The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1881-08-20
For Our Property Owners.

about the situation here in the fol
lowing timely and vigorous style:
"While there are, and ALWAYS have been
some practical aud level headed and far
seeing men among the real estate owners oi
Superior City, yet the majority of those who
could have helped the place have always
been distinguished for their shorts ighted
ness, narrow -mindness, illiberalitv, and
stupidity. Indeed, had it not been for these
characteristics of the controlling spirits
among the property owners of Superior, size
would to day be the commercial city at the
head of the lake, and Duluth would not yet
have had chance to spring into existence
Those ons, have reposed entirely too
much confidence in the prowess of mere
natural advantages" or supposed natural
advantages. Because th5y happen to have a
rather favorable site over there, on which a
city could be built if necessary and because
in the matter of town site, they have the
advantage of Duluth in some respects, they
are foolish enough to suppose that those
advantages will outweigh pluck and energy
and money, and Minnesota state pride, and
give to that side of the bay the victory.
They forget that Michigan City, Indiana, at
the head of Lake Michigan possesses much
finer site for great city than is the great
bog on which the city Of Chicago is built.
Something over forty years ago, TIVE or three
live men from Butfalo, NY, conceived the
idea that in time, flourishing city would be
built up at some point at the head of lake
Michigan. They came around the lake in a
schooner and arrived at Michigan CITY,
which was then a sprightly little town OF
about 900 inhabitants and which was then
81,
and northern Illinois The town site pro
pretors there, however, asked so high a
price for property that the Buffalo men felt
that they could not afford to pay it, and they
threatened to find a toWnsite somewhere
else near by and build tho! cen rival city,
but they were told that there was no other
available site that could be found but they
took a canoe and cruised around until they
come to the mouth Of the Chicago river;
they found there bog and swamp many
miles in extent / ut tLcy thought that a
ha, Dor for Il few vessels could be made there
for few months, and that for the money
that they would have had to pay for the
property in Michigan City, they could fit up
dock and build some corduroy roads out
into the country and IN due time, build up,
quite a little trade. They proceeded to
acquire the title to their proposed townsite,
and then, pursuing just the opposite course
from what the short-sighted Michigan City
owners did, they offered property upon tho
most liberal terms to men who would come
there and improve it and engage IN business.
The result OF these two policies all the wcrl
knows. Michigan City still has her natural
advantages" but that is about all that she
has got, while Chicago is one of the largest
~,
the cDntiuen:.
The Michigan City policyIhas been made the
Superior City policy. But for the over
confidence of tho f,u0t'fc- of the Iuttcg pla,r
ia thelr supposed natural advantages, !"
that place would have been the terminus Of
the Lake Superior Il Mississippi road, (now
the St. Paul u Duluth). Had that place re
posed less trust in natural advantages" 5"
and had it adopted the policy in 1869, which
We, When publishing paper there at that
lime, urged and plead with it TO adopt, the
\. 7. road from the junction to Superior
would have been built ten years ago, ard
Superior would to-day have population of
at least 5, 900 people.
In the course of human events" however
the time has arrived when one CIR two rail
roads seem likely to be forced upon Su-
perior. This of course, rejoces the heart of
the average Superiorite, but still the most OF
those who now could give the place a
boost" and boom are (unlutentOnally
doubtless) doing their level best to retard
its progress. Superior is peculiarly situat-
ed. She has some advantages-some very
remarkable OneS-but she has some dis
advantages and some very remarkable ones,
and she has a great deal to do before she
can even make Il respectable prctense of be-
ing a modern styled town. To start with,
she is about as diapidated looking place
as there is on the face of the earth, while
she Is susceptible of being made one of the
most handsome. Her business houses
are old frame, unpainted topping rookeries
which in any live town would be regarded
as eye sores and would be torn down as
soon as laborers could be employed to Go
the work. She has no hotel, and gentlemen
and ladies visiting the place who are not
content with the iaIe and accommodations
usually found in the boarding houses for
railroad hands, are under the necessity of
taking along from Duluth a lunch for dinner,
and OF returning to Duluth in the evening
for lodging, unless they are so foltuate as to
be acquainted with some one of the good
people Of that place, who, in the absence OF
hotels are obligingly opening their houses
and doing what they can for the accommo-
dation OF transient visitors
Unfortunately, however, fer Superior, the
masses OF the people over there do not seem
TO have either the disposition or the ability
to do much 10 help the place along. Most OF
them (lIke most of Us here in Duluth,) are
persons OF limited means, and have not the
ability to make any very extensive or costly
improvements; and Furthermore most OF
/ them seem to look upon those ancient rook-
cries over there with a sort Of veneration,
and being sacred structures which should
not be demolished and if a"y one
there has $500 or 81 900 which he is willing
co put into building he would rather
spend it in braeing up and repairing one OF
! these old frame shells, which, even when
patched up will not be worth in the eyes OF
an outsider, the cost Of the repairs, than to
put that amount in a new building.
! 1t is evident therefore that if Superior is
ever TO be redeemed, the work of redemption
! viii have to be accompl ished, not by the
present population of Superior, but by out
siiers. But outsiders will not make much
/ Improvements upon property which they dc
not own. Hence, it is desirable that men oil
capital, energy aud public spirit should be
able to acquire desirable property there at
reasonable prices but this, it is well nigh
impossible to do. In the first place. the
lots in the so called business portion" anG
ali the lower end of the town, are ridiculous
ly small. being only 25xl2O feet, and ths
ownership of much of the property is divided
up among so many people that it is almos
impossible to purchase two lots lying sid,
by side. Added to this, a very large pro
portion Of the property, in that part Of tn
town especially, is held on tax-titles-th
exact value of which, no man knoweth. TIL
great trouble, therefore, is to find propeyt.
with good title that is for sale. Probahl,