Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1908-06-12
JEROME A COMING CITY.
First Impressions Of New Town
Very Favorable.

ton typewriter in the Journal office OF
the morning of June Bird. the order came
TO visit Jerome without delay SO hastily
finishing the copy on hand, call at Pur
dun and Purdums livery barn secured &
birth in Updegraff's mail stage and q
hot dinner completed all nece ssary ar
engagements
The writer has lived in wet countries
! where mud is the usual and accepted
order of things but it seemed like going
the limit to founder in mud and splash
in water in a twenty mile ride over a
sage brush desert where even dry farm
ing is an experiment still untried
1t is not until the Notched Butte d.
vide is topped some five miles south of
Shoshone that view of the Snake riv-
er valley is obtained stretching to the
right and left as far as the eye can
reach and bounded on the south by the
snow capped SUBMITS of the Nevada
mountains.
1t was here that Mr.. Updegraff call
ed the attention of the passengers to
the new town of jerome some fifteen
miles to the south west and with the
exception of the telephone line twas the
only evidence of civilization within range
of vision.
Only few miles south of the Notched
Butte the location of the high line canal
was passed and soon after, a little city
of canvas tents and long, sinuons
mound of fresh earth showed the loca-
ton of the low line canal which crosses
the stage road three miles north of Je-
rome.
But as mile aftermile is passed Jerome
grows bigger, and newer. Buildings OF
new pine and tents of white canvas loom
ND in clusters and doubles and singles,
the beginning of city, the future me-
tropolis of the North Side project. And
everywhere, up and down the streets,
and stretching in long straight line to
the south. are the fourteen foot pc les
with heavy cross trees bearing the mas
sve wires of the electrical power plant
at the great Shoshone Falls.
No wonder Jerome is new, gllstenlng
in fresh paint, new pine and white can
vas. Scarcely year ago the solitude
of the desert was unbroked by human
industry and the landscape was unmark-
ed bv human habitation. A few build
ings were rushed to completion to ac-
commodate the people who assembled
there to take chance in the second
drawing of the North Side tract the
first of last October and that was the
beqinning of Jerome. Now it has the
rush and hustle of a thriving town,
and lumber and material cannot be
hauled in fast enough to meet the ur-
gent demands of tn, Sc wishing to build
and improve their holdings. And II the
present demands so much what will the
future require?
Let a parallel be drawn between pre-
sent conditions and what the future VIII
bring forth judging by the developments
made on the Twin Falls South Side
tract lying just across the Snake river
to the south of the North Side tract on
which Jerome is located.
Along the twenty miles of road be-
tween Shoshone and Jerome not an
acre of sage brush is cleared from the
fertile land except along the right-of-
way of the low line canals. A quarter
of an acre clearing between the two ca
nails, as a building spot, is the only one
visible to the passer by.
But with the advent of water for IT.
rigation purposes the first day OF april
1909. the face of the desert will be trans
formed within a year, and the barrenness
of unknown centuries will give place to
highly cultivated farms producing |
wealth beyond anything known, IN ram
fall regions, and in excess OF that ac-
corded the celebrated valley of the Nile.
This prediction is not dream but Is
warranted by the experience OF the
South Side tract visible to all who de-
sire to look.
Jerome is especially fortunate IN the
character OIL It's SttiLCtioiiiP
cosmopolitan is its make up, an ener-
getic, broad minded, progressive people
who believe in themselves, in Jerome
and in irrigated Idaho. And that they
will make success of their business
and of their town is a conclusion not q
ifficult to reach.
Quite sprinkling of them hail from
Chicago where great things are accom- e
plished as matter of course and the \
habit of accomplishment seems to CHING t
to them in their new habitation and c
their energy and push can be safely n
as an asset of Jerome's future
greatness. They include E. j. Ostrand- d
err and E. G. Reed of the Ostrander- v
Reed Lumber Company; R. H. Trail c
who will handle real estate and insur- a
ance; and DR.. E. D. Piper whose skill il
as physician is known beyond the linn
ts of his dailv practice.