Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-07
brethf m of Grand Forks.

Il
real estate owner and town site owner
stands e-eminently at the head of the
profession. He combines his town site
1 ownership with the law, politics and re-
| ligion. He is judge, councillor, represen-
| tative and merchant. These, however, are
subordinate to the gran6er profession
that of boomer. He will not only go as
far as his brethren at Fargo, but in addi-
| ton will contract to sell you farm any
| where between Grand Forks and DEVILS
Lake, or TO Manitoba, and as part of the
| consideration will agree to run railroad
TO it. They claim to be interested in all
the railroads in northern Dakota. If you
want a town site as a part of the transac-
| ton they will obligate themselves to make
| it a county seat, and they are now engaged
in locating the territorial capital at sever
| al places to suit purchasers. For the
present it is located at Odessa.
| There is nothing mean about Grand
Forks ''boomer," everything he does is
| done in a princely way. Thsy operate
singly or il syndicates, their watchword
| more townsites, millions in them. They
are found all over northern Dakota in
| squads and battalions.
Larimore was one of these town sites. 1t
was to be the greatest city in Dakota ex-
| cept Grand Forks. Fargo was to be
dwarfed by comparison. 1t was doomed
and advertised and advertised and
| doomed, until their 'tgill net was
set for suckers" when the city of the plains
| doomed up beautifully. The syndicate, in
| the meantime, announced that they would
startle the settler with the mammoth no.
| tel, the bank building, the brown stone
| palatial residences that were to be the fu-
| ture homes of the syndicate, and the blocks
| of stores which they intended to erect in
Larimore as an earnest of their good faith
| and as indicative of its future. While the
| purchasers of lots were dreaming of Lari-
more's future came the announcement that
| the syndicate had sold out, and had quietly
stole away, the hotel, the bank, private res
| licences aid blocks of stores going with
them, as the starter of new town site.
In the future it will no doubt be kind
of melancholy pleasure for Larlmorean
to gossip about what great city Larimore
might have been if the syndicate had told
the truth. Larimore. farewell. and if for
ever, fare thee well!
The syndicate, in retiring from Lari-
more, divided their forces. They had come
to the conclusion that it was as easy to
build two cities as one, travelling westward
| until they struck the beautiful and classic
sheet of water designated in travellers
guides as Stump lake. Here they located
two cities; one on its southern shore, the
other further to the northwest. One they
named Harrisburg, the other VAN
duska. These two cities, in ad-
dition to being great summer resorts
for pleasure seekers from all
parts of the country,were located upon the
Of tad lima
and were to alternate in having the county
seat, SO said the syndicate. Valuable i'm
provements were to be made by the syndi-
cate. These towns were doomed and
doomed in all the principal cities of the
Northwest, large number of lots were
sold to credulous persons, and money
flowed into the Golfers of
the syndicate. The st. Paul, Mime
apolis & Manitoba railroad, which
was one of the roads which was to be con-
structed to these cities, when built was
| more than ten miles away. The twin cities
are already numbered among Dakota's lost
towns. The lumber hauled to Harrisburg
to build hotel by the syndicate was hauled
away to be used in booming another town.
The store, the saloon and the blacksmith
shop have disappeared. Wamduska fares
| little better; it did succeed in having hotel
| built, but it is without guests, and
| can be purchased for nominal sum. The
| store and saloon are for sale, and the larger
part of the sites will be devoted to farm
| ing purposes, and by another year it will
| be hard to locate either of these cities on
| the ground-nowhere except on paper.
| We pass from Harrisburg and VAN
| duska, following the trail of the syndicate,
! whose march of empire is still westward.
You have heard so much that
there looms up in our imagination
great city upon Devils lake, child it is
| said Of goodly promise. AS you reach the
| lake, you wonder where the greatest of all
| Dakota's cities can be found; settler
points to an isolated house and tells you
that that is Odessa, the most beautiful, the
most attractive of all the Grand Forks
booms' towns. You. feel disappointed. The
settler, who is holding claim for the syn
dictate, tells you there is no mistake about
| the future Odessa; that beyond doubt it
| will be the lake terminus of 1.-THE st. Paul,
| Minneapolis 81 Manitoba railway; that the
| only thing that could prevent it would be
| Hills death; that the town is owned by
| men in Grand Forks, who are chums of
President Hill, Of the Manitoba road. and
| that he would run his road out of the way
| to accommodate them. Every man, WON
| an and child within ten miles of where
| Odessa is to be, if ever built, will tell you
that more than $4,000 have been paid in
cash for lots sold; that more than 100 cap
| italists from different parts of the country
are on their way to Odessa to engage in
merchandising, banking, ETC., and this,
Notwithstanding the fact that the lumber
| first takenS to Harrisburg for hotel, then
to Odessa for like purpose, has again
been transferred to another town as a
starter for boom.
Northward from Odessa another grand
city is being doomed, few months since
an enterprising citizen, passing along a
| trail in the direction of Turtle mountain,
seeking new home, where he might be-
| come rich without much work, coming to
what seemed to be good quarter section
of land, pitched his tent, opened a saloon,
and christened his claim Devils Lake
| City," and inaugurated boom. Why not
have city. True, it was some two or
more miles away from the lake, but that
made no difference, it's founder, Yankee,
having learned something by having been
| doomed himself, knew how to do it. Gov.
| Ordway was given slice of the pudding.
| Other distinguished Dakota politicians