Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1909-05-22
BIRTH OF A GREAT CITY
First Joint Sale of Townsite Lots of
the City of Prince Rupert Takes
Place Next Week.
tHerald Specially

(Herald Specially
Vancouver, B. c., May 22-In ac-
cordance with an arrangement be-
tween the government of British Co.
lumbia and the Grand Trunk Pacific
railway the first joint sale of town.
site lots of the city of Prince Rupert,
the future western terminal of the
Grand Trunk Pacific's transcontinen-
tai line, will begin here next Tuesday
and will be continued from day to day
until next Saturday, May %. Each
party will offer from one thousand to
twelve hundred lots selected from all
points of the townsite, so that prac-
tically every block in the future city
will be represented at the sale. Hun
dreds of prospective purchasers of
Prince Rupert town lots have arrived
here already and others are coming
from all parts of the Dominion. A
brisk demand for lots is expected and
it is believed that nearly all of the
town lots offered will be taken.
Prince Rupert, which is destined to
De one of the most important cities
of British Columbia, is not a product
of chance or accident, but the result
of careful planning In fact, the ele-
ment of chance was completely elimi-
mated not only in the selection of the
site of the city but also in the laying
out and planning the city itself. With
a certain, clearly defined object in
view, the site of the city was chosen
and the best expert assistance obtain
able was employed in mapping the
city and preparing it to receive its
future population.
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
company, which is building a new
trans-continental line across Canada,
chiefly through virgin territory, is re-
sponsible for this city that is to be-
The company needed a suitable ter
minal of its line on the Pacific coast
and it was essential that it should full
fill certain requirements. 1t was de-
sirable to have it located nearly in a
direct line to Yokohoma; it was abb
solutely necessary that it should have
sufficiently large and safe deep
water harDor for the ships which are
to connect the railroad with the Far
East and another matter that had to
be considered was that the city be
located in a place that could be
reached by the railroad without too
great difficulty in crossing the noun
tains.
Before the site of the citys was
chosen, the entire north coast was
carefully searched and every harbor
sounded. The choice was made four
years ago and since then preparations |
were made for the establishment of |
the new city, for which the name |
Prince Rupert was selected. The ac-
tual work was begun in May, 1906 |
The surveying and clearing was done
simultaneously and now the cleared |
and prepared townsite embraces
about two thousand acres, enough to |
accommodate a population of about |
ten thousand. Nothing was left to
chance or to the arbitrary notions of |
the settlers. Expert engineers and
the famous landscape artists, Brett &
Hall of Boston, who laid out Mount |
Royal Park, Montreal, were entrust- |
ed with the planning and laying out |
of the city as it is to be.
Prince Rupert has already a popu- |
lation of more than six hundred, |
mostly engineers, workmen in the |
employ of the contractors who do the |
clearing, grading, ETC., and tradesmen,
who established shops to supply the |
temporary population with the neces-
sites of life. There are many houses, |
particularly near the water front, |
but they are on ground leased for a |
few months only and will be removed
when the permanent settlement and
building up of the city begins At |
present the temporary city has two
hotels, two banks, board of trade.
newspaper and a number of hard
ware, dry goods, general merchandise,
grocery and cigar stores.
Prince Rupert is $50 miles north of
Vancouver and only 40 miles south
of the Alaskan boundary. It is in the
same latitude as London and its