The daily sentinel., 1907-09-21

iu5 Ohls CITY anu county, IN Iowa
daily paper by Iowa man.
For the past two weeks Samuel
G. Sloane, an old time newspaper
man and prominent citizen of Char
les City, Iowa, has been In Grand
Junction making thorough inves-
tigation of the resources of the city
and valley, the climatical and other
conditions in which all probable set
tiers are interested. He is well
known to quite number of former
Iowans in the valley. He has look
ed the situation over thoroughly and
that he has IA favorable impression
may be judged from the fact that in
the September 18th, edition of the
Charles City Daily Press, appeared
an extended, reliable and accurate
description of the city and county
and conditions existing here.
The writup makes interesting To-
cal reading and we reproduce a por-
ton of it as follows:
Grand Junction, Colo, is in the
county seat of Mesa county, and Is
situated in the Grand Valley. 377
miles due west of Denver and 292
miles southeast of Salt Lake City,
Utah. some twenty-five miles east
of the state line between Colorado
and Utah. The town takes its
name from the fact of being located
at the junction of the Grand and
Gunnison rivers. The valley takes
its name from the Grand river,
which flows through It, The eleva-
tlon above sea level of Grand juno
tion is 1890 feet, the lowest of any
town in the state.
Grand Junction has a bona fide
population of perhaps 1900 to 5000
though the enthusiasts of the city
with a combined capital of $780,
600. According to their latest pub
lished statements the deposits aggre-
gate s1,343, 3,254.SO and loans and
discounts amount to s995,S19.2S.
These three banks draw their
clientage from a population not to
exceed 1000. so the figures given
will give some idea of banking busi-
ness here. Money on good security
brings I and per cent.
The city has a fine public library
prlses about a dozen blocks, and all
businesses are well represented, real
estate dealers, perhaps, taking the
lead. There are two daily news
papers, Cone morning ard one eve
ning) and two weeklies. Both the
dailies and one of the weeklies have
linotype machines. All are well pat
ronized by the local merchants with
advertising
Thee ity has fine public librarp,
good schools, plenty of churches
(nearly all denominations being rep
resented). the Y. NJ. c. A. has a
strong organization here, and ground
was broken Saturday with elaborate
ceremonies, for new Y. NJ. G. A.
building to cost when furnished
S62, 900. All the leading secret So
cieties are represented with flourish
ing organizations, the Elks, perhaps,
being the strongest. their lodge hav-
between 900 and 400 members. The
Elks have just let the contract for
a temple to cost 100000. 1t is to
occupy one of the most prominent
business corners and will be three
stories high and have a roof garden
on the top. The Odd Fellows al
ready have fine building of their
own.
One of the most important indus
tries of the city. however, is the
beet sugar factory which commenced
operations the 10th of this month
and will run continuously "a hours
every day, Sundays included. for six
months, in which time It will turn
out about 5000 tons of sugar. 1t
employs 300 people. The company
owning the factory farms over 400
acres of land to beets itself, and the
balance of the supply comes from
nearly all sections around Grand
pay from 81 to IS per ton for beets,
and the yield varies from 10 to 20
the land is20 tons per acre according
to the thoroughLess with which the
land is titled.
A government Indian school is
located here. which is very large in
stitutioh of the kind, AMI an ad-
dltlon costing $4,000 is about COM
pleted 1t is a very large institu-
ton.
Mesa county, in which Grand
Junction is located, is pronounced
as though Ma-sa. with the first or
long sound OF a, and accented or
the first syllable. It is very large
being nearly 100 miles long (east
and wesD and will average so miles
or more in width. Mesa means
table land or elevated plain. There
are about one-half dozen fowls in
the county outside of Grand juno
tion and they have 200 to 1900
population.
Grand Valley is all in Mesa
in length and 16 to 20 miles in
leIghtin length and 16 to 20 miles
width, the greatest fruit section
the United States. The bulk of the
fruit raised is shipped from Grand
Junction.
Then followed a review of the
business done by the various asso-
ciation, the size of the crops and the
prices of lands and orchards. Re
ference is made to the extensive
coal lands.
Under two sub-heads. Some