This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Bobbitt, Brown, Martin, Sullivan, Milliken Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/4262 Message Board Post: THE SIDNEY ARGUS - HERALD. August 27, 1931. "Fremont County Is Best".-- We started on our vacation about 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon of August 5 and drove to LeMars, Iowa. The next day we followed highway No. 75 up to Canby, Minnesota, where the filling stations were selling gas at 9 cents, tax included. From there we crossed over to Clear Lake, South Dakota and up to Watertown and on to the Bobbitt farm near Frankfort, South Dakota, Spink county. Next day we left and went through the grasshopper country we have been reading about. We saw fields of corn which were entirely stripped of all blades. Some places were just eaten around the edges. The leaves were all gone from the trees, and they claimed the bark was being eaten. Before we got there they said we would have to close all windows of our car and stop every few miles to clean the hoppers from our radiator, also that they would cause cars to skid, but we did not find them quite that bad. They tell a story of a man who turned his turkeys out to eat hoppers and they came home without any feathers. From there we went to Interior where we found the Bad Lands, which are a wonderful sight. Those who have been there know that words fail to describe them and that they have to be seen to know just what they are. Imagine a strip of perhaps three or four counties of high bluffs composed or rocks of different colors and formations, some probably 200 feet high. We spent our third night in the Bad Lands and drove to Deadwood the next morning, arriving at Sam Brown's home about 9:30, just a little before the big parade, which was very good. The days of '76, which frontier affair is quite like our rodeo, is celebrated there every year. We went that afternoon and certainly were well entertained. It costs $1.00 to $1.50 to get a ticket on the grounds and $1.00 for a seat. We went trout fishing in Spearfish Canyon and saw Bridal Veil falls, the trout hatchery at Spearfish, Rainbow Cliff in Boulder Canyon, also went over to Beulah, Wyming; drove up in low (gear)--to the top of Mt. Roosevelt, 5,650 feet high; saw Bear Butte, a mountain all alone out on the plains; went to Sylvan Lake; looked at Harney Peak, 7,240 feet high, the highest point east of the Rockies; went up to Lead, over a mile high, where the largest gold mine in the world is located; viewed Mt. Rushmore, the world's largest sculpture. The figures will be over 200 feet high, carved in white marble. This is the second year's work and they expect to work four more years before the work is complete. Came to Wind Cave and through the game preserve where buffalo, antelope, elk, and deer were grazing; meandered down to Hot Springs and on to Chadron, Nebraska, where we spent the night. Starting the next morning early we came through Gordon where several Fremont county families live, but as it was quite early we did not hunt them up but came on to Elgin where the Martins, Sullivans, and Milikens moved to from here. Frank V. Martin had moved to Oakdale, twelve miles away, so we went and had a good visit. The next day we drove on home. Fremont county certainly looked good to us, even the weeds, as crops were very poor overmost of our trip. Nebraska was poor, Minnesota poorer, and Dakota poorest. Some places they were making thistle hay, others were mowing small grain about ten or twelve inches high and feeding their stock. We counted eight windrows of wheat across one forty-acre field. Some places they did not have anything, will not even get their seed back. We noticed some strips which were good, especially the potatoes around Gordon. It was cold upon the mountains. Potatoes and most garden stuff were frozen to the ground Sunday night, August 9. They said the thermometer got down to four degress below freezing. Paid 19 cents for gas in one town in the sandhills of Nebraska. We noticed everything in the stores was higher in price compared with here--even flour, shorts and bran. Do not see how the people can live through the coming winter or keep their stock. We expect to hear of more suffering in that section next winter than there was last. Had a wonderful trip and think people are well off here where we have more crops than we know what to do with. Traveled over 1,800 mies and bought five quarts of oil but failed to keep track of the gas. No car trouble except flat tires. We got home in time for the Sidney rodeo.--W.W. ETTLEMAN.