Newspaper Article for Sherman County, KS

SHERMAN COUNTY, KANSAS

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

Submitted by La Vella Tomlinson

The Goodland Republic, July 14, 1911

Windings and Meanderings : Meandering in Meadows on the Smoky Creek

The Parson Gets Tangled in the Alfalfa on the Dyatt Brothers' Big Ranch

Not a "half holiday" but a whole holiday was taken last Saturday by the "senior editor" of The Goodland Republic. Brain fag drove him into the wilderness - the North Fork of the Smoky Hill valley. He wasn't hustling piscatorial game, but was fishing for facts.

The day was blazing hot, relieved by a brisk south wind, which was now cool, now hot, as it come from low land or upland. As the pony ambled on, the shimmering of the heated air painted lakes and waving water reeds in the distance, and a steer on a high slope looked like an enormous bull buffalo. His practiced eye told him it was a lusus naturae, a trick of nature, a fraud. Perhaps it was a prophecy - "It is Better Farther On" - true both in time and in ultimate realization.

About the noon hour he pulled up at the manorial mansion of J. B. Dyatt & Bros, with its broad porch facing south, and overlooking the valley in two directions where the Smoky swings away: and which in architectural style reminded one of the "great house" of a southern plantation. The ranch help had come in for dinner and all was in readiness. There was no "second table" - it was democracy and not aristocracy.

We mentioned fishing for facts; and while the dining was in progress, the conversationed hit on the current topics of the day, the doings of congress, European affairs and the statu quo in Mexico. And, meeting a veteran - one of the hands - who was in the Witzel Expedition to the frontier of Mexico in 1865; as also was the Parson: the last mentioned topic of conversation was decidedly appropos.

Well, the facts: There is an auto in the barn; in the big living room there's a long distance phone; just down in the valley on the section line, there's a buggy wheel on a post carrying eight mail boxes, R. F. D. daily service. Just around the bend down the valley there's a school house, located on the eastern edge of the ranch property three miles away - distance is nothing, as the children, if any, can ride a saddle pony to school. The auto in 30 minutes will take you to Goodland. We mention these facts first because they are of greatest importance.

The physical and material facts: The Dyatt ranch properties, some personal and some company buildings, amount to 14,000 acres, contiguous or nearly so. Down the valley to the school house, aforesaid, last year could have counted 72 stacks of native and alfalfa hay. The ranch wintered 1,000 head of cattle for Egan, Jennings & Bennett, beside 150 head belonging to the ranch proper. Haying has just begun, and will continue until cold weather sets in. The corn has been laid by, and a good rain would make some corn after all the hot weather and drought. Last year Mr. J.B. Dyatt raised 4,000 bushels of corn, and he now has nearly 2,000 bushels on hand.

The ranch is four miles wide, north and south, and six miles long east and west, and takes in by the windings of the creek, 10 miles of bottom land, 300 acres of which is in alfalfa and 100 acres is being let stand and ripen for seed, with which it is heavily loaded; and the average height of which is three feet; and even some of the stalks come up to one's armpit. Last year he cut between 600 and 700 tons of hay. It would be a conservative estimate that on this ranch proper 2,000 acres are available for growing alfalfa.

The ranch house and ample out buildings are located in a sightly place about in the center of a great ox-bow bend of the Smoky which crosses the section twice. He has also a large acreage of smoother upland and wide roomy pastures, with living water for stock; and one of the sources of supply being the big spring at the head of Lake Creek, that is 50 by 60 feet wide, with a depth that has never been sounded. In spite of the drouth, the pastures are good and the hay crop is promising. There are three large springs on the ranch and ten miles of flowing water. His pastures are fenced in six separate enclosures and in one is a large cement dipping vat for dipping cattle that cost $600.

The ranch house is surrounded by shade and fruit trees, and those on the hill side are irrigated from a tank supplied by a windmill. Everything speaks of comfort and of thrift.

This is no fancy sketch, as anyone knowing the property will readily admit. This is one of the larger possibilities of creek-bottom farming in Sherman County. But there are others equally promising with hard work and proper improvement. These things are an astonishment to strangers who come in contact with these resources for the first time.

Sherman county is 36 miles east and west. The North Fork of the Smoky Hill river and the South Fork of the Saline river course along the southern boundary of the county, the latter about ten miles from the Thomas county line, and which commences nearly north of the point where the Smoky passes in Wallace county. These two streams, with their principal tributaries, and windings, are easily 100 miles in length. The valleys will average half a mile in width, and the total area embraced in the bottom lands is 50 square miles, and is available for the growing of alfalfa.

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