Rockford is twenty-four miles from Spokane Falls, and has about 1,000 population; its elevation is 2,440 feet.  Four miles distant is the boundary of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, a lovely tract, thirty by seventy miles in extent, embracing beautiful Coeur d’Alene Lake and the three rivers, St. Joseph, St. Marys, and Coeur d’Alene, which empty into it.  There about 250 Indians on this reservation, and they enjoy the proud distinction of being the only tribe who refuse Government aid.  They have been offered the usual rations, but preferred to remain independent.  They live in houses, farm quite extensively, and use all kinds of improved farm machinery; many of them are quite wealthy.  The lake is one of the prettiest sheets of water on the continent; its waters are full of salmon, and in the heavy pine woods are many varieties of game, from quail to grizzly bear and elk.  The town of Rockford will in the near future assume importance as a tourist point, both from its own healthy and picturesque location, and its nearness to Coeur d’Alene Lake.  A Government Commission is now at work on a settlement with the Indians, whereby the whole or a part of this noble domain will be thrown open to the public.  The peculiar attractions of Coeur d’Alene must in a short time render it a much sought for resort.

SPOKANE FALLS

Is one of those miracles possible only in the alert, aggressive West.  When Mr. Hayes was inaugurated it was a blank wilderness.  Not a single civilized being lived within a hundred miles of it.  One day in 1878 a white man came along in a “bull team,” saw the wild rapids and the mighty falls of the Spokane River, reflected on the history of St. Paul and Minneapolis with their little Falls of St. Anthony, looked at the tide of immigration just turning toward the farther Northwest, and concluded he would sit right down where he was and wait for a city to grow around him.  This far-sighted pioneer is still living within earshot of those rumbling falls, and they make a cheerful music for him.  The city is there with him, 22,000 people, and he can draw a check to-day good for $1,000,000.  For several years his eyes fell on nothing but gravel-beds and foamy waters.  Now, as he looks around, he sees mills and factories, railroad lines to the north, south, east, and west, churches, theatres, school-houses, costly dwellings and stores, paved streets, and all that makes living easy and comfortable.  The greater part of this has come within his vision since 1883.  But even then there was quite a village.  After this pioneer had spent a lonely year or two on his homestead, two other men came along.  They were friends, who, upon an outing, had chanced to meet.  They were captivated by the waterfall, and by what the pioneer told them of the fine fanning lands in the adjacent country, and they offered each to take a third of his holding.  Then they began to advertise, and to place adventurous farmers on homestead claims.