6 
BULLETIN 59. 
Lindon and Harrisburg all aspired to be large cities, county 
seats or railroad centers. Lansing has disappeared and left 
only a few cellars to mark its site. Idalia still has two stores, 
two blacksmith shops, a school house and a few dwellings. 
At Friend, one old building, now used for the school, remains. 
Cope still has a store, a few dwellings and a school. One 
store building (now used as a residence by a family of four) 
still stands on the site of Arickaree city, and Arickaree P. 
O. is located on a ranch eight miles away. About Lindon, 
nearly all the land for miles around was once filed upon. 
Failure to get water in necessary quantities caused the whole 
country to be depopulated. At one place, I drove eighteen 
miles between Cope and Lindon without seeing a house. 
The site of old Lindon is now marked by a few heaps of 
earth and a few holes in the ground. Lindon postofftce is 
four miles south-west of the old town site, and the nearest 
house is two miles away. At Harrisburg, one family still 
lives. Thurman, also called Stone city, once had two banks, 
and two railroads were surveyed through it during “boom 
times.” Now one family lives in Thurman. But a colony 
of hardy Mennonite farmers still hold claims near enough 
together to make lanes necessary. Two lanes cross at Thur¬ 
man postofftce. These farmers are all getting to be quite 
well-to-do. They make stock raising their main business, 
but they usually raise grain, and always produce plenty of 
rough forage for their cattle. By these people, the Russian 
thistle is considered a friend. If the wheat crop fails, the 
Russian thistle grows among the wheat, and Russian thistle 
and wheat mixed make excellent feed. Before the intro¬ 
duction of the Russian thistle, they had no winter forage 
when their wheat crop failed. 
TREES —Timber Claims. 
Of the thousands of claims planted to trees, only a few 
groves remain to-day in thrifty condition. I made it a point 
to visit every grove which was said to be in good condition 
and still cared for. 
Observation has shown that groves cease to do well as 
soon as they are abandoned and permitted to become 
scratching places for cattle. After inspecting several hun¬ 
dred claims, we decided that the trees which have been able 
to withstand the conditions best are ash, honey locust and 
black locust. I photographed two of the best groves I saw. 
One of these is one-half mile west of Logan post office. 
The other is seven miles north-east of Lansing post office. . 
