Bent County register., 1886-08-21
EASTERN COLORADO.
The new Farming Colony Between
the Republican and the Arickaree.
From the Denver News.

the Republican and the Arickaree.
From the Denver News.
Valley of the Arickaree, July 24,-
Denver people have no adequate con-
ception of the building up process
now going on in this immense prai.
rie region between the Arickaree and
the Republican, south fork. This is
written from point in eastern Ara
pahoe county, twenty. five miles south
of Wray station, on the Burlington
and Missouri railroad, which is also
the nearest post-office. Six months
ago the only human habitation on
these beautiful prairies, in a tract
twenty miles wide and fifty miles
long, were n dozen isolated cattle
ranches, and one frame house at
what is now Kingston, This morn
ing | counted thirty farm dwellings
with the naked eye from this point,
and the new pine roofs of the settlers
dot the sections for miles in every
direction, though not so thickly as
here. The houses for the most part
are one story. one room, plasterless,
frame structures, though the primi-
tive sod shanty and the "dug out"
are not infre9uent. The settlers here
represent the best classes of people
from Nebraska and Kansas, with an
occasional family from states further
east. The superintendent of the
three Nebraska and Kansas City
schools occupy claims within mile
of here, and one of the prominent
pioneers, whose household goods and
gods are piled in one room, was re-
Gently an influential member of the
Nebraska Legislature, and a more en-
terprisiDg, hopeful and patriotic COM
munity does not exist. On the third
day of July they gathered to the
number of l25 at the springs in
Jacks Gulch and erected brand
new alter to American freedom.
They came, men, women and chill
dren, in farm wagons and on horse
back, some of them riding eighteen
miles through the trackless buffalo
grass and under the boiling sun to
Join in the first celebration ever
held within distance of thirty or
forty miles, and they had speeches,
music and a dinner in abundance,
while cowboys, antelope and coyotes
looked down in wonder from the
neighboring bluffs.
Thus far, the greatest inconveni-
ence to the colony is the scarcity of
water. There is but one well within
radius of twelve miles, though an
other is going down in Van Vert, a
cluster of houses on the crest of the
divide, and the most slightly location
among the settlements. Good water
is found at a depth of about $50 feet,
and at an expense of about one dol
lar per foot. The main reliance thus
far, however, a spring seven miles
distant, from which the water is
brought in barrels. The farming
the first season has been limited to
the breaking of five or ten acres of
sod on each claim, upon which corn,
millet and potatoes have made an
unexpected growth. Planted and
sown in the rough sod, without fur
ther cultivation they have pushed
their way through the weeks drouth
which has blighted crops further
east, and have demonstrated that
these plains are to become agricultu-
raj districts, the predictions of the
cattlemen TO the contrary notwlth-
standing.
Before many months, you will hear
of vigorous movement in the di.
rection of organizing new county
in eastern Arapahoe, with county
seat at or near Van Vert. MURRAY.