1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



119 



HON. PARIS GIBSON. 



MR. GIBSON, as one of the Senators from Montana, has taken an active and prominent 

 part in all matters pertaining to the public lands ; and has been especially interested 

 in the attempts made to preserve these for the use of settlers, He has seen in his 

 own state the rapid diminution of the public land, and the steady acquisition of this by corpo- 

 rations engaged in the sheep and cattle business, and has noted with alarm the tendency to 

 shut out settlers and convert the land which might be utilized for homes into vast estates owned 

 by non-residents. 



Senator Gibson is a native of Maine, and graduate of Bowdoin College. He was a member 

 of the Maine Legislature in 1854, and went from there to Minnesota, where he built the first 

 flour mill in Minneapolis. With the settlement of that country he continued westward into 

 Montana, settling in Fort Benton in 1879. In 1882 his attention was attracted to the wonderful 

 falls on the Missouri River, and he at once took steps to found the city of Great Falls, being 

 known as the father of that prosperous municipality. He has watched the growth and develop- 

 ment of mining, stock-raising, and other industries in Montana, and has become thoroughly 

 imbued with the belief that the permanent prosperity of the state rests on the increase of 

 homes rather than in the number of cattle, or pounds of precious metal taken away. 



