One can well believe the hail storms are nothing new to western Nebraska, but the first record that we have seen was on July 21, 1844, the, Minto party were on the high divide between the Plattes, near Ash Hollow, when there came a sudden storm, and the people and the stock suffered from a severe pelting by hail, "some of the hailstones being as large as hen's eggs." In the storm the cattle drifted and according to "Black Harris" the guide, the party came down into the valley about twelve miles west of Ash Hollow.

But you and I, and Minto and others by the millions have each felt that call of the wilderness, the storms of the highlands, that for the moment invaded the storm tossed sprrit of the plodding oxen. Out in the altitudes where the horizon is the sky, we have each felt as St. George Cooke felt when he reached the summit of Robideaux Pass, when he saw stretched out before him the wide meadows or Horse Creek bottom, the billowy hills beyond, the treeless plains for miles on miles, then the mountains, "and Laramie mountain towering, at eighty miles." This is what he said: "Let the wide arch of the ranged empires fall. This is my space."

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

RED CLOUD AND SPOTTED TAIL -- MASSACRE OF COTTONWOOD CANYON

In the account of the burning of old Fort Robideaux mention was made of the Sioux triumph over the Kiowas the following day, Red Cloud was called the young chief, which was true only by comparison.