Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-05-18
ERA Of PROSPERITY HAS
STRUCK THE STATE SURE
BISMARCK CORRESPONDENT TELLS OF THE GREAT ADVANCE
MADE IN ALL PARTS THE sTATE-EvERvoNE IN
THE STATE IS GETTING THEIR
is COMING wAY-sMALL TOWNS MAKING ADVANCE

Bismarck correspondence, St. Paul
Pioneer Press: The rush for land
and the demand for vacant acres in
the western part of North Dakota
this year have never been exceeded
in the history of the state.
The activity in the boom days of
the eighties was largely confined to
city properties. Persons were eager
to get hold of parcels of property in
the growing towns, not realizing that
there could be little value in city
properties unless the surrounding
country was developed by thrifty
farming population.
Now the conditions are reversed.
Settlers are locating on the vacant
lands, and buying additional quarter
and half sections where they can.
Large dealers are picking up all the
large tracts that are available, and
selling out smaller parcels to actual
settlers.
All Glasses are Buying.
The land fever has reached all ele-
ments of the population, and invest
ments in lands are being made by
clerks, spectators, business men, pro-
fessional men and capitalists with
surplus funds to invest. Tracts Of
land are being bought on all methods
of payment, from cash to the five
and ten.year partial payment plan.
There are few large tracts Of land
now in private ownership. A ranch
consisting of about 5000 acres that
belonged to J. E. Phelan, we'll
known ranchman and banker of Bow
man, was gobbled up few days ago
by a syndicate for a fair price, and
will be put on the market in small
tracts. A tract of nine sections in
Dunn county was sold a few days
ago for about 50 an acre, and will be
retailed at an advance price that will
give the buyers a handsome profit.
One land firm in Kdder county has
cleared up a tract of $4,000 acres
within the past year, selling nearly
all of the land to settlers from other
states. This firm is now looking about
for another big tract at fair price,
to be cut up into farm size and re-
tailed to small buyers.
Fortunes have been made in the
state in the past few years in the
transfer of large and small tracts OF
farm land that could have been
bought fifteen years ago for from SO
cents to 1925 an acre.
How One Town Has Grown
The little town of Medina, in Suits
man county, is an example of the
growth that has been made in west
ern North Dakota. A few years ago
there was nothing there but rail-
road section house. Today there is
community of 500 or 600 people,
with good buildings, telephone lines
in all directions, a large rural trade,
and land selling all the way from
$40 to $50 an acre, raw and unbroken,
Several transactions in raw land re-
Gently were at these figures.
Another on the Western Border Line
Beach, out in Billings county, has
likewise had growth of remarkable
proportions. Ten years ago there
was nothing there but a sign board
in the tall prairie grass indicating
that this was at the boundary line
; between North Dakota and Montana.
: Last year Beach built school build
ing to accommodate 200 pupils and
this year is adding several rooms to
it, to take care of the additional
school population. It is declared that
this town does the largest railroad
business between Dickinson and
Glendive, and there are hundred
steam and gasoline blowing rigs in
that vicinity turning over the virgin
prairie to be sowed to wheat.
Fortunes in Flax
Flax King Smith, who reaped a
profit of $4,000 last year from 1000
acres of land sowed to flax, will SOW
1000 acres this year, and will make
fortune with such a season as there
was last year.
A recent carload of fax shipped
from Mercer county netted the ship
per $4,O0O-probably the highest
priced carload of grain ever market
ed from the state. An Emmons coun-
ty farmer recently drove ten year
ling pigs to market and got $28 each
for them, about the price for three
year-old steer few years ago.
A great part of the wheat crop that
was raised in Mercer and Oliver
counties last year is still unthreshed,
anu yet tuo IdILuS1o AnF0 IAoA uSD"0
paid and money in the bank with the
unthreshed crop as surplus.
Much Railroad Building
The building of railroads in the
central and western part of the state
breaks all records. The 500 is push
ing a line from Drake, on its Minot
and Bismarck extension, and also on
the main line to Medford, in Walsh
county, and this line will pass
through Devils Lake, cutting into the
territory of the Great Northern and
building up half dozen new towns.
This will result in renewed activity
in lands and will add to the value of
the farm land all along the line. The
500 is also extending to the Berthold
reservation, and the Northern Pacific
ia eYtendine its Turtle Lake line in