But To
Compensate For These Things He Can Feel That The Labor Of The Pioneer,
Aside From Its Pecuniary Advantage To Himself, Is Of Service To The
State, And A Helpmate To Succeeding Generations.
"There are, who, distant from their native soil,
Still for their own and country's glory toil:
While some, fast rooted to their parent spot,
In life are useless, and in death forgot!"
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.
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