668 



TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



a railroad to Georgetown, in Clear Creek 

 County, and others surveyed from Denver to 

 Santa Fe, New Mexico, to South Park, and the 

 Rio Grande, with a branch to the head of the 

 Arkansas River, to Puehlo and the south line of 

 Colorado, with a branch to Caflon City, and a 

 branch road to Boulder. The yield of bullion 

 in 1869 was a little more than $5,000,000. The 

 gold and silver ores of Colorado are more re- 

 fractory than most of the ores of the Pacific 

 coast, but when the precious metals are ex- 

 tracted the yield is very large, averaging from 

 $300 to $600 per ton. New processes have 

 been devised for reducing the ores more readi- 

 ly, and less expensively, and the results are 

 already very encouraging. Coal is abundant 

 and of excellent quality, and there is no reason 

 to fear any future scarcity. Iron, copper, and 

 lead, abound, and the mines of each are be- 

 coming better known and developed. In its 

 agricultural productions Colorado is happily 

 disappointing those who have regarded it as a 

 part of the Great American Desert. It has not 

 less than 6,000,000 acres which can be supplied 

 with water by irrigation, and thus irrigated 

 yield enormous crops. Of course with its pres- 

 ent sparse population but a small portion of 

 these arable lands is yet under cultivation, 

 but the crops of 1869 were stated by Mr. W. R. 

 Thomas, at the anniversary of the Colorado 

 Agricultural Society, to have been in round 

 numbers 675,000 bushels of wheat, 600,000 

 bushels of corn, 550,000 bushels of oats and 

 barley, 350,000 bushels of potatoes and other 

 root crops, and, adding to these the hay and 

 dairy products, the aggregate market value of 

 the agricultural crops of the year was above 

 $3,500,000. Wheat averages 28 to 30 bushels 

 per acre ; oats and barley 35 bushels, corn 40 

 bushels, and potatoes 100 bushels. Colorado 

 is said to be the best grazing country in the 

 United States. Neat-cattle can be raised to 

 the age of five years at a total cost not exceed- 

 ing $10, or $2 per annum. The natural grass 

 of the Territory is remarkably nutritious and 

 fattening, and there is no occasion for housing 

 the cattle, as the climate is so mild that they 

 can graze the year round. All the expense of 

 stock-raising consists in the hiring of a few 

 herdsmen, and the gathering of a small quan- 

 tity of hay for occasional feeding during the 

 extreme cold which occurs in some winters. 

 "Wool-growing is equally profitable and easy. 

 The natural increase of sheep and goats in 

 these pasture-lands is 100 per cent, per annum, 

 and of neat-cattle about 80 per cent. Over 

 1,000,000 pounds of wool were shipped from 

 Colorado to the East in 1869. Dairy products 

 are also becoming abundant, and are of excel- 

 lent quality. The Territory supplies the de- 

 mand of its own population for them and is 

 beginning to export them to some extent. 



Dakota. This Territory has on the north 

 the British possessions, on the east Minnesota 

 and Iowa, on the south Nebraska, and on the 

 west Montana and Wyoming. Its area is 



150,931 square miles, and a population of about 

 60,000 whites and civilized Indians, and not 

 far from 25,000 Indians of the Sioux and other 

 wild tribes. Capital, Yankton. Governor, J. A. 

 Burbank. The surface of Dakota is generally 

 elevated, but not mountainous. Traversing the 

 eastern portion for several hundred miles is a 

 plateau called the Couteau des Prairies, having 

 an average elevation of 1,500 feet above the 

 sea, with a breadth of from 15 to 20 miles, 

 while a similar table-land of less height, the 

 Couteau du Missouri, extends from the south- 

 eastern to the northwestern portion, and west- 

 ward nearly to the Missouri River. The basin 

 of the Red River of the North, and that portion 

 east of the Dakota River, are covered with 

 grassy plains, with but slight irregularities to 

 break the uniformity of their appearance. The 

 remaining portion of the Territory, mostly west 

 of the Missouri River, consists of high-rolling 

 prairie. The soil of the eastern and southern 

 parts is excellent and well adapted to the culti- 

 vation of the cereals, and root crops, and to 

 stock-raising. Almost the entire Territory is 

 well watered, and the western and north- 

 western parts contain fine grazing-lands, as 

 well as some adapted to the growth of the 

 smaller grains. The "Bad Lands" (Mauvaises 

 Terres) in the southwest, and the high gravel- 

 ly land between the Missouri and Dakota 

 Rivers, are the only poor soils in the Territory. 

 The Missouri, with it numerous affluents, trav- 

 erses the Territory almost centrally, and the 

 Red River of the North, with its southern 

 tributaries, drains the northern portion. The 

 Missouri has eight large, and numerous smaller, 

 affluents within the Territory. In the eastern 

 part are many lakes, six or seven of them of 

 considerable size. The Territory abounds in 

 mineral wealth. Gold, silver, iron, copper, and 

 coal, are known to exist in considerable quan- 

 tities in the Black Hills in the southwest, and 

 in 1868 and 1869 valuable lodes of both gold 

 and silver were discovered in that section, and 

 considerable immigration ensued. In the 

 southeast, in the neighborhood of the Big Sioux 

 River, coal of good quality has been discovered, 

 while the southern portion has quarries of 

 building-stone, and limestone, and beds of ex- 

 cellent clay for brick. In the north, near 

 Devil's Lake, there are rich deposits of salt. 

 The Territory would be rapidly settled, if 

 immigrants could be satisfied that the wily and 

 treacherous Sioux would remain quiet; but 

 their presence and their hostile disposition are 

 serious drawbacks on its growth and prosperity. 

 Idaho. Area, 86,294 square miles- (a small 

 tract having been set off to Wyoming in 1868). 

 Population, about 30,000. Capital, Boise City. 

 Governor, D. W. Ballard. The whole Territory 

 is highland, and portions of it mountainous, 

 varying in elevation from 2,000 to 5,000 feet 

 above the sea. The climate on the uplands is 

 severer than that of Utah or Nevada, but the 

 sheltered valleys of its numerous streams have 

 a mild, equable, and delightful climate. Tho 



