The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-05-26
n IS THE GREAT ATTRACTION
WESTERN KANSAS LAND WANT
ED By EVERYBODY.
GOOdland and Sherman County Writ
ten About in Kansas City Star
History OF Growth in
q New Country.

From all appearances the wide
awake reporter has bobbed up again,
and has tried to get out OF town and
couldn't by livery road for the
press was so great He must have
toured the country some way, for he
got there and wrote the following in
teresting article for the Kansas City
Star last week:
These are busy days for the short
grass country. Call up the livery
stable on the local telephone Of
western town and this viii be the re-
spouse: All my rigs are out Land
agents got EN- to show buyers" That
IS lt-buyers- They get on the train
with rusty hand SatchelS and seek the
land agents. Numerous business
signs are OF firms having western
lands for sale; farms, ranches and
ray lands at lowest prices"
One Of them came into a land Of
fice in GOOdland one morning. II
heard from my neighbors," he began,
before They want to buy ten sec
lions in a bunch. They are tired OF
Missouri and think land here is a
good speculation" They come from
all parts Of the middle west One
company Of Swedes from Minnesota
paid $40 an acre for two sections Of
prairie twelve miles from the Colo
RADIO line, practically without i'm
proyements- Ten dollars an acre is
the limit in the extreme northwest
counties for unimprOved land. The
people who buy are generally seek
ers after cattle range. They want more
room and are willing to risk the
climate.
Ride out over the prairies and you
see twenty or forty acres Of go
back" 1t is a bit or prairie which
was once broken and planted to crops
by a hOmesteader. He has lived in
lhe sOddy-nO one says sOdhOuse on
the prairies-and its crumbiing walls
are mute reminders Of his disappoint-
ed hopes Prairie grass did not grow
in the fOrsaken field; il IS the seed
ground Of Russian thistles and streg-
gllng SunnOWers- The ground even
after fifteen or twenty years has yet
the markings Of the corn rows where
was planted the last crop.
The newcomers are breaking the
sod" explained one Of the early set
tiers. They come out here and buy
land, hire a lot Of it broken and eX-
pect to return in time to put in sod
wheat next fall. Nearly every east
erner thinks he can make a fortune
raising wheat and the success OF the
past few years has been wonderful
But we who have been here a long
time don't try that as a steady thing
The mixed stock and grain idea is the
one that wins"
Most Of the people who come here
bring money enough to pay cash for
their land. They do not want to
give mortgages The loans Of the
banks are largely for the purpose OF
improvements and for the develop
mant Of the land
There are yet many soddies on the
western plains. Tncy ale COM
Portable, tOO,--cOOl in summer and
warm an ly-.llcr Thcy cost only a
trfhe and their security when the
winds race over the buffalo grass
is an added attractiYeness. The walls
are whitewashed inside, making the
clean and pleasant
Nor are the jewellers in those mod
est structures without the convent
ences Of the times. You can go 20
miles from town and step into q
sOddy and telephone to the county
seat. A telephone on sod wall is a
combination that could be found no.
where else save in Kansas.
In the towns is also a new STYLE OF
architecture 1t used to be that the
town houses were built with no re-
gard for the artistic. Peaked gables,
ugy forms and pinched story-and-a-
half effects made the streets look i'll
planned and unkept The new house
Of the prairie is & cottage, lOW-roofed
that itmay not be shaken by the wind; :
give it style; generous porch and &
handsome glass-Ornamented front
with one or two large windows; per-
haps with a strip Of loaded glass to
give il style; q generous porch and a
door. A line Of such dwellings are
not only appropriate to its environ
ments, but has a restful appearance
combined with artistic arrangements.
The newer streets Of the western
towns are models Of good looks.
The old store buildings, however,
with their square gables remain.
They are Of all heights, all widths,
with all sorts OF awnings. They are
unifsrm only in the implanted brown
ish gray Of their eXteriOrs. Every
little while a western town has a
fire that sweeps It clean Of most OF
these buildings and in their place
are built weII-proportiOned brick
structures that would be a credit to
any community. An instance which
may be found in Goodland.
The kind Of people coming into
the northwest IS different from that
Of the early boom period. They in
/ tended to make homes. In a shed Of
a livery barn in Colby one day this
spring were 5000 fruit trees ready
for delivery to the citizens Of Thomas
county. One full carload Of trees
came to GOodland this spring.
They will all be planted on the
| prairfes OF the western tier Of coun-
I ties OF the state
This is more trees than have ever
come into northwest Kansas at one
I time" said a dealer. The trouble
with planting fruit trees has been
that the folks did not know how TO
make them grow. Now they have