. If it continues, with all the public domain that is there, it is
bound to create an enormous demand in industry and commerce. And I
emphasize the statement I made to you that it is a gigantic project
which a government alone could finance, and which requires the work of
powerful industrial corporations.

"But, looking over that desolate prairie, one wonders how it can be
done; or if it is just a splurge of proving up and deserting. However,
it is surprising what these homesteaders are doing, and it is ironic
that a little poetic dreamer should have foreseen the trend which things
are taking. And I feel you deserve this acknowledgment. How in the name
of God have you and your sister stuck it out?"

The reason that Halbert Donovan was interested in the progress of this
area, I learned, was that his company had mining investments in the
Black Hills and it was investigating a proposed railroad extension
through the section.

The expansion which was beginning to be felt across the continent grew
for five years or more up to the beginning of the World War, and then
took another spurt after the war. It was not merely a boom, inflation to
burst like a bubble. It grew only as more territory was settled and
greater areas of land were put under cultivation.

"Do you know what we need out here most of all?" I said to Chris
Christopherson one day, having in mind a settlers' bank.

"Yah, yah!" Chris broke in, his ruddy features beaming in anticipation.
"A blacksmith shop! More as all else, we need that. Twenty-five miles we
bane goin' to sharpen a plowshare or shod a horse yet."

Trade, business, industry? Yes, of course. But first the plow must pave
the way. During those years money flowed from the farm lands rather than
to them. The revenue from the homestead lands was bringing millions into
the Treasury.

That spring the newspaper office became a clearing house for homestead
lands. People wanting either to buy or sell relinquishments came there
for information. All kinds of notices to be filed with the Department of
the Interior were made out by the office, which began to keep legal
forms in stock. Gradually I found myself becoming an interpreter of the
Federal Land Laws and settlers came many miles for advice and
information.

The laws governing homesteading were technical, with many provisions
which gave rise to controversy. I discovered that many of the employees
in the Department knew nothing of the project except t