a richly diversified section of country, presenting the most charming
scenery.
Among the most famous, are Lake Minnewaska, on the Little Falls and
Dakota division of the road, fifty-nine miles from its junction with the
main line; Clitherall and Battle Lakes, on the Fergus Falls and Black
Hills branch; and Detroit Lake, on the direct line to the West, 230
miles from St. Paul. All these have fine pebbly beaches, lined with
beautiful borders of timber, and their accommodations for all classes of
visitors--anglers, sportsmen and families--are exceptionally good.
Like all the waters of Minnesota, they teem with fine, gamey fish of
many varieties. The accomplished editor of the _American Angler_,
writing in his well-known journal, after a visit to the Northwest in the
summer of 1885, stated, that, during a life of nearly a quarter of a
century as an angler, no experience with a rod had equaled in variety
and weight the two days' fishing he had had on Detroit Lake. Nor was Mr.
Harris' success exceptional. A score of one hundred pounds per day on
two rods, is, as he goes on to state, considered quite a modest record.
For what is locally regarded as a good catch, we must turn to that of
the three gentlemen who, on the afternoon of June 1st, 1885, brought in,
as the result of less than three days' work, 603 pike, 138 black bass,
178 rock bass, 28 cat-fish and 25 pickerel; the entire catch weighing
2,321 pounds. This "fish story" is well authenticated. Eastern anglers
can have no conception how full of fine fish, of many varieties, these
Minnesota lakes are. For black and rock bass, maskalonge, pickerel,
wall-eyed pike, and an infinite variety of smaller fish, a recent writer
in the _American Angler_ pronounces Detroit Lake the finest fishing
ground on the continent. Nor need any angler or sportsman--for prairie
chickens, ducks and deer are abundant--expect to have to look to sport
to make up for the deficiencies of accommodation; for the Hotel
Minnesota is said, on the highest authority, to be a gem of a hostelry
for anglers, every facility and convenience they could wish for being
obtainable at moderate charges.
The scenic attractions, also, are of a high order, the natural features
of the surrounding country being of the most diversified character. The
air is pure and invigorating, and hay fever and malarial diseases are
absolutely unknown.
Lake Park is another delightful resort in this region, having good
fishing and boating within easy distance, and a first-class hotel
adjoining the depot.
Before arriving at Detroit, the traveler from St. Paul passes through
Brainerd, the "City of the Pines." The selection of this city for the
location of the machine shops of the railroad has given a great impetus
to its growth; nevertheless, for deer and bear hunting, it is still one
of the best localities in the State. There is fine fishing, too, in its
immediate vicinity, and its hotel accommodations also are very good.
Here it is, also, that travelers from the East, coming by way of the
Great Lakes, join the west-bound train.
The distance to Brainerd from Duluth, the point of debarkation, at the
west end of Lake Superior, is 114 miles.
The traveler, who, in 1886, visits Mr. Proctor Knott's "Zenith City of
the Unsalted Seas," will find the straggling village of five years ago a
busy city of 20,000 inhabitants, with abounding evidences of the
commercial importance it has attained. By reason of the advantages
afforded by the great waterway of the continent, for the direct shipment
of wheat to the Eastern States or to Europe, Duluth has become almost as
formidable a rival of Minneapolis as that city is of Chicago. It handled
last year no fewer than 15,819,462 bushels of wheat, while its saw mills
cut up 125,000,000 feet of lumber, and an extensive trade was also
carried on in coal, salt and lime.
A few miles distant, and connected with it by a railway whose
construction involved the building of an exceedingly fine iron bridge,
is the city of Superior, also with excellent terminal facilities. The
eastern terminus of this, the Wisconsin division of the railroad, is
Ashland, an important town and favorite summer resort on Lake Superior.
Midway between this town and Duluth the line crosses the Brule river,
whose excellent fishing grounds its recent opening has, for the first
time, rendered accessible.
The Brule river proper is a large stream, averaging 100 feet in width,
of clear, cold water, flowing, its entire length, through one of the
great forests of Wisconsin. With high banks, and free from low or marshy
ground, it is an ideal trout stream. The best fishing on the river is to
be had in a stretch of fourteen miles, extending six miles above, and
eight miles below, the crossing of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The
trout attain a large size, catches of three and four pound fish being an
everyday occurrence. In the surrounding forest, game, including moose,
deer, beaver and pheasant, is found in great abundance. Large quantities
of venison were shipped hence by rail during the winter of 1885-86, the
shipments from November 1st to December 15th alone exceeding 13,000
pounds.
[Illustration: DETROIT LAKE AND HOTEL MINNESOTA, DETROIT, MINN.]
Almost equal to the exciting pleasures of the chase is that of shooting
the Brule river rapids in a canoe. Accompanied by an experienced guide,
the visitor performs this feat without danger; let him attempt it alone,
and he is sure of a ducking. For the angler and sportsman, the Brule
possesses an additional attraction in the fact, that, while most
excellent accommodations are to be had at the railroad crossing,
including boats, fishing tackle and guides, there is no settlement of
any kind within a considerable distance.
The line from Duluth to Brainerd follows, for many miles, the winding
valley of the St. Louis river, through scenery for the most part stern
and wild, yet not without an occasional suggestion of the gentler beauty
of the far-off Youghiogheny. Between Fond du Lac and Thompson the river
has a descent of 500 feet in a distance of twelve miles, tearing its way
with terrific force through a tortuous, rock-bound channel. The best
point for observing the fine effect of these impetuous rapids and
cascades, known locally as the Dalles of the St. Louis, is near the
twentieth mile post westward from Duluth.
Pursuing its way in the direction of Brainerd, the train traverses a
country comparatively little known. Its scanty population is engaged
almost entirely in logging, lumber manufacturing, and hunting, the
immense forest covering the face of the country abounding with deer,
bear, wolves, foxes and other game.
Emerging from the deep recesses of the forest, and passing swiftly
through the lake region already referred to, we find ourselves in a
level prairie country, and can dimly descry, in the far distance, the
thin, dark line which another hour's ride will show to be the narrow
fringe of timber that marks the course of the famous Red River of the
North, that true Arimaspes, with whose golden sands thousands and tens
of thousands have been made rich.
This, then, is the renowned Red River valley, the story of whose amazing
fertility has attracted, from older States and still older countries,
one hundred and fifty thousand people. The greatest influx has taken
place since 1880, the increase in population between the census of that
year and that in the spring of 1885 being 38,719 on the Minnesota side
of the river, and 54,918 on the Dakota side.
Although there are vast tracts of land still uncultivated, the general
appearance of the valley is that of a well-settled agricultural country.
But this will occasion no surprise to those who remember that its annual
wheat crop has now reached 25,000,000 bushels, and its crop of other
cereals 15,000,000 bushels.
Not a little surprise, however, is occasioned by the discovery that the
"valley" of which the traveler has heard so much is not a valley at all,
but a great plain, whose slope toward the river is so slight as to be
wholly imperceptible.
Where the railroad crosses the river, have sprung up the cities of
Moorhead and Fargo, the former in Minnesota, the latter in Dakota. With
such advantages of situation as they possess, and with the days of
booms, with all their unhealthy excitement and fictitious values, gone,
never, it is to be hoped, to return, these cities must continue to
increase in commercial importance, with the development of the rich
country surrounding them.
Fargo is, indeed, the largest city in the entire Territory of Dakota,
and will probably retain its position as such for many years to come.
It is needless to repeat here the oft-told story of Dakota's marvelous
growth. Time was when it was capable of being wrought up into a mosaic
of wondrous interest and beauty; but, with the multiplication of
agencies for giving it publicity, its charm, for the present generation
at least, has passed away. It will, nevertheless, afford the historian
of the nineteenth century material for one of the most interesting and
instructive chapters of his work.
Writing, in 1828, his "Principles of Population," the great historian of
Europe said: "The gradual and continuous progress of the European race
toward the Rocky Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event: it
is like a deluge of men rising unabatedly, and daily driven onward by
the hand of God." But at that time the State of Illinois, but half way
toward the Rocky Mountains and one-third of the way to the Pacific
Ocean, was almost the limit of its mighty flow. Wisconsin, with no
noteworthy settlements of its own, formed part of the Territory of
Michigan; Iowa was an altogether vacant region, without any form of
organized government; while other great States of to-day were still
either mere parts of the Louisiana purchase, with as yet no separate
identity, or were comprised within the then far-extending territory of
the republic of Mexico.
The traveler to the Northwest, by the Northern Pacific Railroad,
traverses that section of the far-extending dominion of the American
people that was the last to be overspread by that great tide of
civilization. He sees its evidences in the happy and prosperous
homesteads that dot the fertile plains of Dakota, and nestle under the
sheltering bluffs of the winding valleys of Montana; he is able to bear
witness, also, to its having penetrated the fastnesses of the Rocky
Mountains, and converted the hillsides of Eastern Washington and the
fair lands of Oregon into smiling wheat fields and fruitful orchards.
But, notwithstanding the hundreds of flourishing settlements scattered
along the great highway of travel, with here and there a goodly town or
city, he can not but wonder at the apparent sparseness of population
when he remembers that one and a half millions of people have their
homes between the Great Lakes and Puget Sound.
But let him consider the vast extent of the country; let him call to
mind that Dakota, with her 415,664 inhabitants, has yet 230 acres of
land to every man, woman and child within her borders, her population
averaging less than three to the square mile; that the density of
population in Oregon and Washington is but two and one-half and two to
the square mile, respectively; while both Montana and Idaho have
considerably more square miles than they have inhabitants.
The county of Cass, which stretches westward from Fargo, is one of the
best settled sections of the Northwest, there being no land whatever
subject to entry. It contains some of the largest wheat farms in the
world, and it has produced more than one wheat crop of 5,000,000
bushels. This county has an actual wealth of over $20,000,000, and, with
its 120 school houses and numberless churches, it may be taken as
admirably illustrating both the capabilities of the country and the
character of the people who are building it up.
At Dalrymple, eighteen miles from Fargo, and at Casselton, two miles
farther west, are the