The daily sentinel., 1903-06-29

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vided for peolpe. Within its noun
tains and canons are found EXTENSIVE
veins of coal, iron, coprpe and silver
but awaiting the developlement of the
miner. Its extensive tracts of mes,
land-elevated plateaus- covered witt
luxuriant grasses, afford stock a rang,
| for summer and winter. 1t is safe tC
say that there is as much tillable land
in Mesa county as there is in Guthrie
county. What is meant by tillable
land. is that portion which can and
will eventually be in nigh state OF
cultivation.
To the student of history it will be
remembered that this part of Colora
do was a portion of the Ute reserva-
tion until in September, 1881. 1t will
be remembered that Ouray. their not
ed chief, made it exceedingly interest
ing Tor the hardy adventurer, who
was looking for home ON the western
slope. In October of the same year
Governor George A. Crawford, with a
small party of enthusiastic settlers
started the town of Grand Junction.
Land without water is useless, and
soon irrigation bitches were under
construction. The gravity ditch,
which leaves the Grand river Just be-
low the village of Palisade, is the
larger ditch, waters more land and
extends to the west end of the valley.
or a distance of about forty miles
The other important ditch starts in
about two miles up the river from
Palisade, and the water is pumped
into the canal by gigantic water
wheel. These two canals furnish
plenty of water for the adjacent land,
but there are thousands of acres,
which for fruit and alfalfa would
equal that now under cultivation,
when the projected high-line canal is
built. which will undoubtedly be
done within the next two years. 1t
is anticipated that the contemplated
improvements will cost all of two and
one half millions of dollars, but with
the expected government aid, is CON
sidered most feasible project. The
present system of canals cover about
sixtv thousand acres OF land: and the
contemplated high-line ditch will
take in at least one hundred thousand
a,;res more. When we come to con-
slider that the present holding run
from five to twenty acres it can read
lily be seen what a vast number of
people the Grand valley will support
engaged in agriculture and horticul-
ture.
While there are number of small
towns in the county, yet Grand juno
tion is not only the county seat and
the metropolis of the western slope,
but is the initial point and the nu-
cleus from which radiates the paths of
settlements of the embryo empire.
The city is "a town of about five
thousand inhabitants and is making a
wonderful growth. In travelling over
the city the writer is impressed with
the fact that a place is seldom seen of
this size with the number of good,
substantial residences being erected as
there are at the present time. In the
business portion of the town there are
eight brick business houses in the
course of construction. with number
of others in contemplation. In addi-
tion to the improvements above men
toned is $50. 900 brick school build
ing, and large smelter which will
cause an outlay of $3.50. 900 for the re-
duction of the ores in the adjacent
hills. A new bank is now in the way
of organization, with a capital stock
of $50, 600, in which number of
Guthrie county people are largely in
terested. For lack of space we are
unable to give even partial list of
the enterprises, or those in contem-
plation, which are the life blood of a
pushing and growing city. The
journalistic field seems to be well oc-