win Falls, Filer, Rupert, Burley, and others soon
to be as fine. As pastor in 1904, my first official trip to Twin Falls
was made on July 14. I found one or two frame buildings and some tents
stuck around in the sagebrush; some streets had been marked out, but
no grading had been done. Dust, heat, and sagebrush were the main
features of the place. In October I preached the first sermon ever
delivered by any minister in the new village. The congregation
numbered forty-one. On February 5, 1905, I organized the first church
with seventeen members; on May 23, 1909, we dedicated the present
edifice at a cost of $18,000, exclusive of the lots.

"To-day this church has a membership of more than five hundred. This
youngster has turned back into the treasuries of the denomination in
regular collections more than $3,000. The city has to-day seven thousand
people. There are between four and five miles of asphalt-paved
streets, a perfect sewer system, and cement sidewalks throughout the
whole municipality. An investment of $120,000 has been made in two
splendidly equipped grade school buildings, besides a high school
costing a quarter of a million dollars. These combined schools have an
enrollment of over two thousand pupils with a teaching force of above
sixty; the high school graduated forty-eight last commencement. There is
not a saloon in the entire county."

Surely "progress" is here spelled in large letters.

Years ago, with the narrow strip along the Atlantic in mind,
Longfellow wrote, "God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat
for this planting." And as the mighty empire took its course toward
the West of limitless opportunity the good God kept the sieve running
full time, so that to-day

The best of the best
Are in the Northwest.

[Illustration: END OF THE TRAIL]

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