The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1911-10-27
HUGoToN VERY BUSY
People There Are Working
For Railroads.

accepted the invitation of John
Kelly to take a drive to the coun-
ty seat of Stevens coul ty in his
Chalmers Special. The town of
Hugoton is coming these days and
coming strong.
The representative from Stew
ems county last year was active in
the legislature to secure the pas
sage OF the bill which enables the
commissioners of western counties
to issue bonds for the drilling of
artesian wells. The plan is fair,
in as much as the expense is too
great to be within the reach of
many individuals, and when ar
tesian water is found it tends to
increase the value of all land in
the county. When any county
takes up the matter as Stevens
county has, the nonresident, as
we'll as the citizens of the, county
must help pay for the experiment.,
for that is what the first drilling.
really amounts to.
Stevens county claims the dis
tinction of being the first county
in the state to take advantage OF
the new law, and last spring is
sued bonds to the amount of $l0,-
900 for the drilling OF an artesian
we'll. The commissioners there
appointed Bob Crawford to look
after the matter and he, with John
Kelly and Ed Joslin, went to the
Artesian district in New Mexico
last spring to engage a driller.
They finally contracted with Mr..
S. F. Hale. who is one of the old
est driIlers in that district, and
the actual drilling started about
two weeks ago. Saturday night
the hole was down 1917 feet. The
rig is a combined rotary and drop
drill and is run by steam power,
all of the coal being hauled from
Liberal. The rig is working
night and day with two shifts of
men. The 10 inch casing has
been put down 214 feet, the eight
inch casing 725 feet, and they
have enough 6 inch casing to take
the we'll down 24O0 feet if it is
necessary to 90 down that far.
The drills are working in a heavy
red gumbo. Beneath this the
driller expects to find layer OF
rock, and beneath that the coveted
artesian water. He says that the
prospect at this time is very good,
and this seems to be very encour-
aging. The wells in Morton
county are six miles north and
twenty-four miles west of Hugo
ton, but the geologists have said
that the propect is as good for ar
tesian water in Hugoton as at any
point in Stevens county.
While there is great interest in
yhe we'll itself the people of the
town have another object in view.
With the numerous railroads pro.
jected and surveyed through this
section of the state, there is not
single one of them which will
strike the town of Hugoton under
the present conditions. The peo-
pie of the town believe that if they
are fortunate enough to get the ar
tesian wells, the roads will all
want to come to Hugoton.
The merchants of the town
there are busy, yet courteous, and
the stocks of goods are complete
and we'll arranged. There was a
great deal of business there Satur-
day and the stores we're crowded.
When asked in a sympathetic
tone of voice If it wasn't a hard
matter to haul goods from the
railroad, and compete with rail-
road points at profit, one of the
leading merchants replied. You
don't need to feel sorry for US.
Our hauling costs us but a triAe
mere than your drayage there in
Liberal, and if you believe that