The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1891-07-18

We picked up an old copy Of the
Superior Inter Ocean. a few days ago
and the above heading catching the
eye, we stopped to read it, and we had
to smole a smile rs we read the follow
ing item.
Prominent gentlemen IN this city
are constantly in receipt of letters of
inquiry which lead to the belief that
there are parties here who are working
an irreparable injury to the city of Su
periOr. The writers of the letters de-
sire to know the va lues of lots in var
ious additions to this city, located
from three to ten miles east and south
of the business portion of the town. 1t
seems that some parties are engaged
in buying property at from two to ten
dollars an acre out there laying it out
into lots and selling them. Anyone
knows, who knows anything about
Superior and its surroundings that
there is to be great city here some
time, but the chances are that it will
neither extend very far south or east
but Will be built up between here and
st. LOUIS Bay. and along the shore OF
Superior Bay When representations
are made which lead people, unaquaint
ed with this locality To pay their mon
ey for city lots five miles east, the
man who makes those representations
should be labored with, by those who
have the good of the town at heart and
induced to look at matters from a
more religious standpoint. Every man
who pays money for comparatively
valueless land out in the country, will.
after out that he has been taken in,
become bitter enemy of the locality
and will do more harm than a dozen
good men han counterfeit. The boom
ing OF Superior property is all right,
and more men aught to be actively en-
gagged in 1t, but wholesale swindling is
a crime, and should be treated as such.
The above was published on Jan
uary Sth, 1885, and was probably
commended as very wise utterances
then and a timely warning to those
who did not know anything about the
real situation of things in and about
Superior. And yet how little the best
of us know of the fu ture. In less
thar five years from the time the item
was published, these 500 per acre
lands within five to ten miles in
the country were selling on the pub
lie market at prices ranging from $50
to s., 900 per acre, and town lots selling
at from $50 to $4,000 each, because
Tower avenue of to day was then
bowling wilderness inhabited only by
the wild beasts of the forest, and be-
yond the three mile limit then consld-
cred by the writer The site of South
Superior was still more inaccessible
jungle if possible, and today it is pop
ulated with more people and a hundred
times the wealth the Superior allud d
to in the item had at that time, while
away off four miles to the forbidden
east rises the massive walls of large
manufacturing plants, hotels, scholl
houses, fine residences, etc. Then we
must add to this that it is off to the
east of us that the Superior and Win
nipeg, the, Superior, Red Wing and
Southwestern, the Milwaukee and st.
Paul and the Bee Line rail roads are
all heading for their terminal facilities.
and that on Alloues Bay will be as much
business and activity five years hence
as there is to day on the s.. Louis and
the head Of Superior bays. We wond-
err, sometimes, what would become of
us all in the scramble of life if our fore
sight was as good and clear as our
hindsight.