The north Iowa times. [volume] (M'Gregor [i.e. McGregor], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-02-20
The Resources Of Adcl}reeor.

The Resources Of Mcaregor.
The first view of McGregor which the
stranger obtains as he passes up or down
the Mississippi, by Steamboat, is some.
what forbidding. The site of the town
resembles wedge thrust between two
opposing cliffs, and from the make of the
land, seems scarcely capable of affording
room for town of thousand inhabi-
tants.
1t is not till the stranger passes up Main
Street mile in length, and discovers the
apparently narrow gorge widening into a
broad site and connecting with Bloody
Run and Burnets Coulee by natural and
easy communications, making site large
enough for town of seventy-fve thous-
and inhabitants, that he becomes aware of
our real advantages. At less expense
than Dubuque is mourning, we can obtain
a larger and more convenient levee, and
one which will be amply sufficient for all
the immense trade of the Mississippi
Commencing at the contemplated site for
the r. R. Depot, an eighth of mile North
of the present levee, levee can can be
made from three fourths of a mile to a
mile in length. Immediately in front of
the town is an extensive sand bar, with a
narrow channel between it and the main
shore. Thirty acres of land can be OBJ
tanned at trifiing expense, for there are
hundreds of lots in town, for the excava
ton of which the owners will sometime
be willing to pay the expense of removing
the dirt from the bluffs to the shallow
parts Of the river. The excavation of
one lot will fill up another and the value
of the lot filled up, will be double that of
the lot excavated. This is no mere specu.
lation. Chicago is partially built Oh what
was once covered with water, and by far
the most valuable portion of the site of
Dubuque is now being redeemed from the
Mississippi
Our Improvements can be made at one
fourth the expense of those of either the
above cities, from the fact that we have
the material at hand, and the displace-
ment Of it a few rods answers the pur,
pose. a.'
This proposition may be objected to
from the great expense of filling up lots
on the sand bar, but it will cost but trile
more than to build up great part of the
present site above high water. This too,
is predicted Of McGregor as a City, when
a lot in the business part of the town will
be worth fortune, and not of McGregor
as squatter settlement The plan is
feasible and it will sometime be acted up
on, unless like the dog in the Manager, we
neither build up ourselves. nor let others
do it for US.
But aside from our organized advan-
tages, we have enough Of those which
nature has given US, which our own in.
terests and the wants of the country are
urging US to avail ourselves of, to place
McGregor in the front ranks of Western
Cities. We have healthy and convenient
location, and what is more valuable than
all, we have country to support us,
than which there is not another, with re-
sources more inexhaustable in all the broad
West. We are in one of the chief arteries
of literary, social and commercial influ.
ences, which eminate from the great heart
of our national prosperity.
The question is settled. We must ar
rive at manhood sometime, when we have
east of the swaddling clothes with which
untoward influences have bound u.s.
Why wear them longer, when they serve
only to dwarf our growth and cripple our
energies? The child thinks as child
and speaks as child. yet when he be-
comcsa man, he puts away childish things.
So we, while a squatter settlement, have
spoke and acted as such. Let us then,
now that we are becoming city in SEM
blance, become also city in reality
Not one valid reason can be given why it
should not be SO. Strangers express SUR
prise that we have not municipal or
ganization. Let us when asked why it is
SO, be able to give them something better
than the fools reason" because we
hav'nt."
What man, or what class of men can in
affect? Can we not be trust
I'd with our dearcs. Interests in our own