Transcribed from Hand-Book of Decatur County Kansas. By the Editor of the American Sheep Breeder.  C. S. Burch Publishing Co., Chicago 1885.  Transcribed Sept. 2003 by Sharleen Wurm.

NORTHWESTERN KANSAS.
DECATUR COUNTY
AND
THE OBERLIN LAND DISTRICT.

Homes for the Million in One of the Garden Spots of the New West-Pastoral and Agricultural Wealth of the Upper Republican and Solomon Valleys.

CHEAP LANDS,

Pleasant Homes, Delightful Climate, Clear Waters, a Generous Soil, and Rare Opportunities for Ambitious Farmers and Business Men.

A STRING OF BRIGHT TOWNS

Growing up along the Clear, Swift Waters of the Beaver, Sappa, Prairie Dog and Solomon Rivers.

What a splendid country is this far-reaching radiant

UPPER REPUBLICAN VALLEY

of northwestern Kansas! A region whose clear swift waters, delightful climate, bountiful soil and charming landscape have inspired Greeley, Fremont, Richardson, Bayard Taylor and many another scarcely less gifted visitor to write it among the garden spots of the continent. And such it is; a grand, beautiful, bewildering garden, every league of its winding way from the sources of the Prairie Dog, Sappa and Beaver in the Colorado hills, to where they are lost in the broader parent stream below.  In the heart of this fairest portion of

NORTHWESTERN KANSAS,

embracing the counties of Cheyenne, Sherman, Thomas, Rawlins, Decatur, Sheridan, Graham and Norton, is

DECATUR COUNTY,

bounded on the north by Nebraska; on the west by Rawlins County; on the south by Sheridan County and on the east by Norton County. It has an area of 900 square miles, was organized in 1879, and has now a population of nearly 5,000. The

PIONEER SETTLEMENT

of the county dates back to 1870 or 1871, when Col. Hopkins built the first cabin and; turned the first greensward on the Sappa, seven miles below the present site of Oberlin. Sol. Reece, a veteran buffalo hunter and frontiersman, settled on the present town site of Jackson, on the Prairie Dog, in the, spring of 1872, and Capt. J. W. Allen opened the pioneer store in a rude dugout and, log cabin the same year, near the junction of Pawnee Draw, with the Sappa, a dozen miles below Oberlin.  A good number of settlers took claims the same year along the Beaver, Sappa, Prairie Dog and South Solomon and were followed in 1873 by a still larger number, but the general settlement of the county came in 1878 and 1879, with the great wave of immigration that swept well over western Kansas and Southwestern Nebraska. I cannot better describe the face of this beautiful county than by the following quotation from my earlier Hand-Book on the contiguous county of Red Willow in Nebraska.  "The traveler may look in vain for a country whose

TOPOGRAPHICAL CHARMS

excel those of Red Willow County, which from end to end is a region of marvelous, bewildering beauty, whose impress can never be effaced from the memory of the visitor. He is touched with a sense of its scenic loveliness .the moment he enters its borders and the spell is never broken until he passes into the region of the commonplace beyond. Elevated plains, inimitable valleys, far-reaching billowy prairies, fringes of native timber, picturesque bluffs and hills, weird, beauty-haunted wooded glens and ravines, wild miniature canons, green grassy glades and intervals and clear winding wood-fringed streams flowing down through radiant valleys resplendent with green meadow and fields of corn, blend in

A MATCHLESS LANDSCAPE

in which is no resemblance of monotony, no sense of weariness or bleakness, nothing abstract or startling, but everywhere endless variety in unity and harmony. If the scene be wanting in the more rugged grandeur of the mountains, it is infinitely rich in the higher pastoral features, whose lines of grace and beauty can never have adequate portraiture.”

THE CLIMATE

is an inspiration.  Long, genial, golden and glowing summers, with breezy and brilliant days, followed by deliciously cool, refreshing, restful nights; mild, dry, open winters, with light and transient snowfall; a mean elevation of 2,700 feet above the tides; a mean temperature of 52 degrees, and the prevailing southwest winds from the elevated plains and mountains, with bright sunshine over 300 days of the calendar year, make up the typical seasons and climate of Decatur County and give 

The Highest AVERAGE OF HEALTH

to be found between the two oceans. Every form of life here bears the impress of normal health.  There are no swamps or lagoons to breed malaria. The rare, crisp air is a bar to consumption and kindred ills, and what Miss Fuller calls " the sense of Divine Youth " is an all-pervading principle on these grand elevations where nothing denotes age except the rocks and hills and everybody seems happy and youthful and self commanding.  The

AVERAGE RAINFALL

which in the years of pioneering ranged from fifteen to twenty inches and was not always well distributed over the growing season, has been largely increased in later years and now ranges from twenty to thirty-four inches annually, the bulk of it falling from April to July. The

NATURAL DRAINAGE

of the country is perfect. The frequent ravines and "draws," the rolling nature of the country, the rapid deep-set, low-lying streams, and universally open and porous structure of the soils, readily carry off surplus rains, leaving the fields available to the cultivator hard after the most generous rains.

THE NATIVE FORESTS

of oak, ash, elm, hackberry, cotton wood, box elder, and kindred woods cover about 8,000 acres, and are found in narrow belts and groves along the streams and canons, and though inadequate to meet the fuel and timber demands of a rapidly growing population, are well distributed and furnish admirable stock shelter for all divisions of the county.

TREE PLANTING,

the noblest of all local industries, is receiving considerable attention here and the success of all thorough cultivators of the cottonwood, ash, box elder, honey locust, mulberry, catalpa, maple and walnut, is an earnest of the glorious work which, in the near coming years will give hundreds of perfect groves to Decatur County and transform it into a vast and beautiful park. 

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©2002 by Sharleen Wurm  
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