Corn was then worth from five to fifteen cents a pound, and a successful crop was as valuable as a gold mine. Uniting together, these farmers constructed an irrigating ditch from the Fontaine-qui-Bouille over their fields, and planted corn. When this had reached a good size, already waving temptingly in the wind and sun, a company of disgusted Missouri prospectors on their way back East, made camp near Fontaine City, and foraged their lean and hungry cattle on the green blades and juicy stalks. The farmers remonstrated, but the Missourians outnumbered them, and only laughed. There followed a fight, in which some of the Missourians were killed, and several on both sides wounded. The victory, however, was with the farmers.

Developing of Freighting in Colorado

This rapid populating of Colorado resulted in a continuous stream of freighting across the Plains, but, outside of these narrow lines of communication, it led to no settlement in all that wide expanse of level desolation. The freight trains of Russell and Majors dragged their winding length along the Arkansas, or Smoky Hill route day after day, bringing cargoes of goods, which were stored at their depots and sold to retail merchants. Thousands of wagons stretched also in continuous line along the valley of the Platte, mail facilities were introduced, and, as early as 1859, stage-coaches were running on regular schedules to Leavenworth. A branch of the Pony Express operated from Julesburg.

Settlers Restrained by the Hostility of the Sioux

Farther north, in the Dakotas and Wyoming, few signs of permanent settlement were to be perceived so early. The continued and almost constant hostility of the various tribes of the Sioux Nation, together with the unattractive appearance of the country, conspired to restrain settlers. The fact that no great highway traversed the Plains of Dakota also made its advantages less known. The fur-traders still held to their forts along the Missouri and tributary streams, and some prospecting had been undertaken in the Black Hills with indifferent success. The first permanent settlement was made at Sioux Falls in 1856, and a year later a few farmers came in along the valley of the Missouri. Traveled over by thousands on their journey to Oregon or California, Wyoming remained a primitive wilderness, its sole signs of settlement a few fur-trading posts. Nothing served to halt the multitude, and while a few may have idled along the way, there was no permanent population worthy of notice.