The times., 1898-10-23
A DESERTED TOWN.
In North Dakota Is City without n
Tenant.
(From the San Francisco calI-)


(From the San Francisco CalI)
\ city large enough TO house a popu-
lation of 300, yet absolutely tenant
less: place with substantial brick
blocks. well laid streets and walk.
handsome residences, costly store build
ings-in fact. a metropolitan city-but
without a resident. not even cock TO
crow by day a dog TO howl by night.
Such a place exists. although even in
North Dakota. which State claims this
tenantless metropolis. West Lynne long
ago passed from the memory of most
men and women.
The history of the place is one of the
romances of the boom period. from
1878 to 1851. West Lynne was a boom
town." and the most noted of them all.
II was plated by schemers with more
fertility than scrupIes, at a point on the
Red River. where. they claimed. the
Great Northern Railroad was to cross
when built through TO the Pacific coast.
The possibilities of the place were ex-
plotted in the East: capitalists became
interested and money was plentiful.
There was no sham about the actual
construction Of West Lynne. 1t was
not another Arizona-desert farce, except
in the minds and on the plats of its
projectors. but u substantial reality.
James H Murray. a Chicago man, was
the agent. He sold lots at auction In
Chicago for thousands of dollars each.
While he was selling telegram would
come. notifying him Of the disposal of
certain plat. and II would be with
drawn Then he sold adjoining lots at
top-notch prices
In the meantime. building was pro-
crossing. There were no board shanties
sod walls or canvas shells. Handsome
structures of brick or lumber, finished
in modern style. sprang up as fast as
material could be transported and con-
tractors do the work. And today there
the City stands n handsome but use
less monument to the creduiity of some
and the hard'hood of others. Not one
of its magnificent buildings has ever
been occupied.
Several years have elapsed since the
writer last visited West LYNNE whose
history then dated back over fifty years
No one Ioitered on the grass grown
streets: the handsome and costly books
of brick. with plate g'ass windows or
ornate facades and massive doors ca X
ing on rusty hinges. or ly ing where thev
had been tumbled by Times rude hand.
gave back hollow echoes to the voice OF
the visitor. Mansions costing thousands
of dollars-tasteful and spacious. with
every Indication that persons of wealth
ed to occupy thens-were scattered in
| clusters in this or that addition
Around them trees and shrubbery. once
reared with care. grew rank and un-
kempt. The fences were falling to
pieces. and grass and weeds encroached
upon pavements and approaches Not a
human being was to be seen: not even
| stray cat was found warming itself in
some stray nook on that fine September
day. And the city had never had a
permanent resident
But all is not yet told of the waste of
wealth that created this prairie haven
of bats and foul birds of the night.
| Across the Red River is a steel bridge
| built for railroad and wagon traffic
which no engine or train ever crossed or
| ever will The wagon track is used. The
structure must have cost S200,000, as there
| is a great deal of piling and trestlss in
| the approaches.
West Lynne stands on Il fiat. sandy
stretch where the overflow from the
| river is so extensive and long continued
| that crops cannot be grown Across the
| river in Emerson, is the custom house,
| and the business of the district is con-
| Quoted there That is all the life there
| is to Emerson, which in the boom days
| was but suburb of West Lynne. Even
| in Emerson there is brick block. three
| stories high S75 by $50 feet dimensions
| with a basement under the whole. 1t
| contains fourteen spacious store rooms
with plate-slass fronts, and all acces-
! sories of a stylish business block. But
| not a single individual inhabits the
| great structure, and it is slowly going
! to ruin. Eighty-five thousand dollars
| was the cost of this building.
| This is but one illustration of the man
| ner in which towns arose and fell in the
! Dakotas during the memorable boom "
| West Lynne was by far the largest of
| the mushroom cities, but there are
many others in the two States which
| contain enormous buildings. erected
| when money was plentiful and investors
| looked upon the Northwest as the
| American land of Canaan. but which
have been tenanted since the contract
| ors and their men left them.