Becker County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1907 (part 1 of 16)

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read)

Becker County was established by an act of the Legislature, approved March i8th, 1858. That is to say, its exterior boundaries were designated and recorded ; it was given a place on the map of Minnesota and named Becker County in honor of Gen. George L. Becker, of St. Paul. There were, however^ no white people living in the county for ten years afterwards.

The territory included within the boundaries of Becker County is as follows: All of Townships 138, 139, 140, 141 and 142 north, of Ranges 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 west of the Fifth Principal Meridian - forty townships in all.

In i860 the Fifth Guide Meridian was established between Ranges 38 and 39 as far north as the south boundary of the White Earth Reservation, and the Tenth Correction line, which is the line between Townships 140 and 141, and which is also the south line of the reservation, was also established. These lines were run b}' J. W. Myers, Deputy U. S. Surveyor. There were no more government lines run imtil 1870, when government surveying was begun in earnest, and by the close of the year 1872 the county was about all surveyed.

intersecting' the Mississippi River near the city of Helena in Phelps County. The Fifth Principal Meridian, from which these Ranges are numbered, intersects this base line about twentyeight miles west of the Mississippi, near the little village of ]\Iarvell. This point of intersection is called the initial point.

This ^^leridian line runs both north and south from this point, and in running north intersects the Mississippi River north of St. Louis where it is discontinued, all land east of that river in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota being surveyed from the third and fourth Princi]:)al ^Meridians.

The surveys from the Fifth Principal Meridian cover all of the vState of Louisiana west of the ^Mississippi, all the States of Arkansas, ]Missouri, Iowa, North and South Dakota and all of Minnesota west of Range 24 and the Mississippi River, except a little corner around St. Paul.

The famous Hot Springs in Arkansas are in Township Xo. 2, south, the south tier of townships of Missouri is Township No. 22, north, the north tier of townships of Iowa is Township No. 100, north, and the north tier of townships in Minnesota is Township No. 164, north.

Before Becker County was created, it was a part of Stearns County. After Douglas County was organized a change was made, and it was attached to that county.

The plat of the old townsite of Detroit, that was laid out in the spring of 1857, ^vhere the village of Frazee now stands, was recorded at St. Cloud on the 17th day of June, 1857, and Dr. David Pyles" certificate of appointment as notary public was recorded at Alexandria on the 19th day of January, 1S69.

Letter From Gen. Becker

Your purpose to collect the material for a history of the county in which you live, is to be most highly commended. The early settlers of these new regions are too apt to neglect what is really one of the most important elements in historical studies, the preservation of the local happenings and traditions of the primitive days which constitute the formative period of distinct localities. I hope you may succeed in what you have undertaken anfi though I cannot add much to your stock of knowledge, I am glad to contribute what I can.

Becker County was established by act of the legislature of this state, March 18, 1858. (See Kelly Statutes, Vol. i. Chap. 8. Sec. 734, page 216.)

At this date I was in Washington as one of the members of Congress elect, from Minnesota, awaiting the admission of the State into the Union. The State was admitted Mav 11, 1858.

While thus awaiting the action of Congress on the subject of admission, I received a letter from the Hon. J. D. Cruttenden, a member of the House of Representatives of Minnesota, and chairman of the Committee on Towns and Counties, which stated that in organizing the newer portions of the state into counties, the committee had decided to give my name to a county in the northwest; a region then almost unknown. 3ilr. Cruttenden represented what was known as the Twenty-first District, wdiich embraced the counties of Morrison, Crow Wing and Mille Lacs. This honor was unsought by me, unexpected, and, as I thought then, and think now, undeserved.

My business pursuits and engagements were such during these years that I had no occasion to visit that part of the state. My attention was called to the fact that there was a county in that region bearing mv name, bv the Rev. Dr. Noble,

Meeting' him one day on the street here, probably in 1870, he informed me that he had just returned from an Indian payment in the northwest which he attended on behalf of the government as one of the witnesses.

He grew eloquent over the region he had traversed ; mentioned the lakes and streams and groves and rolling prairies and ended by saying that it was in Becker County, and he thought it the finest county in the state.

I replied, jokingly, that there was a certain fitness in naming the finest county in the state after one of its best men. Don't think there was any vanity in this. Those who know me well, will bear witness that I am incapable of saying such a thing seriously.

AA'ith reference to my title of "General," which I have carried for the last thirty years, I have to say, that the first governor of the state made me one of his aides, with the rank of brigadier general. I owe this title to Governor Sibley's appointment as one of his military family. The history of my military services, if written, would be as brief as the chapter on snakes in Ireland ; there are none.

And now as the Apostle Paul says at the close of one of his I'^pistles to the Galatians, "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand."

Gen. Geo. L. Becker General George L. Becker

Gen. Becker was born at Locke. Cayuga County, New York, Jan. 4, 1829. He obtained his early education at the district school of his native town, and afterwards took a course at Moravia Academy. Later he entered the preparatory department of Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio.' In 1841 he removed with his parents to Ann Arbor, Mich., and entered the Michigan University in 1842. graduating in 1846 with the second class that went out from that institution. He arrived in St. Paul, Oct. 29, 1849, and engaged in the practice of law. In 1862 he became land commisioner of the old St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, and upon the organization of the first division of that road he was made president. That was Feb. 6, 1864, and he continued in that position until 1876. He bore his full share of the hard work and responsibilities attendant upon the completion of the line, and during his presidency several hundred miles of road were constructed into a country rich in resources and needing only a railroad and the settlers which would naturally follow it to make it one of the richest in the Northwest. He had the pleasure of seeing the road grow from a little stub to a long line connecting the Red River with the Mississippi and St. Paul with Manitoba. During that time he filled many offices of trust and also made several business trips to the East and to Europe in the interest of the road. During his residence in this state he has held a number of public offices. At the first municipal election in St. Paul held under the city charter he was elected a member of the council and was afterward elected president of the body, in which he served two years. In 1856 he was elected mayor of the city and in 1857 lie was chosen one of the delegates to the constitutional convention, acting with the Democratic branch of that body. In October of that same year he was elected a representative m Congress to take his seat upon the admission of Minnesota uito the Union. At the time of the election it was believed the state would be entitled to three representatives, but it was learned that it was entitled to but two. He drew cuts with

James M. Cavanagh and \^'illiam W. Phelps, who had been elected as the other two representatives, to see who should return home. The general drew the unlucky number. He accepted the situation gracefully and returned home. He has been a lifelong Democrat, and in 1859, when he was but thirty years of age, he was unanimously nominated for governor by the Democratic convention, but was defeated by Hon. Alexander Ramsey after a hard fight. In i860 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Charleston, S. C, which adiourned without making a nomination. After the dual nomination at Baltimore he supported the Breckenridge and Lane faction. He was elected to the state senate in 1868 and served in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth legislatures. In 1872 he was again nominated by his party for congress, but was defeated by the Republicans.

When the state board of railroad and warehouse commissioners was created in 1885, Gen. Becker was appointed by Gov. Hubbard as the democratic member and was reappointed by Governors McGill, Merriam and Nelson. His thorough knowledge of railroad afifairs in this state has made him an especially valuable member of the board. As a citizen he was universally respected and admired as a man of strict integrity and unusual ability. He was the democratic candidate for governor of Minnesota in 1894. Gen. Becker died in St. Paul, on the 3rd day of January, 1904. - St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Afy claim to being- a geologist is based altogether upon practical work, which consists of three years' experience as mining engineer in coal mines in Ohio, and three years of gold mining in Montana. While employed as land examiner for^he Northern Pacific Railroad Company in 1874, '75, 76, 'yy and '7%. I was especially instructed to explore and report 'upon the probability of the existence of coal in the valleys of the Missouri, James and Sheyenne Rivers, in what is now North Dakota.

I reported the existence of an abundance of lignite coal in the Missouri Valley, but that there was no probability of its existence in the other two valleys. Subsequent developments have proved the correctness of my report. They are at present mming large quantities of coal in the valley of the Missouri and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company has since made further explorations in the valleys of the James and Sheyenne Rivers, by numerous deep drillings, but no coal has been found.

In the summer of 1876 I reported the probable existence of small quantities of gold in the Sheyenne Valley, a few miles above where Lisbon is now located, and washed out a few panfuls of gravel, but found no gold. Several years afterward quite an excitement broke out over the discovery of gold in that same place but there was but little of it.

My scientific and book knowledge of geology however is somewhat like that of M. V. B. Davis, who once got his geology and architecture somewhat tangled. One day, when they weTe lunldmg the stone schoolhouse in Detroit known as the Holmes liuildmg, Davis stood watching one of the stonecutters who was dressing down a big niggerhead boulder, making it ready for its place in the wall of the building. A reporter for some newspaper came along and inquired what the style of architecture of the building was going to be, whether' it would be Ciothic or Corinthian or Grecian or Ionic or Doric. Davis replied that he had never heard, but he believed it was goinoi8 A Pioneer History of Becker County.

to be principally Dornic. Aside from being a good joke, it was a very truthful reply and will apply equally as well to the geology of Becker County, for all the rocks I have seen in the county belong to the "Dornic" or niggerhead, boulder family. They are principally granite with now and then a magnesian limestone.

All the limestone boulders are of a whitish color and are next to the marble in date of formation. The component parts are carbon, lime and a less propoirtion of magnesia, and it makes a fair quality of lime. The process of manufacturing lime is known to nearly everyone. The principal involved is the burning up with an intense heat of the carbon that has held the rock together for ages, and which allows the particles of lime to separate and form what is called quickdime.

There was originally quite a sprinkling of limestone blocks or boulders in some of the western townships, but they were nearly all dug out and burned into lime many years ago by the early settlers. The gray boulders are all granite, and were originally formed down deep in the bowels of the earth and are supposed to have been brought to the surface by upheaval in immense masses. The principal bulk of the mountains in the Rocky ^Mountain range is granite. It is the foundation stone of the earth, and is in fact the old rock itself.

None of the boulders in Becker County were formed here, but were brought from far distant regions, undoubtedly from some part of the country of a higher altitude, by icebergs or glaciers. Granite is composed of three different ingredients, quartz, feldspar and mica. They do not always exist, however, in the same proportion and sometimes either one or another of these parts is missing altogether, which accounts for the different appearance of some of these boulders. When the mica predominates the rock is soft, and after long exposure to the atmosphere begins to decompose and the shiny, brassy looking flakes of the mica become very conspicuous, and are sometimes mistaken for gold. Many a tenderfoot in the gold mining regions has been taken in with what old miner's call "fool's gold." When the quartz predominates the rock is much harder than usual, particularly when the mica is missing, and it loses much of its gray color and does not resemble the ordinary granite. Bowlders of that character are quite frequent in this county. If there are any beds of rock "in place" in Becker County, which means, if there are any regular layers of stratified rock remaining' in the same ])osition, and in the same place in which they were by nature formed, they are down deep in the unknown depths of the earth.

Many years ago, in 1846, Professor Dale Owen, an eminent geologist, was sent by the United States government to make a geological survey of the Red River country. On that expedition he explored the Otter Tail River, and was persistent in his cft'orts to ascertain if there was any rock "in place" in the country, but found no indication of anything but loose boulders for a long time, although there were some fine blocks of white magnesian limestone found along the river in what is now the town of Maine in Otter Tail County, and a few other localities.

Finally, to his great delight, he found what he pronounced a ledge of stratified limestone in a state of nature, of considerable extent, projecting from a high bank of the river. The location of this cjuarry was fairly well described, and in 1872, when examining the lands of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in that vicinity. I made a diligent search of the low bluft's bordering on the Otter Tail River, and a few miles from Fergus trails I found an immense hole in the river bank made the year before and a deserted limekiln close by, but no sign of an\- limestone quarry remaining. Professor Owen's rock "in place" happened to be an immense block of limestone that had been dumped by some iceberg or glacier and which happened to have been left right side up with care ; but the settlers had dug it out completely and burned it into lime, leaving nothing but a hole in the ground. With its disappearance went the last probability of any "rocks in place" in the Red River country in Alinnesota, including Becker County.

The surface formation of the county was deposited here during the glacier period, and is what geologists term a drift formation, a conglomeration of sand, gravel, some boulders and some clay, in the eastern and central portions of the count}', and of clay, some boulders, and a very small amount of sand and gravel in the western part. While these granite bowlders are quite generally distributed throughout the county, there are but few localities where they are very plentiful. They are much sought after for foundations for buildings, and are already becoming scarce in the vicinitv of the villages of Lake Park. Au- dubon, Detroit and Frazee. The only localities in the county where they have a surplus to si)are are in the eastern part of Erie, the south part of Shell Lake, southwest Carsonville and a few in Toad Lake, Wolf Lake and Runeberg Townships.

It is highly improbable that any stone quarries or any mines of any description will ever be found in the county, excepting perhaps iron ore. Natural gas may exist and possibly petroleum, although we are too far away from any coal fields to render it probable. I have never taken any stock in any of the alleged discoveries of coal like that near Barnesville or in any other part of northwestern Minnesota. There are undoubtedly blocks or boulders of coal under the ground at intervals throughout this drift formation, at no very great depth, that were brought in by glaciers or icebergs from far distant regions, for I have seen them dug out in North Dakota, and there might be a little pocket of gold-bearing gravel or c[uartz brought along in the same way ; but they will amount to nothing, except to raise a few false hopes and end in disappointment, like the Barnesville coal mines, or the gold mines on the Sheyenne River in North Dakota a few years ago.

There are indications of iron ore around some of the tamarack swamps and springs in the eastern and central parts of the county, and there are light deposits of bog iron ore in many places which have been precipitated from the water, which in many places is strongly impregnated with iron.

What there may be a hundred fathoms or more below the surface we cannot tell ; there may possibly be millions of wealth down there, but it will not be for this generation to possess and probably not for any other, for there is no probability of its existence.

But the geological formation of Becker County has given to her people what is of more value to them than stone quarry or mine ; it has given them a surface soil of surpassing richness, and especially in some of the western townships it has given them a soil that for fertility and durability has no superior on the face of the globe.

Lakes And Rivers

I did not intend to say much about the surface features of the county, as with the exception of the forests, they will remain much as they are now for years to come, but there is one feature of the topography of our county of so peculiar and interesting" a character that I cannot well pass it by, and that is the lakes and rivers within our borders.

Becker County occupies a peculiar position in the physical geography of our country, located as it is on the watershed of North America. We are living at the fountain-head. Our county is at the beginning and the parting of two mighty rivers. Around us rise the fountains from which the great Mississippi begins its course to the Gulf of Mexico, and from which the Red River of the North pursues its winding way to the Arctic Sea. A peculiarity of these rivers is, that they both start on their long journey to the sea in a direction exactly opposite to their general course and final destination.

Where on the face of the earth was there a more beautiful river than the Otter Tail, in the town of Erie, before the pines and the firs were cut away from along its banks? Many of its features of beauty still remain.

The south end of the Itasca State Park extends into Becker County, occupying all of sections one, two, three and four of Savannah Township. Hon. J. V. Brower, under whose direction this park was created, pronounced Lake Hernando De Soto "the greater ultimate reservoir bowl at the source of the Mississippi River." This lake lies in section three of Savannah Township, and the "Hautuers," or dividing ridge between its waters and those of the Red River extends to the line between sections three and ten, a full mile within the limits of Becker County. This dividing ridge is semicircular in outline and forms a rim around the head of the lake about two hundred feet higher than the lake itself.

Lake Itasca has an elevation of 1457 feet above sea level: Lake Hernando De Soto an elevation of 1558 feet while the "Hautuers," or dividing ridge is 1750 feet above, and is the highest point of land in this part of the state.

Tliere is no perpetual stream of water flowing from Lake Hernando De Soto towards Lake Itasca, but in wet seasons, when there is a surplus of water, there is a considerable tfowage from the first named lake into the streams that drain into Lake Itasca, where they mingle with and become a part of the waters of the ^lississippi River.

Like the Garden of Eden this part of the country is encircled by lakes and rivers. There, is "water, water, everywhere." The surface of the country is dotted with lakes, and in some regions it is impossible to travel two miles without meeting a beautiful expanse of water. Many of these are linked together by small and clear rivulets, while others are isolated. Their configuration is varied and picturesque; some are large, with precipitous shores, and contain wooded islands, others are approached by gentle grassy slopes. Owens in his geological report says: "Their beds are generally pebbly, or covered with small bowlders, which peep out along the shore and frequently show a rocky line around the entire Circumference. But few of them have mud bottoms. The water is generally sweet and clear, and is as cool and refreshing during the heat of summer as the water of springs or wells. Nearly all the lakes abound with various species of fish, of a quality and flavor greatly superior to those of the waters of the Middle and Southern States."

There are two hundred and ninety-six meandered lakes in Becker County, containing all the way from forty to several thousand acres each. A lake to be meandered 1)v the government surveyors must contain not less than forty acres. In addition to these lakes there arc more than a thousand ponds, containing from five to forty acres each, scattered over the count}-.

Cormorant Lake was originally much the largest lake in Becker County, but about twenty-five years ago it was cut in twain by the lowering of its waters. The eastern division, however, still holds its place at the head of the list for size of all the lakes in the county. This lake originally contained 7011.38 acres exclusive of meandered islands of which there are eight, with an aggregate area of 326.35 acres, of which six are in the eastern division with 209.07 acres, and two in the western division with 117.28 acres. The eastern division contains 4728.66 acres exclusive of meandered islands and the western division 22'^2.'/2 acres. I have been recently informed, however, that the water in this lake has been rising until it now covers the old channel between the two sections of the lake, and there is

Section 13 of Cormorant Township is the onl}- solid government section in Becker County that lies entirely within the limits of any of its lakes.

The second lake in the order of size is Height of Land Lake, with an area of 3921.33 acres. Shell Lake is third with 3219.40 acres, and Detroit Lake is fourth with 3117.97 acres. Floyd Lake in Detroit Township contains 1225 acres, and Oak Lake in the same township (the name by which this whole country was known in 1870 and 1871) contains 78.67 acres.

I do not claim to be a scientific botanist, as I never studied the subject at school a day in my life, but when a boy I picked up a botany that an older sister had borrowed and in a short time acquired a sufficient knowledge of the science to analyze plants correctly, and at the end of the first flowering season had studied out a majority of the native plants in the neighborhood. I soon acquired a fondness for the study that amounted almost to a passion, and for many years devoted much of my leisure time to the study and analysis of plants. Next to my work as a surveyor, the practical application of botany in the analysis of plants has been the delight of my life ; and even now when too old to run lines over the prairies and through the forests and swamps, I still delight in exploring new botanical fields in other states, and hunting out new species of the vegetable kingdom. I am aware that but few people in this world take any interest in this science, and many of them are extremely puzzled at the enthusiasm of the zealous botanist when his interest is awakened at beholding for the first time some plant or flower of a new and rare species, and are inclined to make light of his passion for collecting what they consider mere worthless weeds, and are apt to look upon him not only as whimsical and cranky but his sanity is frequently called in question.

The whole vegetable kingdom is divided first into two grand series, the flowering and the flowerless plants. The flowerless series is a small one, and we will here leave it with the remark that it is made up chiefly of the ferns, the mosses and the lichens.

A\'hile they have no flowers they bear seeds in abundance which are borne on the backs of the fronds or leaves. The flowering" series is in its turn divided into two classes, the Exogeiis and the Eiidogcns. In the class of Exogciis, the growth of the plant or tree is always on the outside and is accomplished by a succession of rings or circles, one of which, as in the case of trees is added to the circumference each year. The seeds are always divided into two lobes, which are lifted from the ground as the seed sprouts upward and forms the first pair of leaves as in the case of the bean and pea. The parts of the flowers are always in fours or fives or some multiple of these numbers. All plants of this class have bark and pith. In the class of Endogciis the growth of the plant is in the interioir and the increase in size is by expansion outward from the center, and the seeds have but one lobe which remains in the ground when the seeds sprout upwards. This class of plants has neither bark nor pith. To this class belong the wdieat, the corn, the grasses and the palms. The wood of the palm tree has no circular rings or grains or pith or bark. The parts of the flowers in this class are always in threes or sixes, the leaves are always parallel-veined like those on a cornstalk, while those of the E.vogciis are net-veined like those of the maple. As this last class (Eiidogcjis) is much smaller, I will now leave it behind.

The class of Exogcns is divided into two sub-classes, one of which includes only the coniferous trees, such as the pine and the spruce, so I will leave it and take up the other sub-class which is called the Aiigiospcniiac. 'JMiis sub-class is divided into three divisions, the polypetalous, the monopetalous, and the apetalous. The petals, as most people know, are the flower leaves or the leaves of the flowers themselves. In the first division the corolla is made up of separate petals like the rose. In the second division the petals are all more or less united into one piece, forming a somewhat cup or bell-shaped flower, like the morningglory. In the third division the flower has no petals or corolla, although the other parts of the flower are perfect. A\'e will now turn to the monopetalous division. This is divided into four subdivisions founded upon the different positions of the stamens in the flower. The stamens are the male organs of the plant, the two sexes being as actual and positive and as important in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom. In the first subdivision the stamens are more numerous than the lobes of the corolla. In the second they are of the same number as the lobes of the corolla and opposite to them. In the third division the stamens are of the same number as the lobes of the corolla and alternate with them. In the fourth subdivision the stamens are fewer than the lobes of the corolla. These subdivisons are again divided into natural orders of which there are about one hundred and forty in the northern states. These orders are based on some peculiarity of the plant, such as the leaves growing opposite to each other, or alternate on the stem. The natural orders in their turn are divided into genera, and the genera into species. Genera is the plural of genus. All the oaks in the country form one genus, while the white oak and the bur oak, for instance, are each separate species of the genus oak.

All the standard text-books of botany contain not only descriptions of all known plants in their territory, but are also furnished with analytical tables which trace each and every plant down through the different series, classes, sub-classes, divisions. subdivisions, natural orders, genera and species. Having acquired a general knowledge of the principles of botany and the meaning of the peculiar terms employed in the science, the student proceeds to study or analyze plants with a view to determine their names and the places they occupy in the system. In order to analyze a plant it should be taken when in full leaf and in full bloom, and it is sometimes essential that some of the fruit or seeds should be present, although it is generally difficult to find all these conditions present at once. In the case of some flowers, when the parts are of fair size and fully developed, it is quite a simple process, but when the parts of the flower are small and indistinct, and when some of the parts such as the seeds are not matured until after some of the other parts have perished, it is quite a difficult problem. A magnifying glass is indispensable in some cases.

the series of flowering' plants with which we find it to agree as having" flowers. Then cntting" the branch across, we see if it is made up of wood, pith and bark ; if the leaves are net-veined, and if the flowers are in fours or fives. Showing these peculiarities it doubtless belongs to the class of E.vogciis. Then if the seeds are contained in an ovary, it comes under the sub-class of angiospermous plants, instead of the coniferous. A\'e next find that it has a corolla as well as a calyx, and that the petals of the corolla are seperate and distinct, so that it belongs to the polypetalous division. Our attention is next directed to the insertion of the stamens, whether they are growing on the corolla, or on the calyx, or on the receptacle. In this case they are growing on the receptacle. Then if the stamens are more numerous than the petals, which we find to be so, this places our plant in the hypogynous subdivision. That we find the leaves to be opposite instea;d of alternate, and the seeds are solitary instead of being more than one. This brings it down to the natural order, Tiliacca wdiich is found on page loi in the body of the flora in Gray's Botany.

We then compare our plant with the character of the order and find they agree. A\'e now proceed to find the name of the genus, which is readily done, as there is only one in this order, and we find it to agree with every particular. It belongs to the genus Tilia. 'J'here are three species of 'Tilia, one of these is a large tree and the other two are small ones. This branch came froiu a large tree, so it is the Tilia Americana, or the basswood.

I have a list of 8oi different species of wild trees and plants which I have analyzed in the United States, of which number I have found in Minnesota 460, North Dakota 13, Iowa 41, Missouri 12, Arkansas 36, Texas 25, Louisiana 7, Florida 8, South Carolina 9, North Carolina 19, Tennessee 6, Ohio 41, Pennsylvania 7, New York 82, West Virginia 26, Delaware 9, a grand total of 801.

Following is a list of the 460 wild plants and trees I have found growing in Becker County. I have analyzed all these myself, and know the list is correct as far as it goes. Of course there are a few species that I have never found, especially among the grasses and sedges, but the list will be found to include nearly all the native plants and trees growing wild in the county.

There are a good many more species of wild plants in Becker County now, than when it was first settled. At that time the most troublesome plant in the coimtry was thought to be the wild morning'-glory. A good many new species have followed in the wake of civilization that were not here before, and many of them are verv troublesome. Among the species that have been introduced that are somewhat troublesome in their nature are the mullein, the dandelion, the plantain, the pm-slane. the ragweed, and the yellow daisy. Among those that are considered a positive nuisance are the burdock, the cocklebur, the sweet clover, the white daisy, the wild mustard, the bull thistle, the Russian thistle, and last but not least, the Canada thistle.

The bull thistle has gained a strong foothold in many places, especially in sections eighteen and nineteen in Grand Park township, where it has spread rapidly along the roadside and through the timber for a distance of two miles or more in the last ten years. It is a biennial plant, always dying the second year, and consequently can be easily destroyed by mowing before the plant goes to seed.

The Russian thistle has made its appearance along the Northern Pacific Railroad track in the last six or seven years, in small quantities. It is an annual plant, always dying the first year and consequently ought to be easily destroyed. It does not thrive well in our moist climate, and the surface of Becker County is not adapted to its rough and tumble habits. So it should not cause any serious apprehensions.

The wild mustard so far has made the most trouble of any pestiferous plant in the county, but the farmers appear to have a way of keeping it under control.

The sweet clover is a harmless, inoffensive looking plant, but it has taken possesion of a good part of Ohio, where it appears to be master of the situation.

There is a dense patch of it in Otter Tail County, along the road about half way between Pelican Rapids and Frazee. It is slowlv creeping towards Becker County, at the rate of about forty rods a year.

The white daisy is a troublesome weed in some of the older states, but in Becker County it has only appeared in flower gardens and dooryards. It is a dangerous pet, and is liable to make trouble in the future.

Xearly all of the above weeds can be kept under control, but there is a vicious plant thriving in our midst that is more to be dreaded than all the mustard, sweet clover, bull thistle, Russian thistle, and the seven years' plague of grasshoppers combined, and that is the Canada thistle. It is like the song of the everflowing brook "Men may come and men may go, But I go on forever."

Some of the other pests of the field and highway may come and some may go, but the Canada thistle has come to stay forever. Silently and slowly, but surely, little by little, year after year, it is spreading over the country. It is a perenial plant, its roots living from year to year, and they are never known to die. I have known a strawstack to be built over a patch of Canada thistles and burned three years afterwards and the year after the fine thev were up and blooming as vigorous and thrifty as ever. Sixteen years ago, I discovered a patch of these thistles in a barnyard near the old Oak Lake cut about a rod square, and I do not think there were any more of them in the county at that time. I sent word to the authorities of Audubon township, warning them of the dangerous character of the plant. They were mowed down some time that summer, after they had matured, and that was all I ever heard of being done to them. They are now growing all around in that vicinity. There is a big patch of them in the village of Detroit, a few in the Red Eye country and lots of them on the White Earth Reservation. They are also fast taking possession of both Brainerd and Duluth and the north shore of Lake Superior, along the Canadian Pacific Railroad. There are three species of native thistle in the county, all of which are quite harmless. Of the plants threatened with annihilation, I will mention only the ginseng. Thirty years ago, I found it in considerable quantities at the west end of Floyd Lake, and have seen it growing near the narrows of Big Cormorant Lake, and in Lake View ; but when the dried roots become worth nearly their weight in gold, it became a shining mark for the Chippewa squaws and the unerring aim of their little steel hoes has nearly accomplished its destruction.

Another plant of great importance in the financial afi:"airs of the Chippewas, is the Seneca snakeroot, tons and tons of which have been dug throughout the brush prairie regions of the county. It is a hardy perennial plant, and appears to be holding" its own against this persistent Indian warfare with wonderful success. This plant was abundant on the prairies of Atlanta before they were ploughed up. Late in the fall or early in the spring after the prairies had been burned, they were dotted with these plants, the evergreen nature of their radical leaves rendering them nearly fire proof, and quite conspicuous after the fire had blackened the ground.

and the Ura iirsa or the bearberry, and the kidneywort, all of which grow in considerable quantities and which ought to find a ready sale at good prices. Here is an opening for the squaws after the snakeroot has dissappeared.

Of deadly poisons the Ciciita maculata or poison hemlock stands at the head of the list. It grows extensively in wet places all over the county, and looks like a big caraway plant. The roots resemble wild artichokes, only they are a little longer drawn out. It was eating this root that killed Miles Hannah in the spring of 1873 on the Clearwater drive, and it also fatally poisoned a man in the employ of J. W. Dunn near Detroit, eight years ago.

Any and all plants belonging to the natural order UmbiilUfcra, to which the above belong, growing in wet or moist places, are liable to be poisonous, while plants belonging to the same family growing on high, dry ground like the parsnip, the carrot, the caraway, the sweet cicely, the fennel, the dill and the anise, are harmless.

The Rhus toxicodendron, or poison oak, poisons many people externally, and is said to be a rank poison when taken internally. It grows all over the timbered portions of Becker County in great abundance. It grows to be about a foot high, and is readily known by its leaves always growing in threes. There are some suspicious plants belonging to the natural order of Ranunculus, such as the crowfoot, the columbine, the larkspar and the red and wdiite baneberry.

The natural order Scrophulacca, to which the foxglove and the monkey flower belong, has some poisonous species, none of which are native of Becker County to my knowledge, but some of them that do grow here are of a suspicious character.

A plant of much importance in the domestic economy of the Indians is the wild rice. For generations this plant furnished them with their daily bread, or at least with about everything in the shape of bread they had to eat. As most people will know it grows in the water where it is from two to ten feet deep. The seeds rapidly take root in soft mud, and in the old beds of sunken straw from former growths of wild rice, of which there is frequently a depth of several feet down deep in the water, at the bottoms of some of the lakes and ponds. As a consequence the growing plants are never very strongly rooted and are easily pulled up. The first year I brought a drive of logs down the Otter Tail River. I was bothered and put to a big expense getting them through the wild rice straw in Height of Land Lake, Rice Lake and Blackbird Lake. There had been an immense crop the year before and it was still holding by the roots to the bottom of the lakes. The next spring, I hit upon a device of my own to get rid of the old straw. I made a dam at the outlet of Height of Land Lake and another at the outlet of Rice Lake, and about the middle of March, when the ice in the lakes was about as thick as it was going to get, I closed up my dams. The water would then begin to raise the ice in the lakes, and the ice would pull up the wild rice straw by the roots, and as soon as the ice melted the wind would blow the straw ashore where it would be out of the way. The Indians gather the wild rice in their canoes and pound ofif the hull from the seeds by placing it in holes in the ground, and pounding it after the fashion of churning with an old-fashioned up and down churn.

The goldenrod is the national flower of the LTnited States. There are forty-two species of Solidago or goldenrod in the Northern States, seven of which are found in Becker County, and the Solidago Cauadcnses. the national flower is one of the seven.

The most curious plant in the county is the Sarracciiia purpurea, or side-saddle flower, also appropriately called the pitcherplant. The leaves are shaped exactly like a pitcher, and one of them will hold a gill of water. They are common in the tamarac swamps.

Prairies And Natural Parks

A large part of Becker County was originally covered with natural forests. The surface of about twenty of the forty townships in the county was clothed almost exclusively with a good growth of timber. In the other twenty townships there were tracts of prairie land, varying in size of from one, two and three sections in a township, like Lake View or Green Valley, to those occupying a whole township like Walworth, and I make the proportion of the prairie land to the timber land in these twenty townships in the ratio of about four to three, or four-sevenths prairie and three-sevenths timber, and as the other twenty townships were almost exclusively timbered it would leave the surface of the whole county about two-sevenths prairie and five-sevenths timber, or what is a little nearer the true proportion, four-thirteenths prairie and nine-thirteenths timber.

Charles Carleton Coffin, correspondent of the Boston Journal, who came with the first Northern Pacific Railroad exploring expedition through this region in 1869, first gave it the name of the Park Region, and he sounded the praises of the Park Region and of Becker County throughout the length and breadth of the land. His letters were copied in other newspapers far and wide, and his descriptions and pen pictures were neither overdrawn nor exaggerated. It was reading one of these letters in a Chicago paper that started me on the road to Minnesota in September, 1869, and to Becker County the succeeding year. A copy of this letter will be found, later on, in the article giving an account of the first Northern Pacific Exploring Expedition.

Bayard Taylor, the celebrated traveler, visited this region a short time afterwards, and pictured the Park Region in colors equally as glowing. On the nth of August, 1873, Ex-Vice President Colfax spent a day in our county, and he pronounced the country about Detroit and Audubon the most beautiful he had ever laid his eves upon.

Of the region about Detroit Lake. ex-Governor Bross of Illinois, a world-wide traveler, writing to the Chicago Tribune says: "There is scarcely a section without a beautiful lake; small prairies, rich and rolling, alternate with groves of oak and other hard wood; and, certainly, if any more inviting region can be found, we have never had the good fortune to see it."

But there is another park region in the eastern part of omcounty, that was never seen by either of these eloqtient writers, that is still more beatitiful. I refer to the region of the cotintry known as the Shell Prairies. The nearest approach to level land in Becker County is on these prairies. These prairies begin at the Crow Wing River in Hubbard County, and extending in a northwesterly direction, this beautiful stretch of prairie land enters Becker Cou"ty, at the southeast corner of Osage Township, and continues in a northwesterly direction up through Osage and Carsonville, varying in width from two to five miles, widening out as it enters the Reservation, and occupies nearly all of Township No. 141, Range 37. These stretches of prairie land are dotted with evergreen groves, consisting chiefly of jack pine, with an intermixture of bur-oak as yott proceed to the west, and add greatly to the beauty of the landscape. The surface of these prairies is smooth and unbroken by sloughs or other obstructions. This is especially the case with the southeast corner township of the White Earth Reservation, which is so smooth and unbroken that, barring an occassional small grove of timber you can plough a furrow across the township in almost any direction. If you wish to see the most beautiful township of land in Minnesota, the greater part of which is still in a state of nature, and but slightly marred by the hand of civilization, take a drive over Township 141, Range 37, the southeast corner township of the White Earth Reservation, and I think you will find it there. There are some fine farms in the south part of the township but they add to rather than detract from its natural beauty

One hundred years ago the whole Red River Country, inchiding the rolHng country on its eastern border, and also including the country about the headwaters of the Mississippi and Crow Wing Rivers, was a paradise for wild animals. This country at that time was the principal field of operations for the Northwest Fur Company, and there was also an opposition fur company doing business in the same territory at the same time.

The headquarters of the Northwest Company was then at the junction of Park River and the Red, about half way between where Grand Forks and Pembina have since been built. At this trading post, Alexander Henry, the resident general manager of this Fur Company, had his headquarters. There were also branch trading posts at the forks of the Red and Red Lake Rivers, one at the mouth of the Pembina River, one at Red Lake and one at the White Earth in what is now Becker County.

Immense numbers of furs were taken every year by the Indians and half-breeds for this company and shipped by them to Montreal in Canada. They were taken in birch-bark canoes down the Red River to Lake Winnipeg, thence up the Winnipeg River to the Lake of the Woods, thence via Rainy River, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence to Montreal.

In the year 1798, according to the official report of the Northwest Fur Company, they shipped to Montreal by way of Lake Superior the following list of skins in round numbers.

The opposition fur company must also have secured nearly as many. Of these furs the territory now included in Becker County furnished a fair proportion.

Neil's History of Minnesota has this to say of Alexander Henry, who during the year 1800 and for several years afterwards was in charge of these trading posts.

Alexander Henry, the second, was a nephew of Alexander Henry, one of the first subjects of Great Britain who traded at Lapoint before the Revolutionary War, and whose book of travels is well known to the literary world. The nephew was a partner of the Northwest Fur Company, and although his education was limited, his perception was quick, and his pen that of a ready writer. He kept a journal for several years duringhis residence in the Red River Country, and but few journals contain so many important statements. His notes ought to be published.

Since the above was published the journal of Alexander Henry has been published in full by Professor Elliott Coues. As I have used numerous quotations from the above mentioned journal, I deemed it appropriate that I should give a brief account of the author, as I have here done.

I have included in these articles all the wild animals that ever inhabitated Becker Cotmty as far as my knowledge extends,, although some may have been omitted that I know not of.

The information given in the following pages is largely my own experience, together with incidents and adventures that have come under my own personal knowledge, with a few extracts from competent authors to help out where my personal knowledge is insufficient to convey a fair conception of the character and habits of certain species of animals. I have not undertaken to arrange them in any scientific order, although I have endeavored to keep the different families together.

I begin my history of Becker County animals with the buflfalo, because it is the largest and most distinctly American of all the wild animals inhabiting this continent. In my opinion it would have been a more fitting emblem of our national flag than the piratical eagle. The western part of Becker County was formerly a favorite summer range for the buflfalo, and their skeletons have been found in all parts of the county.

In 1870 while engaged in surveying for the Government, I found a great many of their bones scattered over the prairies in the townships of Hamden and Cuba. They were particularly plentiful near the Buffalo River on sections 9, 10, 15 and 16 in the latter township. Buffalo River was so named from the immense herds of buffalo that formerly roamed along its banks.

Many years ago I found a buffalo skeleton, which still had some of the hair on its head, in a spring hole on the west shore of Long Lake, on section 2'j in the town of Erie, near where Millard Howe has since resided, where the buffalo had incautiously ventured, and was unable to extricate himself.

I have found buffalo skulls as far east as the Crow Wing River in Hubbard County, and Lieutenant Pike, the first Government explorer of the upper Mississippi River in 1805, found several good sized herds of buffalo on the east side of the Mississippi, near where Little Falls now stands.

Major Long, while exploring the Red River Valley in the summer of 1823, met a large herd of buffalo a little east of where McCauleyville, in Wilkin County, is now located.

In the spring of 1862, the writer of this article ascended the Missouri River on a steamboat belonging to tlie Americ:in Fur Company from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Great Falls, near the Rocky Mountains. The last sign of civilization at that time was at the northern border of Nebraska. On the 27th of May we stopped to cut wood on the east side of the river, in what is now South Dakota near its present capital. In a little opening immediately above where we landed, six bull buft"aloes were feeding, apparently unconscious of our presence. Six of us started out to surround the bulls. This was a difificvilt task, because the little opening of about half an acre was surrounded by timber and a dense undergrowth of willows, rose bushes, ripshins and bullberry bushes, which were covered with sharp thorns. Our scheme, however, worked to a charm and before they knew it. we had them completely surrounded. A wellbeaten trail ran from the river through to the little opening, and from there on through the thickets to the open prairie beyond. When all was ready, three or four of us fired, and two bulls fell to the ground. ( )ne of them, however, succeeded in getting on his feet again. The four bulls that were unhurt made a break for the open prairie along the trail while the wounded bull took the trail for the river. Aly station happened to be on this trail. When I saw the bull coming with eyes distorted, and blood flowing from his mouth and nostrils, I started for the river, too. My gun was empty, and the trail was walled in with brush so dense as to be almost impenetrable, and the bull was gaining on me at every jump. A wounded bufifalo, when enraged and driven to desperation by the hunter is of all animals in the world the most diabolical in appearance. He was the very image of ferocity and horror. It did not take me long to reach the river bank, which was one of those perpendicular-cut banks, peculiar to the Missouri, with a torrent of deep muddy water running at its base. I now^ gave a last farewell glance over my shoulder at the bull, and just then to my surprise and infinite relief, he tumbled headlong to the ground. We took him on board the boat and everybody had beef for a while.

At two different times our steamboat was obliged to stop, and tie up alongside the shore to avoid the immense herds of buffalo that were floating down the river. The first drove we encountered was near where Bismarck in North Dakota is now located. The river was nearly half a mile wide and was filled nearly its entire width with live buffaloes, and they were at least half an hour in passing. We encountered the other drove a little above the mouth of the Yellowstone and it must have contained at least 20,000 animals.

There are two peculiarities of the buffalo, which I will mention. One is the thickness of the hide on the skull of the animal, which is at least an inch thick. The old muzzle loading rifle ball could not penetrate it, but the modern breech loader probably could. I worked hard for ten minutes, with a sharp ax, trying to cut a dried scalp in two that came off a buffalo bull's pate. It was more than half an inch thick when dried, and nearly as hard as sheet iron. The hides of all bulls were very thick and heavy, and it took a good strong man to handle one. Nearly all the robes were made from the skins of cows. The Indians always tanned buffalo robes by using the brains of the animal, and they tanned buckskins the same way. The other peculiarity is the ease and quickness with which it springs to the ground when suddenly alarmed. Instead of raising itself first by two legs, and then by the other two, like the ox or the horse, the buffalo springs to the ground with its four feet all at once and in an instant, with but little eft'ort. Buffaloes live to be thirty or fory years old and are not full grown until six.

The following extracts from the journal of Alexander Henry, will show that the buft'alo formerly existed in the Red River country in immense numbers, and that their visits were not confined to the summer season.

Sunday, May 6th, 1800. At Bois Prere, near where we are camped, has been a great buffalo crossing for many years. The ground on both sides is beaten as hard as a pavement, and the roads leading to the Red River are a foot deep, and I am at a loss and bewildered in attempting to form any idea of the numerous herds of buffalo which may have passed here.

Sept. nth, 1800. I climbed up a tall oak tree which I trimmed for the purpose, and from the top of it I had an extensive view of the surrounding country. Buffalo and elk were everywhere to be seen passing to and fro. Four of my men returned today having killed fourteen bears.

I shot a wolf that was passing by and killed him dead. Buffalo come down to drink, both day and night, near our camp but we seldom molest them.

Sept. 18th, 1800. I took my morning view from the top of my oak tree and saw more buffalo than ever before. They formed one body, commencing about half a mile from camp, from whence the plain was covered as far as the eye could reach.

We saw a great herd of cows going at full speed southward but on coming to our track, which goes to the salt spring, they began to smell the ground, and as suddenly as if they had been fired at, turned towards the hills in an easterly direction. It is surprising how sagacious these animals are. When in the least alarmed they will smell the track of even a single person in the grass, and run away in a contrary direction. I have seen large herds, walking very slowly to pasture, and feeding as they went, come to a place where some persons had passed on foot, when they would instantly stop, smell the ground and draw back a few paces, bellow, and tear up the earth with their horns.

Sometimes the whole herd would range along the route, keeping up a terrible noise, until one of them was hardy enough to jump over, when they would all follow and run some distance.

December ist, 1800. Some Cree Indians informed me today, that they had seen a calf as white as snow in a herd of bufifalo. White bufifalo are very scarce. There is also once in a great while one of a dirty gray, but they are very rare also.

January 4th, 1801. We have had a terrible snow storm. I can count from the top of my oak tree, twenty or thirty herds of buffalo feeding out on the prairie. It is surprising how the cow bufTalo resists the cold piercing North winds which at times blow with such violence over these bleak plains, whicH causes such a drift that it is impossible to face it for any length of time. Still these animals will stand grazing in the open fields.

January 14th, 1801. At daybreak I was awakened by the bellowing of buffaloes. On my right the plains were black and appeared in motion. Opposite the trading post the ice was covered, and on my left the river below us was covered with bufifalo moving northward. I dressed and climbed my oak tree for a better view. I had seen almost incredible numbers of buffalo in the fall, but nothing in comparison to what I now beheld. The ground was covered at every point of the compass as far as the eye could reach, and every animal was in motion.

A herd of cow buffaloes were crossing the river on the ice near the trading post, when dogs chased them and prevented one from landing. Perceiving this the men took a rope which they doubled and entangled her legs in such a manner that she fell on her side. She lay quiet for a while, while they fastened the rope around her horns and dragged her to the post. Here she jumped up and made at the dogs, taking no notice of us. Crow and Pierre, two half-breeds jumped on her back, but it did not incommode her in the least. She was as nimble in kicking and jumping at the dogs as before, although they both were heavy men, weighing nearly 200 pounds apiece. She was not full grown and very lean. What must be the strength of a full grown bull, which is twice the weight of a cow? It is common to see a bull weigh 1,500 pounds, but a cow is seldom over 700 or 800 pounds gross.

A fat cow killed in the autumn, weighs from 600 to 700 pounds. .\ lean cow seldom exceeds 300 pounds. I have weighed 150 cows, killed from Sept. ist to Feb. ist, and found they averaged 400 pounds each. Bulls in the same space of time average 550 pounds. Two-year-old heifers, in autumn, average 200 pounds. One-year-old calves, in autumn, average no pounds. These weights are exclusive of the ofifals. But the total eatable meat of one full-grown bull, as received in the store house, weighed 800 pounds. One thigh alone weighed 85 pounds. This bull was in full flesh, but had neither inside tallow nor back fat; which gives me reason to suppose that a full-grown bull, killed fat, about July ist, would weigh about 1,800 pounds, ofifals included.

March 30th, 1801. Rain has broken np the ice in the Red River. It drifted in large masses, making a great noise by crushing, tumbling and tossing in every direction driven by a strong current. It continued to drift on the 31st, bearing great numbers of dead buffalo from above, which must have Ijeen drowned in attempting to cross while the ice was weak.

Wednesday, April ist, 1801. The Red River is clear of ice, but drowned buffalo continue to drift by in entire herds. Several of them have lodged on the banks of the river near this place. Some of the squaws have cut up the fattest of them for their own use, and their flesh appears to be fresh and good. It is really astonishing what vast numbers of them must have perished, for they formed one continued line in the middle of the river for two days and two nights.

April i8th, iBoi. Rain. Drowned buffalo still drifting down the river, but not in such vast numbers as before, many have lodged on the bank and along the beach.

This account is not exaggerated. John McDonnell's Journal of May i8th, 1795, when descending Qu' Appelle River, states: Observing a good many carcasses of buffaloes in the river and along its banks, I was taken up the whole day in counting them, and to my surprise I had numbered, when we put up at night, 7,360, drowned and mired along the river and in it. In one or two places, went on shore and walked from one carcass to another, where they lay from three to five buffaloes deep.

As to the exact time when the Buffalo left Becker County, or Minnesota, I am unable definitely to state. For this and other valuable information with reference to this subject, I am indebted to the Hon. R. M. Prol)sfield, of Clay County, Minnesota, which I will insert in full :

''I am sorry that I cannot assist you to an}- extent regarding the habitat of buffalo in Becker County during my time in the valley of the Red River, which dates from April ist. 1859. On my first trip to this valley. I came by the way of Crow Wing, Otter Tail City, and crossed Detroit Lake from the southwest on the ice to the present site of Detroit, and left the old trail at or near Oak Lake. I have no doubt but that during those years mentioned above, the buffalo did occasionally roam over the western or prairie part of Becker County in small stray herds, and tliat previous to my settlement in the country the buffalo roamed in large numbers in the same range of country, as was shown by numerous skulls and bones I have passed on the prairie between Oak Lake and Lake Park. Especially do I remember one place, perhaps two or three miles a little north of west from where Audubon is located. The bones were scattered over an area of nearly a section of land and there must have been nearly one hundred skeletons at that location.

Clay County was not a steady place of abode of the buffalo during my time as I have seen them only four different years from 1859 to 1868. In 1859 one Henry Block and myself killed five during the week before Christmas, killing three of them one day and two more the next two days following. The snow was deep and we crawled onto them by stealth. We only saw eight altogether, killing the last late one evening. There were three left, it being dark and too cold to attempt anything more. The thermometer was twenty-five degrees below zero, with a northewst wind, very strong, so that we were glad to return to our tents. The next morning, we could not see any of them and having meat enough for what people there were there at that time did not attempt to find any more. The last one we killed was spoiled the next morning, as we had not dressed him the evening before. We were very cold and it was too late to do so. It may seem strange that an animal should spoil with the thermometer at twenty degrees below zero, but the bullet penetrated the stomach and tainted the meat, so we only hauled four carcasses home. They were all old, big bulls, probably driven out of the herd they came from by the younger blood, as it seems is their habit.

The next herd was on the Dakota side, beginning about three miles north from Georgetown, stretching west and north along the Red River. We only penetrated the herd as far as Elm River, thirteen miles north of Georgetown where it empties into the Red River. There may have been 10,000 or 100,000 of them for all we could tell, as we could not see their limit either north or west. A few got across the Red River onto the Minnesota side. We only killed four of them. This was in July, 1866, and very hot, and the half-breeds did not wish to kill more than they could use without spoiling. On this occasion I killed my first buffalo on horseback, with a Colt's navy revolver, but that exhausted every shot (6) and I had no more to reload with. I followed the old bull up until he expired. My experience was not pleasant, and had not my saddle horse known more about buffalo hunting on horseback than I did, I probably would not be here to write this. The next small herd was seen in 1867, twenty-five in all. We found them about two and one-half miles east of Georgetown. The half-breeds killed three, and did not want any more, it being July and very hot. This time I did not attempt myself to do any shooting, as I took my wife and two children out on the hunt to see the performance. We rode in an old bull cart, and it was a rough ride.

The last buffalo seen was at Georgetown, near the Hudson Bay buildings, and within fair rifle shot. It was in September, 1868. I only had a muzzle loader rifle and got one shot into one (there were only two), and before I could reload they were 120 rods away and I cannot tell if my second shot hit. Following up the trail, I could find the blood on the dry grass. They crossed the Buffalo River at the mouth of it, and I did not follow them any further. These were the last wild buffalo I saw in the valley. Several years afterwards there was one shot not very far from Fargo, only one being seen.

These were the last buffalo ever seen in Minnesota to the best of my knowledge. The last time any buffalo were seen in Dakota Territory east of the Missouri River, was, I think, in 1875.

In the summer of 1874. a surveying party in the employ, and under the direction of George G. Beardsley, with Melville H. Davis as a compassman, ran the nth Standard Parallel, from a point in what is now North Dakota, near where the village of Hillsboro now stands, running their line due west to the Missouri River.

Sometime in September their line took them throtigh the Hawk's Nest, a grove of timber containing about forty acres, which stood alone on the prairie, some thirty miles west of the James River and not far from where the village of Carrington now stands. Near the Hawk's Nest they encountered a herd of buffalo, numbering about three hundred animals. They had no time to devote to hunting, but about the 20th of October, after the party had disbanded two of its members who lived at Jamestown, started from that place for the Hawk's Nest to hunt buffalo, each man being provided with two yoke of oxen and a wagon with which to haul home the meat. The names of these men were John Nichols and Merritt Wiseman. Nichols was one of the best men on the prairies, and on a government survey, I ever knew. I had him with me in 1875 and again in 1880. Wiseman was with me in the spring of 1872, examining land in Atlanta, Walworth and the Wild Rice country in Minnesota.

The two men with their teams and wagons found the buft'alo about 30 miles northwest of the Hawk's Nest late in the afternoon of the 24th day of October, 1874, where the herd was quietlv feeding on the prairie. They unyoked their oxen and turned them loose to graze, while they themselves went directly to shooting buffalo. The animals evidently had not been hunted as they were easily approached, and it was an easy matter to get within gunshot range. When night set in thev had killed five or six and by the time they had reached their camp it was dark, and their oxen had wandered away, and were nowhere to be found. This did not cause them any uneasiness, however, as they flattered themselves that they would not wander far and could be readily found in the morning". They set up their tent, eat their supper and turned in for the night, the weather at the time being warm and pleasant. About midnight, however, a terrible snow storm accompanied bv a strong north wind, swept over the prairie and by the next morning had assumed the proportions of a regular blizzard.

I was caught out in the same storm on Apple Creek, nine miles northeast of Bismarck, where I was camped with one other man, and it stormed so hard that we did not get out of our bed until eleven o'clock the next day, when we eat a little bread and butter and started for Bismarck, which place we reached with considerable difficulty.

Nichols and Wiseman did not leave their tent the first day of the storm at all, but on the ensuing day, the storm having subsided, they searched the adjacent country far and near for their oxen, but the snow had obliterated every track, and not a sign or trace of an ox could be found. They continued the search for two days more with no better success, and then gave it up. They were now 80 miles from Jamestown, and at least 60 miles from the nearest point on the N. P. R. R., and there were no settlers or white people short of that distance in any direction. They were w'ell supplied with provisions for several weeks, but winter was at hand, and the outlook for getting back to civilization was anything but cheering, but the longer it was delayed the more difficult it was liable to become.

Wiseman was a large heavy man, a little clumsy, not over ambitious and a poor traveler on foot at the best, and he decided that he could never walk to the railroad.

Nichols was a man of different calibre. Tie was then in the prime of life, of medium size, strongly built and brim full of vitality and energy. He at once decided to make the attempt to reach the railroad. In fact that was their only salvation. Accordingly on the morning of October 28th with two davs rations in his pockets, he started in a southerly direction over the snow covered prairies. The snow was a foot deep on an average, making the traveling extremely laborious. He traveled the entire distance wthout halting, never stopping to rest, eat or sleep. He ate as he walked, taking liis course by his pocket compass and the sun by day, and by the stars at night, covering the entire distance in about thirty hours, traveling all day the 28th. all the succeeding night and half of the 29th, reaching the Xorthern Pacific Railroad near where the village of Steele, the county seat of Kidder Comity, is now located.

Staving all night with Thompson, an old Scotchman, who was running the Xorthern Pacific Railroad pump at the then 14th siding he took the cars the next morning for Jamestown, where he procured a horse and buckboard a day or two afterwards, and started back after Wiseman, arriving at the bufifalo camp in due time. He took Wiseman back home to Jamestown, leaving the wagons and a large part of their outfit, and nearly all of the buffalo meat behind. The next spring they made another trip to the buffalo range with two yoke of oxen, and were again successful in finding the herd of buft'alo on their old feeding grounds. They killed several, but most of them were in rather poor condition and they only hauled home about a ton of meat, which they sold for $90. These were the last buffalo killed, I think, by white men east of the Missouri River. One pair of their oxen was found the next spring near the Sheyenne River in a starving condition, another pair was killed l)y the Indians during the winter in the same vicinitv, but the other fonr oxen were never heard from.

During the season of 1875, ^ party of half-breeds, then located at Valley City, but who for man_\- years before had lived at Pelican Rapids, in Minnesota, moved up to the Hawk's Nest and hunted this band of buft'aloes until they killed the last animal in the herd. I was in Dakota surveying, every }ear from 1873 until 1882 inclusive, working back and forth from the Red River to the Missouri, and covering a wide range of comitry north and south, and I feel sure that these were the last of those interesting animals found east of the Missouri River in any part of the United States.

The Pacific railroads were the final undoing of the buff"alo. and l;)y 1888 the last remnants of the southern herds were exterminated in southwestern Texas, and the last of the herds of the northern part of the United States were annihilated in Montana about the same time.

snowshoes and started for the point from whence the sound of the shooting came. When he arrived at Winfield Smith's Lake he saw Mr. Fairbanks shooting at an old bull buffalo, and before he brought it down he had fired fifteen or twenty shots at him. My Uncle Paul, who was an expert bufifalo hunter, had steered Mr. Fairbanks up against the bull knowing that it was so old that the chances, on account of its thick, scabby skin, were nearly even to have it escape or be killed, and the former wanted to get a joke on the latter who was his father-in-law.

Mr. Courrier said that the herd scattered as soon as the first shots were fired by my Uncle Paul, but he followed a number of cows and calves that ran along the edge of the woods towards what is now the Agency, and shot one at every hundred yards or so, so that he had killed nearly enough to load the trains of the party with meat before the arrival of the Red Lake contingent.

The party continued to hunt in this vicinity for more than a week, but Uncle Paul was probably the first one that killed any bufifalo within this county - I mean of that particular party - as his first day's shooting seems to have extended to a point opposite the old trading post two miles north of this village.

The party returned to their respective trading posts laden with bufifalo meat. . In this connection, only the choicest pieces were taken and not a bit of bone was loaded on to the trains.

I cannot recall all the details of the trip as told to me by both Mr. Courrier and Mr. Jourdan, but I have not forgotten all of them and know they were very interesting.

With the exception of the buffalo, the moose is the largest wild animal ever found in Minnesota, if not in the United States. It is still found in northern Minnesota in large numbers, and is as plentiful now as at any time in the past, and is still frequently met with in Becker County. When seen in its native wilds, the male moose with a full set of horns, is a noble and formidable looking animal. He reminds one of a big ox circulating around with a two-armed rocking chair on the top of his head. Moose have been killed weighing eighteen hundred pounds.

The moose frequently makes himself at home among domestic cattle, although their friendship is not always duly appreciated by the cattle. In 1862, '63. '64. I had a partner in the gold mines in Montana by the name of John D. Brown, an Irishman by birth, who passed through Becker County in 1857 on his way to the Rocky Mountains. His party followed the old Red River trail from Sauk Rapids and Long Prairie up to Otter Tail City. It was late in the fall, and the snow was several inches deep. The first night after leaving Otter Tail City they camped on the old trail between the two lakes- on what is now Section 36 in the town of Burlington, near where Herman Fisher now resides. The old Red River road ran around between those two lakes then. They were traveling with ox teams, and did not reach their camping place until nearly midnight. The men and cattle were all tired, but just about the time they had finished their suppers a bull moose charged in among the oxen, evidently thinking they were some of his own kind. This frightened the oxen, and a regular stampede took place. They took the trail leading in a northwesterly direction crossing the Otter Tail River and the moose after them. Two Frenchmen in the party followed after the oxen, but they did not overtake them until the middle of the forenoon the next day, when they found them near Floyd Lake, two miles north of where Detroit is now, and the moose was still with them.

I never saw but one live moose in Becker County, and it was with a band of four or five deer, crossing the Otter Tail River a little below my saw^ mill at the Erie bridge, in the spring of 1887.

for the government. It was surprising with what ease they would cross the marshes and floating bogs in that swampy country. Instead of walking or trotting along squarely on their feet, as they would on hard land, they appeared to travel with a kind of a lope, or a bound and hop, on the knees of their fore legs, and on the gambrel joints or hunkers of their hind legs. On one occasion we though we could run down a moose that we found in a boggy marsh, but were astonished to see with what ease it oustripped us in the race. An ox or a horse could not have kept up on the marsh for a distance of ten rods without getting hopelessly mired.

One evening in August, about sundown, a big bull moose with a monstrous pair of horns happened to get his eyes on our camp, which consisted of three tents standing on the edge of a small prairie. He circled back and forth, coming a little nearer at every turn, while George Senacle, of Lake View, in our county, crept down through an adjacent patch of brush with a gun to get a shot at him. The rest of us skulked behind a tent to keep out of sight. The curiosity of the moose kept drawing him closer and closer, until he had ventured up within ten or twelve rods of our tent, and still nearer to Senacle with his gun. We all kept completely hid from view except Bill McCart. He was so long we could not entirely hide him. We tried to double him up like a jack-knife, but in spite of all we could do, one end of him would stick out, and finally the moose got his eye on that particular end, when he gave a snort and away he went over the prairie, like a hobby-horse in a merry-go-round.

On another occasion, I was running a line near the west line of Beltrami County, through scattering poplars and tall grass, sighting to trees or stumps or anything that happened to be in the right place for the line. Willie Moore was head chainman, and was following close to my heels through the grass, which was three or four feet high. I took sight on what I thought was a black stump sticking up through the grass and which was exactly in line and started to go to it. When within forty or fifty feet, I noticed that my object moved a little, so I remarked to Willie that there was a moose ahead of us, and sure enough there was a cow moose and her calf with their heads down in the grass licking away at a little spot of alkali ground, or what in some parts of the country they call a "deer lick." We watched them for two or three min-

A Dakota hunting party, who have been spending a month in the Lake Itasca region, came into town last Tuesday with three wagon loads of game. They had four large moose, and twelve deer. The game was bought by Stephens Bros, for shipment. One of the moose, a five year old cow, weighed about twelve hundred, and Mr. Stephens is preparing the hide for mounting. One of the deer, a line buck, dressed over 250 pounds. How does such game strike the eastern jack-snipe shooters?

The elk former])- roamed over Becker County in large numbers, but suddenly disappeared with the first settlement of the country. For several years afterwards, however, elk horns were found in dififerent parts of the county in considerable numbers.

I saw three elk in the spring of 1872 near the South branch of the Wild Rice, north from Lake Park, and Peter Parker, whose home was then at White Earth, informs me that he saw two near Cormorant Lake in the latter part of April that same spring.

At five o'clock the canoes arrived and camped. Aly men told me they had seen a great many elk and bears crossing; large herds were seen at every turn. The Indians in the canoe had killed four otters and three , beaver. This evening the hunters returned, having killed four elk, and one buffalo, all extremely fat.

Elk have been at home throughout the whole Red River country and as far east as Deer Creek in Otter Tail County, where I saw the first I ever saw in March, 1859. I have seen them near the western border of the White Earth Reservation, in Becker County, and have killed one on the so-called Engelbromer farm in Western Becker County in the year 1865, and know that elk meat was the main supply of meat for the half-breeds and Indians all over the Northwest, between Red River and the Big Timber on the east.

Elk seem to like a prairie country, interspersed with groves of timber, as more were to be found in such localities than where it was all prairie. Along the Red River and its tributaries they were frequently found, especially, and more so in the winter time; but up on the higher lands and especially throughout the so-called Park Region, they were more plentiful than in the Red River Valley, and Becker, Otter Tail, Grant, Pope and Stevens Counties had a goodly share of them forty years ago, but the growing settlements appeared to crowd them out.

I have no doubt that a good many other counties in Western Minnesota were roamed over by them. I have seen them between Lake George and Lake Henry in Stearns County, on Round Prairie in Todd County and at Chippewa Lake in Douglas County, and from what I saw, I came to the conclusion that their range was much more extensive than what came under my rather limited observation.

The elk is about twice the size of the common deer of Minnesota, with horns of the same pattern, but about three times as large, being larger in proportion to the size of the animal than those of the deer.

The elk was formerly distributed well over Minnesota. In 1805, Lieutenant Z. M. Pike speaks of large bands of elk east of the Mississippi River, in what is now Morrison County. Forty years ago they were very abundant in the vicinity of all the timber skirted streams on the plains of Dakota and Montana, and well up into the Rocky Mountains. They were particularly abundant along the borders of the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota.

About the first of June, 1862, four of us started across a timbered bottom land of the Missouri River, near where Washburn, N. D., is now, to see what we could find in the way of game. We spread out twenty or thirty rods apart, and then started west from the river in the direction of the open plains beyond.

We had not gone more than sixty rods, when a large animal, which I at first thought was a mule, jumped up and started on a run obliquely to the left of me. I was astonished to see a mule in that wild Indian country, for there was not a white settler living within 300 miles of the place at that time. It finally dawned on me that the running animal was an elk, without horns. In a few seconds it had gone beyond the distance for a successful shot from my ritie, but later on I heard the report of a ritie to my left, at which the elk turned and ran through the timber ahead of me and was soon out of sight. I quickly found its trail, which I followed not more than twenty rods and there found the elk stretched on the ground, a lifeless mass. It was a beautiful animal, and weighed so much that it was a heavy load for the four of us to carry it to the steamboat after it was dressed.

Caribou

1 have never found an Indian or white man who had ever seen a caribou in Becker County. The nearest trace I can find of them is at Leech Lake and Red Lake. Old North-Wind says he saw a herd of them at Sandy Lake, forty or fifty }ears ago, and that he had seen them at Leech Lake since that time.

There is a herd of reindeer in Alaska, brought over from Lapland a few years ago, and I have seen men who have seen these animals, and have also seen caribou near by them, and they sav there is no perceptible difl:"erence between the tw^o animals.

I had this photograph taken in British Columbia and I insert it here for comparison wdth the moose and the elk. It is much smaller than either.

r)f all the wild animals of North America classed as big game, the common deer was the most generally and widely distributed, the best known and comes the nearest to being the ideal and favorite game of the stalwart hunter.

The white-tailed deer is the only species that I am aware of inhabiting Becker County, although in 1890 I saw two deer in Height of Land Township that at the time I was sure were black-tailed deer, but as I did not see their tails I may have been mistaken. The black-tailed deer instead of being a reddish l)n)wn like our common deer is a dark gray, with very large ears, broad at the ends, and has a short tail w'ith a black tip. The common deer is too well known to need any description, and it is to be hoped that it will continue to be so for years to come.

When the countrv first began to be settled up, they were no more plentiful than now, but they began to increase with the growth of the settlements, so that by 1874 and for several years afterwards, there w^as fine deer hunting in the timbered parts of Cormorant, Lake Eunice, Lake \^iew^ and Burlington ; although they generally left those towns for the pineries farther east after winter had fairly set in. In the beginning of the year 1880, when Holmeville, Erie and Height of Land were getting fairly well settled, deer became more numerous there than ever before, and the Shell Prairie regions farther east w^ere a favorite resort for the deer the year around. In those days deer were slaughtered by wholesale and as there was no law against selling the venison at certain seasons it was no unusual sight to see them hauled to the railroad stations by the sleigh load, and to see them stacked up on the freight house platforms by the score.

I never had an opportunity of ascertaining the number killed in any one season in Becker County, but in the winter of 1878- 79 I was in Morrison County, traveling over the different parts of the country all winter, visiting all the lumber camps and frequently camping with hunters at night. I took considerable pains to ascertain the number of deer killed in the county that winter, and it amounted to more than 1,400 that I was sure of. I have hunted deer but little in Minnesota, and never shot at but one in Becker County. In September, 1878, I had been up in the Height of Land Lake country ten days, all alone, and was following my way down the east side of the Otter Tail River in the town of Erie on my way home. \\'hen near the north line of Section 35 I heard something plunge into a big hole in the river on the opposite side. This hole at that time was wide and deep, much wider and deeper than now. R. L. Frazee drowned a span of mules by breaking through the ice in that same hole the winter before. I could hear the animal swimming toward me, and in a short time a fine buck landed about sixty yards ahead and started on a dead run across a little opening. I had a pistol with a barrel about eight inches long with a little skeleton breech, which I carried in my belt, and with this I fired at the deer as it ran, shooting it straight through the heart. It w^as getting dark when I killed the deer, but I dragged it across to the west side of the river and went on down to Samuel Pearce's in the town of Burlington, who at that time lived the farthest up the river of any white settler. He and his son William hitched up the oxen and wagon and drove up in the dark and brought back the deer.

The (leer are nnicli lart^er in ATinnesota than in other sections of the country west and south. In Montana a white tailed doe will not wei^h more than sixty pounds, dressed, on an average, and a Imck not more than one hundred pounds. The same may he said of the deer in Arkansas and Texas. In ^Minnesota thc\- will weigh nearly twice that much.

The bucks, as most people know, shed their horns at the beginning of the winter, after which they are inclined to herd together by themselves, although when a country begins to settle with white people, they are much less inclined to bunch together.

In the winter of 1863 and 1864 I was hunting near the Bear Tooth Mountain in ^lontana about fifteen miles north of where Helena now stands. There were three of us together riding through a forest of ])ines, when we heard a rushing sound behind us as if a hurricane was sweeping through the woods. Just then a herd of deer came rushing past that my partners estimated at 200 animals. We all fired into the drove from horseback, but our horses had become wild with fright at the unusual sight, so our aim was bad and we did not kill a single deer.