Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-10-24
ing warlike habits have been found.

is rather n park. as no natural stream
flows through It. and the water for ir-
rigating purposes is diverted from the
Dolores river through tunnel and
into an area covering from 80 900 to
so 900 acres of land. Hereabout some
$50 families are settled. To some.
in their disappointment, the Dolores is
indeed river of sorrow: to others
the waters are streams OF JOY.
Among the first are the projectors
and builders OF the 81 900. 900 tunnel
and canal systems that water the
land. Among the others are those
who recognizing the suitability of soil
and climate, have established homes
therein, planted orchards and gard
ems and are prosperous: therefore
happy, for happiness waits on wealth
as well as on health.
| La Plata county is important be
cause it has Durango as its capital
BY reason of location this town will
always be the leading one in South
western Colorado and when a railroad
connects it with the South it will rap
idly grow to be a great city. The Rio
de Las Animas with its pure and
| sparkling waters coming down out of
the Silverton range, runs through the
valley, in which there are no large
areas of cultivable land, but many
strips and little sheltered parks, pecu-
| liarly favorable to fruit and garden
culture. Within 1t lies Trimble
Springs. We're they more accessi-
BILE they would rival those of Manitou
- ,bn nf fpu
| lists. AS the waters come down from
todore. so come down those of the
Animas flashing, crashing, dashing
| from snow crowned peaks to fiowery
meadows with but little that suggests
the stream is that of lost souls.
That Durango and La Plata coun-
ty have brilliant future before them.
who can doubt? At least no one ia
miliar with the undeveloped wealth
in gold silver and coal hidden in the
La Plata and Needle mountains The
best bltuminous coal is said to abound
here. superior to any in the entire
country. Huge forests of pine and
spruce are still upon the hill slopes.
OF its million and a quarter acres at
least one-half remain unappropriated.
Its population is small, as yet; per
haps $4,000 will cover town people
and ruralities, but each years shows
considering its isOlation-a salts
factory increase. As yet there are
but few mining districts, but the gold
and silver are there waiting only the
prospector and developer to turn the
glittering ore into the channels of
i,.l mi, al,, ar
to the assessable valuations of coun-
~ and commonwealth.
A few words about Durango and
the moving finger will pause. 1t is
indeed the gateway to the entire San
Juan mining region. To it, from the
east, the north, the west, the plucky
little engines of the Denver & Rio
Grande narrow guage system bring
the tourist, the health seeker, the
home builder, the capitalist. Only
one having unbounded faith in the fu-
ture of the state, as had General Will
liam j. Palmer, the father of the vast
system of rails that reach out to the
rich mineral and agricultural districts
south of the Platte divide and west
Of the Cumbres range would have had
the genius to conceive or the courage
to construct line of railway through
gorges like those in Grand Canon or
the Toltec, across passes such as Mar
shall and Tennessee and out over vast
plains OF sage brush and greese wood
till the fertile Utah valleys We're tap
ped and the waters of Salt Lake
reached All credit to such builders
Al W al
hold General Palmer in lasting honor.
since but for him and his railway pro
jects it would not today exist.
A country town that can support
morning and an evening paper. each
with concise, but comprehensive tele-
graph news service. offers in this fact
alone evidence of the intelligence,
thrift and enterprise of its business
men. II should shame the people of
| Grand junction, the only town that
rivals 1t in Importance along the Utah
border TWO linotype machines are
| in the office of The Herald which is
| conducted by the Raymond brothers,
| and the Democrat, controlled by Dave
| Day The Herald, with commendable
| enterprise, issued during the days OF
the fair. neat fivecolumn, four
paper devoted to the fair, OF which it
printed and circulated 1000 copies
each morning, and the Raymond
Bros had their reward, not alone In
the satisfaction it gave their patrons,
but in the plunks that dropped so
heavily into their purse that the bot
tom ripped out and its contents roll
ed all over the floor of their neatly
appointed office.
A word in closing for this distant
district, to reach which, as ! have al
ready said. one must go straight
down the crooked lane and all around
the square. But once reached, 1t VIII
be ones own fault If the valley of the
Las Animas should not prove TO be
one of lost opportunities, as the
stream is supposed to be of lost souls
Items from Silverton Standard.