Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1872-02-03
MOORHEAD.

the national debt.
MOORHEAD.
THE CHIEF COMMERCIAL CITY OF TMI
RED RIVER VALLEY.
(Trom the St. Paul Daily Press, Dec. 70, 1871.
Many of our readers may not be aware
that within three months lively town Of
some FIVE hundred inhabitants has sprung
up on the Red river at the point where the
Northern Pacific crosses the river, and
which has been named Morehead, in honor
Of one Of the firm Of Jay Cooke Il Co.
The site Of this new town, which is admir-
ably chosen as the point of crossing for
this great national highway, is one Of the
highest points of land on the banks of the
river, aud is not surpassed, if indeed it is
equalled in the whole Red River Valley,
in point Of natural beauty as town site,
and adaptation to business purposes.
1t is the practical head of navigation on
the Red River, and will form an empori-
um of the large and increasing steamboat
traffic with the extensive British settle
ments in the Province of Manitoba on the
other side Of the line, some two hundred
miles north. The goods from St. Paul and
Duluth, destined for the Valley Of the Red
River and the British Possessions, will be
delivered at this point, aud it will of course
be the depot for the great rush Of emigra.
ton which is struggling for the advance in
the settlement of this broad and beautiful
valley.
The Red River has been appropriately
termed the Nile of the North, from the
remarkable fertility of the level alluvial
plain through which it flows, comprising,
without doubt, the best and most endur.
ingly productive wheat soil o. the CONT.
neut. Now that this magnificent region,
which is as near ship navigation on Lake
Superior as is the eastern border of Iowa,
or western Illinois to Chicago, is opened to
settlement by the Northern Pacific Railroad
and its branches, which latter are to per.
meate it 10 its whole length and breadth,
there can be no doubt that, in the next
four or Eve years, witnessed iu this country.
In view of this facti requires no very
keen sagacity to perceive that this point
at which the Northern Pacific crosses the
Red River, and which is the head Of nav.
igation on that stream, which must always
be an important channel Of commerce with
the settlements along its banks, for two or
three hundred miles north-is destined to
be one of the most important towns in
Northwestern Minnesota, the chief CON-
mercicl centre of the whole Red River
valley.
The quick PERCEPTION of its future im-
portance by the men Of the frontier ac-
counts for the rapid spriugiug up Of this
town on what four months ago was soli-
tary prairie, aud for the rush Of settlers to
it as soon as it was publicly known where
the point Of crossing was to be. The first
street was not laid out till September Goth
last, and up to December 21st, or within
two months, there had been erected thirty
three buildings, among them two large
hotels, one two stories frame 10 feet long
by SO feet wide, another so by 80 feet
with wing 40 by 30, and some three or
four small hotels besides. Then there arc
three large dry goods stores, drug store,
feed store, the large supply store Of
Fletcher. Bly, 4 Co., GO by 30 feet. two
shoe stores, a blacksmith shop, . butcher
shop, barber shop, . telegraph Office,
post Office, several saloons, aud about all
the furniture of . tolerably we'll organized
though very hastily put together town.
All this in advance Of tho railroad. The
Northern Pacific Railroad is now complot-
ed aud in operation to this point, and until
the road is constructed in Dakota Moor
head will be its western terminus. We
learn that at q meeting Of the Northern
Pacific Railroad Directors in New York
last week, Passenger Depot and Freight
House were ordered to be Immediately
erected at Moorhead, preparatory to the
spring business.
With the impulse given to its growth
by the causes referred to, it is probable
that its present population Of FIVE hundred
the rush Of sixty days on the edge Of a
preposterously cold winter-will be swelled
next year to three or four times five hun.
dred.