The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-07-19
A Deserted SARATOGA

About half a mile north of the site
selected for fish hatchery some days
ago by Governor Bailey out in Pratt
county, once stood the city Of Saratoga,
probably the boonliest of all boom towns
and that comprehends. of course. that
of all the projected center Of populati
1t was the most ambitious
The site chosen for a fish hatchery
might be called ideal. Here the Mime
scah, a stream which rises in western
Pratt county, and finds the Arkansas be-
tween Winfield and Wellington. breaks
into long series of ponds. These ponds
have long since been appropriated by
clubs and individuals, through lease or
purchase. Wichita has several clubs for
fishermen and hunters with headauar-
tiers on these lakes. During the winter
the ducks and geese make this station
in coming and going. In the summer
1t is fishermans paradise. Bass. chan
neR cat, sun perch and carp of prodig-
ions size for prairie waters, inhabit these
lakes The site for the fish hatchery is,
In extent, ten acres admitting of the con-
Stfuction of pools On terraces down to
the Minnesota.
Looking north from the grove which
covers the hatchery site one can see a
portion of the old mill, near il the cozy
home of d. w Travis the state fish COM
missioner and beyond a weather-stained
church, its steeple tall. but strangely
blunt, all ornaments apparently having
succumbed TO storms years ago This is
what is left of Saratoga, once a busy
town with a population claimed with
RhaT2 FTerfcffc ~,
matters, at 100 to $500.
The noteworthy item about Saratoga
today is that the tragedy of her contest
has vanished She has passed to the
gossamer realms of dreamand In the
memory Of the neighbors roundabout she
has become a fancy and ceased to be
reality. Seventeen years has confused
the once strong lines of her controver-
sizes, bIeached out the strong color of her
mighty spirit. and cancelled the strong
warrant of her Unsuitable ambition
For Saratoga, apparently, was of the
strong temperament, which wants to win
entirely or lose entirely, with no weak
compromise in her blood. Failing of sue
cess, she sought failure. If the busy life
which once populated these streets could
return and gather together i'm the long
prairie grass which covers everything
now. the public square, the site OF the
big hotel" the place where the opera
house stood with its wealth of cornice /.
the fifty or sixty depresslons which were
once cellars, if they could all return to
this green grave they would with spirit
name a chairman and a secretary and
resolve that il is better as it is and so ,
take great pride in total humiliation. !
For the tragedy Of her contest has
PASSED The memory of her struggle is
going too No feeling" survives The
oldest inhabitant scratches his head twice
before he can identify a cellar. Apparent
by there is a three-cornered county-seat
contest between Pratt, Saratoga and
1uka. But the story Of the contest is
hard TO find. There is confusion and
dispute on the main points of the contrO-
yersy. And nobody cares anyhow. You
can, with industry, pick up the frag-
ments Of d foray made sby Saratoga on
the town of Iuka, the bold capture of the