itr FACTS ABOUT THE WEST MISSOURI COUNTRY OF NORTH DAKOTA FACTS ABOUT THE lESTMISSODRi COUNTRY OF NORTH DAKOTA, PUBLISHED UNDER THE AOSPICES|OP THE WEST MISSOURI COLONY] BUREAU , • - OP • c '. NEW SALEM, MORTON COUNTY,.DAI J. J. LUCK, President and General Manager, NEW i T. K. LONG, Secretary, MANDAN, DAKOTA. " Hier ist gut sein. Lasset uns drei Huettea bauen." MANDAN: PIONEER PUBLISHING CO., Printers. 1886. -5^^—^-—T—3^~ i ;fi FAIRBAp,; MORSE | CO. • ; MANUFACTOBEES AND DEALERS IN FIRST CLASS GOODS. FAIRBANKS' SCALES. Eclipse Wind Mills, '.; • Tanks, Pumps, Pipe and Fittings, Smith-Vaile Steam Pumps and Boilers, Westinghouse Automatic Engines, Sheffield Improved Hand Cars, The Hancock Inspirator and Lifter,.. Sight Feed Lubricators,' .... Warehouse Trucks and Wagons, Fairbanks' Coffee and Spice Mills, Beef Slicers, Tobacco Cutters, Miles' Patent Money Drawers, .'•"' Miller's Improved Padlocks, Champion Car Movers, Spring Balances, Butchers' Scales, Letter-Presses and Stands,. Grocer's Fixtures, etc.) Standard Thermometers. FAIRBANKS, MORSE & CO. 371 and 373 SIBLEY STREET, ST. PAUL, MINN. / ?asirc S-AJOSTT IP-A/DHL. FINEST CLOTHING, HATS & FURNISHINGS, RETAILED AT WHOLESALE PRICES. The largest Retail Clothing House in the lest! FREE! A Beautifully Illustrated Price List and Rules for Self-Measure- I „ ment sent FREE to any address. f| Goods sent on approval to any part of the West. -**£** SQUARE DEALING ! LOWEST PRICES ! BOSTON ONE-PRICE CLOTHING HOUSE, Corner THIRD and ROBERT Streets, St. Paul, Minn. BROWN, TREACY &. CO., JOBBERS IN -HBLANK BOOKS, STATIONERY* AND OFFICE SUPPLIES. 142-144 EasT THIRD ST., ST. PAUL. FACTS ABOUT THE West Missouri Country of North Dakota, PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OP THE WEST MISSOURI COLONY BUREAU NEW SALEM, MORION COUNTY, DAKOTA. ORGANIZED 1885. J. J. LUCK, President and General Manager, NEW SALEM, DAKOTA. T. K. LONG, Secretary, MANDAK, DAKOTA. "Hier ist gut sein. Lasset uns-drei Huetten bauen.' MANDAN: PIONEER PUBLISHING CO., Printers. 1886. 13657 MORTON COUNTY COURT BOUSE AT MANDAN, DAKOTA. [Photo, by Z. Gilbert.] Ugavt ^ir^i WEST MISSOURI COIONY BUREAU, OF NEW SALEM, MORTON COUNTY, DAKOTA. ORGANIZED 1886. J. J. LUCK, President and General Manager. T. K. LONG, Secretary. IrjipaducfoFy. In the fall of 1885 several leading business men of Morton County; Dakota, realizing the vast field of rich wild land well adapted for agricul­ tural purposes lying along the fertile valleys of the various rivers and small streams tributaries of the Missouri, throughout the Counties of Morton, Oliver and Mercer ; and realizing the desirability of bringing this part of the country prominently before the minds of eastern farmers and others seeking homes in the West, organized themselves into an institution known as the WEST MISSOURI COLONY BUREAU of New Salem, Morton County, Dakota, for the purpose of aiding settlers in acquiring homes, and for the further purpose of presenting in an accurate and brief manner to the pub­ lic generally the leading resources of the country and the vast field, for set­ tlement and investment therein. THE WEST MISSOURI COUNTRY Ybz ®®l®r|y Jfletr) ®| l)<jfikn)ei)i L. Many persons going into a new country often meet difficulties in the way of obtaining reliable information concerning the country, and in the disadvantages arising from going alone into a strange place without the aid of a regularly organized colony bureau to give advice and assistance in loca­ tion and settlement. Those, who contemplate coming to Dakota will always find it largely to their advantage to join a colony. They will then have the benefit of full concert of action, and they will also have the following special advantages over persons who go into a new country alone: 1st, Lower rates of railroad fare; 2d, Lower rates of freight; 3d, A good location selected by experienced men at no extra, cost; 4th, Locating near a place just start­ ing; 5th, Having a voice in the organization of a new settlement; 6th, Good neighbors, as the bureau admits only good people into its colonies; 7th, Good schools and churches; 8th, Better commercial, social and educational advantages. It will be readily seen, therefore, that the colony plan of settlement pos­ sesses many advantages over all other plans. It has already been put to a practical test in the West Missouri country of North Dakota, and has yielded the best results—resulting in no fewer than six growing settlements in the West—five in Dakota and one in Montana. The town of New Salem is one of these settlements and is a living monument of the colony system of set­ tlement. Mr. E. V. Smalley, the well-known journalist and editor of The North­ west, made a personal investigation of the New Salem colony system in the fall of 1884, and pronounced himself decidedly in favor of this plan of set­ tlement. In his letter to The Northwest, published in the December num­ ber in 1884, he says: " NEW SALEM, Dakota, Nov. 10,1884. " The founder of New Salem is J. J. Lack, formerly of Ripon, Wisconsin. Together with a little group of friends living in that place he began to set on foot, three years ago, an agitation in favor of Western colonization, which has since developed no fewer than six settlements—five in Dakota . and one in Montana. The New Salem colony was organized in Chicago in the winter of 1882-3, Mr. Luck having selected the site the previous fall. He found, wholly unoccupied, an admirable stretch of fertile country, reaching from the Heart River to the Big Knife River, a distance of about forty miles, with a breadth from east to west, between natural boundaries of low hills, of from seven to ten miles. Into this land of promise he led the advance guard of the colony in April, 1883. / The principle of the organ­ ization was individual action and ownership, "and co-operation only to the extent of advancing the general interests of the community. Each mem­ ber paid twenty dollars to defray the expenses of selecting lands, printing circulars, etc., and each received without further payment, a lot in the town site. Most of the colonists were German-Americans, who had been long enough in the older States of the West to speak English readily and become accustomed to Western life. Among them, however, were many native Americans. There was no purpose to give the colony a German character, and all worthy people, of whatever nationality, were welcomed. The OF NORTH DAKOTA. 6 location proved to be a fortunate one. The soil is a deep, black loam rest­ ing in clay and holding moisture so well that crops are independent of sum­ mer rains. Excellent drainage and consequently good health is secured by the rolling character of the surface. Springs of clear, pure water are found in the sides of nearly all the hills. There is no mud in the fall, and the surface of the ground is dried by the wind very soon after the frost gets out in the spring, so that the roads are good- almost the entire year. Of greater importance than any feature of the region, save the soil, is the black lignite coal which is everywhere found. 'Our hills are our forests.' said Mr. Luck, [' Every farmer can get coal within a mile of his house. The cost of the coal, delivered in the town, I learned, is only one dollar and a half a wagon load, holding rather more than a ton. This cheap fuel is an inesti­ mable blessing to the settlers. Most of them mine it for themselves, shov­ eling it into their wagons from seams in the sides of hills, and thus warming their houses with no other cost than their own labor. The lignite burns well in ordinary stoves made for burning bituminous coal. At Mr. Luck's house I saw it burning in a self-feeding anthracite parlor stove, making a bright blaze behind the mica plates. J "In the village of New Salem, now a year and a half old, since the first colonists pitched their tents and dug a well for the general use, there are now two grocery stores, a drug store, hotel, harness shop, blacksmith shop, shoemaker's shop, agricultural implement store, lumber yard, land office, Bchool house and church, and about two score of dwellings. A doctor and a minister are among the colonists. In the school there are thirty-four chil­ dren. So it will be seen that the settlement has already organized itself into a social entity, with the usual conveniences of rural life. There are about 150 families settled on farms in the vicinity. The government lands are nearly all gotten for homesteads for seven miles back from the railroad, and the railroad lands are partly sold. New settlers will find just as good lands as those occupied, but they must go a little farther from town.' Last spring an offshoot of the colony went north thirty-five miles to the valley of the Big Knife River and established a town called Mercer. All the coun­ try between New Salem and Mercer is excellent for general farming and stock-raising, and so well adapted for dense settlement that the people be­ lieve a branch railroad from the Northern Pacific line will, in two or three years, run north to Mercer to haul the crops to market. * "I give below the statements of a few of the settlers with whom I have talked in the course of an afternoon's drive: " W. Engelter,from Chicago,IU.—Began plowing lastspring. Live two miles east of New Salem. Raised 300 bushels of potatoes on two acres of sod. Got a fair yield of flint corn on the sod.