The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-02-14
TOWNS MADE TO ORDER
Laid Out by Railroads of the
Northwest.
FARMERS ON THE ALERT

The Day OF the Speculative Town
Site Man Is Passing and Each New
Line Now Locates Its Villages as Il
rleases-North Dakota the Chief
Centre.
In the rich region which was once
the Northwest-the upper valley Of
the Missouri river-the trail of civil
nzaton has been blazed by two agen-
cies. the railroad and the town site
man. says the Pittsburg Gazette.
Sometimes the railroad in the abb
stract form of a preliminary scurvey,
precedes the town site man; in other
cases the surveying party may march
into camp at night to find the town
site man awaiting It. In the early
days of transcontnontal lines the
town site man appeared as specu-
lator pure and simple. The speculG-
tive town site man was a prominent
figure in the development of Califor-
mia. 1t was his business to go ahead
of the line, lay out his towns, sell his
lots at auction, take what he could
get for those not salabe at fancy
figures, pocket his profits and depart
for new fields.
The modern town is not built IN
that way and it is because the "crea-
tive" town site man has replaced the
speculative and the new sections
suffer no blight from the creation Of
hasty and i'll advised centres of popu-
lation.
When railroad decides upon enter
ing a new territory there naturally
arises the question: Where shall
we place the stations?" Although it
is the general belief that a railroad
builds between different centres OF
settlement, this is very frequently not
the case, especially in the Western
country. In fact, many litue VILLAGES
have already learned to their sorrow
that the railroad is bigger than the
village councils. While an inland
town may be located entirely to it's
own satisfaction that location does not
always accord either with the gem
eral plans of the railroad magnates or
the judgment OF the men in charge OF
the survey, and the inland village is
passed by.
Nearly all of the big railriad sys-
TENS in the West have a regularly or
ganized and operated town site de-
partment," which in consulted as TO
the location of stations as soon as the
general direction of the new line is
determined upon. The railroads town
site man travels over the proposed
right of way, making a careful study
of the topography of the land and of
its natural resources.
As a general proposition new towns
are located about ten miles apart, es-
peclally along lines which penetrate
such territory as that found in North
Dakota, now the most fruitful field tor
the town site man. After the matter
OF distance is settled there remain to
be considered the question of grade,
for it costs money to stop and start
train. and. if possible, a station
should be built on straight stretch
of level track
The location is so much of interest
To prospective citizens tnat in many
cases the town site man finds in the
neighborhood of the city whose foun-
dations he is about to lay full grown
village, with banks and stores, all
ready to hustle to the immediate
vicinity If the railroad station when
they learn where that is to be.
1t is usually only a few days be-
tween the departure of the railroad
surveying party and the arrival of the
town site surveying crew Having
found where the switches are to be,
the sites for the station, the grain
elevator and lumber yard are To-
cated-for grain is the big product of
the new Northwest and lumber is the
first essential in building a town.
The preliminaries out of the way,
the town site surveying party pro-
ceeds to lay out the city along certain
fixed lines. In the fidern town site
plan there is a plaza, rarely larger
than an ordinary block, about which
the business houses are to be built
open spaces The first is usually
within quarter of a mile of the
railroad station, while the second is
another quarter of a mile away.