The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-05
Tow. Ready to .E,y."

The location of new town Is the
decision of expert intelligence, and so
much a matter of keen interest to pro-
spective citizens Of the same that in
many cases the townsite man finds in
the neighborhood of the city whose
foundations he is about to lay full
grown little village with banks stores.
saloons and other appurtenances to
complex civilfzatiOn-all ready to take
wheels and fly" to the immediate
vicinity of the depot"
1t is usually only few days be-
tween the departure of the railroad
surveying party and the arrival of the
tOwnsite surveying crew. Having
found where the switches are to be
be and the station will be located, the
townsite surveyors first locate the sites
for grain elevators and lumber yards
for grain is the big product of the
new northwest and lumber is the first
essential in building town. and 1t is
desirable that everything be ready for
business before the railroad arrives.
The Modern Model Town.
The preliminaries out of the way. the
townsite surveying party proceeds to
lay out the embryo city along certain
fixed lines. In the modern townsite
plat there is a plaza, rarely larger
than an ordinary block. about which
the business houses are to be built.
Sometimes there are two of these
open spaces. The first is usually
within quarter of a mile of the rail-
road station, while the second is an
other quarter of mile away. Nearly
all the new towns in the northern
country are laid out north of the rail-
road track, to the end that they may
constitute snowsheds and protection
to the railroad from the winter storms
After having made plat of the
town and properly staked it out. a date
is fixed for the sale of town lots ac-
cording to a schedule Of prices an
nounced in the city dailies and in
score or more of country papers in the
territory more or less tributary to the
location.
A new town" is great self-adver-
Using institution. however. Weeks be-
fore the date of sale the little village
of squatters, which may have estab-
lished itself miles from what the town
site Is going to be-owing to a bad
guess on the part of the commercial
pioneers-haS gotten wind Of what is
going forward.
The business houses have been has
tily placed on wheels or skids, forty
horse teams or big threshing- machine
engines have been fastened to them
and the procession across the prairie
has begun. At such times the new
conner must not be surprised to see
completely-equipped bank going along
the great kings highway of unbounded
rolling land in tow of "thresher,"
its employees transacting business as
they go. Nor must the visitor regard it
as strange if he arrives at possible
rival of Minneapolis or Winnipeg to
see. dotting the site of the latest town.
stakes bearing such legends as:
John Smith Will Open a General
Store on this Lot" or
Jones & Brown Will Soon Be Sell
ing Harness Here" or
This is Where the Farmers Bank
Will Soon Be Doing Business"
1t is only under the present town
site system that those who propose to
establish themselves in business would
be able to give such advance notice of
their grand opening" 1t is one of
the most significant signs of the i'm
provement over the old speculative
system of selling town lots. Everyone
knows just what the lots in each par
ticular part of 1.-THE town and in each