THE FREMONT COUNTY (Iowa) HERALD. July 26, 1917. "J. F. LEWIS WRITES FROM MONTANA. Some of His Impressions in the Wild and Wooly West Written Down for Herald Readers".--Ekalaka, Montana, July 17, 1917.--Well, here I am, way out among the cactus, sage brush and buffalo grass, on the illimitable plains of Montana, inhabited by prairie dogs, sage hens, jack rabbits, coyotes, deer, antelope, grouse and other things too numerous to mention.

My friends expressed a desire to hear from me after I got to Montana, and I promised to write to them through the columns of the Herald. Some were interested in Montana and wanted me to tell them what I think of it.

I am in the new county of Carter in the extreme southeast corner of the state. Carter county is bounded on the east by South Dakota and on the south by Wyoming.

This is a stock grazing country. Stock lives all the year on the range. The wheat grass and buffalo grass are nutritious and fattening. I have seen lots of cattle on the range and they look almost fat enough for the market. Last winter was exceptionallly cold with deep snows and considerable stock perished for lack of food and shelter.

Some of the people here are inclined to be careless in the matter of making provision for severe winters. They take life too easy. The soil is generally good, fertile and productive, but there is not sufficient rainfall one year with another to insure farm crops, hence the lands are classed as semi-arid. Cereals, potatoes and all kinds of garden stuff turn out well in favorable seasons (when there is plenty of rain). Four hundred bushels of potatoes have been produced on one acre. The spuds are very large and solid and keep in prime condition until the next crop comes on. Two years ago the wheat yielded from 20 to 30 bushels per acre.

Irrigation is not supposed to be practicable, except to a limited extent, but some successful experiments have been made along this line. Robert Ridgway of Ridgway has put in large dam in a valley and formed a lake or reservoir, which was filled last spring by the melting snows, and he has by this means irrigated several hundred acres. He has a fine crop of alfalfa and other grasses and farm products. Others have irrigated their farms in the same way.

Last week I filed on a 640-acre tract near Ridgway--made what is called a "stock-raising homestead entry," under the provisions of a law recently passed. The land is described as "chiefly valuable for grazing or raising forage crops." There is little if any desirable land left here now subject to entry, except some unsurveyed tracts in the south part of the county, on which a person could take a "Squatter's claim" by settling on it and staying there, but it is rumored he might not be able to get a title.

Ridgway is half way between Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and Baker, Montana, 100 miles east of the Custer battledfield, 75 miles from the nearest railroad. But of course we expect to get a railroad through here one of these days, probably from Belle Fourche to Miles City. May have to wait until after the war.

Fortunes have been made here by stock men, but the day of the big stock man is over. The homesteader has taken his domain. The settlers nearly all live in log houses. There are a few sod houses and some frame buildings. The lumber, mostly pine, is sawed at nearby sawmills. The settlers have gardens, chickens and cows, manage to live pretty well, and consider their present condition and prospects better than what they left behind in the cities and older states, and look forward to the time when they shall own a section or more of land.

Land at the present time is woth from $10 an acre up. A person might get a desirable claim by buying out somebody who wants to leave the country. It is very dry at present and some who are tyring to raise crops are feeling rather blue.

The people are healthy and robust in appearance. They are good feeders, and you never saw a more independent bunch in your life. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that one person is as good as another and that all men and women are created equal. I have been told by poeple who have traveled extensively in the west that no state is more democratic than Montana.

I always thought until I got here that I was a westener, to the manner born. But the first question asked was:

"Where are you from--the east?"

"I'm from Iowa; don't know what you call that."

"Well, out here we call that back east."

I first set foot on Montana soil at Baker, where I got off the train. On the street I met a little girl about 13 or 14. I said "How do you do?" and she answered "Hello". That's the western style. It seemed as if I had said , to MONTANA : "How do you do?" and MONTANA answered: "Hello." They are less formal, less conventional here than in the states east of the Missouri and Mississippi. There is no standing on ceremony, no trouble to get acquainted.

As proof of the fact Montana cares not for conventions or traditions, we point to Miss Jeannette Rankin, the first woman ever elected to congress. Dancing is about the only amusement they have here, and they have dance halls scattered through the country districts. One was pointed out to me the other day where Miss Rankin attended a dance during the campaign last fall and danced just like the rest of the girls. She would not have received any votes if she had not danced.

I never saw saloons wide open on Sunday in Iowa or Nebraska, but they are open here, and the laws permit it. The state voted dry last fall, but the drought does not begin until January l, 1919.

I attended a Fourth of July celebration at Ridgway. The people came a distance of 10 miles or more. Many came on horseback, the young man and girl riding side by side and sometimes on the same horse. Side saddles are unknown here. Many came in lumber wagons and many in Fords. The larger autos are not used here. The roads are not smooth enough for them There was the regulation program with short talks by three speakers, one of them being the under-signed. There was a ball game, a trapeze performance, and a sheep shearing stunt. The fellow who did the shearing act has a record of three sheep in 9 minutes, but he did not equal that on the Fourth. His name is Naugle, and his father formerly lived near Hastings, Iowa. Mrs. Naugle, who is a graduate of the state university of South Dakota, was formerly county school superintendent in the county. She and one fiddler furnished the music for the celebration dance, she palying the accompaniment on the piano. They dance till daylight here.

You can see from this account that everything goes here. Mrs. Naugle, formerly county superintendent, is also a cowgirl. With jingling spurs she springs from the ground to the back of her fiery steed and gallops over the range to look after the cattle. Incidentally she is holding down a claim. This is Montana, all right, although I am just inside the border.

Some wise old personage has said: "If a man preach a better semon, write a better book, or make a better mousetrap, than anybody else, the world will make a beaten path to his door, though he live in the depths of the forest." The Montana version of this is: "Start a saloon in the heart of the wilderness and the world will not only make a beaten path to your door, but will build a town around you."

Ekalaka started in just that way. A man had picked a location to start a saloon and was hauling a load of logs to erect the building. He got stuck in the snow and could get no further. So he said: "If a man is going to start a saloon, he might just as well start in one place as another." Throwing off his load of logs, he put up his building "catawampus" and opened his saloon. That was the start of Ekalaka, and the "Old Stand" saloon still flourishes just where it stood 30 years ago.

The town was named Ekalaka after an Indian woman. She was a daughter of the famous old war chief Sitting Bull, and lived and died near here. She married a white man and her descendants still live in this vicinity.

Ekalaka has a population of about 600. It is the county seat of the new county of Carter, created last month by cutting Fallon county in two. It was the county seat of Fallon county when that county was first organized. It is a inland town, 42 miles from Baker, the nearest railroad point, and is 30 years old. Its nickname is "Puptown" and its baseball team is called "The Pups". It leading restaurant man is known as "Bugger Face".

Carter county is considerably like the western Iowa of 50 years ago. For two weeks I have not heard the toot of a locomotive or the ring of a telephone bell. We miss the latter more than the former. I have not seen a barber for two weeks. I saw one man get a haircut. He employed the champion sheep shearer of the neighborhood to do the job. But a man can find ways of spending his money, nevertheless. Ten cents for one banana on the Fourth, 15 cents for a glass of beer, $5 to ride in an auto from Baker to Ekalaka, 42 miles, and $2 more to get a trunk hauled.

Montana is great in many ways, but I will not go into particulars at this time. It has a fine summer climate, frequently hot in the sun through the middle of the day, but comfortable in the shade and cool at night. It is claimed there are more sunny days in Montana in the year than in any middle, eastern or New England state, and that its death rate is the lowest of any state except one. There are no fogs and no malaria, and contagious diseases are rare. It is great on scenes and remarkable for its natural wonders.--JOHN F. LEWIS.