Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1895-03-07
TENANTLEss TOWNS.
CHANGES WROUGHT BIZ THE RAIL
ROADS ADVENT.
Thriving Centers of Trade That Lost Busi-
ness When the Locomotive Appeared.
Kansas. Texas, Virginia and the Caroli-
mas Abound In Deserted Villages.

"Within the last few weeks l have
been viewing the remains of many de-
serted towns, said Geologist Robert L. |
Hill to writer for the Washington
Star. 1.-The spectacle they afforded was
been abandoned only recently. Through
southwest Kansas and eastern Colorado
are scattered hundreds Of tenantless
sites of what We're prosperous and busy
communities two or three years ago.
"For example, l might mention Lake
City, Kan. On the latest maps, dated
1893, it appears as town of consider
able size. When got there, could find
only one house. The rest of the settle
: ment had disappeared. managed to dis
cover a squatter, to whom / addressed
an inquiry on the subject. Said I:
"'What has become of Lake City?'
"'Movcd. he replied simply.
"It was the same story l had heard
before with relation to other settle
ments. The town had not gone out Of
existence. 1t had changed its location,
that was ALL Its history merely repeat
ed that of many other communities
hundreds of them might be named
which were moved literally OH wheels
into the Cherokee strip when that fer
tile section was thrown open by the gov
ernment. AT the present time you will
find prosperous towns in the strip light
ed by electricity and furnished with all
modern improvements. which are COM
posed largely of the very same houses
that made up the deserted villages
speak of.
Gas for deserted towns, you will find
them all over southwest Arkansas and
northeast Texas. Most of them have
been made what they are by railways.
It is usually the interest of arailroad to
avoid town and pass some miles aw "
\ from it, building up a new town of its
own and selling the land at profitable
prices. A notable example is afforded
by Enid, o. T. The Rock Island ROAD
passed through Enid, which was the
lawfully chosen county seat, but it would
not stop its trains there because it had
established town of its own three miles
. away, which it desired to build up. Ex
asperated by this attempt to ruin their
property interests, the people Of Enid
resorted to desperate measures. They
compelled the trains to stop by force of
arms and even threatened dynamite.
Finally the railway gave i'll, and the
j, town was saved. 1t was fight purely
! and simply sor survival.
rAll over the southwest there has
been q continual struggle Of this sort be-
tween the old towns which preceded
the railways and the new railway towns.
In nearly every instance the old town
has succumoed. remember well when
Comanche, Tex, was hourishing com
munity. An act of legislature prescribed
{ that three railways should pass directly
through it. Everybody supposed that the
place was going to be small me-
tropolis People invested great deal
of money there. But the railways enter
,tained different ideas. They desired to
stbuild up towns of their own, and by a
complicat d hocus pocus they managed
things SO that the intersecting roads
formed triangle, Of which Comanche
was the center. The triangle was SO
large that Comanche was not within
less than 20 miles of the nearest rail
road. So tho town was ruined, aud ever
so many erterprising people, who had
given money and energy to the building
up Of the country, lost all they had
"a conspicuous example of u deserted
town is Boston, Tex, at one time the
most prosperous place in its region. II
was situated directly on tho old King's
highway, as it was called, which was