Imperial Valley press., 1908-02-15
NO LONGER A DESERT.
Pioneering Without 0iscomforts In1- presses Visitors to the Valley.
fRedlands Review.1

lhCuldnuS ANCNlCWsI
 The transformation of a desert into a magnificent farming country having no more the appearance of ever hay ing been a desert than our own valley has, is the thing that struck the peo- pie composing the excursion which spent Thursday and Friday of this week in Imperial Valley. No longer is this a desert," remarked one of the most prominent men of the party. "It is merely a farming country-but one of the richest ones I ever saw" That was the dominant note of all the comment on the return trip, after the people had visited and examined the towns of Fl Centro, Calexico and Holt vile and the country contiguous there to. and had caught feeting glimpses of the other towns in the valley.
 Not Crude.
 The excursion was made up princi- pally of Redlands people who are stockholders in the Holton Power Company, the corporation that has been and is doing so much to foster the growth of the valley, and to make more pleasant the living conditions in this new country. You cannot call it a pioneer country any longer. It is not pioneering when you read by cleo tric lights, when you see a play at the opera house which appears the next night in Redlands, when your glasses of water at the table are filled with cracked ice made in the town, when your laundry comes from a steam institution and has the familiar yellow Hist" It is not pioneering when you see half dozen automobiles at one time on principal street, when you rest in a commercial hotel which Redlands would be proud to claim as her own
 Solid Fl Centro.
 Yes, the discomforts of pioneering in the Imperial Valley are over, and that, too, despite the fact that seven years ago there was not house in the val ley, and that two years ago El Centro was founded, and it is now the largest and most substantial town in the val ley. It has a dozen or more brick blocks, good stores carrying large stocks of goods, as nice a playhouse as one could ask for, and with the large amount of business from it's manufacturing enterprises, from the trading of the farmers and from coun- ty seat affairs, it occupies an envia- ble position from an industrial and business standpoint.
 Unique Corporation.
 The Holton Power Company has been and is an unusual corporation from California standpoint at least It was organized by MT. Holt and the stock taken largely by people who knew him, and who had confidence in his judgment. And it might b' said in passing that they have no changed their minds on that point But the unusual thing about this cor poration is that it never issued ; prospectus, never advertised stock fo sale, and never used any of the meth ods generally employed to sell stocl in order to reap rich harvest for tn promoters and with which incidentall to build the road. The promoter went in on exactly the same basi as everyone else. When money wa needed with which to carry on tn work of the corporation. 1t was quietl furnished by the stockholders, am when bonds were issued the stocl holders took them all. Not even an bonds were offered for sale. It is unique thing of proriotion enterprises the way this one was handled-an everyone connected with 1t is gla of ff