Historic Note - Week of June 25th

The Livingston Enterprise, June 29, 1889

There is cause for congratulation over the visit of Villard and party to this section of Montana, particularly as their tour of the park will take them to Cooke city, where a knowledge of the rich and extensive mineral resources of that district may be gained. With a thorough understanding of the vast business that would accrue to the Northern Pacific by the extension of the Park branch to that camp, through its consequent rapid development, there is little doubt that all the powers of his aggressive policy will be brought to bear in accomplishing that result. Montana owes much of her present prosperity to the energy of Mr. Villard, whose indefatigable labors surmounted all obstacles and furnished the main artery connecting her developed resources with the commercial centers of the country. But there still remain rich mineral districts only awaiting transportation facilities to place them in the front rank as producers. Prominent among these camps is Cooke, with its almost unlimited deposits of ore,that cannot be successfully handled without railroad transportation. The chief obstacle is securing a railroad to that point has been the sentimental opposition to it by representatives of the effete east on the ground of desecrating the Park. As this element has become familiarized with the situation and learned that the proposed route to Cooke can in no wise mar the beauty of Wonderland or interfere with any point of interest therein, this barrier has to a great extent been removed, and there is now good reason for believing that no serious trouble will be encountered in securing favorable action by congress this winter.