North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie StateFederal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota
History
North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota
North Dakota; North Dakota -- Guidebooks
HILLSBORO, =132.5 m.= (907 alt., 1,317 pop.), named for James J. Hill,
the "Empire Builder" of the G. N. Ry., was platted in 1880 on the
attractive GOOSE RIVER. A bitter fight for the Traill County seat was
prominent in the early history of the town. Neighboring Caledonia, on
the Red River, had been the county seat since organization of Traill
County in 1875, but the routing of the G. N. Ry. through Hillsboro gave
that young city aspirations, and in 1890 it came forward as a contender
for the county seat. The campaign grew heated, and Caledonia citizens
carried arms and posted guards around their village. To lead their
defense they organized a committee, whom Hillsboro residents dubbed
Tigers of the Jungle and Irreconcilables. The Tigers imported Col. W.
C. Plummer, a widely known professional standard bearer who had served
as campaign speaker in many parts of the country, and whom James G.
Blaine once called "one of the three best political speakers in the
United States." The colonel became the leading figure in the county
seat fight. He was an impressive speaker, and the floods of oratory he
loosed in behalf of Caledonia were greatly enjoyed by his listeners.
The majority of them, however, apparently remained impervious to his
arguments--when the votes were counted Hillsboro enjoyed a 1,291 to 218
majority.
WOODLAND PARK, a 25-acre recreational and tourist camp area in the
northern part of town, contains a log cabin, originally built at
Belmont, in which are an old-fashioned loom once used in weaving the
homespun clothing of a pioneer family, and other relics of pioneer days.
Right from Hillsboro on a graveled highway to STONY POINT, =1.5 m.=,
site of a camp used by pioneers freighting their supplies overland from
Fargo during early settlement of the region. The camp site, situated on
a sandy ridge left by the recession of glacial Lake Agassiz, is marked
by a large, pointed boulder 20 ft. in diameter, which once served as a
landmark. In early days it was believed, from the manner in which the
rock was situated in the earth, that it might have dropped from the sky.
South of Hillsboro are many well-built farmsteads--some of which were
once part of bonanza farms--and four peaceful villages which in bonanza
days were busy wheat centers, but now lie quietly basking in their
memories.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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