THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



hardy fruits. It is also the finest of cattle countries, 

 and is surrounded by an abundance of mineral and tim- 

 ber. Its products find ready sale in the large and grow- 

 ing mining-camps of the neighborhood, as well as of Mon- 

 tana. In time the region must acquire a large popula- 

 tion and support a many-sided industrial life. It will 

 be a very substantial monument to William F. Cody and 

 his work for the West. 



Wyoming possesses a distinction entirely apart from 

 its rich endowment of mineral resources and different 

 from that of any of its sister commonwealths. It is rec- 

 ognized as the law-giver of the arid region. It is the 

 State which has contributed most to working out the 

 legal institutions on which a great future civilization will 

 rest throughout western America. In tnis respect its 

 position of leadership is alike unapproached and un- 

 challenged. 



Those who live in the humid portions of the United 

 States cannot realize the full significance of this fact. 

 In the arid West water is gold. The struggle for its 

 possession has been marked by dramatic interest and even 

 pathos, wholly apart from its economic character. In- 

 deed, the control of water for irrigation is so inter- 

 woven with the existence and well-being of society in 

 the West that it may almost be said to include every 

 human interest. Men may own estates of equal size and 

 fertility lying side by side. The one who came earliest 

 claims the water supply, which may be barely suflicient 

 for his own land. With this water supply he makes his 

 place blossom with large and regular crops, and is rich. 

 His neighbor, with the same kind of soil and climate, is 

 doomed to perpetual poverty. Water has made all the 



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