Minnesota and Dacotah by Andrews, C. C. (Christopher Columbus), 1829-1922

LETTER XII.

SPECULATION AND BUSINESS.

Opportunities to select farms-- Otter Tail Lake-- Advantages of the actual settler over the speculator-- Policy of new states as to taxing non-residents-- Opportunities to make money-- Anecdote of Col. Perkins-- Mercantile business-- Price of money-- Intemperance-- Education-- The free school.

CROW WING, October, 1856.

IT is maintained by the reviewers, I believe, that the duller a writer is, the more accurate he should be. In the outset of this letter, I desire to testify my acquiescence in the justice of that dogma, for if, like neighbor Dogberry, "I were as tedious as a king," I could not find it in my heart to bestow it all without a measure of utility.

I shall try to answer some questions which I imagine might be put by different classes of men who are interested in this part of the west. My last letter had some hints to the farmer, and I can only add, in addition, for his benefit, that the most available locations are now a considerable distance above St. Paul. The valley of the St. Peter's is pretty much taken up; and so of the valley of the Mississippi for a distance of fifteen miles on either side to a point a hundred miles above St. Paul. One of the land officers at Minneapolis informed me that there were good preemption claims to be had fifteen miles west, that being as far as the country was thickly settled. One of the finest regions now unoccupied, that I know of, not to except even the country on the Crow Wing River, is the land bordering on Otter Tail Lake. For forty miles all round that lake the land is splendid. More than a dozen disinterested eye-witnesses have described that region to me in the most glowing terms. In beauty, in fertility, and in the various collateral resources which make a farming country desirable, it is not surpassed. It lies south of the picturesque highlands or hauteurs des terres, and about midway between the sources of the Crow Wing and North Red Rivers. From this town the distance to it is sixty miles. The lake itself is forty miles long and five miles in width. The water is clear and deep, and abounds with white fish that are famous for their delicious flavor. The following description, which I take from Captain Pope's official narrative of his exploration, is a reliable description of this delightful spot, now fortunately on the eve of being settled-- " To the west, north-west, and north-east, the whole country is heavily timbered with oak, elm, ash, maple, birch, bass, &c., &c. Of these the sugar maple is probably the most valuable, and in the vicinity of Otter Tail Lake large quantities of maple sugar are manufactured by the Indians. The wild rice, which exists in these lakes in the most lavish profusion, constitutes a most necessary article of food with the Indians, and is gathered in large quantities in the months of September and October. To the east the banks of the lake are fringed with heavy oak and elm timber to the width of one mile. The whole region of country for fifty miles in all directions around this lake is among the most beautiful and fertile in the world. The fine scenery of lakes and open groves of oak timber, of winding streams connecting them, and beautifully rolling country on all sides, renders this portion of Minnesota the garden spot of the north-west. It is impossible in a report of this character to describe the feeling of admiration and astonishment with which we first beheld the charming country in the vicinity of this lake; and were I to give expression to my own feelings and opinions in reference to it, I fear they would be considered the ravings of a visionary or an enthusiast."[1] But let me say to the speculator that he need not covet any of these broad acres. There is little chance for him. Before that land can be bought at public sale or by mere purchasers at private sale, it will, I feel sure, be entirely occupied by actual settlers. And so it ought to be. The good of the territory is promoted by that beneficent policy of our public land laws which gives the actual settler the first and best chance to acquire a title by preemption.