Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-03-05

construction train. sarles was one Of
three towns in twenty miles, looking
alike as so many peas in a pod, differ
ing in size according to their several
ages of from one to three months.
Towns Grow Like Magic.
This stretch of railroad was one Of
Ave Great Northern extensions flung
up into a belt of new country two
hundred miles long, within the last
two years. They reach out like the
teeth of comb toward the Canadian
boundary, thirty to fifty miles be-
tween them, as instruments by which
this territory is being dotted with
towns, many of them future cities. If
you care to see how the thing is done,
let us 60 up forty miles to the end
of another of these extensions. Here
is the town of Antler. The railroad
came to it about three weeks ago,
therefore Antler can be conservative
ly called one month old. >, It's founders
began to build, even ahead of the rail-
road, and they lived in tents until
lumber could be hauled to them over
the new track. .--
Four weeks in the life Of an Eastern
town is but day. The man Z who
leaves 1t for a month returns to find
the main street looking as he left it,
and he would be immensely surprised
to find any changes worth his notice
But the man of North Dakota who
drove to Antler a month ago would
have found a railroad grade waiting
for the rails, and q patch Of brown
prairie, with nothing to indicate that
this area would not be plowed For
wheat this year. Visiting the site of
Antler a month later, he hnds three
lumber yards, two banks ttWo banks,
mind mind you'd, a drug store, two restaur-
ants, a livery stable, two general
stores, 1--WE grain elevators finished,
and one bull ding, and men ,iiammering
and digging and hauling BY night as
well as day. .sr.@5-ls. -. e, .syI
EiIA st. Paul salesman eonfides: II
crossed four of these new railroad
extensions, and struck fourteen of
these towns made while you wait.
Found them all the way from q week
to q year old. ] slept in a hotel only
one night because everybody was so
busy building stores and elevators
that they couldn't stop to put up
hotels. sold ten thousand dollars
worth of stoves in the six days. Five
thousand dollars worth were. ordered
by men in the new towns who haven't
built their stores yet. They expect.
to have the stores up by the time the
stoves get there" # 5ss 5s& sss 4a..5
What is known as the Thorne Elk
tension is typical OF this amazingly
new. and lusty civilization. Thirty
miles of road had been finished in.
July lp Of last year: Z went over IT early
in September, six weeks after the rail-
road opened This wheat raising prairie,
six weeks after the first town was
begun. Three towns were already IN
q white heat of activity McCumber
had risen from the prairie twanty-
i've days before i saw it. a two
story bank block 1opmed grandly in
the foreground, fianked by stores and
elevators. Only q third Of mile
away was q rival city ii embryo,
iERsclette, also sproalting buildings from
the prairie grass with incredible
rapidity while The. Great Northern
was hurrying its branch roads north
and south, the 500 Line was cutting
this Tertiary east and west, ID a stir
ring rane against time for a share Of
the years wheat harvest. a crossing
of the two roads happened to fail be-:
tween McCumber and Rolette. The
former was the Great Northern
town the latter the 800 town. z
B Municipal expansion will inevitably
cause the. suburbs Of one to collide
with the outskirts Of the .ther. The.
unbiased observer would conclude
that there was NO room for both In
fants. But 1t would not be safe to
suggest this to d man or McC umber
unless you picked Rolette as the prob
able victim. The two towns sat side
sby side On the prairie, growing st
each other like two very young ban
tam ROSTERS. For spirit they were
ST Paul and Minneapolis in men,a-
Hture They have seen other towns,
started under similar conditions, wax
rich III people and wealth. They can
$50 back into history, for example, and
talk about the comparatively ancient
town Of Cando, on a neighboring ex-
tension Last spring forty automo-
biles were shipped into Canio. bought
Iby the farmers In the nearly country,
half Of them thirty horsepower ma
Ichines. Gsando has thirteen hundred
people, and is as prosperous as the