The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1890-09-12
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE RED
RIVER VALLEY


WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE RED
RIVER VALLEY.
"Wheat is king, queen, trump, the
whole deck, tie staple. the everything
in Fargo. The municipal seal ought to
show q field of grain rampant, and
shcaves couchant. Wheat brought
these many thousand people here.
Wheat built the finest court house in
Dakota and, it might be added, the
finest court house of any city of 1OO0O
population west of the Mississippi.
Wheat finished IL four-story cream
colorcd brick hotel than which st. Louis
has but two more spacious or costly
furnished. Wheat sustains twenty
seven other hotels in this little city.
Wheat built the $4,000 high school.
The twelve churches. the four banks,
the opera house, the three halls. all are
monuments of wheat. 1t takes four
banks with 81 100000 capital and 81 ,OOO,-
900 to represent this business. Twenty
dealers in agricultural implements
yearly sell s5,Oo0.OO0 worth of ma
chinery to the growers of this wheat.
A hundred stores, wholesale and retail.
live upon the trade of these wheat
growers. Take any of these broad
plank walks which line tho vile streets
and stroll past the handsome mansions
or comfortable cottages toward tho
suburbs. Half u mile brings You to a
wheat field level as floor aud bounded
only by the horizon. Editorial cor
reslondence of st. Louis Globe Demo-
crat.
The City of Grand Forks is one Of
those remarkable productions one en-
counters in the West and Northwest.
Splendid business blocks alternate with
onc-story "shaclks." and two-story
wooden buildings set up on locust pins.
Its estimated population is placed at all
the way from 10000 to 10000. Its hotel
Accommodations excel those of many an
Eastern city of much greater population.
The evening daily paper will the present
summer take possession of four.story
brick building with granite front and
polished granite pillars supporting the
massive arches of the first story. A
stranger wonders from whence comes
this prosperity. 1t looks as if the spirit
of the people We're about ten years in
advance of the town. But it is not, or
it seems not. Grand Forks and Fargo
are to the extreme Northwest what
st. Paul and Minneapolis are to the
whole Northwest. "-Correspondence of
The Philadelphia Pa.) Press.
a staff correspondent of The Phila-
dclphia. Pa. Press last winter wrote
that he found needy people in the
interior and sparscly settled counties,
but not so seriously situated rs he had
been lead to believe, and none in the
Red River valley, which he termed the
Egypt of Dakota further declaring
that 1T is wonderfully productive and
the people unusually prosperous. For
its entire length from Wahpcton, near
the South Dakota line. to Pcnbina, on
the Manitoba border, the valley is
dotted with growing towns, that with
their present state of development must
within few decades blossom ont OIL the
map as large and prosperous cities. Tho
railroads have had much to do with
this. The Great Northern has three
stems of its powerful system traversing
its western portion, reaching every lead.
ing point"
mine years ago, from personal
observation and study, we pronounced
the broad Red River valley, and con-
siderable portion of Dakota to the west
Of that river, as one of the most fertile
and promising regions in any part of
our country not yet fully occupied. We
said the same last year and this opinion
was fully concurred in by all of the
dozen or more editors of our agricul-
tural contemporaries, from IlIinoin,
Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New
England. "-Orangc Judd. editor Of the
Orange Judd Farmer and founder of
the American Agriculturlist.
an u journey of about 800 miles
through the Dakotas, have found only
ten men who came until within the last
three years, when manufactures began
to be established. possessed Of more
than $1,000, and ninc-tenths of the pres
ent population brought with them less
than $500. The farmers, especially those
who settled down under the homestead
laws, We're deplorably poor when they
took up their claims. Thousands of
them are now. ten years later, loanns
money. Editorial Correspondence of
The New York Tribune.
"Of the valley Of til" Red River find
it impossible to speak in any other terms
than those which express establishment
and admiration. entirely concur in
the brief but expressive description of
all English settler who declared it IA
paradise of fertility Prof. Hind,
Chief of the Canadian Geological
Survey.