Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-11-08
FIVE TOWNS MOVED.
Railroads Went Around These in
South Dakota, and They Had to
Go to the Railroads..

Five well est blished South Dakota
towns have been torn from their foun-
dations this year and dragged across
the prairie to the irresistible magnet of
newiy-settled countries, a railroad ex-
tension. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul road this year has built from Ar
mour west through Charles Mix coun-
ty. in South Dakota-which never had
a. railway beforehand from Bowdle
west of the Missouri river. Purposely
the surveys missed all the towns and
new townships were plotted. AS a re-
suit Geddes and New Platte, the new
railroad towns on the Charles Mix coun-
ty extension, and Evarts. on the Bow
die extension, are thriving commune
ties of EGO pei sons each. while Selby,
Bloomington Edgerton. Castalia and
Old Platte are now only memories.
The railroads towns have been
doomed to point where collapse
seems imminent. A $4,000 hotel of 60
rooms is building in Geddes; there are
three banks there and many general
stores. At Platte the growth has been
50 nearly instantaneous out of treeless
prairie lands that it is still in disorder,
but the streets are daily lined with
scores of teams and the saloons. stores
and blacksmith shops do big business.
The real estate men are flying high
lust now. At the sites of the deserted
towns solitary church or cottage
stands sentinel among the gaping cell
! L L
dragged. The streets are grown up to
weeds. The howl of a lonesome dog
voices the wall over blighted hopes for
which the railroads survey is account
able.
It is no longer considered worth
while to find the towns in running rail-
road surveys; the enterprise of the
times dictates town making. At the
first intima ion that a railway was
headed toward town up would gothic
| prices for land and clear titles were,
moreover. almost out of the question.
So railroads of the west now quietly
purchase a town site. plot it, sell the
plots, and pocket what is received
| for them above the cost of acre land as
clear gain. There is no trouble about
right Of way or dickering with obstin-
ate town councils. So railroad goes
out of its way to leave the old towns
high and dry and in consequence the
old towns migrate. Neverin the history
of the country has there been such
wholesale migration as the Milwaukee
road caused this year. First Old Platte
swallowed its pride and disappoint.
ment and ore building after another.
stores. homes and saloons. were hauled
to the new town site. Horses and
thrasher engines were hitched to the
struct ures. and away they went. up hill
and down dale over the undulating
prairie three and half miles to the
place the railroad company had picked
| out for a town. Castalia moved its
buildings ten miles to Platte. Ed
gerton and Bloomington both divided
their buildings between Ged3es and
Platte. One of the biggest struc-
owned by NJ. C. Cool, which was
800 feet by 400. It was moved
with all the merchandise on the shelves
from old Platte to the new Platte.
Business went on all the time it was
going over the prairie.
There seems to be future for new
Selby, Geddes and Platte. They are
surrounded by rich farming lands and
will be the shipping points for the
grain and cattle Of great regions.
I Platte will get the shipments of wheat
from the farms between the Niobrara
and the Missouri, than which there are
NO richer in South Dakota or the west.