CHIEF FIRE WARDEN. 8& 



is need of almost constant winding out and around to 

 avoid bad places. Itasca county has lately appropriated 

 $ 1 , 500 to be divided equally among five new towns for 

 road building, namely Bartlett, Bridgie, Cormorant, Fair- 

 view and Island Lake. 



ALONG THE IRON RANGE. 



In October last I went from Virginia north sixteen 

 miles through hilly forest of principally pine and cedar on 

 the new Duluth, Virginia & Rainy Lake Railroad and. 

 within eight miles of the Little Fork river whose valley, 

 hke those of the Big Fork and Rat rivers, contains a great 

 deal of public agricultural land that is being rapidly set- 

 tled, and which still affords golden opportunities for 

 actual homestead settlers. 



This new railroad, which is reaching out about one hun- 

 dred miles to Rainy Lake at Koochiching, and being built 

 by experienced railroad men, will tap eight million dollars 

 worth of standing pine, a good agricultural area beyond,, 

 and make a new and important route for wheat from the 

 Winnipeg region to Duluth. It will also increase the 

 value of much land owned by the State of Minnesota. 



During eight years I have annually or oftener visited 

 some of the mining cities and villages on the Iron Range, 

 of which there are about a dozen, and apparently they 

 never were more prosperous than to-day. I stopped at 

 four of these on this trip, and was impressed by the stead- 

 iness of their growth, their clean streets and the neatness 

 and comfort of the workingmen's homes. To see these 

 thriving young towns — with their mile or two distant bor- 

 der of autumn colored woods — connected with a network; 

 of busy railroads, in some instances with good carriage 

 roads, with fine school houses and swarms of well behaved 

 and handsome children, where but a few years ago was 

 a dense wilderness, impresses one with the greatness o£ 

 his state. 



