Show AN INVITING COUNTRY PLENTY OP GOOD LAND axa WATER FOR SETTLERS coal lu abundance to be lad for the diggie Dig giu the following letter written to 0 B huntington springville Spring ville by 0 0 card of lees creek alberta X W T canada under date of march 27 1888 will doubtless interest our readers we aro located on lees creek about three miles from its confluence with tho st marys kiver and fourteen miles from the national bounds ry line and thirty miles from the irocky mountains in close proximity to the foot hills that skirt this mighty backbone of the western hemisphere our country is one vast undulated prairie dotted here and there with miniature lakes which are inhabited by the feathered tribes of ducks and geese most of these lakes have no outlets and are merely ponds others are filled with fish but unluckily the nearest one of this class is twenty miles distant from us and is filled I 1 with pike and white fish our streams near the hills and mountains have trout in our timber is some twenty miles distant but there is a very good natural road to it for wagons and we can obtain a load in two days however we have to choose dry times to haul in as a very lichtle moisture softens up the rich black loam to such an extent as to make it heavy hauling our soil generally is of a dark loam covered with a luxuriant growth 01 bunch and low land grasses and 1 think we can raise crops with but little or no irrigation aur streams are good pure mountain water and usually cool enough to drink early in the morning during the summer season we are south of macleon thirty eight or forty miles which was formerly only a military fort but now has berged verged into a town of or inhabitants it is now headquarters of the mounted police in this country we are also southwest from loth bridge about forty civo miles which is a coal mining and railway town of about inhabitants alberta is one of the northwest territories which is the same to the dominion of canada as utah is to the united states we haul our coal three miles and it only coats us the digging the country is not well adapted for irrigation but I 1 think we will have but little trouble toi aiso gram where we can plow the hills and prairies you inquire about the permanency of the place and its future as to being a place to be occupied permanently bythe saints this is what is anticipated tho lord being willing As to the remnants of the land they are numerous and I 1 believe there is a i work to be done among them here j However they are peaceably disposes i so far as we can discern at present and I 1 think we have a few staunch friends among them who undoubtedly will grow in this direction as we increase and become better acquainted our land laws are good we can homestead and preempt pre empt at the same time and obtain 30 acres in one body if desired it requires three and a half years to obtain or rather mature our rights we have to get acres under cultivation and build a livai e house and reside upon the land at least one and a half years before we prove up which costs a fee only of 10 A boy 18 years can enter land coal lands at 10 and 12 per acre we are admitted free of duty as settlers with our teams vehicles household goods agricultural implements and stock of all kinds and I 1 understand do not limit the number of stock so the officers inform me we have to pay a trifle on cattle and horses as a veterinary surgeons fee ten cents per head for cattle calves and colts not counted and from 40 cents to 1 on horses the officers are very lenient with actual settlers as they are trying to encourage immigration we have passed a very mild winter here thousands of head of cattle and horses have wintered out and are looking well you are at liberty to use this information in behalf of the oppressed we are in our usual health and join in love and blessings to you and yours |