : ' ' Here are five acres of unirrigated alfalfa that have stood the test for three years, one of them an extremely dry one. It was just a disked-in crop, never had the benefit of inter-tillage. It is well rooted; it will stick. What I have accomplished One of the Numerous Creeks in the Little Beaver Valley here is most encouraging. It can be repeated in any of the small Creek bot- toms, wdth just the ordinary care and simple methods I have employed. Ad- joining this alfalfa are 5% acres of oats which yielded me 343 bushels, or 67 bushels to the acre, from the first plowing. From three of thes3 small experi- mental fields, I have this fall gathered over 1,500 bushels of oats. I hire no irrigator; I have no money tied up in expensive ditches. I have no works to be destroyed by floods. If the yield is smaller, especially of our oats and potatoes, two very important crops, it is far superior in quality to the Ijest grown by irrigation anywhere. Look at this valley as you drive from here toward Marmarth. For 15 of the 20 miles it is 6 to 10 miles wide and not one claim in 50 has been taTcen.^' And so I found it. Miles of prairie across which steam plows must soon be striking furrows and traction engines hauling grain to the elevators at Marmarth, which is the first division point on The St. Paul Koad east of Miles City, and, iu the writer's opinion, to become the county seat of the new county of Hamilton, and within two years the most important shipping point for grain and live stock between the Dakota line and the Yellowstone. All the roads on the Little Beaver, Box Elder, and in the Little Missouri valley, point naturally toward INIarmarth. The ^Milwaukee Land Company will hold auction sales of lots at Marmarth in the spring of 1908, and every- thing indicates that this will be one of the red letter sales of the West, both as to maximnm bid for first choice and for aggregate sales. Turning westward at the Montana line, I made a wide detour to the north of the right-of-way as I drove toward Fallon and the Yellowstone. WHAT ONE MAN DID. On the divide between Fallon and the Little Missouri, I came unexpectedly upon the homestead of a bachelor friend, whom I had known some years back, at a time when a serious accident had made it imperative that he live, if he Potatoes Grown in Unirrigated lived at all, out of doois. Fate at that time drew to his notice these fine stretches of bench land and gently rolling, well-turfed, dry creek bottoms. Three years ago, alone, shattered in health, with his * ' little all ' ' invested in a few cows and a team and wagon, this man settled here. Today he has 12 head of horses, 22 beeves, fit for market, nearly 100 head of stock cattle, and his buildings and fences could not be duplicated for a thousand dollars. On the day that we renewed our acquaintance, he had just returned from the construction camps of the new line, where his load of potatoes and cabbages had netted him $40. Three years ago he was 70 miles from a railway market, now one is almost at his door. In sight of this man's claim are thousands of acres of unoccupied government and grant lands. His crowning achieve- ment, which made possible all the rest, was the successful damming of that dry creek, impounding snow and storm water, which has solved for him the water question, creating an artificial lake two to ten feet in depth and a quarter of a mile in length. This can be repeated in hundreds of places in this section, along the small tributaries of Sandstone, Pennel, Cabin, and Fallon Creeks, making of these waste and hitherto neglected places most desirable locations for the farmer and stock raiser. GOOD SUPPLY OF COAL. Montana has an abundance of coal, from lignite to the best steam fuel known. It is doubtful w^hether any other section of the United States is more plentifully supplied with, coal which can be so easily developed and utilized by the settler, as eastern Montana. Here is a picture showing a vein which I traced for a mile in the Cabin Creek brakes, which at twenty different places one may drive a wagon alongside a 10 foot bank and help himself to fuel at almost no expense for stripping. This sort of coal-outcrop I found along the extension all the way from Dakota to the Musselshell. At the first crossing of the Yellowstone, there is, Lignite Coal Plentiful in plain view of the approach, a black band along the bluff to the north two or three miles in length, ten to twenty feet thick, of solid lignite coal of the finest quality. Three areas the prospective settler would do well to examine carefully, for, in the writer's opinion, never again will Uncle Sam offer such princely domains for the entryman's choice. First, the country lying between Terry, Mont., on the Yellowstone, and Mar- marth, N, D., on the Little Missouri, and more particularly those portions along Sandstone, Cabin, Cedar, and Pennel Creeks. Second, the Yellowstone Valley and the country north and west of Miles City. Third, that vast country lying east ajid north of Harlowton, on the Mus- selshell, all the way to the big bend and reaching to the foot-hills of the Little and Big Snowy Mountains. By May, 1908, throughout this entire country, the government surveys will be practically complete, and before the end of the year the claim-shanty will be everywhere in evidence. One of the great benches just east of the thriv- ing town of Terry was, I know, absolutely unoccupied eighteen months ago. As I drove across it in October I counted twenty-two new dwellings, with many hay and grain stacks in evidence. Track laying on the Pacific Coast extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Eailway goes on at both the east and west ends. By March 1, 1908, it is expected that the track will be completed and trains running from Glen- ham, on the Missouri Eiver in South Dakota, through to Lombard, Montana, 91 miles east of Butte. Service was opened to Terry, Mont., on February 16. 1908. This spring will probably see the first homeseekers' excursions headed this way. Using the Four-Horse Potato Digger WHAT ONE EASTERN WOMAN DID. I saw a woman driving a mower. It was ten miles from the grade of The St. Paul Road, five miles from a sheep ranch, and the haying was being done on one of the few unsurveyed sections remaining among the foot-hills of the Yellowstone. I drove five miles out of my way to see this comely widow's ranch and hear her story. She said : * ' Two years ago I was earning a bare living for myself and my four children, keeping boarders in a factory town in the east. It was hard work. A crisis came. We were burned out. I had $400 insurance money and the children left. A girl friend, a wage worker there, was going to Montana, the bri^^e of a sheep owner. Then we decided to go west. It is for this sheep owner that myself and my two lads, twelve and fourteen years of age, are doing the mowing and raking. We made $150 that way last year. We shall, in addition to cutting our own winter's hay, make over $250 this year, and I confess that I have grown to like riding the mower far better than coaxing a cooking range in a stuffy boarding house. This old cabin was an abandoned sheep camp when I filed on the claim. We all enjoy the life. I can keep my family together here. They tell me I can get $15 per acre for my land now. I would not take it. This is the first time in my life I have enjoyed that Messed feeling of heing in my own home, my very own home, tvith no rent days coming around. * ' We raised three acres of sod corn this year. I shall not now have to buy corn for our ducks, turkeys and chickens, which are the special care and pride of my two girls, whose poultry and egg sales have added quite $100 to our common purse this year. ' ' GRAIN FIELDS OF THE FUTURE. And from Roundup to Montline, wherever I talked with settlers, I always found this contented, optimistic feeling that comes of having one 's own roof Stock Raising Still A Big Factor over head, one's own bit of earth under foot. Everywhere now, men are awakening to the fact that where sage brush two to three feet in height grows, densely luxuriant, unirrigated, rye, spelts, and particularly wheat, will grow, if the simple methods of cultivation, now no longer experimental but proven, are employed. These gray-green sage hrush uplands are to he the grain fields of the near future. The high priced irrigated valley lauds will be used for specialized crops, by the truck farmer, fruit grower, etc. The cost of grubbing sage brush since the advent of the four and six-horse grubbers, doing custom work, at the rate of six to ten acres a day, is now $1.25 to $1.50 per acre. No intending settler need hesitate because he lacks capital to stock a new claim with expensive farm machinery. Near the Dawson county line, north of the Yellowstone, I met a 6-horse team coming to the front. Its driver saiti : " ISix of us, im-ludiiig- my sister, who has a school for tlie winter, pooled our issues in these teams. They pay me $50 per month to run the outfit, freighting our lumber and supplies to our claims. We shall hire our breaking done at $2 per acre, cheaper than horse po\ver. Two of our men are car- penters, earning their $4 per day from the railroad. Our total earnings are $350 per month. By the time the six months that the government gives us between filing and occupying our claims comes round, everything will be in shape to put in our first crop, so we all gain about a year by pulling together. ' ' At Marmarth, at Lorraine, on the Sandstone, at Ismay on Fallon, at Saugus on the Yellowstone, at Melstone, on the Musselshell, at Antwerp on the Great Porcupine, and not a few other places, now marked only by graded side tracks, flourishing towns will be building by the time trains are running. As a result of successful dry farming during the past eighteen months, on the Beach flats just north of the extension along the Montana-Dakota line. Starting the Day's Work on a Dakota Farm there is a bright town — a side track a year ago. Today it boasts of im- provements of $300,000 for the past year; among these, a 75 barrel roller mill, four elevators, with a capacity of 160,000 bushels, three hardware and implement stores. The last named sold within the year 150 wagons, 60 self- binders and 100 mowers. And this is to be repeated again and again along the extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Eailway across Montana. At no less than three places I can name, far more wonderful stories of growth than this wall be told and fortunes made in lands and village property, before the end of 1908. "Things move fast now." One may not deliberate leisurely. Who de- cides quicTciy, ivho gets in line at the Miles City or Terry Land Office, or drives his stake in one of these new towns, stands to win the Ug prizes. L..A. Huffman. SECURE A FARM FROM UNCLE SAM HOMESTEAD LANDS While there are no definite figures available as to the amount of govern- ment lands still open for settlement along the extension of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Kailway through the Dakotas and Montana, there is plenty of it for all who wish to take advantage of the opportunities offered for agri- cultural and stock-raising purposes. Those who first take advantage of these opportunities are the ones who will have the first choice of the lands. The United States Land Office at Miles City has a territory composed of Custer, Eosebud and Dawson Counties, which contain over 20,000,000 acres of the best farming and grazing lands. As an indication of the healthy growth of this section of the state, besides other entries, there were one hundred home- stead entries filed at that office during the month of June, 1907. WHERE TO MAKE APPLICATION Application for government lands along the new line may be made at sev- eral places. At Lemmon, in Butte County, South Dakota, application may be made for lands in that county and at Dickinson, N. D., for lands in the southern part of North Dakota. For lands in Custer and Eosebud counties, Montana, ap- plications may be made at Miles City; for lands in Fergus County, at Lewis- town. At each of these places there is a United States Land Office. WHO MAY SECURE THESE LANDS The head of a family, if a citizen of the United States, or any person who has filed a declaration of his intention to become such, provided he has reached the age of twenty-one years and has not previously acquired a homestead, may make entry for 160 acres (one-quarter section). CONDITIONS The applicant must make an affidavit, after having personally inspected the land, so as to be able to state the character of same, that he will use the land he secures for his exclusive benefit, and that he will live upon it and cul- tivate the same in accordance with the law. In South Dakota and North Da- kota, the land office fees and commissions, when application for lands is made, amount to $18 and $14 respectively, for a 160 acre tract, depending upon the classification of the land. In Montana they amount to $22 and $16 respectively. Withiu six months from the date of entry, the applicant must commence to live upon the land and cultivate the same and live thereon continuously for five years, after which, or within two years from that time, he must produce four witnesses to prove that he has complied with all the provisions of the home- stead laws as to settlement, residence and cultivation. He must also pay the fees and commissions required when making final proof. (These fees and commis- sions amount to $8 and $4 respectively, in South Dakota and North Dakota, and to $12 and $6 respectively, in Montana, depending on the classification of the land.) When this has been done, the government will give such person a title (patent) to the land. Should a person desire to secure a title sooner, he may do so by making a cash payment for such land after fourteen months from date of settlement, provided he has complied with the other provisions of the homestead laws and has paid the fees and commissions. HINTS FOR THE INTENDING HOMESTEADER Agricultural implements, wagons, harness, hardware and general mer- chandise may be bought in the new towns along the Pacific Coast exten- sion at Chicago prices, plus the freight rate. There will be no difficulty in finding everything necessary at reasonable prices. Good farm horses in this w^estern country bring good prices and it will therefore, be advisable in most cases to ship your horses with your house- hold goods direct from your home town. Lumber in western Dakota sells for $40 per thousand feet. It is somewhat cheaper in Montana, The settlers generally build their first house of sod, with frame roof, floor, door and window casing. These houses are whitewashed, look well and are comfortable. They can be built by contract for $]oO, including labor and material. GO EARLY The opportunity described in this book should appeal to the young man, and to that large class who are renting farms and making little more than a living. The lands near the railroad will not last long, and the only way to be sure of getting a desirable farm is to go early. If you desire further particulars, write a letter to either of the undersigned, asking specific questions, and reply will be sent you by return mail. F. A. MILLER, GEO. B. HAYNES, General Passenger Agent, Immigration Agent, Chicago. 95 Adams Street, Chicago. PUBLICATIONS Chicago, Milwaukee CSb St. Paul Railway ACCOUNT OF A TRIP THROUGH THE NORTHWEST -Describes a trip through the territory traversed by the Pacific Coast extension of this Railway and the opportunities offered in farming, stock-raising and fruit- growing Hnes. ALONG THE NEW LINE — An illustrated book describing a 300-mile drive along the Pacific Coast extension of this Railway in North Dakota and Montana. MONTANA — Folder descriptive of the opportunities for the farmer, stock- man, merchant and workingman, with a county map of the state. WASHINGTON — A well illustrated leaflet descriptive of the many opportuni- ties in that state. This leaflet also contains a large scale map of the state which will be of great help to the prospective settler. SOUTH DAKOTA — Book descriptive of the opportunities in agricultural, stock-raising and mercantile lines. Contains 1907 crop reports and other statistics, with a county map of the state. MAP OF THE NEW LINE TO THE PACIFIC COAST— An interesting map leaflet of the Pacific Coast extension between Mobridge, S. D. and Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, also contains letters from satisfied settlers in the Dakotas and Montana. COLORADO — A book of thirty pages descriptive of Colorado. EXCELSIOR SPRINGS — A thirty -page book describing this wonderful summer and winter health resort. .Any of the above publications will be sent free on application. PASSENGER REPRESENTATIVES OF'- THK Chicago, Milwaukee CEb St Paul Railway ABERDEEN. S. P O. F. Waller, Division Passenger Agent BOsriCT^ -36f 'Washington Street W. W. Hall, New England Passenger Agent BUFFALO— 303 Main Street J. H. Skillen, Commercial Agent BUTTE, MONT.— ;i East Broadway P. H. Scanlan, Commercial Agent CEDAR RAPIDS, low A W. J. Keeley, Division Passenger Agent CHICAGO-95 Adams Street ( C. N. Souther, Gen Agt. Pass'r Dep't < Geo. B. Haynes, Immigration Agent CINCINNATI— 24 Carew Building C. C. Mopdough, Traveling Passenger Agent CLEVELAND— 426 Superior Ave. N. W E. G. Hayden, Traveling Passenger Agent DALLAS, TEXAS-249 Main Street M. F. Smith, Commercial Agent DAVENP.ORT, lOWA-303 Brady Street P. L. Hinrichs, Commercial Agent DENVER-1029 17th Street J. E. Preston, Commercial Agent DES MOINES, IOWA-410 Walnut Street S. H. Vaughan, Division Pass'r Agent DETROIT— 212 Majestic Building Robert C. Jones, Michigan Passenger Agent DUBUQUE, IOWA-S97 Main Street S. N. Baird, Division Passenger Agent DULUTH— Palladio Building C. L. Kennedy, Commercial Agent HOUGHTON, MICH H. E. Stewart, Commercial Agent INDIANAPOLTS— 313-314 Lemcke Building F. N. Hicks, Traveling Passenger Agent KANSAS CITY, MO.— 907 Main Street G. L. Cobb, Southwestern Passenger Agent LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.... \ ^^ Chapel St., } j j^ckson & Sons, European Agents ( 9 James St., ) LOS ANGELES— 130 West Sixth Street E. K. Garrison, Traveling Passenger Agent MADISON, WIS W. W. Winton, District Passenger Agent MASON CITY, IOWA W. P. Warner, Division Passenger Agent MILWAUKEE— 400 East Water Street W. J. Boyle, General Agent Passenger Dep't MTVMT? APOT Tt^ ^328 Nicollet Ave C. R. Lewis, Citv Passenger and Ticket Agent Mli^W£.Arui.lS.. ^ Metropolitan Life Bldg .. . A. S. Willoughby, Division Passenger Agent NEW ORLEANS-^i7-5i8 Hibernia Bank Bldg W. H. Rogers, Traveling Pass'r Agent NEW YORK-381 Broadway W. S. Howell, General Eastern Agent OMAHA— 1524 Farnam Street F. A. N.ash, General Western Agent OTTUMWA, IOWA C. J. Mikesh, Division Passenger Agent PHILADELPHIA— 818 Chestnut Street Geo. J. Lincoln, Commercial Agent PITTSBURG— Room D, Park Building John R. Pott, District Passenger Agent PORTLAND, ORE.-134 Third Street H. S. Rowe, General Agent RAPID CITY, S. D C. B. Wilser, Commercial Agent SALT LAKE CITY -io6 West Second South Street C. S. Williams. Commercial Agent SAN FRANCISCO— 22 Powell Street C. L. C.'VNFIELD, General Agent SEATTLE- S17 Second Avenue R. M. Boyd, Commercial Agent SIOUX CITY, IOWA J. G. Love, Division Passenger Agent SPOK.\NE— 618 Riverside Avenue R. L. Ford, Freight and Passenger Agent ST. LOUIS \ 213-214 Frisco Building J j g m.^rshel. Commercial Agent ( Ninth and Olive Streets ' ST. PAUL-365 Robert Street 5 ^7' ,^\P'''''\, "^'f '* *^'""'' l^'^]' '^^^"* --^^ -^ ■" <• R. D. RoviG, Northwestern Pass'r Agent TACOMA— 117 South Tenth Street H. J. M.-^nny, Traveling Passenger Agent TORONTO, ONT.— 8 King Street East A. J. Taylor, Canadian Passenger Agent WINNIPEG— 349 Main Street J. I. Gillick, Commercial Agent J. H. HILAND, F. A. MILLER, Third Vice-President. General Passenger .\gent. CHICAGO No. 203. la LIBRARY OF CONGRESS !!!! !!!!! !!!!! '!*■! "!'■ ■"■' ■'"■ "■'■ ■■" <*" liiliiiilillilliillililiiiliill 021 929 659 9 V'J^JN.t %^Q^. W\tV^O Conservation Resources Lig-Free® Type I Ph 8.5, Buffered LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 929 659 9