Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-03-02
LAND VALUES.
Rapidly Increasing Values Of Land as
the Government Domain is Be
ing Taken Up.
Land Through the State is Now Held
at q Steady Price and There is
a Continual Demand.

Land through the state of North Da-
kota is higher and steadier in value
than it has been before in the history
of the state. This is due to the fact
that good agricultural land is no longer
to be had as freely from the govern
ment as it was a few years ago when
there were millions of acres open to
settlement. The best of the govern
ment land has been taken up and with
in a few years the settler who seeks
the opportunity to file or government
land and get a free home will find it
not so easy a task as it has been in the
past. Private purchases have also re-
duced the opportunities for cheap land,
as the purchasers, realizing the coming
value of the land have increased the
prices, and while acre values are still
much less than in the older states, they
are much higher than they have been.
The present year will see the govern
lnent domain in this state largely re-
duced, as the indications point to an
addition of thousands to the agricul-
tural population of the state.
In speaking of the gradual develop
ment in the value of the land in the
northwest a correspondent says:
I'm 1860 the rich improved lands of
southern Minnesota were unstable at
much over $40 per acre, because of the
proximity of free government lands
within a days ride. In 1870, unim-
proved lands in so fertile a section as
the central part of northern Iowa went
begging at IS per acre because of the
five miles away and practically un-
touched Spirit Lake region only sur
veyed.
In 1876, a cultivated quarter Sec
ton in such productive counties of
Minnesota as handiyohi was but
doubtful security for a loan of $500
because 100 miles to the west were mil
lions of acres of the best soil awaiting
the pre-emptor or homesteader, while
In 1885 the wave of homeseekers
reached out beyond the Aberdeen dis
trict in South Dakota and the Devils
Lake district in North Dakota, where
hundreds of quarters were being taken
daily, and remote through these farms
then appeared, they have become sal
able today at prices ranging from $40
to $40 per acre, and their owners, real
izing that the day of free lands is prac-
tically a thing of the past, are loath to
part with them at any figure. For, in
deed, when the last homestead filing is
offered in the northwest corner of the
wheat area of Minnesota and North
Dakota-an event distant by a matter
OF only a year or two-a new situation
is upon us and thereafter he who ac-
qulres at market value, must do so by
purchase alone and this must mean a
serious disadvantage to a generation
now coming upon the scene and look
ing for an opening.
LAS a realization of the situation has
come to the people of the northwest.
there has followed a noticeable stiffen-
ing In the prices of lands. Where
fifteen years ago, land was considered
but a doubtful asset, and where a trans
fer was rare, at any figure. today it
changes hands readily at $40 to $50 per
acre, and the loan companies that once
came to grief by making loans of from
$500 to $500 upon a quarter section. are
now eager to place $1,000 upon the
same land"