The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-31
ARE DRAINING
The BIG BEND
Retaining 10000 Acres in
First District
Is RICH BOTTOM LAND
Oklahoma Capital Is Behind
the Enterprise.
is RICH BOTTOM LAND

Guthrie, O. T., Jan. S0.-The first move
ments of a plan that has been organizing
for the past year or more began this
week in the beginning of the work of
draining the big bend of the Salt river
valley in the southern part of OTTAWA
tonne county. Eugene Timmons, civil
engineer of Shawnee, is credited with
having solved the problem of a cheap
drainage system which has made possible
the work now started. Back Of the work
or retaining these lands is Oklahoma
City capital, and there are also interested
in it capitalists from Texas and Missis-
sippi.
The first district to be drained includes
80 900 acres Of as rich bottom land as there
sin Oklahoma but which, by reason of
overflow, has been rendered unfit for
cultivation. In viewing the whole con-
templated field of work, Mr.. NJ. H
Smythe, of GAINESVILLE, Tex, was has
closep ersonal knowledge of the country,
expresses it as his opinion that southern
Pottawatomie county is destined to be
one of the most thickly settled and rich
est producing areas in Oklahoma.
Mr.. Graham Burnham, of Shawnee,
made the following statement regarding
what is being done and what is contem-
plated.
THE drainage of the Salt river val
ley will open up to cultivation one of
the richest areas of bottom lands in Ok
lahoma and will be followed By a SINH
lar drainage plan on the Little river val
ley The parties behind the drainage
plan are Oklahoma City. Shawnee and
Mississippi capitalists, working in con-
junction with four or five colonies of
orchardists, fruit growers and planters,
who are preparing to locate on the lands
The lands are now practically worthless,
although they have bottomless soil and
a soil as productive as anything in the
United States. 1t would be surprising to
see these lands, as soon as the big
bitches are completed, bring from $75 to
800 per acre. The crops they will pro-
duce will pay big interest on that money.
Last year the Santa Fe crossing these
valleys north and south, seriously con-
templated taking up the project. through
their land department but owing TO their
inability to secure the lands in a salts
factory manner the matter was official
~ dropped. In many cases the farmers
along the river vallep have reclaimed
their own land at a small expense and
have made annual records Of the land so
reclaimed of sixty of seventy-five bu-
shells of corn, from bale to a bale and
quarter OF cotton to the acre and other
crops in proportion. In all, we should
say, there is not less than 100. 900 acres
of land that in the next five years Will
be made worth from $50 to 800 per acre,
that has up to the present time, and
even now, stands without a buyer at
from $40 to So per acre.
The Shawnee Herald reports a letter
received from Florence, Ala, from the
vicinity of which place a colony of well
to do farmers and business men are
making preparations to remove to this
part of Pottawatomie county. Mr.. c. c.
Lambert, one of the Florence conolists.
in speaking of the matter said:
I'VE will locate in southern Pottawa-
tonne county, o. T., along the Little
river valley, near the present town of
Romulous, where We have secured and
have a representative at work securing
lands for US, at equal to if not superior
to our land here in point of productive
capacity and diversifcation of crops
Thee is no question in my mind that at
the rate of railroad and other rapid de-
velopment in the particular section Of
Oklahoma TO which We were going that
the land which we are now buying a.
from 500 to $25 per acre will be worth
$50 to SO per acre in a very short time.
We will locate near the town of Win
chester. present postoflce Romulous,
where the Interstate Townsite company.
an industrial organization Of Oklahoma
City, has recently purchased large tracts
of land and is already at work with i'm
provements to put in a cotton mill the
first cotton mill to be established in Ok
lahoma