136 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the honored memory of one who loved with impartial 

 affection every part of that great West in whose des- 

 tiny he so profoundly believed. Prof. Elwood Mead 

 writes as follows of Mr. Gilchrist's relation to the in- 

 dustrial and political life of Wyoming: 



In the death of Andrew Gilchrist, Wyoming loses one of her 

 most upright and influential citizens, and the cause of irrigation 

 one of its most consistent and intelligent friends. A member of 

 the original Greeley colony, and one of the first settlers in that 

 important attempt at reclaiming the desert, he has ever since 

 taken an active and honorable part in promoting the reclamation 

 and settlement of the arid West. 



One of the first of the influential stockmen to realize the transi- 

 tory character of the open range live stock business, he was one 

 of the pioneer ditch builders to provide a winter's food supply as 

 a safeguard against winter storms. His interest in irrigation, his 

 zeal in its extension embraced, from the first, far more than its 

 relation to his personal affairs. No man in the West had an ear- 

 lier or more correct conception of its future possibilities, of the 

 part it is to play in furnishing homes for the homeless and in 

 adding to the material wealth and prosperity of this region. 



A member of the Legislature which enacted the first territorial 

 water law, he was, if not its author, one of its most active advo- 

 cates, as he was one of the strongest supporters of all subsequent 

 legislation on this subject. Believing thoroughly in the agricul- 

 tural future of the State, he not only gave his influence, but in- 

 vested his means in enterprises for its promotion. One of the 

 builders of the Boughton canal, the builder and owner of .a half- 

 dozen ditches watering his home ranch of 20,000 acres, and the 

 president, and for ten years the active manager, of the Wyoming 

 Development Company, he has made a generous contribution to 

 the material development of .the State. It is in connection with 

 the last named company that he will be longest remembered. A 

 colonization enterprise involving an outlay of a half-million dollars 

 before there could be any return, and intending to reclaim land 

 in a region where the financial success of agriculture was regarded 

 at the time as problematical, was an undertaking which required 

 a more than ordinary measure of faith; a faith destined to be 

 tried by a controversy with the government which for six years 

 delayed the carrying out of the company's plans after the lands 

 were ready for settlement. 



It was only given to him to see the beginning of the fruition of 

 his plans. The beginning of actual settlement only began this 

 year, but the number who have already found satisfactory homes, 

 the influence it has already exerted in promoting settlement 

 elsewhere and the increase in population and wealth to the 

 section concerned will always make this pioneer colony a notable 

 factor in the State's history, worthy to be compared to the influ- 

 ence of the Greeley colony on the growth of Colorado. 



No one could be intimately associated with Mr. Gilchrist with- 

 out becoming impressed with the patriotic loyalty which he felt 

 toward the State of his adoption. Born in Scotland, he mani- 

 fested toward the home of his mature years all of the loyal at- 

 tachment, the desire for its growth, the preservation of its insti- 

 tutions which is so conspicuous a feature in the attachment of 

 his countrymen to the land of their birth. 



With the present number THE IRRIGA- 



T^'ht* 



Age's Anni-TlON AGE enters upon the fourth year of 

 versary. j tg publication. Its history has been like 

 that of many other newspapers which have fought 

 their way through difficulties to success. It is not 

 easy to establish a publication in any field, and espe- 

 cially in a new field, whose possibilities are unknown, 

 where there are no standards to follow, and where 

 a new class of literature has virtually to be created. 

 But few things in this world worth doing or having 



are easily done or acquired. After many vicissitudes, 

 THE AGE is permanently established in the great city 

 of the West, its circulation and influence radiating to 

 every part of the world where the English language 

 is spoken. It seems ready at last to rapidly approach 

 the ideal of its founders. It aims to be the distinctive 

 journal of western America, to be both the inspiration 

 and the historian of the great energies which are 

 making institutions in the empire where water is 

 king. It is conscious of many shortcomings, but these 

 will be remedied as rapidly and fully as possible. 

 The thanks of the publishers are due to many stead- 

 fast friends who have never, since the first number 

 appeared, faltered in their loyalty to THE AGE. 



The story which was so widely tele- 

 Colorado's 



Secession graphed over the country, to the effect 

 Canard. tnat p e tjtj ons we re in circulation in Col- 

 orado mining camps asking for the annexation of 

 that State to Mexico, was, of course, promptly shown 

 to be a hoax. There is no disloyalty in Colorado, nor 

 in any State or Territory of the West. On the con- 

 trary, the deepest and truest Americanism prevails 

 there. It has been charged against the West, as a 

 rampant favoritism, that its people believe so pro- 

 foundly in the power and greatness of this nation as 

 to assert that it can make the world follow its initia- 

 tion of a new financial policy. The East does not 

 believe this country is so great as that, and this 

 is really the only important ground of difference 

 between the two sections. The West errs, if at all, 

 on the side of being unreasonably American. It is 

 unwilling to agree with the East that any foreign na- 

 tion can exert more power in the councils of the world. 



Several of the westernmost counties of 

 to Join Nebraska have declared that they desire 

 Wyoming. to ^ e annexe( j to Wyoming. The ground 

 of the demand is that irrigation is vital to their pros- 

 perity; that the people of Nebraska take slight inter- 

 est in the subject, while Wyoming has model laws 

 and a live administration policy. There is much 

 reason in the demand. In fact, the reason is so plain 

 as to be rather startling in its suggestiveness. The 

 line that divides the humid regions from the arid 

 lands, both as to the States and as to the nation, 

 marks off sections that differ radically in their 

 necessities and promise to differ much in the char- 

 acter of their social and industrial institutions. 

 Irrigation laws and policies are vital in one locality, 

 while it seems ludicrous to the inhabitants of another 

 locality to talk about them. As civilization develops 

 it will be difficult for the people of two sections, with 

 such radical differences, to live under the same laws, 

 unless the people of the rainy part will put down 

 their umbrellas long enough to see the clear skies in 

 the arid portion. This promises to be the case in 

 Nebraska, where the interest just now taken in irri- 



