Page:History of Stearns County, Minnesota; volume 1.pdf/23

 CHAPTER I.

NATURAL PHENOMENA.

On its splendid course from Itasca to the Gulf, the mighty Mississippi passes no fairer land than that which it touches in the central part of Minnesota, where, drained by the Watab, the Sauk, the Crow and the Clearwater, Stearns county stretches away in sightly prospects.

A fertile country of rich black soil, its surface divided into hills and rolling land and prairie, beautified by meandering streams and interspersed with natural and domestic groves, the county has advantages of location and surface which have made it an excellent agricultural and grazing district, and which have helped make its largest city one of the most important points on the upper Mississippi.

The elevation of this stretch of land above the sea, its fine drainage and the dryness of the atmosphere give it a climate of unusual salubrity and pleasantness. Its latitude gives it correspondingly longer days in summer, and during the growing seasons about one and a half hours more of sunshine than in the latitude of St. Louis. The refreshing breezes and cool nights in summer prevent the debilitating effect of the heat so often felt in lower latitudes. The winter climate is also one of the attractive features. Its uniformity and its dryness, together with the bright sunshine and the electrical condition of the air, all tend to enhance the personal comfort of the resident, and to make outdoor life and labor a pleasure.

Embracing, as the county does, so pleasing a prospect to the eye, and so fruitful a field for successful endeavor, it is natural that the people who from the earliest days have been attracted here should be the possessors of steady virtues, ready to toil and to sacrifice, that their labors might be crowned with the fruits of prosperity and happiness.

St. Cloud, its principal city, is the fifth city in the state, and the other cities and villages have had their part in the general commercial upbuilding of the community, furnishing excellent trading and shipping facilities for the rural districts as well as for their own people.  1