La Junta tribune., 1899-01-04
La JUMrA THE BEAUTIFUL
4 GROWING TOWN IN THE GREAT AND
rRoSpERous ARKANSAS VALLEY.
Judge ]. 1. Bsrry Writes Eisbossteiy
and Entsdsiningiy Of Recent
Visit to Our Little City.

struck town. The large, modern
and handsomely built depot and
hotel, the lively stir and hustle on
the platform. the noise Of putting
and whistling locomotives, supple
mented with the sigh, Of three
solid business blocks, told me that
| had not only struck town, but
wide-awake little city. This was
further made manifest by broad,
stone sidewalks, plate glass fronts
and general air Of business seen in
its principal thoroughfares, and in
the activity OF its people. had
often heard OF La unta as simply
small. struggling railroad station,
and my surprise therefore may be
imagined, when | found on every
hand so many evidences OF Thrift
and enterprise. The town is locat-
ed on the line OF the Atchison, To-
peka & Santa Fe Railroad, in the
famous Valley of the Arkansas, $50
miles southeast OF Denver and 63
from Pueblo. 1t contains from
thirty. FIVE hundred to four thous
and inhabitants, two wide-awake
newspapers, a public library OF
about 9, 900 volumes, a commercial
college, TWO well-appointed public
schools, eight church edifices, an
opera house, a reading room for
for railroad employees, an electric
light plant, two banks, system
OF water works and sewerage, ten
artesian wells, one canning factory,
one creamery, one Touring mill, a
pressed brick works, machine and
repair shops OF the Atchison, To-
peka & Santa Fe Railroad, and
about one hundred and thirty busi-
ness houses, representing the diff
ferent branches of trade and mer-
camille pursuits.
About one half OF the population
is composed OF railroad employees
and their families, many OF whom
own their own homes, and have
lived here so long that they have
become permanently identified with
the interests of the town and take
as much pride in its success as any
other class OF citizens. In fact,
all the inhabitants are in love with
the little city in which they have
pitched their tents, and carry but
one banner, upon which is in
scribed but one name, and that
name is La Junta, around which
they enthusiastically rally.
MATERIAL RESOURCES
Unlike many of the towns in
Colorado, La unta is not gold
camp, and does not depend upon
the output OF the precious metals
to sustain ii; nor is 1t surrounded
by extensive coal fields; nor docs
il depend upon any of the artificial
and ephemeral props upon which
SO many western towns have been
founded and have fiourished for
brief seasons and then collapsed.
1t has been builded upon some
thing more enduring and more
cumulative than all these. 1t is
surrounded by an agricultural re-
gion. which is as yet in the process
OF development, but growing III
importance each succeeding year
So genial and so exhaustless in its
fecundity is the soil that every
thing grown in this altitude is
raised here. Corn, wheat, oats,
barley, alfalfa, all kinds OF yege-
tables, apples, peaches, pears.
plums, cherries, prunes, straw
berries, grapes, cantaloupes and
watermelons.
The wheat crop which was pro-
duced in this vicinity amounted to
90, 900 bushels, fine yield for the
number OF acres which had been
sown in that cereal. This was
purchased by the La Junta Milling
and Elevator Compony, ground in
to flour and shipped south into
New Mexico, Texas and Arizona,
the -four being a favorite wherever